How You Got Interested In Certain Bands

[Murmuring Beast 0]

How did you start to like the bands or artists you now listen to? Was it just by chance, intentional or otherwise?

 

REM: REM were the first proper band I liked. I had heard some of their stuff on the radio, like 'Great Beyond' and 'Imitation Of Life' but hadn't heard any of their albums. I was in this music store one day and saw the 80s compilation Eponymous for a pretty cheap price. I looked at the back and saw songs which I'd never heard before, but I was interested in this. So I take it home and wow, it was amazing! I couldn't get over it, I wore out that disc before I eventually got everything else they did, as soon as possible.

 

The Beach Boys: I'm a little embarrassed to say that I was quick to dismiss the Beach Boys when I first heard them. My dad had come back from a Brian Wilson concert with a couple of albums: a Beach Boys compilation, a Brian Wilson live disc and a solo album. I remember having a discussion over dinner that I thought all the Beach Boys music sounded the same. Then I actually listened up. I don't know what the turning point, but the following year was pure obssession. I listened to them every day, got everything I could get my hands on and I still do to this day. If I ever tire of them, I've got all these books and albums I need to shift.

 

The Velvet Underground: I became interested in the VU because REM guitarist Peter Buck said they were one of his main influences in writing. I picked up Velvet Underground & Nico and it was just one of those albums I got right away, which doesn't happen a lot. Amazingly, I've not bought any other VU albums since. I guess they are too expensive and hard to get where I live.

 

The Byrds: Another Peter Buck influence was Roger McGuinn's 12 string sound. I bought a very bad Byrds compilation (30 minutes long!) but when I first heard songs like 'Eight Miles High' I became very interested. Not my favourite band or anything, but I like their style.

 

Love: This was a total fluke. I saw Forever Changes for a low price and picked it up and loved it. It was so unpredictable, weird and the sound was really intriguing. I'm hoping to see Arthur Lee in concert maybe next month, the guy's really great.

 

The Doors: I got into the Doors for probably the wrong reasons. 1) I was told I looked like Jim Morrison by someone in work and 2) I saw the controversial Doors movie with Val Kilmer. I got the debut album soon after and wow, in less than a month I got the rest. The Doors are my favourite band at the moment.

 

The Beatles: It's pretty hard not to like The Beatles, but I was mostly restricted to hearing their singles and not their albums. It was when I got into the Beach Boys that I started to listen to things like Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road. I don't listen to them all that much though. I quite like their early non-singles stuff.

 

The Smiths: I downloaded a compilation of The Smiths but really wasn't interested in anything else. I liked their singles, but not much else. I went through a stage of really disliking Morrissey, but a mate of mine is a Smiths fanatic. So he got us tickets to see him live in concert and even though I didn't know half the stuff that was played, I enjoyed it quite a bit and started to listen to all the Smiths material. You Are The Quarry and Viva Hate are the only solo albums I've heard but they are really good.

 

Franz Ferdinand: I bought into the hype, plus I'm from Scotland so I was interested. They are by far the best band in the main stream rock circuit just now. I'll go and see them live when I can be bothered.

[1234-5678 0]

Guns N Roses: A friend of mine played me "Mr. Brownstone" when I was like 7 or 8 just because it had the word "motherfucker" in it.

 

The Doors: I read "No One Here Gets Out Alive" and then bought the "Waiting For The Sun" album. "Love Street" and "Five To One" had me hooked.

[Nighthawk 0]

You read that before hearing the band at all, or before actively listening to them? If it's the former that's interesting.

 

I got into many, many bands from this christian video called Hells Bells. I don't want to call it anti-rock because that makes it sound sensationalist, and it was very well done and extremely well researched. It was clearly meant for people already heavily into music, but as an impressionable youngster I was staggered by so many great bands presented at once. It got me into everything from Prince and the Cure to Foetus and Diamanda Galas, which should be an indication of how thorough it was. It remains to this day the root of most of what I listen to.

 

I first enjoyed rap because of the Fresh Prince tv show, particularly the use of "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" in one episode. I was exposed to a lot more when I was living in south central.

 

I saw the Richard D. James Album in the store and said "That guy looks whacked. I gotta hear this." That started my foray into electronic, and in turn, more experimental forms of music.

 

I've picked up a lot of fag indie shit and metal from this board, actually.

[1234-5678 0]

You read that before hearing the band at all, or before actively listening to them? If it's the former that's interesting.

I was aware of songs like "Light My Fire" and "Break On Through" and I had seen some of the movie when I was younger. But other then that, nah, I wasn't actively listening to them at all. In fact, I was into all the Death Row shit at the time, also Wu Tang.

[Nighthawk 0]

As an aside, I first noticed the Doors due to the use of "People Are Strange" in the Lost Boys. I said I liked it (I was 5 or 6 at the time) and my mom pointed out the huge picture of Jim Morrsion looming over the scene of them drinking blood and partying in the cave. She told me a little about him and the band, and like most kids, I wanted to be him when I grew up.

[1234-5678 0]

I prefer the drunken bearded poet version. Hence my current condition.

[JangoFett4Hire 0]

As an aside, I first noticed the Doors due to the use of "People Are Strange" in the Lost Boys. I said I liked it (I was 5 or 6 at the time) and my mom pointed out the huge picture of Jim Morrsion looming over the scene of them drinking blood and partying in the cave. She told me a little about him and the band, and like most kids, I wanted to be him when I grew up.

I think it was the Echo and the Bunnymen version though?

[Nighthawk 0]

It was. My mom had most of the Doors albums, so I still got to listen to it at the time. Actually yeah, most of the classic rock I listen to came from my parents.

 

Lost Boys, by the way, is one of three film soundtracks I own. The others are Batman and Lost Highway.

[Angel_Grace_Blue 0]

MC Abdominal - JSP from 665 linked to DJ Format's video for "We Know Something You Don't Know", which, by the way, is pretty awesome, and there were also some DJ Format featuring Abdominal videos there, so I figured I'd watch them, hoping for more guys in animal suits breakdancing. However, it was a good hip hop fellow. So I downloaded as much as I could find, because he's all Canadian (And format's English), so I'm not going to find his records at the store.

[Guest Mindless_Aggression]

I had terrible musical taste as a kid, like most people and a lot of the bands I liked tended to reference Faith No More as a big influence. I listened to "Angel Dust" and couldn't figure out how the hell some of them were influenced by something that really didn't sound anything like them outside of a few vocal tricks they lifted from Patton. But I kept listening and it got better and better. That's my chain from where the Patton fanboy shit began and continues today.

[Red Baron 0]

Iron Maiden and Judas Priest My friend Dave introduced me to them by listening to Number of the Beast and Screaming for Vengance. The Maiden CD was a multimedia CD and I saw the music video for The Number of the Beast, and I thought it was cheesy and good at the same time. And also Hallowed Be Thy Name was a great song, especially the intro.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I grew up in front of my dad's record collection, which is mostly trippy stuff, blues, and faggy 70's prog.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Most of the bands that I like(d) were through friends or my cousin, who'd either recommend a band or just give me a tape to borrow.

 

The only story worth relaying is that I became a Black Sabbath fan due to the Road Warriors using Iron Man as their theme ... I was a huge mark for them, and thus became fan of the song and then band as a result.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Shadows Fall

I bought the Century Media compilation Identity 6 to listen to some metal acts, because my friend Wes had Identity 5 and I liked it a pretty good amount. 4th or 5th song on it, and it's "The First Noble Truth," and I was just amazed by the energy, technical procision, and heaviness of it all, and I bought Of One Blood a couple days later.

 

The Misfits

Heard Metallica's cover of "Last Caress," bought Static Age in 8th grade on an impulse, and never looked back.

 

Zombie Apocalypse

While searching the nearest Newbury Comics, I was looking for maybe any rare White Zombie CDs, and since White Zombie and Rob Zombie are usually in the same category, I was searching the Z section. I saw the band's title on the white board behind its section, then looked at the cover of This is a Spark of Life, and bought it because it looked like it was heavy as hell, and it was all about zombies.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

EDIT: Double posts suck as bad as Dusty Rhodes.

[Darthtiki 0]

Garbage- Saw a clip on Mtv News' coverage of the '96 Movie Awards and went damn I don't care if they suck the lead singer is hot. Then I caught one of the 30,000 replays and saw Shirley belt out Only Happy When It Rains and then I was completely hooked.

 

Social Distortion- Heard I was wrong on the radio back in'96 and liked them, they disappeared off my radar for a few years until I picked up their Live at the Roxy cd and then I was hooked on their fusion of old school punk, rockabilly, and country.

[Nighthawk 0]

Hey, I like Garbage too, that's not so common. I got into them because of a girlfriend. She also raved about Shirley being hot, and I said fuck that, I'm not kowtowing to some female's opinion about who's hot and who isn't. Then I heard this (Crystal Method?) remix of "I Think I'm Paranoid" and I saw potential. Then I actually listened to an album and they had a Korn attitude but the difference was I actually liked listening to them. They changed it around on the third album but by then I already liked them, so it was ok.

[the max 0]

Bad Religion - Had a friend big into them, and they were always the soundtrack to our roadtrips. I never really got into them until I heard one of their worst songs ever (Sorrow) and went out to buy Stranger Than Fiction, Recipe For Hate, and The Gray Race and never really stopped listening to these three cd's.

 

Coheed and Cambria - Heard "A Favorhouse Atlantic" on the radio, went out and bought both cd's. They've been in my rotation since.

 

Pantera - Friend lent me Cowboys From Hell in the seventh grade and he never got the cd back. Got Far Beyond Driven and Vulgar Display of Power when they came out as well, pretty much stopped with those three cd's (not including the decent live one that they put out)

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Pantera's a band I never listen to anymore at all, but have seen live something like half a dozen times.

[Ed Wood Caulfield 0]

Rage Against The Machine: I first saw them on an episode of 12 Angry Viewers on MTV back in 1997. On the show, one of the VJs, Ananda, would show videos, and 12 regular folks would vote on the videos, with a winner being decided at the end of the show. One day, the video for "Bulls On Parade" was shown. I really liked the video, but I completely forgot about them. Then, in October 1999, "Guerilla Radio" came out, and I dug that song big time. I didn't know the words, I didn't know who any of the members were, but I loved the video, and the song was hella catchy.

 

Linkin Park: Saw "One Step Closer" on a local New York Public Access show in October 2000, and dismissed them at first. But then the video got heavy rotation, and the song kept getting played on the radio, and eventually the song grew on me. It also helped that I was 13 at the time, and so I was in their target market, what with me being one of those "sucicidal angsty" teenagers who felt like "nobody understood them" and thought that "mom and dad never loved me". I got Hybrid Theory in May of 2001, and I played the hell out of that CD, all the while listening to the songs going, "Wow. That's how I feel. Linkin Park understands me."

 

Public Enemy: I remembered seeing them on MTV and BET back in the early 90s. Flavor Flav used to frighten me when I was 3. Then several years passed, and they came back with "He Got Game" which I enjoyed. Then in 1999, I saw the video for "Fight The Power" for the first time, and I really liked that video. In April 2002, out of the blue, I said to myself, "Hmmm. Let me download some Public Enemy songs." I did, liked them alot, and by August 2002, I had become a real *fan* of Public Enemy. From late 2002 till early 2004, they were my most listened to musical act. I didn't get my first Public Enemy album until 2004 (Revolverlution, their last album), because no record store in my neighborhood carried PE records! I only have two of them now, Revolverlution, and Fear Of A Black Planet, because those are the only two I could find. I won't give up though. I'm going to keep on looking until I have all their albums!

 

Quarashi: First time I heard of Quarashi, was when I saw the music video for "Stick 'Em Up" in April 2002 on MTV. I thought they sucked, and dismissed them as nothing more but a lame, Linkin Park ripoff, bland nu-metal band. However, I saw the video several more times, and soon, the song grew on me. Then I forgot about them for a few months. But then, one day, in October 2002, I was flipping through the channels, when I caught the video for "Mr. Jinx" on Much Music. I immedialtey LOVED the song, and the next day I downloaded it, and played it a good 100 times that day. For a week, "Mr. Jinx" was the only song I listened to, and it's now #2 on my all-time favorite songs list, and my all-time favorite Quarashi song. I LOVE that song so much. It's SO catchy, and I don't believe that anyone can hate that song. Anyway, "Mr. Jinx" was the only Quarashi song I listened to for over a year. One day, I decided to check out Quarashi's website, after I heard "Mr. Jinx" on a NBA On TNT commercial. When I found out that they had replaced their lead rapper with a new one, I swore myself off the band forever. That lasted a few months, before I decided to go back and listen to some of their other songs. I saw the video for "Race City", Quarashi's first song with their new lead rapper, and liked it alot, so I went on their website alot more than I used to. In April 2004, I downloaded "Baseline", and the first time I heard it was the exact moment I became an actual fan of Quarashi, and not just of "Mr. Jinx".

 

Beastie Boys: I first saw them during a commercial for an 80's compliation CD ("(You've Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" was the video shown) way back in 1997. The next year, they came out with "Intergalatic" which I liked. After that, I started listening to their singles, all of which I enjoyed alot, but I wouldn't say I was an actual *fan* of The Beasties. I didn't know their names, and I couldn't tell their voices apart in the songs. It wasn't until April 2004 that I decided to buy a Beastie Boys album, because I thought that if I liked all the singles they've released, then there was a good chance I would like their albums. I got Paul's Boutique, because I heard it was a classic album. Gave it one spin, and left it collecting dust for months. Now, Paul's Boutique is my all-time favorite album. I forgot about The Beastie Boys again, but then "Ch-Check It Out" came out in May 2004, and my interest in the Beasties peaked up again. When I moved to Miami, I got To The Five Boroughs and Check Your Head, and thought both albums were awesome. One fun night in July 2004, spent doing research on The Beastie Boys by going on their websites, reading their history, watching all their videos, and learning what their names were, and I now considered myself a fan of The Beastie Boys. Now, in 2005, I own all their albums, I listen to them ad nasuem, and they are my 2nd favorite rap group of all-time (behind Public Enemy). In a nutshell, I think The Beastie Boys are freakin' AWESOME!

 

Skye Sweetnam: I caught her music video for "Billy S." on my birthday back in September 2003. My first thought was "Damn! That girl is hot!" I went on the internet and found info about her, saw some pictures, and then I just forgot all about her afterwards, because I was too busy concentrating on Christy Carlson Romano. Then, in March 2004, while watching The-N again, I saw a commercial hyping her appearance on Radio Free Roscoe the next week. And so, for the next week, all I did was surf the internet for anything I could find relating to Skye Sweetnam. This all took place 2 weeks before WWE WrestleMania XX, so, during that time, all I did was watch my old WrestleMania tapes, and go on the internet searching for anything Skye Sweetnam related. That was a great 2 weeks actually. Anyway, I saw her little homemade videos that are on her official website, and I think that was what cinched it for me, because she was so nice in those videos, and she is a pretty good singer, not to mention she's a pretty hot girl, so after that I became a fan. I got her debut CD (her only CD infact), Noise From The Basement, and enjoyed it, and I look forward to hearing many more CDs from her in the future. March-June 2004 was a great period in my life, partly because of Skye Sweetnam, Quarashi, and The Beastie Boys.

 

The other bands/artists/groups I like came from listening to their songs on the radio, and seeing their videos on MTV and liking them. The above six are the most interesting stories.

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

Tool: I first heard them on the radio in 1993 while going with my family to Six Flags: Great America up north of Chicago. From the instant I heard that bassline to "Sober", I was hooked. And Maynard's voice was the most unique I had heard.

 

Pink Floyd: My dad got me into them by playing some of Dark Side of the Moon. I had heard some tracks on the radio, mostly stuff from The Wall, but when I heard "Speake to Me/ Breathe", I was floored. At around 15 or 16, my buddy Tim introduced me to the Syd Barrett material, and my love of The Floyd really took off.

 

Devin Townsend: Also thanks to Tim. I was big into metal, listening to Pantera, Sepultura, Fear Factory, etc. when he popped No Sleep 'til Bedtime in my truck's cd player. The "Down, down, down" chanting at the beginning of "Velvet Kevorkian" seemed a bit odd, but he told me to just wait, then "All Hail the New Flesh" punched me in the face. I quickly became a fan, and now own just about all of Devin's material.

 

The Clash: "Train in Vain" was played all the time on Chicago radio, so I decided to buy London Calling once I found out that it contained "Train in Vain."

 

Social Distortion: I remember seeing the video for "Bad Luck", I think it was, on Alternative Nation or 120 Minutes back in the early 90s. Mike Ness had sch a cool and badass look to him, and his snarling, raspy voice pretty much said "This is what Punk should sound like." By the time White Light, White Heat, White Trash came out and "I was Wrong" was all over the radio, all my friends understood my love.

 

Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Rakim and other old-school rap: I have MTV and Yo! MTV Raps to thank. Living in rural Ohio in the foothills of the Appalachians as a child, if the radio was on, it was either top 40 stuff or country. I found MTV, and they were playing rap music quite a bit after Run-DMC broke big. I liked it alot, and most of the people calling it "garbage" and "stupid nigger music" only made me want to listen to it more.

[Gary Floyd 0]

[/b]Cabaret Voltaire-Started when I really began to get into electronic music. I had heard a few mutterings about them on the net, and eventually got "The Conversation" (Their last, and most ambient techno album). It was the B-Sides/12' Mixes/Live album 3 disc set "Conform to Deform" that officaly got me into them.

 

Pink Floyd-I got "Dark Side of the Monn" first, an obvious choice I know. I later then did a double purchase of "Wish You Were Here" and "Meddle", and it was "Meddle" that won me over the most. I was introduced to them however, by a friend.

 

My Bloody Valentine-I got "Loveless" as a blind buy a few years ago.Needless to say, I actually hated it at first, but the second time I gave it a listen, I fell in love. Since then, listening to "Loveless" and "Isn't Anything" have practically religious experiences for me.

[eiker_ir 0]

- Misfits: i had been a punk fan for quite some time and new about them but i just tought they were something like metallica. Then i heard Hybrid Moments i don't remember when and fell in love with them.

 

- Beach Boys: my dad used to play them all the time in the car when i was little, i've listened since then.

 

- The Who: since i've kinda walways listened to the same stuff my dad did, he kept telling me to download songs from the Tommy movie, i never did untill i saw the movie and was hooked.

 

- NOFX: i had heard alot of their stuff but never really liked. But then i actually started to listen to the lyrics and i couldn't get enough of them, funny stuff.

[Darthtiki 0]

Hey, I like Garbage too, that's not so common. I got into them because of a girlfriend. She also raved about Shirley being hot, and I said fuck that, I'm not kowtowing to some female's opinion about who's hot and who isn't. Then I heard this (Crystal Method?) remix of "I Think I'm Paranoid" and I saw potential. Then I actually listened to an album and they had a Korn attitude but the difference was I actually liked listening to them. They changed it around on the third album but by then I already liked them, so it was ok.

Wait until the new album which hits next month, solid material judging by the first single

[SamoaRowe 0]

Ben Folds

 

First heard "Brick" on a top 40 count-down. It wasn't on the charts (yet) but the DJs always played a new song right before the number one track, and that week it was "Brick." I was immediately captivated.

 

I went on to purchase that album and every other recording Ben Folds Five released. Ditto for his solo act. I saw him live last year.

 

Tool

 

I saw the video for "Sober" one day and I thought it was one of the greatest things I'd ever seen. This inspired me to go out and buy "Undertow" in early 2001. Later that year "Lateralus" came out and I ended up picking that and "Aenima" up. That fall I went to see them in concert and once again the following year.

 

Rufus Wainright

 

He was on tour with Ben Folds, and I was unfamiliar with 99% of his work. He totally won me over that night, I know own 3/4 of his albums and a concert dvd.

[notJames 0]

When I was 14 way back in 1986 (yes, I'm old), my sister's boyfriend made a tape for her of mostly rock and punk, which was weird, because she was into shitty dance music. The first song on the tape was "No Feeling" by the Sex Pistols. That's all it took for me to get into all things punk. From there I started to listen to an alternative station in Long Island, and pretty much devoured any modern rock and New Wave I could find. In 1989, I joined my University's radio station and got into even more stuff: ska, hardcore, industrial, indie rock, even folk music. My record and tape collection was gargantuan.

 

Nowadays, since I don't listen to the radio or watch MTV, I buy compilations put out by record labels whose track record I trust (Epitaph, Fat Wreck, Revelation, etc.), and that's where I usually find new music to buy (when I have the money, that is, which is hardly ever.)

 

As for my favourite artist, Juliana Hatfield, I got into her because of an ex-girlfriend back in University. Over a decade later, and I still catch her NYC shows pretty much every year.

[Slayer 0]

In 1996, my friend was listening to a Rush CD and I liked what I heard, so I borrowed it from him and got heavy into them. From there I did research on the internet and some guy had a list saying "If you like Rush, check out these bands." Half the bands on the list were prog bands like Yes and Genesis, while the other half were metal bands like Maiden and Dream Theater.

 

I was a fan of hair metal in the 80's and grunge metal in the early-mid 90's, but this was what opened the metal floodgates for me

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

I'm sure I've said it before, but Beavis and Butthead's championing of the Butthole Surfers is probably the single most important thing that happened to me as an 11/12 year old. Also, SHEFFIELD legends Pulp reaching no.2 with 'Common People'. That was a great day for music. Pulp and the Butthole Surfers are probably the only two bands I loved back then that I still love now.