Vote

from 50's & 60's rock and roll to jazz and classical

It has not changed a bit. I still like the Stones better than the Beatles (but always hated their bad-sounding recordings). I still love Elvis, Dylan, Orbison, Joni Mitchell, and, yes!, Ricky Nelson. Charles Trenet, Barbra, Leo Ferret. Bessie Smith, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis. Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky. A defining moment was when I saw Richter conducting Bach's St. Matthew Passion in Rio de Janeiro when I was 18.

As a small boy, my mother listened to classic show tunes, while my older brothers and sister listened to Elvis, the Everly Brothers, and Patsy Cline. The wide span of musicial taste I was exposed to at such an early age has even widened as I've gotten older. Classical to country to rock'n'roll to classic jazz to R'n'B—no one style dominates. The only ones not considered are rap and modern jazz, and as I get even older, who knows?

I started out liking country because my parents did. Then I got into my own tastes, like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple and Alice Cooper. Now I like all kinds of different styles, from jazz to classical to death metal. It just depends on the mood I'm in at the time!

Music started with my parents' "oldies," then progressed into rock. Then came Coltrane and Miles Davis. Then my music grew to blues and classical, but I still like to listen to the "oldies" and rock. So I don't know if my musical taste has "evolved," but it has most certainly grown.

I grew up on classical, when radio was king. I came to know all kinds of music and chose to listen to good music (my own opinion, for myself is the most important, all post- and post-post-modernists allowing (or not, who cares)). I love some jazz Latin and pop but classical is my No.1, always. Since I wanted to understand what musicians found in modern music. (Schoenberg and on, I forced myself to listen again and again, considering myself stupid for not "understanding" or enjoying it.) Some I've learned to like, most not. Then I took the words of somebody who knows a bit better than me about music, I think his name was Wolfgang or something, who said that music before anything else has to be pleasant, and so I don't worry no more.

From '60s rock to classical (beginning with Bach and ending up with Mahler, Strauss, Wagner, Messiaen) to Indian and Laotian. The wonderful part is that you can keep broadening your horizons.

I grew up with 80's pop music. It's still my favorite.

YESI HAVE CHANGED ONLY BECAUSE I DIDN'T BUY ENOUGH VINYL IN THE LATE 60'S AND VERY EARLY 70'S.I HAVE CHANGED TO CLASSICAL BECAUSE IT IS EASER TO BUY RECORDS.

I grew up with jazz and classical. I listen to rock during my teens thru my 30s. From there I went back to what I grew up with, jazz and classical.

My tastes have changed from enjoying 1 or 2 genres to enjoying nearly all. Except of course Rap, which isn't really music anyway.

I feel as if I'll DEFINITELY be one of the most diverse fans in this vote. I have just about everything in my music collection right now. Example (and I TRULY mean this): If you took even a cursory glance thorugh some of my albums now, you'll find Ambrosia sitting next to a Mozart LP, which in turn will be sitting next to a Nirvana LP, which in turn may lead to a Dr. Dre LP (yes, I said Dr. Dre). When I was younger, and actually I'm still pretty young (smile), I was MUCH more narrow. I have VERY DIVERSE tastes in music now.

Back in de early '70s I played W. Carlos's Switched-On Bach. Today I recognize that as utter shit. I don't understand why Stereophile has a feature article about Walter/Wendy Carlos. Audiophiles must have very conservative musical tastes. If a Stereophile reader wants to hear a synthesizer album, I advise "Classics" by Aphex Twin. That will wake them up.

When I was younger, my music interest mainly concerned the mainstream artists. During the years I have learned that the best music often is found by listening in clubs and talking to people with extensive music knowledge. Just now my favorite interests are in pure rock'n'roll with hardcore influences. Interested? Then check out Backyard Babies and Hellacopters. A good, more mainstream punk rock band is the Rollins Band. Henry Rollins is a former band member of Black Flag, which formed the early punk together with bands like the Ramones.

All peoples tastes mature as they mature. I went from sixtys pop to classical. I always had a love for Blues and still do.

Eagles got me crazy and still rule. Don Henley's new album coming . . . Great!

I started off listening to what is now called "classic rock." I have over the past 10 years started to listen to ambient, electronic, classical music, and jazz from the 1920s to the 1960s. Rock music seems rather stagnant and uninspired to me now. I also have to tolerate my little budding audiophile's taste in the Backstreet Boys and Eiffel 65.

Change from rock to blues and jazz.Must be slowing down as I get older.

rock then into blues then into jazz,u read about your favorite artists heros and check them out,which opens new avenues,that's how i got into jazz from read stevie ray vaughan listened to kenny burell and wes montgomery

I started out listening to my parents' LPs of musicals, Disney records with songs from the movies (Dumbo was a favorite), and the Monkees. As a kid I liked disco, funk (I grew up in Detroit), and rock (Rush, Led Zeppelin, Queen). I bought my first rock LP in 1981 (Rush's Moving Pictures). By 1986, when I bought my first CD (The Cure's Staring at the Sea), my tastes included alternative (which I rarely listen to) and synthesizer bands (which I listen to a lot and still collect). I bought my first classical CD in 1986 (Stravinsky/Rite of Spring, Dutoit/Montreal) and haven't stopped. In college I started collecting some blues, hard bop, cool, and early fusion jazz. My wife got me interested in Bob Dylan in particular, and song lyrics in general. I was 27 when I bought my first Beatles CD (Revolver). The real question here is: Do loudspeakers exist that can satisfy someone with eclectic tastes?

I NOW LISTEN TO PINK FLOYD AND LED ZEP.THE BEATLES ARE STILL THE BEST.VINYL STILL SOUNDS BEST TO MY EARS.

I SEEM TO CYCLE THROUGH SEVERAL GENRES, JAZZ, BLUES, FLAMENCO, THEN BACK TO ROCK N ROLL ROOTS. I THINK EACH TYPE OF MUSIC HAS PEAKS AND VALLEYS OF ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE, WHICH INSPIRES OTHER ARTISTS IN THE SAME GENRE -- AND THEN FALLS OFF, TALENT AND INSPIRATION SATED, UNTIL THE NEXT CYCLE. AND THEN I DISCOVER THAT ANOTHER GENRE HAS JUST STARTED RELEASED A LANDMARK ALBUM...

My tastes haven't changed as much as branched out. In the beginning it was the Beatles, Stones, Cream, Jimi, the Who, the Allmans, etc. All of those are still faves, but newer artists such as Bruce, Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, STP, Bruce Cockburn, Van, Julie London, Pat Barber, Ella, the list goes on. If it is great music I like it, and I buy it, on CD and LP.

I'm getting older and I tend to enjoy older music more than I did. But I still like the newest stuff too.

From pop to classical to jazz, each shift followed a major system upgrade. Go figure?

When I was 5, I wanted to be Diana Ross and Donna Summer, both. Then I found Kermit the Frog's "The Rainbow Connection." From Disney movie tunes to John Williams's Star Wars, my parents' Beatles 45s to Cindy Lauper, Prince and Madonna, then Tears For Fears, Depeche Mode, and The Cure, then Siouxie, the Sex Pistols, Yaz (and drugs!), then Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Hole, Pumpkins, and now . . . Still love Donna and Diana, Kermit, and classical, so maybe, after all, I haven't changed. I know life without That Dog and Veruca Salt wouldn't be the same, though.

I appreciate variety more than I used to. Gavin Bryars followed by Hole followed by Thelonious, the Allman Brothers, and the English String Orchestra is a very likely evening. Years ago it would've been Roxy Music, Allman Bros., Yes, Roy Wood, Todd Rundgren . . . I still listen to all of those, but I NEVER again will say, as I admit that I have, "I hate jazz."

I think it was the Beatles, and other groups that included unusual music on their recordings, that opened my ears to more complex and unusual classical music. I now listen to 90% classical and I only seem to buy contemporary pieces like John Adams, Bartók, etc.

I have left Black Sabbath and Co. behind, just as I now listen to string quartet instead of full orchestra. Subtlety instead of power.

I would say my musical tastes have become more refined, but not really changed. I still listen to the same kind of things, but just better specimens. My real favorites, though, have remained pretty much the same since music became the focal point in my life (about age 17). I still list Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, and Lyle Lovett as my holy trinity. Things I used to like but don't anymore: Jethro Tull, ELP, Genesis . . . you get the picture. In recent years, since real income has allowed more far-flung CD buying, I've found some new (at least to me) things too: Nick Cave, Flatlanders, Roy Orbison, Yo La Tengo.