What's your music roots?

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FFS

Both kinds.

It really varies,

Mum liked Motown and POP, dad was a tie-dyed rocker.
In my early teens I like pop such as Kylie and Whako Jacko, I then progressed into a heavy rock/metal phase, Bon jovi, Maiden, AC/DC etc.

In my late teens I discovered Techno, Prodigy, KLF, PWEI, etc.. and then got more into EURO trance, cosmic gate, (insert loads of DJs names here). blah blah blah.

At the same time I was also into grunge, indie and britpop so Nirvana, Pearl jam, Hole, L7, etc. With A bit of Neil young, Therapy? and Levellers thrown in with a spattering of Blur, Pulp and Oasis.

So roots? can I have more than one? Blues and electronica with a hint of Folk and country I guess.

Motown, punk, ska/rocksteady/reggae, but also importantly singalongs at parties and ceilidhs

Both kinds.

Country and Weston

punk, new wave, ska, reggae, northern soul, new romantic.

i really dislike 90's brit pop manc stuff.

Country and West-ern

Yup, thems me roots. Add a dash of silver machine, a bunch of Slade all sprinkled with some magic Bowie dust.

Then I had a punk phase (Buzzcocks were my first gig), head diving into hardcore (CRASS & Discharge) albeit I always loved the US stuff (Ramones, Richard Hell, Patti Smith, New York Dolls). It took London Calling to break me out that Rut(s).

I even had a Modern Jazz phase.

Basically I like repetition be that atonal Miles, Steve Reich, Ariana Grande (cf Needy), VU, etc.

Today I’ve listened to some flamenco (Tomatito), Cat Power, Sofi Tukker, Hania Rani, the Be Good Tanyas, Let Eat Grandma, PiL, The Muffs, Rosalía and Bomba Estéreo. Tripping with Nils Frahm is currently sat in the CD player...

No doubt (not the band, but I’ve a cd of theirs somewhere) I’ll finish off the day with disc 1 of Arvo Pärt’s Kanon Pokajanen (as I usually do) as I love it (and it helps me get to sleep).

Last thing I bought was NewJeans...

But thems me roots.

Motown, Beatles, patsy Cline, war of the worlds, bob Marley

I’ll finish off the day with disc 1 of Arvo Pärt’s Kanon Pokajanen

The ECM recording is an awesome thing.

I started with metal and prog back in the 70s, then punk and reggae closely followed by twotone.  Somewhere along the way i developed a taste for soul especially northern soul.  house / EDM in the 90s.  I listen to anything bar rap and folk / C&W

Soul and reggae i always go back to

First bought (age 13) album Strictly Personal by Beefheart.
But roots are Beatles, Stones, Mingus, reggae, flamenco, Bach. All at once.

The ECM recording is an awesome thing.

The very one (1998). It is my favourite/most played/listened to thing I own; literally hundreds (if not thousands) of times.

Soul and reggae i always go back to

Indeed. There’s the Toots Island Years comp that I’ve played continuously since I bought it. Lee Scratch Perry, LKJ, the Congo’s... About a dozen Al Green albums, Sly & Family Stone and What’s Goin On... all keep get regular airings... we are family also (I couldn’t admit liking it at the time, not PAF enough... 🤪)

Mingus, reggae, flamenco, Bach. All at once.

I’m with you there. What’s your flamenco recs (I’m always looking to expand beyond el camarón y paco, tomatito and Vicente Amigo. Bulerías is my bias...)

First two albums I bought were AC/DCs For those about to rock and Motorheads Bomber id guess in 82 or 83. These days I have access to spotify at work but until that happened I had a USB stick which had anything from classical through to slipknot and almost everything inbetween. I dont often skip tracks as i can listen to most things but it does happen now and then.

Parents force fed us Irish and country Music the former i do still quite enjoy but more the Pogues/Dubliners-type. When i broke free from them shackles I followed the same as Mattyfez up there. Plus The Cure as my nod to the 80's.

Parents force fed us

I have a very domineering bully as a father. In my formative years I had big band jazz & 1940s musicals rammed down my throat, usually with threats of violence if I didn't agree.

When I was eight, my older brother was allowed his own stereo system in the third bedroom of the house. We had New Wave, Post Punk, blues & soul, early House Music etc. Magnificent. My brother helped to save my sanity.

Both kinds.

Punk and Rock

My mam would listen to Erasure, Mental as Anything and Dr Hook. My dad Queen and Jim Reeves.

I've always been draw to dance music in its many varies guises. Used to love a trip to the Barralands for some new Rez tapes.

I've recently started listening to 'classical music'.

This tune is so good they named a planet after it!

I always thought it was all early and mid 80s stuff - post punk, synth pop, new romantics, jangle pop and goth.

But the more I listen to different stuff (my collection covers pretty much everything except jazz), the more I realise my musical roots were probably planted long before I actively listened to or bought music. Late 70s TOTPs obviously installed quite a bit of punk ideology and aesthetics in me and I keep going back to that (my favourite 2023 albums so far are probably Slowthai and Sleaford Mods).

I was born in 1954, in a then fairly small market town in North Wiltshire. What do you imagine I grew up listening to?

Most 4/4 stuff. 12 bar blues basically for me.

@mattyfez
Enjoyed that. Must dig out the Planet Suite now.
I had a phase when I listened to a Finnish composer for a while, his name's gone but I'll Google it.

"Don't eat mechanical fruits"

First song I can remember liking was Sing A Rainbow by Cilla Black. So is that my roots?
My taste has changed slightly.

My first purchase was Gary Glitter when I was 7. Saw him on totp and thought something along the lines of “this rocks”. Bobbed along with a mixture of glam and the wombles.
Then Peaches by The Stranglers came out. Loved it ,went into the record shop to buy it and also got Pretty Vacant. In early 79 at 13 my first gig was The Skids at the Marquee. I still love them to this day.
Looking back I’m bemused by the lame shit we considered punk while the stooges went totally unnoticed. Punk died out and metal took over with pub blues the main source of live music. Also got into pirate radio as rock music was absolutely nowhere on the radio. South East Sound was where it all happened on a Sunday.
Found Alice’s Restaurant and djs that took me away from metal and into the emerging goth scene. She sells sanctuary absolutely changed my life. My gig going started with a vengeance , mainly following The Nephilim all over Europe.
I went to Australia at the end of 89. There I saw the seeds of the Stooges with so many amazing bands that fused punk with 60s guitars. New Christs, World War 24 , Toe to Toe, Inchmen , Lizard Train, Lime Spiders all amazing bands that I saw in poky bars or peoples front rooms.
Coming home the black of Kensington Market had been replaced by dayglo and once again I found myself a bit lost. Metal still wasn’t for me, the Nephilim split and went shit.
Then I moved to Hastings and an encounter with a band in a pub called Pass The Cat. A real mixture of music with an African edge. The band line up was pretty fluid but best with just Steve singing and playing acoustic with Nana on bongos. They introduced me to guitars with a groove.
This led me back to the 60s then onto Northern Soul and Ska. Anything with guitars and a groove.
The last few years Radio Caroline has introduced me to so much old but new to me music.
Johnny Reece on a Wednesday , Peter Anthony on a Saturday and Gary Ziepe on a Wednesday night are my go to sources of new to me music.
Johnny played this a couple of weeks ago and I love it. Properly interesting music.

Sibelius Finlandia, that's the one. Great piece of work includes Be Still My Soul.

Caher
Full Member
Parents force fed us Irish and country Music

We wouldn’t have had a lot of music in the house when I was a child but my dad would come in after closing time on a Sunday afternoon and start cranking up the showband LPs (lots of Big Tom) on the record player and my mother tuning the radio in to a fading RTE on MW on a Sunday evening. Still got quite a taste for Irish music.

Usual 1970s & 80s influences to give fairly broad tastes - two tone, punk, Factory, Pogues and cow-punk scene.

My musical roots lie in early 60s pop on the radio followed by youth club music which was either Motown, ska or Rock n Roll as per Little Richard et al. Then all sorts but those are the roots.
Thumbs up for Marvin Pontiac Zippy. That track is a current fave of mine.

I started with SLF, The Undertones, The Clash, The Damned, Siouxsie & The Banshees etc.

Then Bauhaus, Killing Joke, New Model Army, Southern Death Cult, Gene Loves Jezebel, Fields Of The Nephilim etc

Then Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots.
Somewhere along the way classical music, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Monkees.

But strangely the most recent album purchases have been The Stone Roses & Happy Mondays

Need to get the new one by The Damned, saw them on the recent tour when they played a lot of it, it’s really rather good. Darkadelic

Both kinds

Rhythm. And blues.

(though the first album I bought was another music in a different kitchen.)

I love all sorts of music.

I got 'into' Ska in my early teens, so the late 70's, and Two-Tone and then moved on to Electronic music in the 80's (Depeche Mode, OMD etc...) then Pop, Country & Western and just about everything in between.

I dislike some stuff but it's not genre specific and I just love stuff with no real reasoning.

Mum listened to what most folk would call "Yacht Rock" Bread, Eagles, Carpenters, all that sort of thing, Dad was Classics fan and we drowned in everything from Sibelius, choral Rachmaninov, Handel operas, Mozart for light relief. The nearest he got to contemporary was trad jazz, and even then I think he he felt that was dangerously radical. Learned classical guitar at school went all the way to grade 7, nowadays I can scrape some cowboy chords and half remembered arpeggios, I'm occasionally ashamed that I let it slide, but then if I had really wanted to, I could've practiced I guess. Ska and the new romantics were radio staples of my youth, but these days I don't think there's anything I won't give a listen to. I've playlists that go from Vivaldi to Radiohead via Chemical Bros, and Anderson Paak.

I was born in 1954, in a then fairly small market town in North Wiltshire. What do you imagine I grew up listening to?

Morris dance backing tracks?

Carpenters, ABBA, Bee Gees, Eagles, Elvis and some disco stuff.

Stopped listening to music after the 80s until recently when I got a pair of Samsung earbuds with my mobile.

Decided to try out the heavy bass techno music for a laugh but to my surprise I like them very much.

Now I am into German heavy bass techno minimal stuff. Yes, they are good.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

Metalheart, I'm a bit stuck on Paco de Lucia too (for the last 45 yrs). Was lucky enough to see him live and also Paco Pena who gave a freebie in Shooter's Hill. Quite like a bit of Manitas de Plata but P de L live at the Teatro Royale is hard to beat (and he was 28 at the time. Mindblowing.)

P de L live would have been something amazing for sure!

Here is a favourite of mine (would loved to have seen him live too):

Very much rock in all its different guises, for me the 70's were brilliant musically and was lucky enough to go to plenty of gigs. The one artist from that time whose music has always been in my life is Van Morrison, very much an acquired taste I know! Still listen to music that's 50 years old but also listen to more recent stuff as there's some great bands and artists around as well as interesting collaborations.

Bands like funeral for a friend, incubus, coheed and Cambria, alexisonfire, finch, oh and 90’s trance… the best era of trance for me. The PVD Days

Off the top of my head:
Abba, Blondie, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Pete Townshend, Pearl Jam, Jamie Cullum
Sinatra, Ella
Vivaldi, Tartini, Bach, Debussy, Ravel, Vaughan Williams
Love music. 😃

early roots in 80's metal, not glam metal, but did border into bubblegum rock..for my sins.

however, most music I like tends to have a certain amount of dark moody vibes to it. broad spectrum of doom metal, goth, EBM, techno, dark neurofunk, darkwave and industrial, lana del rey and tori amos. 😉

I feel lucky to have been 16 in 1996.

I was a big fan of British rock like The Wildhearts, Reef, Terrorvision et al. Also futuristic sounding metal, like Fear Factory, Ministry and Pitchshifter. And then I discovered futuristic sounding dance music, like Goldie, Orbital, Plastikman, Underworld, Ed Rush & Optical.

I also loved (still love!) early 90's Levellers, Neds and Jesus Jones, but don't tell anyone.

Brought up through my parents love of Soul - Motown, Stax, Philly but the actual first album I owned myself was Bowie - Ziggy Stardust...

The earliest one I can remember as my own would be Soul 2 Soul, as I was in the fan club and won tickets to see them, but was too young to go 🙁

My older brother had great taste in music so from about 12 I tended to follow that pretty closely. So the arc was basically metal, grunge, shoegaze, indie. Then one day I was at the record shop with him and he'd pre ordered Selected Ambient Works. But didn't have the cash to pay for it, so I took a punt. Did not see that one coming, and looking back I'd rate it as the most significant thing I've ever bought. Directly linked to my educational choices, my career, my marriage and subsequent child.

The kind of music I look back on as being most aligned to, is 90's mostly guitar-based indie/rocky stuff: Breeders, Pixies, Belly, P J Harvey,  Echobelly,  Stone Roses,  Skunk Anansie,  Smashing Pumpkins, Massive Attack, Tricky,  Sneaker Pimps...

My real roots, though, are what I cut my teeth on as my younger, pre-uni self:  Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin,  Deep Purple.

Nowadays, there's less that I hear that really grabs me.  I'm very much enjoying Wolf Alice at the moment.  They're good musicians,  come up with some cracking tunes  and Ellie Roswell has an amazingly versatile voice.

I've also discovered a few older bands that I simply didn't appreciate at the time,  that I now think are great.  Tears for Fears being a prime example.

Morris dance backing tracks?