What Song Got You Into Music

Now we all have listened to songs ever since birth whether it be lullabies or theme songs to children's shows but what song got you into what some would consider "serious" music?  In other words, which song started your journey to following artists, purchasing albums, identifying your favorite genre and the like?

For me, it would have to be "Killing Me Softly" by The Fugees. I remember going over to a cousin's house for a party when I was in kindergarten and hearing Erykah Badu's voice coming from a speaker high atop a cabinet. I distinctly recall standing in front of it and just listening to it while asking a taller, older kid to put it on replay whenever it ended. Later that day, when I asked my aunt who sang that song, she told me they were The Fugees and didn't hesitate to include the fact that their lead male singer was Haitian, which is what I am as well. I immediately told all of my friends about them the following day and proudly exclaimed that they were Haitian, just like I was, instantly making them better in my young eyes.

 I continued to visit my cousin's house and eventually exposed myself to the likes of other Hip-Hop artists such as Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z with Street Fighter 2 playing in the background. You see, I didn't really have a radio back then and even if I did, I doubt my parents would have allowed me to listen to that type of music in the house, especially at my age. Funny enough though, I never really understood what the artists were talking about back then. I simply liked the beat and the flow of their delivery along with the few rhyming words I would catch though never understanding their meaning till years later.

To this day, Killing Me Softly never fails to pick me up on a down day and I'm kinda embarassed to add I had a crush on a woman whose voice I was more familiar with than her actual face back then as well. While The Fugees are certainly high up on my list of favorite artists today, they have moved down the list to be taken over by the likes of The Roots, Lupe Fiasco, Common, and many more, but I will always hold The Fugees and Killing Me Softly in a special place in my heart for getting me into Hip-Hop and music as a whole.

How about you? What's your song?

Now we all have listened to songs ever since birth whether it be lullabies or theme songs to children's shows but what song got you into what some would consider "serious" music?  In other words, which song started your journey to following artists, purchasing albums, identifying your favorite genre and the like?

For me, it would have to be "Killing Me Softly" by The Fugees. I remember going over to a cousin's house for a party when I was in kindergarten and hearing Erykah Badu's voice coming from a speaker high atop a cabinet. I distinctly recall standing in front of it and just listening to it while asking a taller, older kid to put it on replay whenever it ended. Later that day, when I asked my aunt who sang that song, she told me they were The Fugees and didn't hesitate to include the fact that their lead male singer was Haitian, which is what I am as well. I immediately told all of my friends about them the following day and proudly exclaimed that they were Haitian, just like I was, instantly making them better in my young eyes.

 I continued to visit my cousin's house and eventually exposed myself to the likes of other Hip-Hop artists such as Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z with Street Fighter 2 playing in the background. You see, I didn't really have a radio back then and even if I did, I doubt my parents would have allowed me to listen to that type of music in the house, especially at my age. Funny enough though, I never really understood what the artists were talking about back then. I simply liked the beat and the flow of their delivery along with the few rhyming words I would catch though never understanding their meaning till years later.

To this day, Killing Me Softly never fails to pick me up on a down day and I'm kinda embarassed to add I had a crush on a woman whose voice I was more familiar with than her actual face back then as well. While The Fugees are certainly high up on my list of favorite artists today, they have moved down the list to be taken over by the likes of The Roots, Lupe Fiasco, Common, and many more, but I will always hold The Fugees and Killing Me Softly in a special place in my heart for getting me into Hip-Hop and music as a whole.

How about you? What's your song?

i grew up around mainstream rap music but never really listened to it.

when i was a kid i was taught that anything other than rap music was "gay" (thats the kind of environment i grew up in). it was funny because my older brother got to the point where he acted like he was black to make friends.

my uncle gave me a Gorillaz album and i made a slow transition from rap music to rock and everything in between. Now i pretty much listen to anything that sounds good. i didn't give up on rap though, i still listen to really underground hip hop like Benefit etc. idk if Nujabes counts as hip hop since technically he only makes beats

The oldest memory I can recall at the moment was of my dad playing Metallica's Sad But True in a very old Ford Bronco pickup truck that we no longer own (sold it many years ago).

I was brought up on stuff like Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, Rush, Nirvana, and a few familiar 90s hits like Sex and Candy by Marcy Playground etc. The kind of songs that make you go "I REMEMBER THAT SONG".

Eminem "Criminal"

i'd have to say "Float On" by Modest Mouse. even though now i'd consider it to be one of their more average songs (although still catchy), it was incredible to me back in the 8th grade. ii mean i listened to music on the radio a lot back then, but Modest Mouse opened up a whole new world of indie music that was unique and different. four-ish years later, i'm deeply invested in indie culture and even beginning work on my own indie music projects. it sounds crazy, but hearing that one song literally changed my life.

The song that got me into music? Like seriously made me interested in it? That was "Hit Or Miss" by New Found Glory. Simpler times.

Great idea for a topic.

"The song that got me into music? Like seriously made me interested in it? That was "Hit Or Miss" by New Found Glory. Simpler times."

I was into music but nothing other than mainstream until I listened to Sparta's "Threes". It was unlike anything before, in how much I enjoyed it. It was the first true album I would listen the whole way through and enjoy everything. I really partially owe my enjoyment of music today to Sparta.

Oasis was my first foray into the world of music - I was about 10 as the Brit pop scene really kicked off in the mid 90s. Their third album Be Here Now came out just at the height of my obsession. I used to love going over to my big cousins house to watch and listen to them trying to learn the songs on guitar, it was awesome. Going to see them for the first time this June - fuckin' can't wait!

I used to listen to the radio a lot. Then sometime around 1996 - possibly when the Macarena came out - I asked myself, "Why am I listening to this shit? There's gotta be better music out there."

So I started looking around for music that was worthwhile and I fell in to the demoscene / MOD scene. That was my first love and it got me composing my own music as well. Over the years I went through a lot of phases with my musical tastes. Some more dominant genre crushes were: Bossa Nova, Surf, Metal, Trip Hop, DnB and Tango. Now, it's pretty much anything that's musical. I don't have any strong genre preferences aside from wanting artists to mix more genres together as I think music is best when it's adventurous and unclassifiable. I've also stopped listening to RIAA / commercial music as there's more than enough awesome music out there, available for free from artists who only care about the music and not the paychecks. :)

There were no specific songs or artists that were the absolute catalyst in this switch from radio to getting serious about music.

"get2sammyb said:

"The song that got me into music? Like seriously made me interested in it? That was "Hit Or Miss" by New Found Glory. Simpler times."

Hahaha, oh man I'd forgot about those guys. How dare you remind me!"

I would say that it was Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.
In or around 1996 some archeologists found the oldest human remains and named the body Lucy because the Beatles song was playing on the radio. My history teacher brought in Sgt Pepper's and played Lucky in the Sky With Diamonds and talked about how there was speculation that the song was about LSD. When he played the song it was the first time I was completely blown away by a song. From there I went through alot of phases, first into Nu-Metal like Korn and crap through my freshman year, then into the Doors and Pink Floyd, then into Phish, culminating with me following them around the country for most of my later high school years. I was firmly into The Dead, Phish, and most of "jam band" scene when I had my second revelation. A friend of mine sent me a single track over AIM.

It was roughly 10 minutes long and called East Hastings. All he said was "listen." This was a time before every song on the internet had perfect ID tags so all i knew was the title of the track. I listened to the song and was floored, it was like a rock symphony with wild creshnendos and no fear of embracing silence. Finally I talked to my friend who told me it was Godspeed You Black Emperor and that they were coming to town in a few weeks. I had tickets to see Neil Young at Farm Aid that same night and gave them to a friend who was going saying only "Get what you can in the parking lot...I have to see this other band." Surprisingly he got face value for both tickets and I got my money back. Anyway Godspeed You Black Emperor was amazing. Being a huge Pink Floyd fan I read about these late 60s concernts in London where people were damn near hanging from the rafters...it was over heated too many people, and the Floyd played for hours. GYBE was just like that...people were packed in like sardines and Godspeed just kept playing. To this day its one of the greatest concerts I have ever seen . I bought all their discs that night and from then on I lived under the impression that I have yet to hear my favorite band...I am always looking for new music. From there I listened to alot of experiemental music and GYBe got me into "indie." How easy it would have been to miss out on GYBE, or any of the other bands I love. I attempt to listen to at least one new record a week and we live in an age where at least previewing new albums is a very easy thing to do. If I like the band I buy the record, or go see them at a show. Its a great time to be a music lover.

'I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor' by the Arctic Monkeys. I was 13 when it came out. Good times.

I think it was "Adouma" by Carlos Santana, well really it was that whole album (Shaman I think it is was called) My parents used to drive me to school with that music on every morning when I was about 9 and the Rolling Stones Song called "Low Down" from the album Bridges to Babylon. Yeap, i think that's what really got me into music and then my friends at school were listening to rap and I started listening to Eminem and Snoop Dog, then at 13 a friend introduced me to Heavy Metal, then I started listening to Slipknot like crazy and worshipped them (I still do), Opeth, etc. Now I listen to everything a lot of Jazz, Rock, Funk, Reggae, some old Rap (I can't stand now a days rap like lil' Wayne, Rick Ross, etc.), Blues, Metal, genres that im not even sure what to call, anything really lol.

As an added note, I'd like to include how I got into rock music. I remember I used to be one of those Hip-Hop heads who assumed rock was whaling over a guitar riff which is pretty retarded considering what band got me into rock music...Linkin Park. I still didn't feel the scratchy vocals of the lead singer whose name I fail to recall at the moment but Mike Shinoda's rap's and their hip-hop style rock tunes slowly acclimated me to the genre of rock which is a really broad generalization of music, I know. I didn't seriously pursue finding rock acts until I heard Led Zeppelin for the first time (yes the FIRST time) a few months ago on my newly added Pandora playlist. I mean, I did have songs like Everlong and Master of Puppets on my iPod but I still didn't consider rock a genre of music I really enjoyed until I heard Nobody's Fault But Mine, a rock song that I still hold as my favorite rock song. Unfortunately, other than Pandora and Last.fm I have no way of finding rock musicians that meet my unspecific taste. Okayplayer.com feeds my Hip-Hop news but I have yet to find a similar source for rock music.

"As an added note, I'd like to include how I got into rock music. I remember I used to be one of those Hip-Hop heads who assumed rock was whaling over a guitar riff which is pretty retarded considering what band got me into rock music...Linkin Park. I still didn't feel the scratchy vocals of the lead singer whose name I fail to recall at the moment but Mike Shinoda's rap's and their hip-hop style rock tunes slowly acclimated me to the genre of rock which is a really broad generalization of music, I know. I didn't seriously pursue finding rock acts ntil I heard Led Zeppelin for the first time (yes the FIRST time) a few months ago on my newly added Pandora playlist. I mean, I did have songs like Everlong and Master of Puppets on my iPod but I still didn't consider rock a genre of music I really enjoyed until I heard Nobody's Fault But Mine, a rock song that I still hold as my favorite rock song. Unfortunately, other than Pandora and Last.fm I have no way of finding rock musicians that meet my unspecific taste. Okayplayer.com feeds my Hip-Hop news but I have yet to find a similar source for rock music."

At first I was like any other. Popular music, that's all I would listen to, luckily that changed before I had the ability to buy the CDs, and essentially my "tastes" would change as the current popular music shifts. So it was a constant effort to stay in the loop, and it was tough. That changed when I first listened to Yes ("And You and I" to be specific), to which I have left the loop and developed an actual taste in Progressive Rock. But since I had actually developed a taste, I was able to expand on that when I had listened to Django Reinhardt (Unknowingly familiar having played Mafia earlier on). Then the rest just happened, and I saw a Genesis/Musical Box concert. Oh it still grows, I've got some Tangerine Dream albums as well as Oxygene by Jean Michel Jarre as well as a few Coltrane albums (Giant Steps being his best work) just as an example.

Blame popular culture, I couldn't catch up.

I grew up in a home that was always playing some kind of music on the record player (music used to come on vinyl).  Our Hi-fi filled the rooms with everything from the Rolling Stones to Lou Rawls to Judy Collins.  The music was varied from guitar rock to r-n-b funk.  And, it didn't stop there.  Over at my grandparents house, I was exposed to pop vocalists like Perry Como and Frank Sinatra as well as the opera.  My grandfather also loved swing and Irish folk music.  So, as I matured the palette of music I had to draw upon when formulating my own personal tastes was diverse.  So, I'm not really sure if there was a single song or album that caused me to suddenly break from my Disney and CTW albums for "serious" music.  My earliest recollections are of listening to the Jackson 5, Barry Manilow and the Village People on my little AM radio before the bus arrived for school.  The first record I own that didn't have a muppet on sleeve was the soundtrack to the movie Grease.  I can't really recall what the first album I ever bought was though.  Probably, I got a pile from the Columbia Record and Tape club.  I think they might have included the Police's Synchronicity, John Lennon's Double Fantasy,  Hall & Oates Private Eyes, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual, Prince's 1999, ZZ Top's Eliminator and Def Leppard's Pyromania.  I know I owned all these albums back then, but I can't say which one was the first for certain. 

Oasis' album Whats The Story Morning Glory when my Uncle bought my first CD Player back in like 1995 when I was 9. God I still remember that it was a Denon CD Player that if you looked at it, it would skip.  Made many transitions between different genres, but now its anything that sounds good i'll listen to; i do some work for some record labels and it gets listening to different things. My current tastes are anything ranging from the Foo Fighters to The Vandals to Deicide...only thing I can't really listen to is Rap.

I think I got into music pretty late in life, like around 8. I remember getting teased in the third-grade for not having any music-knowledge (At the time, cartoons were all I watched). So soon after, I did some channel surfing and found out about MTV and saw a MV for the song "Shaniqua don't live here no more" by Little T. A bad rap song by some white guy. First time I heard it though, I loved it. It was my first main-stream song and from there I've been crazy about music ever since.
So much so that I'm working towards becoming a Music-Producer/Professional-Musician. : )

"Let it Be" by The Beatles, I heard it on the radio one day and was immediately hooked.