[Devil Doc]

I've always had eclectic tastes when it come to music. As Satchmo said, "There's only two kinds of music, good and bad." Good: Folk, Rock, Old Time, Jazz, Band, Classical, etc. Bad: Country Pop.

Doc

[DaveNote]

Like others commenting, my tastes in music have changed. I started out liking classical music and collecting it. I often would travel to the central library to hear it. While there, back in the 50s, I tried some jazz and remember turning my nose up to it. Oddly, in my fifties, I gave jazz a listen, again, and started collecting it like mad. My collection spans most of the sub-categories from early jazz to some avant garde, which is where I stopped because I can't take the dissonance. Lots of well-known jazz artists like Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and much smooth jazz, and also quite a bit of music of under-rated greats, like Ike Quebec, Hampton Hawes, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt. And I have a lot of rock, but like jaxwired, my tastes are limited to the period before it died.

I found that small group jazz not only gives me the kind of music I like, but also is great for the way I assess my audio system in terms of what I am looking for in sound. Brubeck's Take Five, for instance, is a go-to track for me when I'm listening to a new equipment acquisition.

Dave

[jjc1]

My very early years were filled with American standards (Cole porter, Gershwin, etc.). Teenage years were all Original Rock and Roll...Elvis, Doo Wop and all that. College years steered me to Jazz, which is still my passion. Listened to mid to late  60's rock like the Stones and Beatles but then began to lose interest in rock. As I get older I listen to old style jazz and some classical.  No more Doo Wop or Rock.
Guess my age is showing and catching up with me.

[jjc1]

Like others commenting, my tastes in music have changed. I started out liking classical music and collecting it. I often would travel to the central library to hear it. While there, back in the 50s, I tried some jazz and remember turning my nose up to it. Oddly, in my fifties, I gave jazz a listen, again, and started collecting it like mad. My collection spans most of the sub-categories from early jazz to some avant garde, which is where I stopped because I can't take the dissonance. Lots of well-known jazz artists like Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and much smooth jazz, and also quite a bit of music of under-rated greats, like Ike Quebec, Hampton Hawes, Stan Getz, Sonny Stitt. And I have a lot of rock, but like jaxwired, my tastes are limited to the period before it died.

I found that small group jazz not only gives me the kind of music I like, but also is great for the way I assess my audio system in terms of what I am looking for in sound. Brubeck's Take Five, for instance, is a go-to track for me when I'm listening to a new equipment acquisition.

Dave

As is mine along with 'So What'  and a lot of songs from Bill Evans'  At Shellys Manhole.

[kingdeezie]

I too find myself in the "cant listen to rock much anymore" group. I really dont feel it has much of a place in an audiophile system cause it will sound the same as on getto blaster if you ask me. I still like a few old rock classics but smooth jazz is most appealing now.

There are some really great rock recordings that benefit from a better system. If you think that a boom box can sound the same as a high-end system built to play good-great rock recordings, then you obviously have never heard a good-great system set up for a wider variety of musical genres.

[1oldguy]

My taste in music has certainly changed since I was knee high.Though some music I felt was good then I still do today.I use to listen to Buddy Holly way back when I was a kid and still do...

[DaveNote]

As is mine along with 'So What'  and a lot of songs from Bill Evans'  At Shellys Manhole.

Looks like we may have similar tastes in jazz. What cheesed me off about Ken Burns's Jazz documentary was the fact that he included only the big names and thereby missed a many of the greatest. I don't think one word was mentioned about Bill Evans.

[Phil A]

My tastes have changed and broadened.  I still listen to much of the same things I did growing up but things I use to not like many years ago have grown on me.  I've learned to appreciate more.

[pumpkinman]

My tastes have changed and broadened.  I still listen to much of the same things I did growing up but things I use to not like many years ago have grown on me.  I've learned to appreciate more.

Very well said double for me...........Bill

[headshrinker2]

Still listening to a big variety of music.  As long as the music moves me in some way, I'm in.  Rock should rock.  Jazz should swing.  Ballads should be sweet. 

Sometimes I miss the absolute excitement of discovering music for the first time that I felt when I was younger.  Now the same music feels like hanging out with a good friend... 

[PRELUDE]

Greeting all
Good answers around here and I have to say that I am agree with everyone.The best part of this hobby is to find and share good music.I have not changed as my body told me.
But I find more and more other stuff that I enjoy a lot.For some reason I like most of the music of any time as far it does not have vocal.

[Dpod4]

Kept appreciation for rock and pop rock, but now have grown to love jazz and classical. 

[vinyl_lady]

I really dont feel it has much of a place in an audiophile system cause it will sound the same as on getto blaster if you ask me.

Nick77,
If you really believe this is true with respect to rock, then let me suggest that you have not heard rock n roll on a good and revealing high end system. All I listen to is one form of rock n roll or another and I can instantly tell the difference between my system and my car stereo, iPod with AIFFfiles and Shure 535 SE in-ear phones, Audio Engine speakers on my computer at work or a mini system at a friends house. Incredible detail, clarity, fullness and dynamics on my system that I don't hear on the other sources. I lost track of the number of times friends have commented that the same music never sounds as good at their house as it does at mine.

As to the question posed by the OP, my favorite music genre has not changed in the 50 years I have been listening to and collecting music. I began with Buddy Holly and Doo Wop in the late 50's, the Brill Building sound and folk music in the early 60's, the Beach Boys, British Invasion, and just about every form of rock, prog rock, alternative rock, indie rock, folk rock, country rock, pop, power pop, jam bands and blues rock since then. I never got into metal or most "hard" rock; I didn't like jazz, pure country or classical when I was younger and that hasn't changed. I've tried listening to jazz and classical, but it is just not my cup of tea. I listen to a lot of new artists, especially indie bands as well as stuff from my past. The one new genre in my collection is bluegrass (Alison Krauss & Nickel Creek).

Laura (the rock n roll vinyl lady ) 

[HsvHeelFan]

Even as I'm approaching 50, I still listen to the same music that I did when I was a teenager.

I have added additional musical genres to the mix, but the big 3 are still there:

Classical
Jazz
Rock

As I got into my late 30's, I discovered Frank Sinatra, so I've added quite a bit of his CDs to the mix.   I also listen to a few more female vocalists than I did when I was younger.

The one thing I've tried and didn't like was Hip-hop.  One of my kids listens to a lot of it.  It's just not my thing.

HsvHeelFan

[Anonamemouse]

My tastes have changed and broadened.  I still listen to much of the same things I did growing up but things I use to not like many years ago have grown on me.  I've learned to appreciate more.

This goes for me as well. A century ago, when I was a teenager, I used to be very active in "tape trading". This I no longer do, first of all because of no tape/cassette deck, second because I am done with "No-Fi". But I am still interested in new bands that do more than just copy existing bands.

[neekomax]

Hmm, I've been thinking about how to respond to this thread, and it occurs to me that simply getting into the whole audiophile world, as I have just in the last three months, has had its own effect on my listening habits.

Leaving aside genre for the moment; I have been craving, and listening more to, well recorded music. Stuff that has interesting dynamics, bass I can feel, texture in the string instruments, immediacy in the vocals, all that stuff. So I go more to the stuff I have that scratches that itch. Whereas before, I just wanted to hear certain songs, or get into the vibe of a certain album or artist for the performances and compositions, the grooves that I liked, the concert recordings that I worship as paragons of musicianship and soul. Now I find myself listening less to, say, one of my all time faves, D'Angelo and the Soultronics live in Stockholm (2000), not because I stopped loving it, but because I have it in a fairly low-res format, and low-res or bootleg quality is just not what I want to hear right now.

Also, I'm listening to less classic rock than I used to, because my current home system doesn't seem to do it very well. Simple as that, really. (I like it better in my car, where I can crank it and it's credible.)

On the other hand, certain albums like Erykah Badu's Baduizm Live (1998), to which I didn't listen regularly before I caught audiophilia, the recording quality has just hooked me, and I listen way more. The songs and performances are no worse or no better than the D'Angelo concert, but the recording is so much more satisfying. And her band is simply laying down grooves- drums, bass, keys, three backup singers and Erykah. But oh man, the sound.

Which brings me to my last point. For me, it's always been about groove and soul. In one way or another it's gotta groove, and there's gotta be a soulful intention and communication. That doesn't mean I just listen to soul music. Foo Fighters groove. Bjork has soul. Dave Holland definitely grooves. Radiohead, tons of soul (and groove, no doubt). I have soulful electro and grooving bluegrass. Horowitz in Moscow oozes soul! You get the picture. But my favorite artists have both in spades. (Notably Me'shell Ndegeocello. If you don't know her music (and there's a lot to know), google/spotify/mog/whatever her.)

So that's my story. BTW, I gotta put in a plug for services like Spotify and Mog. These are amazing tools for discovering new music. You can listen to a whole album once, five, ten times, and then be ready to buy it and get the resolution that you really want. I stream it to my system with Airfoil, and it's opening up worlds of stuff for me right now. It's one of the most fun parts of this hobby- all the new music!

[Niteshade]

Great thread!

I still listen to my music from childhood (80's pop rock). As time went on, genres were added and not subtracted. The most notable add-ons became folk, jazz and bluegrass. My favorite is still 80's pop, but the others are close seconds and even supersede 80's depending on my mood.

Examples of 80's pop: Phil Collins, Billy Joel, Huey Lewis

[Phil A]

This goes for me as well. A century ago, when I was a teenager, I used to be very active in "tape trading". This I no longer do, first of all because of no tape/cassette deck, second because I am done with "No-Fi". But I am still interested in new bands that do more than just copy existing bands.

I still have a cassette deck and a dBX 224 in the secondary basement system.  It has been about 4 years since it has last been used (and it probably goes a few years between each use.  I still have some decent tapes (some Mobile Fidelity albums I taped the first play) and one of these years I'll play it again.  I might eventually put some of them in another format.  It just seems I never get the time.  Keeping up with new music and movies keeps me occupied.

[jjc1]

Looks like we may have similar tastes in jazz. What cheesed me off about Ken Burns's Jazz documentary was the fact that he included only the big names and thereby missed a many of the greatest. I don't think one word was mentioned about Bill Evans.

Yeah, and a some "Jazz Snobs" consider Evans to only have been a mediocre piano player as well as Dave Brubeck.

[HsvHeelFan]

I'm a huge Dave Brubeck fan.  He's been to Huntsville twice and performed with the Symphony and Mass choir.

The first time, in the mid 80's, the lineup was:

Dave Brubeck - piano
Bob Militello - sax
Chris Brubeck - bass and trombone
Randy Jones - drums
Russell Gloyd - conductor.

The second visit was probably in the early to mid 90's.  We performed his "To Hope" work.  That lineup was:

Dave Brubeck - piano
Bill Smith - clarinet
Jack Six - bass
Randy Jones - drums
Russell Gloyd - conductor

Both were great concerts to a sold out house.  Both lineups were gracious and didn't mind talking to the orchestra musicians during the break and after rehearsal.  A lot of guest artists aren't that way.

There were 4 albums that I remember from when I was 3 or 4 years old that were the center of my musical upbringing.  These were:

Miles David - Kind of Blue

Dave Brubeck - Live at the '58 Newport Jazz festival

Oscar Peterson - Swingin' Brass with the Oscar Peterson trio - with the Russ Garcia big band

Beethoven's 5th and 6th Symphony's -  CBS Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter.

Personally, I thought Paul Desmond was the best musician of the Brubeck quartet.  He played so smoothly and he always knew where he was going, musically, when playing.

I like the rhythmic complexity of Brubeck's compositions.

Comparing piano players, it's no contest for me.  I like Oscar Peterson's piano playing better.    There are very few piano players, anywhere that had the chops of Mr. Peterson. 

HsvHeelFan