What music do/did your parents listen to?

[Sporting]

Did the old folks influence you? Are they old hippies? My mother was one of those people who hardly ever listened to music in any form, though she enjoyed a bit of light classical music, Send in the Clowns and some Bryan Adams, God bless her soul! My father used to own a copy of Sergeant Pepper but I think this was an attempt to appear cool, cos he never played it. Neither of them was remotely musical, though the radio was sometimes on during Sunday lunch. And your momma and poppa?

[Etienne]

I don't think my parents listened to a lot of music while i was young. In the late eighties my Dad bought a tape player, and got a subscription to Britannia. The albums I most remember from that time are Graceland, I'm Your Man, Born in the USA and Randy Newman's Bad News From Home. The second and fourth of which remain among my favourite albums, and the other two are ok. The standard dropped off a bit from there, but he always had pretty good taste in classic rock and soul. My mum similarly though her tastes are a bit folkier.

[Nocturnal Submission]

That's a good question and one that I've never really considered before.

The answer is pretty much not at all. My folks liked easy listening crooning. I think my favourite record in their collection was Rossini, so they may have had something to do with my moderate appreciation of classical music.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

My Dad was all about the Stones, and also liked stuff like ELO and Deep Purple. I remember Mum loved the Carpenters, and Simon and Garfunkel. They were 30 in 1976, but I think punk appalled them as much as anyone older.

[Simon G]

My dad was a massive Lennon fan so had all the Beatles albums, and his solo stuff. He liked to play the guitar as well and tried to write his own stuff in a similar vain. Sadly, he was killed by a drink-driver a month before my second birthday so I never got to see or hear him play (I have some poorly recorded cassettes, and the songs aren't too bad). I do own his Beatles albums though, but have no record player to play them on.

My mum was very much an 80s pop girl - she liked stuff that was in the chart in the mid-80s up to the early 90s. She also loved Motown - but only the popular stuff - she'd buy the compilation CDs rather than specific artists albums for example.

[andrew7610]

One of my sons (aged 6 at time time) learnt the F word whilst on a road trip in a Mazda MX5 with my Dad (aged 70 at the time) which was soundtracked by Green Day's American Idiot.

Some years earlier, I inherited my love of Roxy Music from the same man.

[Auntie Beryl]

Father: Gilbert & Sullivan, the Goons (he was born in 1937 so was just about too old to be a rock'n'roll teenager, and was on National Service when it kicked off properly).
Mother: Everly Brothers, plus a declared admiration for the riff from "Money For Nothing".

[Prester John]

My dad bought a lot of pop singles between 1960 and 1965, and quite a few classical music albums through the Readers Digest. He was definitely a pre Beatles era man.
I grew up listening to all of them, and to this day many of my favourite songs and classical pieces are based on those records.

My dad purchased a Dansette portable record player in 1960, and it was on this beautiful work of art and craftsmanship that I listened to them. He never did upgrade to Hi-Fi, but would ‘get the records out’ every so often and tell me a lot of background info about some of the music.

My mum, on the other hand, had no musical interest whatsoever. Everything seemed just noise to her, sadly the evidence of a closed mind.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Dad (born 1935) was into big band, swing, light jazz, and also a respect for early rock and roll rather than outright enthusiasm. I remember asking him once why he never got into the Beatles and he replied he was far too old to be into pop music by then (he'd have been 27/28 during their emergence) - he was one of those (far from alone in his generation) who seemed to be born middle aged. Any contemporary music I remember him enjoying in the 70s and 80s was throwing back to his era - like Manhattan Transfer, or Alison Moyet's loungey phase. He also loved that godforsaken 'Don't Mess with my Toot Toot' song and on the rare occasions he got pissed in the house he used to repeatedly play it and dance to it.

Mam (born 1938) was very MOR and was into Barry Manilow enough to go to see him at the NEC (on a bus from Carlisle). In later years I'd accompany her to two "gigs" locally - Errol Brown and Jimmy Nail.

Both of them reacted with horror at anything outside of their immediate worldview and had a particular issue with hair length, which gave my elder brother plenty of scope to upset them in the early 70s, which he took to with some relish.

[delicatemoth]

I get all the music and love of it from my parents, such a precious gift. I didn't always like the stuff they did (and vice versa), but it was always there and active listening was a natural part of our family life

My mum's favourite is Bob Dylan, my dad's was Captain Beefheart. But his record collection spanned most genres of music predating the 1980s. Some of the great discs I inherited - Art Ensemble Of Chicago Live 69; Well Charged - Vital Dub; John Coltrane - Afro Blue; Lenny White - Venusian Summer; Minnie Riperton - Perfect Angel. I've also got his Linn deck, it's the most valuable thing I own I think. He was into valve amps and stuff.

[slackster]

Both stuck with the genres of their youth, really.

Mum liked the 50s crooners and showtune singers, whilst Dad was into boogie woogie, early rock & roll and especially bebop jazzers.

[Bored Of Education]

Parents were into Elvis so that definitely influenced my love for him. Also, Neil Diamond (who I am fond of), the Beatles (my Dad), Luciano Pavarotti (again, my Dad), Holst (again, my Dad and "The Planets" specifically). There was appreciation of Shirley Bassey, Tom obviously - "Green, green grass of home" being the number one when I was born but I don't think that was planned. My parents then got more into stuff that we were into - Queen, Saxon(!), Manics, Stereophonics etc.

Aside from Pavarotti and the Beatles, I have a affection for all of these. However, at the time, there was no idea of this appalling "different generations being into the same music" thing that is going on now. The thought that I would go to the same gigs or festivals as my parents would have appalled me as much as some of my London mates being allowed by their hippy parents to call them by their first names (although my parents did come to my gigs occasionally and my Dad did drive us to a couple). We still had enough of the sort of bands who inspired "What is that?!/Is it a boy or a girl?/Why doe she have to shout all the time?" reactions from my Mum and Dad - Motorhead, the Pistols, Van Halen etc.

My biggest inspiration in playing music genuinely was my Mum in that she always used to 'sing' songs - usually Shirley Bassey - at charity gigs despite not being able to hold a note in a bucket. I am not being arch about this, I genuinely think that my Mum's ability to perform without necessarily having the skills to do it influenced me as much as the Pistols', in some ways, similar example. I became a singer not because I could sing but because I wanted to be in a band and couldn't then play in an instrument and the rest is....

[DCI Harry Batt]

I went to see Dylan with my mum. And oh shit I've forgotten bugger that oh yes, the Rolling Stones. And she used to come see me in my band.

[WOM]

My mom actually saw Elvis in concert in '57 or so, and then precious little else. I know mom and dad saw Neil Diamond once. And I took them to see the Stones a few years ago when mom mentioned she'd always hoped to see them. That was fun.

As for records, a bit of John Denver, ABBA, Neil Diamond, and a few popular soundtracks like The Sound of Music.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Dylan was shit, by the way. When we saw him, I mean.

[WOM]

Yup. Same when we saw him.

[3 Colours Red]

Mam: Rod Stewart, Rod Stewart, Rod Stewart and there may have been some Rod Stewart in there too.

Dad: fucked off when I was three so I dunno. Frankly, I wouldn't want to know.

EDIT: To Bored - I know exactly what you mean about singing along despite complete tone deafness. Add a complete inability to get any lyrics correct and that's my mam, that is. Unfortunately I share this lack of musical talent (although I do at least try to sing the right words).

[Amor de Cosmos]

Both born in 1922 so had an affection for Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, and other stars of the era. My Mum would like the odd pop song from the 60s and 70s, we shared a liking for The Carpenters for example

My Dad really liked music but, as with almost everything else, he never talked about it so I didn't really know that until the last few years of his life. He was a massive Fat Waller devotee, (loyally transferring all his albums to cassette, and was working on CDs when he died.) I introduced him to Stan Rogers towards the end, who he adored. I just wish I known all this sooner, it might have been a genuine connection between us.

[caja-dglh]

Ah, one of my favorite stories.

My mother was, and remains, not one for music that much. She prefers Broadway stuff if anything. She did go and see a lot of bands at some clubs in Manchester when she was dating my Dad back in the 60s. She mostly remembered there being people taking drugs and her not being so into some of the people. Oh - and it went on all night.

My Dad loved music. I clearly remember him bollocking me for running across the living room as a five year old as it made his record jump (the needle and whole setup was very sensitive). He was mostly into ELO and REM while I was alive, but his record collection was a lot deeper with every Beatles record and a whole load of other stuff. Once I was older, my Dad filled me in on the true story. My Dad used to take my Mum to the Twisted Wheel in Manchester all the time. It turned out the "lot of bands" she saw there included Screaming Jay Hawkings, Ben E King, John Lee Hooker, The Kinks, The Animals, Memphis Slim, Spencer Davis Group, The Faces, Alexis Korner, The Who, Jimmy Cliff, Patti LaBelle, Solomon Burke and many more, including some chap called Jimi Hendrix.

Yes. That is correct. My mum saw Hendrix and can't remember it. Not because she was wasted - just that they saw lots of bands and they all blur in to one another.

[Duncan Gardner]

Mum- musicals and hymns. She tolerated the Police due to knowing Sting"s in-laws.

Dad- military, crooners and Harry Belafonte covering the Beatles a calypso

[scratchmonkey]

Mom - Heavily into opera, pretty much all of it, although Wagner, Mozart, and Puccini were the main players in our house. Every once in a while she'd listen to an Alan Freed compilation.

Dad - Born '49, he grew up part of the hippy subculture in the Bay Area and saw a lot of the 60s bands when they came through places like the Fillmore, also apparently turned down an offer to help work the lights at Monterey Pop to go surfing. His absolute favorites were The Who, and then he quite liked the Beatles (up to Revolver), The Yardbirds, Fairport Convention, David Lindley, Huey Lewis and the News, and Quicksilver Messenger Service. Later on he got really into The Mermen, who were a local psychedelic surf-rock trio and then into a bunch of local swing acts as he was a big West Coast Swing dancer -- Lavay Smith and Her Red-Hot Skillet Lickers being one that I can remember, he had a poster signed by her up in his house. Also notable for absolutely hating certain bands, most notable being Led Zeppelin, which meant I never heard them until I was a teenager and some friends were playing them -- he had some story about one of the members leaving liquid LSD in his fridge and one of their children getting into it that I could never tell was apocryphal or not. (He also hated Johnny Cash with a passion for having started a fire with his meth lab that wound up killing a number of endangered California condors, including a bunch of chicks -- that story being entirely verifiable.)

[Satchmo Distel]

Dad liked the Rolling Stones but tended to play lame MOR country stuff like Don Williams in the car. I recall a gypsy fucking woman was my nightmare earworm of the 1976 summer heatwave.

Mum: Beatles but she would always prefer TV or visiting family to music when she had any spare time.

[elguapo4]

Loving this thread.
Dad was born in 1924 and died in '66 when I was two, in any stories music never came up, cars, cycling and hillwalking were his big things, there's old pictures of him and my mam in the local musical society but one of my mam's friends told me he was only there cause it was the best way to meet girls (worked for him anyway).
Mam was musicals and light opera all the way, Gilbert and Sullivan, Rogers and Hammerstein,Diana Durban etc ,she also liked light folk music, Makem and the Clancy brothers and Johnny Mc Evoy but the Boss was Mario Lanza, I could see the young girl again whenever she watched him on old films.
Although films was definitely Mam's thing, before she got married she used to go to the pictures three times a week and whenever you were watching an old film with her it was like having a directors commentary 30 years early.

[Nocturnal Submission]

My mum's favourite act, if not Englebert Humperdinck, was Miki & Griff, a Scottish-Welsh country music duo who haven't left much of a mark in the annals of popular music. I did once catch her listening to the John Peel show in his Bulgarian folk/thrash phase, though - inexplicable.

I'm not sure that my Dad had a favourite. Much more interesting were the occasional chart songs that he liked: Thin Lizzey's version of "Whiskey In The Jar" (which I played for him four days ago, funnily enough), "Mississippi" by Pussycat and, most bizarrely, Tubeway Army's "Are Friends Electric?".

I suppose that I may have inherited my eclectic taste in music from them.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I also went with mum to the ROH, to see...an opera, ummm...hang on Don Giovanni so it was, yes indeed.