What music do/did your parents listen to?

[Hot Pepsi]

My parents hardly listen to anything at all. Some crooners, oldies, and classical, but mostly nothing at all. My taste and interest in pop music and knowing all about it is almost entirely self-generated. I didn’t even have many musical interests in common with my friends.

Same with my interest in hockey, superheroes, animals, philosophy, soccer, and a few other things. I’m not a black sheep. A bit gray, perhaps.

My family wasn’t into any of this stuff, but they didn’t discourage it and wanted me to develop my imagination and what not. I suppose that’s the best one can do for kids, really. If I had kids, I wouldn’t push them into my music or books or sports, but I would certainly expose them to those things and encourage them to develop their own tastes and passions, regardless of what their friends are into.

[Bored Of Education]

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

Hold on, does that count? In which case, I have been on quite a few occasions with my Mum to the ballet which we both love - once, The Nutcracker Suite and, once, the Bolshoi doing a compilation/Greatest Hits type show.

[Bored Of Education]

A slightly related story. When I first met my wife at our workplace, our manager and I wound up my wife by saying that my Mum was a big Marc Bolan fan - my first name is spelt the same and, at the time, we lived around the corner from the tree where he crashed and died. We told her that my Mum had done both as in tribute to him. A month or two later, my Mum came to met me at work as we were going out after with my wife. I introduced them and, as they were talking, our manager and I both realised that we hadn't told my wife the truth. We just imagined my wife quizzing my Mum on her favourite Bolan and T-Rex albums. Mum would have known about them but would still think my wife mental.

[Gerontophile]

Sinatra, Dino, Perry Como, Andy Williams. The Platters, Shirley Bassey, Ella Fitzgerald, Sam & Dave.

Most importantly, Matt Monro.

[danielmak]

My parents really never listened to a lot of music. My mom had some cassettes of more pop country artists like Crystal Gayle and Barbara Mandrell and my dad would listen to news radio in the car. They had some classical LPs that they never listened to and I remember seeing a copy of Springsteen's Born to Run in their collection. I asked my dad about it and he said, there was a lot of news coverage of the record so he thought he should check it out. I doubt he listened to it more than once. The upside for me was that whenever I was in the car with my mom, I chose the music.

Funnily enough my dad has started to listen to the 60s station on satellite radio but I doubt he pays close attention. He asked me a few years back how I know about different kinds of music, for example, he wanted to know how punk was different than rap. Trying to explain the nuances of musical subgenres to someone who really doesn't listen closely to music was an amusing discussion.

[DPDPDPDP]

Dad - Glenn Miller, Andy Williams, Perry Como.

Mum - Jim Reeves, Willie Sutherland.

[San Bernardhinault]

Dad - Bach, Handel, Rachmaninoff, etc
Mom - similar, plus more Mozart and opera in general

Not exactly contemporary in our house

[Amor de Cosmos]

Sinatra, Dino, Perry Como, Andy Williams. The Platters, Shirley Bassey, Ella Fitzgerald, Sam & Dave.

Most importantly, Matt Monro.

Sam & Dave seem kinda outliers in that list, unless they dug Otis too.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Mother: Elvis, Elvis, Elvis, and the soundtrack to Baretta. Elvis 68' comeback special would be on Swedish television every New Years eve many years in a row, after that the original King Kong from 33’. And that's my memory of childhood gathered.

My father would always be away, always away. Constantly working, never there to be part. With me, my sister and mother, home. He was always taking the shit shifts or work in another country altogether to make luxury for us.
So that we could live in a villa by a creek, instead of a condo by a tram track.
I will never in my life forget that, what it has meant to me, and what effort it took.
But once a year, during New Year eve, there was all the four of us together, watching Elvis in his leather suit, and then King Kong climbing the Empire.

Those days, those evenings, are the best days of my life.
All four of us together
Only us.
Not anything so only about it.
And indefinitely us.

Oh, and father?

This! And we're croatian, this music is bosniak (muslim), but we love music! And as my father taught me "fuck off with nationality when it comes to love, and music is love"

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

I should say at this point that I am very fucking drunk.

My lovely.... shit.... whatshername..... I'MJOKING

She fell asleep two hours ago.

Where were we?

Yeah, I was in my New Year drunken stupidity trying to say something of value.

And now I can't even remember the topic.

Well, that went well, didn't it?

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

I should say at this point that I am very fucking drunk.

And on top of that, you know that I smoked that Bob Marley's preferable herb which isn't oregano or fucking leaves on an Irishmans daughters under her not shaved arms.

Can we just mellow down here a bit, and I'm going to bed even though I'm getting to old for this shit. A tad high. All I wanted to say was; fuck off you youthful bastards not even hasving turned 40. You pricks.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

I have no idea what I posted there.
This will be embaressing tomorrow.

[Sits]

I recall a gypsy fucking woman

Why do I find that so funny?

It was a bloody dire record, mind.

[Sits]

Dad was born in 1924 and Mum in 1930. They grew up in the Feltham/Bedfont/Hatton/Hanworth area north and east of what is now Heathrow. I'm not sure but I think they met through mutual acquaintances at the Hatton Operatic Society, the local Am Dram whose first performance was an impromptu one on VJ Day and who are still going. She performed from her late teens until we moved to Maidenhead in 65; she had a lovely singing voice.

He never appeared as far as I know but was a loyal patron until he moved to the West Country in 1985. I've since learned that as Company Sergeant Major of his REME unit in Delhi between 45 and Partition he was effectively social secretary for his batallion(?) and I imagine got his love of amateur performance from there. And probably his love of light jazz - it was all Kenny Ball, Glenn Miller and so on. He also played crooners; mainly Perry Como and Andy Williams but never Sinatra - he had some real beef with him. He also had some pre-war Spike Jones 78s which I guess he bought in his teens, and some Goons and a Morecambe & Wise LP which he played a lot more than music. These were our favourite albums of his.

Other than those he played little; not music from the shows interestingly. A boxed set called "Popular Light Classical Music Which Will Live Forever" and an album of session singers covering the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. In later life things went downhill as James Last raised his ugly head. Worst of all was an album of tourist-focused Cornish folk by an outfit called The Fivepenny Piece. The album was called Pasties and Cream and whilst for him it appeared perfectly to articulate his love of Cornwall, for me it was excruciatingly cringe inducing.

Mum and Dad split in 1970 and we moved in with my Stepdad who was... an Am Dram producer. That's how they met, ironically as he and Dad had been friends through the local society in Maidenhead. Mum and Stepdad played little music in the house; a little Gilbert & Sullivan, occasional light pop. He was once very pleased with himself when he came home with the single of Go West by the Village People, but as an enthusiastic homophobe he'd clearly missed at least some of the point.

So in short, I don't think my parents were much of an influence on me musically.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Dad was born in 1924 and Mum in 1930. They grew up in the Feltham/Bedfont/Hatton/Hanworth area north and east of what is now Heathrow. I'm not sure but I think they met through mutual acquaintances at the Hatton Operatic Society, the local Am Dram whose first performance was an impromptu one on VJ Day and who are still going. She performed from her late teens until we moved to Maidenhead in 65; she had a lovely singing voice.

He never appeared as far as I know but was a loyal patron until he moved to the West Country in 1985. I've since learned that as Company Sergeant Major of his REME unit in Delhi between 45 and Partition he was effectively social secretary for his batallion(?) and I imagine got his love of amateur performance from there. And probably his love of light jazz - it was all Kenny Ball, Glenn Miller and so on. He also played crooners; mainly Perry Como and Andy Williams but never Sinatra - he had some real beef with him. He also had some pre-war Spike Jones 78s which I guess he bought in his teens, and some Goons and a Morecambe & Wise LP which he played a lot more than music. These were our favourite albums of his.

Other than those he played little; not music from the shows interestingly. A boxed set called "Popular Light Classical Music Which Will Live Forever" and an album of session singers covering the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. In later life things went downhill as James Last raised his ugly head. Worst of all was an album of tourist-focused Cornish folk by an outfit called The Fivepenny Piece. The album was called Pasties and Cream and whilst for him it appeared perfectly to articulate his love of Cornwall, for me it was excruciatingly cringe inducing.

Mum and Dad split in 1970 and we moved in with my Stepdad who was... an Am Dram producer. That's how they met, ironically as he and Dad had been friends through the local society in Maidenhead. Mum and Stepdad played little music in the house; a little Gilbert & Sullivan, occasional light pop. He was once very pleased with himself when he came home with the single of Go West by the Village People, but as an enthusiastic homophobe he'd clearly missed at least some of the point.

So in short, I don't think my parents were much of an influence on me musically.

This is the reason why I love OTF. These sort of stories.

[Sits]

Thanks PPV, i felt the same about yours upthread.

I always wish I was as articulate as many regulars on this board, but always learn here.

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Can I ask you a question, about the other way around?
Did you ever influence your parents to listen to something which you listened to?
I know I did with some of the 80's songs. And I know my mom sort of likes Iron Maiden.
I had singles, and LPs and everything at home and some of them songs of whatever, my mom suddenly liked it. I think she was a Depeche Mode vampyrer to be honest because she's a peasant girl who only likes them peasant Croatian songs, and still, a little bit more. I know she loves Kiss, even though she won't admit it. I saw her once, I 10 she my mother, when I'd put on Detroit Rock City. I saw her strutting. And that's a probably the only time I've seen my mum strutting,

[Pietro Paolo Virdis]

Why the fuck am I writing this?
I'm so drunk Finland are asking me what the hell is not going on.
Good
Night.

[Prester John]

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.

https://goo.gl/images/9YDfo8

An example of the machine that we're talking about. There were two things that helped make it a roaring success:

The autochanger, which meant you could stack a pile of singles on the spindle and let them play one after the other, instead of having to change the record each time.

The carrying handle- secure the arm, lock the lid, and hey presto, you have a 1960s front room mobile disco. My dad told me that this handle was a USP of its time, as it made the Dansette truly portable. In fact my dad was hugely in demand when the local pub closed at 11 on a Saturday night, as a few of his mates would ask him to get his Dansette and records and relocate to somebody's house to continue the party.

The idea of my Dad playing the role of a kind of mobile DJ still makes me smile, but that was the way it was in the early 60s.

[Sits]

YES. Dad had one of those in grey, and that's what my brother and I used to listen to the Spike Jones 78s on.

My brother was the oldest so got my stepdad's radiogram in his bedroom when we lived with him. It was quite elegant, looked 1930s, wood and stood on four legs like an old TV. Just a turntable and a big fabric speaker. Well and a radio dial and knobs obviously.

I remember one evening when my brother was out, sneaking into his room and playing his Hawkwind Roadhawks LP on it.

[Prester John]

YES. Dad had one of those in grey, and that's what my brother and I used to listen to the Spike Jones 78s on.

Yeh, come to think of it my Dad had a couple of 78s too. I remember in particular the Debbie Reynolds song 'Tammy', which was a released in 1957. That must have been near the end of the line for the 78s.

[Patrick Thistle]

My dad wants to be a person who likes music but doesn't actually like music. He turns Radio Shropshire off when the jazz programme comes on. He reads reviews in the Times and asks what bands are like. Once he had gone and bought an Elvis compilation which he insisted me and Mrs Thistle "had to" listen to. He put it on and promptly left the room. My favourite story is when he saw in the paper that a local club was having a reggae night. So he went. His main comment afterwards was that there were a lot of black people there. Which I guess is surprising given the pale homogenous population of Shrewsbury.

Growing up I don't remember Dad ever putting a record on. There are some good ones in the record cabinet although as kids it was the Wombles LP that we always put on. He used to buy Christian music cassettes so we had American power ballad Jesus songs in the car. Or a Steeleye Span cassette that he'd bought as one of his early wanting to like music purchases.

My mum never put music on, except for the soundtrack to the Jungle Book. Until I got into rock when I was about 14. She really liked Van Halen, but she'd listen to most "hair metal" and had her own copies of albums in the kitchen. She liked Europe and Bon Jovi. In the mid 90s I took her to a Garbage gig as a mothers day present. In recent years hearing loss means she doesn't cope well with extra background noise because with hearing aids all noise is transmitted and it's harder to filter out noise in the background.

[imp]

Dad (b. 1937) - only in the car, and only Carpenters, Abba, Nana Miskouri, Shirley Bassey, greatest hits of Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel etc.. I burned him some Rumer CDs a couple of years ago because she sounds like Karen Carpenter. Recently I picked them out of his tiny CD collection and asked him what he thought of her. He couldn‘t remember me having given them to him, and had no idea what they were or how I‘d found them in his collection. So, a hopeless case.

Mum (b. 1938) almost exclusively classical, plus latterly some folk and big band jazz. First piece of music I can remember liking is Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens (aged about four), but her attempts to influence me during my teen years failed due to my obstinacy. She had a lot of 7“ pop singles from the 60s, including some Beatles, and occasionally would obsess over a hit, buy it, then drive my sister and I mad by playing it non-stop for weeks. ‚Stop the fucking Cavalry‘ (as we came to call it) and ‚The Tide is fucking High‘ being two examples. She also discovered ‚Blue Monday‘ before me after hearing it on John Peel while lying in bed one night right as it was released and before it had even been reviewed in the NME. Next day she insisted she had heard this (she had even written it down), and I told her there was no such record. That lunchtime she bought the 12“ in Lincoln to prove me humiliatingly wrong, the upside being that she passed it on to me a couple of years ago when she dumped all her vinyl (in perfect nick despite all the plays - she taught me how to properly caress and cherish records).

Last night after midnight I blasted out CD2 of my Disco Fever compilation, and was astonished thet my daughters (now 20 and 22) knew all the words to every single song - Rose Royce, Gap Band, Thelma Houston, Sister Sledge, Lipps Inc. etc. „How do you know all these songs?“ I asked. They were incredulous - „You made us listen to them in the car every day on the way home from school for months.“ Ha, well good for me. Funny that these songs now evoke youth memories for two different generations of the same family.

[jwdd27]

Both born 1942.
Mum: Eddie Cochran (she went to one of his final shows), Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, and Rolling Stones (she was an acquaintance of Brian Jones on the Cheltenham scene c.1960).
Dad: Aside from a lot of classical, it was the Beach Boys, Dylan, The Band... and Queen.
There was also The Who, not sure who was the fan, maybe a shared passion.
No Beatles, just a copy of Imagine.

[Benjm]

My dad only really ever listened to music in the car; The Shadows, Geoff Love, some hideous 'Rock Symphonies' album that was a distant precursor of Hacienda Classical and no better an idea. He did, as a young man, see quite a few of the greats on the package tours that went round doing two or three shows a night in smallish local venues; Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and The Beatles among them.

My Mum liked tuneful, softish pop stuff; The Everlys, John Denver, Joan Baez, Cliff, The Seekers, early Beatles. I've always had a soft spot for Don & Phil as a consequence, despite Mum completely turning against them after an unsatisfactory live performance in the '80s or '90s.

They would go along with friends to see the big touring acts playing at the arenas in Birmingham. I think that the friends often chose and booked the tickets. Rod Stewart was a big favourite in latter years, Andre Rieu didn't live up to his TV specials. I took them both to see Elton John at the Bescot Stadium a year before Mum died. He was surprisingly good, bashing through the catalogue with a small band and no cabaret nonsense.