How and when did you discover bands/artists that you like?

[Fate]

Answer it anyway you like it ^^. Share your stories.

Metallica:

Discovered in 2011. When watching a wrestling pay-per-view (WrestleMania XXVII), portions of this song were played as an entrance theme. It was a memorable day. It was the song that got me "hooked" on a variety of rock music ever since.

Ramones:

I was reading random information related to the Simpsons when I discovered this song. I looked to their "Top Ten" songs and I liked them right away.

 

[hjgbujhghg]

In 2008 my mom walked into my room while I was listening to Sum41 and she said "You should listen to better music than this. If you rock, check out Nirvana, you might like, I did in the 90's." So I searched for them on youtube with mom and this was the first song I remember hearing from them.

I fell in love with Nirvana after watching their Unplugged show a few days after my mom played me this song. Then she interduced me into the whole grunge scene, she showed me Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden. They all are my favorite bands now.

My mother also showed me the classic rock and made me watch concertes of Led Zeppelin and The Doors and I loved it when I was 15 and I love it even now.

 

[hjgbujhghg]

That was my grunge/classic rock period during my teens. When I was 19 I started to date pretty much a book-like metalhead and he showed me a lot of cool stuff like folk metal and melodic death metal.

And this one I discovered with my best friends once when I was showing her my favorite metal bands. We went to their concert last summer, it was so awesome

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I was into film scores from an early age, then my older sister turned me onto a lot of 80s and 90s indie/alternative/shoegaze rock, then I got into some mid 90s hip hop, so from there I made my own discoveries of music that feautured some or a merging of the above elements like portishead, air, blur, et al

 

[CitizenErased]

In my house we wouldn't listen to much music. Just classical sometimes (I was going to ballet lessons, so...)

When I was 13 I befriended a 17 y.o. guy from my school, who also happened to live in my street (but I had never seen him for some reason), and I became sort of his "protégée", because I was always getting into trouble, so he'd tell me how to react in a smart way. That guy had a local band, and they got together to jam at his place, so I'd meet them and do my homework sitting on one of the amplifiers, check for venues/empty places to play, and we'd had philosophical chats. That's where I got hooked with the world of rock, ska, metal and punk (I call this period "iconic bands" because it was when I got all the "bands you need to know" lesson). My friend would get me CDs to listen to all the time, I remember the first was a collection of The Beatles CDs, and the second was one of Pink Floyd (the rest I don't remember).

Like two years later I met my best friend, who has no clue about good music, but he introduced me to his best friend, and I befriended him too. He gave me Origin of Symmetry from Muse for my birthday (that's where my username comes from). When I listened to the two first albums of Muse, everything changed. I knew that was MY band, MY sound, MY mental state. Later I found bands like The Mars Volta or Closure in Moscow searching for similar original sounds.

And the rest... I guess it just came from sharing/exchanging music with several penpals, or with my brother who was studying guitar under a guy who has an important band here, or making discoveries in random Youtube playlists.

 

[Rouskyrie]

For my fifth birthday, my parents bought me Black Sabbath's Paranoid and Korn's self titled album, so 2002. I've devoted a lot of time to finding new music every day and expanding my horizons since then, (I listen to everything from Mozart to Britney Spears to Brutal Death Metal to Horrorcore to Smooth Jazz to Country music and anything else you can think of) but those two albums are still my favorite because the musicality and emotion contained within them is something I'll always be able to appreciate.

 

[keto chameleon]

this is weird and happened the other week. had a dream where there was a name written on the wall, the name was "steve bickernell". googled the name when I woke up and the results came up for a techno artist called "steve bicknell". had a listen to some of his music and i'm now a fan! can't say that happens often though!

as for the past, usually through recommendations or spotting stuff on familiar record labels. sometimes just browsing stores or the pages of magazines I will see the artwork or an advert be taken by that and want to check the music out, I have found a few favourite records that way.

when I was a kid radio was one way I would hear a lot of new music, the evening shows and grave yard shift slots contained a lot of offbeat music or niche genres I would have never heard otherwise. tv shows in the early hours of the morning used to have interesting stuff too, back in the 90's you'd get shows like beavis and butthead or something on mtv.

 

[Lia_kat]

Around 1998-99, when I was about eight years old, I would hang out with the "goth / rocker" kids in middle school and one of the girls I became friends with introduced me to Manson's music. Instantly I felt a connection to this man that I've never had with any other artist. His music transformed my life (that's a whole other long post lol).. And basically was the beginning of my love for all things rock, industrial, and metal. From then I discovered Korn, Rob Zombie, TOOL (my second favorite band), Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Metallica, and a huge number of other bands and artists.

In 2008 I dated a really passionate metalhead for a year and he showed me some heavier stuff - especially melodic death metal like Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, etc. I fell in love with that genre of metal and started doing my own search of metal bands, which revealed other amazing musicians..

In high school I also got into 80's / new wave music a lot. Tears for Fears, Hall & Oates, The Cure, The Police, MJ, Madonna, Journey, Huey Lewis & The News, Prince, etc and of course the big hair bands like Whitesnake. Such a good era of music. Timeless. All of this I think also led to my love of synth, chillwave, and electronica. One of my favorites right now is The Diogenes Club.

Music discovery is endless for me.. I love this thread already.

 

[Hiraeth]

Around 8 years ago when I was 16, I came across this video of David Bowie and it was love at first sight. He was pretty much my gateway drug into 70s' rock music. Ever since then, I've been listening to all kinds of artists and bands all ranging mainly from the 1960s to the early 2000s. My favorite era of his has always been the Ziggy Stardust era and the earlier years, but I absolutely love almost everything he has done. When he died, it was one of my saddest days ever. I did end up painting a little memorial of him and his work. Here's just a little section of it...

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I was always attracted to the aspect of alienation that was a major theme in the Ziggy Stardust 1972 album. It will always remain one of my favorite albums of all time. It is one of those rare albums I can listen to whenever I'm depressed or in an upbeat mood. Until this day, I still listen to his music almost everyday.

 

[Yara the Corpse]

old horny people on chat sites have influenced what music tastes I have developed up to now.

 

[Qlip]

About three years ago I ended up randomly watching an '80's documentary about sound and music in Japan on Netflix. I like getting glimpses into different place in different times. It had a segment about Japanese Pop Idols, weird musical calling in horseback archery, an experimental percussionist, a crazy new thing called Karaoke, and an interview with this hot band called Yellow Magic Orchestra. They all sounded like really cool humans, and the music sounded interesting, so I followed up and now they're one of my favorite bands.

It turns out that Ryuichi Sakamoto of YMO went on to be a well known composer, he did the score for The Revenant and Yukihiro Takahashi had a very interesting career that I need to dig into.