Bruce

I was almost the opposite of your first encounter with music.As a 5 year old I do remember my father's stereo .It had speakers at either end in a wood cabinet.My father and 2 older sisters had piles of Beatles and Stones singles and I loved putting them on the autochanger and watch them drop.Reflecting I think this is where my love of music and equipment started.....45 years later still addicted....probably worse !

My earliest memories are of time I’d spend with my granddad, probably when I was 4 or 5. I spent a lot of time “helping” him on his allotment, and playing 7 card rummy listening to Hank Williams and Frank Sinatra on his Dansette. Like Tabby Cat, I was also allowed to operate it.

I think he was probably the catalyst for my love of music and turntables, but the same can’t be said for growing things, I hate gardening.

With hifi equipment my exposure was the usual dad system, but that was when I was very young, like 5 years old and with stern telling to not touch anything - especially the black button in the box on the sideboard that is not meant to be pushed in.

As a young teen we were very poor, had a hand me down Amstrad hifi in a hard board box job that sounded like ..... We didn't even have a vhs video recorder until 1990 or something.

First real exposure to music was by befriending a new boy at school who used to write a fanzine and record and send tapes of underground punk and what used to be called hardcore stench' core - which was basically smelly punks. We used to go watch bands rehearse, play live and often crash round their place after saying hello to their mums and dads. This was proper muddy grass roots stuff.   In honesty the music didn't really do it for me but the enthusiasm and dedication of the people doing it did.  Hifi was not a thing , it meant more if it sounded rough and ready.   A big noise that once you got your ear in could differentiate wether a band was any good.  But hearing these bands live and then recording them on a simple tape system on a crappy double tape job it was up to the writing in the fanzine to enthuse to someone else who would be interested that the band that sounded awful on the tape sounded really awesomely awful live.

Ah, the memories. Starting in 1962, we had an RCA stereo console...

...and I (age 5) was the official LP flipper. It was automatic turntable, so all I had to do was lift, flip and push the start lever. Music in our main room was a steady diet of Franky Sin, Ella, Louie, plus a lot of big band swing - a nice background for reading, playing, crafts, and so on.

A couple of years later, the British Invasion was in full swing, and my teenage sister was given a portable record player for her birthday. I don't recall the make, but the top half of the folding case was two speakers that could pulled out and separated. Her bedroom soon became an all-Beatles, all the time, zone.

I must have expressed some jealousy, because around the same time, I was given an AM transistor radio, which I always kept tuned to 1600 - WINX, a Washington, DC-area top 40 rock station. I recall many a late night, defying my bedtime, hiding under the covers and listening with the volume turned down and my ear very close by.  It was a magical time that, in truth, I have been trying to recapture as an adult!

ATB.

Hook

I was lucky, in that there was frequently music in the house - mostly classical, which no doubt influenced both my love of music and the fact that classical is one of the genres I like.

My mother had a wind-up gramophone (sadly just a box with lid that propped open completing the horn, not a beautiful copper or brass thing of popular pictures) and a modest collection of 78s, that she would play, mostly on Sundays. The music was mostly classical though some of Irish singing (latter I didn't like). By about the age of about 7 I'd often come come from primary school and play some music on it - Beethoven's Egmont overture one of my favourites. (Yes, at 7 Years of age I was trusted not to damage them, and to change the needle daily.)

And my parents often  listened to the radio, BBC Third Programme being a favourite (forerunner to Radio 3).  I remember some time when still in primary school being allowed to stay up late to hear a live broadcast of Beethoven's Pastoral symphony, that my mum had described to me but didn't have on record (for those unfamiliar, 78s had a play time of only about the same as the more recent single, maybe 3-5 minutes each side, so a symphony would be a boxed set of maybe 5 records).

Also we had a piano, and my mum played maybe once or twice a week - she was by no means a brilliant pianist, just typical of people of her generation who grew up pre-war, long before TV.

My first exoerience of live music (other than the piano at home and learning the violin myself), was Deep Purple in early 1970 - yes, by then I had discovered rock, and what a fantastic introduction to live music that was...

My grandparents had a console like the one in the photo above but smaller. I remember my aunt Mary and at that time her boyfriend listening singles. The first memories I have are from this song:

Renato Carosone - Piccolissima Serenata https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb998U3q83c

Also they listened a lot of rock'n roll, I'm talking late fifties, I was 5.

My parents bought an RCA stereo console may be in 1961. I remember the demo lp had among other tracks the Flight of the Bumblebee - Rimsky-Korsakov to demonstrate the stereo efect.  I was really surprised because up to that time I had only listened to mono and that bee flying all around the living room was incredible.

Nice trips down memory lane. I think getting a pair of headphones and a small cassette player was actually my first proper music enjoyment, not least because the music was suddenly yours and you could lose yourself in it. You could also get mixtapes made laboriously by friends (although they were of course 'killing music').

Bruce

My dad told me he used to play Bach and Beethoven on the radiogram to me when I was still in the pram, so before I can remember. Apparently I was captivated by music even then. Mum was tone beaf and hated Bach but prefered it to the noise I'd make otherwise.

When I was a baby I used to be exposed to some great pop music

I remember having a guitar when I was 4 -5 in the 50's howevere my Father came home drunk and sat on it and broke it and also my brother was the drummer in a skiffle band at the time, he moved on to rock in the 60's. 

The first songs I remember hearing were Charlie Drake- Splish Splash, Elvis - Blue Moon and Lonnie Donegan- My Old Man's a Dustman.

I have to thank my brother for my love of music as he had a very eclectic taste in music (apart from classical that was down to a music teacher in Secondary school) so he may play a jazz album follwed by Motown followed by Hendrix.

My first recollection of listening to music was as a very young kid (4 or 5)  in the late 50s early 60s in a very remote part of Scotland. We did have an old mono record player, but my older sister used to listen regularly to Radio Luxembourg on an old radio set, and I used to occasionally listen in. Strangely, reception of Radio Luxembourg was virtually perfect in our remote location.

I became hooked on a hit song at the time ("The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis) to the extent that I apparently refused to go to bed until the song was played each night (often long after my bedtime). My sister (probably because she was tired of having me interrupting her listening sessions) bought the single for me after I promised I would go to bed at my normal time from then on, and it became the first record I ever owned. I still have the single in my loft or garage, and I think it was the influence of this record that developed my soft spot for some country and country rock, although my main taste has always been 'Blues' and 'Rock'.   

A few years later I got my own small portable mono cassette deck and spent loads of time taping tracks from Radio Luxembourg. 

I remember getting a record player (Dansette type thing) for a Christmas present when I was 6 or 7, along with a small selection of classical records (1812, Night on a Bare Mountain, Tchaikovsky 6, Tchaikovsky Piano 1, Grieg Peer Gynt and similar popular pieces). Tchaikovsky 6 was and remains one of my favourite pieces, reminding me that life really is shit (and then you die).

I paid no attention to modern stuff until I got hooked on Telstar and Good Vibrations. Later on, when there was a small valve based system in the JCR at school, I started to fall in love with rock; it was after all the time of Woodstock. Where we lived radio was pretty much restricted to Light programme filth, but there was at least the Third programme.

Nick from Suffolk posted:

I remember getting a record player (Dansette type thing) for a Christmas present when I was 6 or 7, along with a small selection of classical records (1812, Night on a Bare Mountain, Tchaikovsky 6, Tchaikovsky Piano 1, Grieg Peer Gynt and similar popular pieces). Tchaikovsky 6 was and remains one of my favourite pieces, reminding me that life really is shit (and then you die).

I paid no attention to modern stuff until I got hooked on Telstar and Good Vibrations. Later on, when there was a small valve based system in the JCR at school, I started to fall in love with rock; it was after all the time of Woodstock. Where we lived radio was pretty much restricted to Light programme filth, but there was at least the Third programme.

The first record player I remember us having was a Dansette which my brother had wired another speaker on to

For me the early exposure was to a very normal average radio. When I turned 10 I started playing music (drums) and later I also played the trumpet.

For listening to music I still remember me listening to the radio and cassette tapes on this very basic radio cassette player which I got when I was 12. Some of the tapes (I even had some bought one) I played so often that they broke... We recorded from the radio and had a show which would present an artist in an hour and then you could record that artists for an hour with a limited amount of in between talking. So tapes which turned grey where from Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and I have to admit (coming out the closet) that I also listened to Abba at that point in time (now I am ashamed about that). 

When I started to live together with my girlfriend I had a fair amount of money from savings - so I fulfilled a long dream of buying a proper system (like the one in the picture below) from Revox with JBL Speakers .....and I still remember the smile on my face when I heard the first time John Bonham's Mobyd Dick through this proper system....

In my formative years my uncles bought a Sony turntable/amp/speakers and had a vast collection of 60's and 70's albums. Zeppelin, Sabbath, Purple, Dylan, Beatles, Stones etc. For one reason and another I spent a lot of time at that house and got myself hooked. My musical tastes have obviously expanded and diversified since then but I still go back to those records from time to time and Zeppelin probably still rank as my all time favourite.

Hmack posted:

My first recollection of listening to music was as a very young kid (4 or 5)  in the late 50s early 60s in a very remote part of Scotland. We did have an old mono record player, but my older sister used to listen regularly to Radio Luxembourg on an old radio set, and I used to occasionally listen in. Strangely, reception of Radio Luxembourg was virtually perfect in our remote location.

I became hooked on a hit song at the time ("The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis) to the extent that I apparently refused to go to bed until the song was played each night (often long after my bedtime). My sister (probably because she was tired of having me interrupting her listening sessions) bought the single for me after I promised I would go to bed at my normal time from then on, and it became the first record I ever owned. I still have the single in my loft or garage, and I think it was the influence of this record that developed my soft spot for some country and country rock, although my main taste has always been 'Blues' and 'Rock'.   

A few years later I got my own small portable mono cassette deck and spent loads of time taping tracks from Radio Luxembourg. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEMLGmQjLRY

Hmmm, quite the trip down memory lane.

First system when I was young was the family living room system of a big old Electrohome Console AM/FM radio with record changer bought from the big department store of the Eaton's.  It was tube unit and I liked watching the "glowing bottles" It was very similar to the picture below:

There were sliding doors to cover the speakers when not in use.

My parents were big into country music so Gene Autry, Will Rogers, Patsy Cline and the like were what they listened to along with "pop" at the time in the vein of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and similar.  My older sisters had the 45's and the KTEL compilation records of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Guess Who, Hermans Hermits, the Turtles and the rest.  On weekends there was always music playing.  The Sunday dinner standard was to listen on the radio to a local broadcast, "Men of Brass", mostly martial music and military bands.

School curiculum at the time was such that at least once a year, there was a trip to Massey Hall in downtown Toronto for a Toronto Symphony Concert (from about age 10 on) so an appreciation for classical music started at a fairly young age.

When I was about 12, had an RCA transistor radio that used to listen to AM hits radio on from wherever I could get a good signal.  Used to get some good atmospheric bounces and get the Dr. Dimento Comedy show from California late at night.  Used to have keep it hidden under my pillow for listening to some of those broadcasts.

When the Electrohome finally became unrepairable, a Pioneer stereo system consisting of the SX-737 receiver, pioneer speakers and a PL12D turntable showed up.  That was audio nirvana compared to the Electrohome, especially the turntable (still have it in my collection and it still works very well).  Bought my first 45 to play on it, 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by Robert John and my first album shortly afterwards, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (German Import) for the princely sum of $3.99 (still have the album and it still plays and sounds great).

Along the way was playing the Viola and attempting Guitar (all through the school system) and hence an appreciation for all types of music, not just on genre.

Then came high school and a friend introduced me to high end stereo and I bought my first set of Stax Electrostatic headphones so I could listen to "my music" and not disturb others when doing school home work.

University introduced me to Linn and Naim and hence to where I am now.

Apologies for the rambling nature of this oration.

My first memories of music are of old country. George Jones, Johnny Cash, etc. that evolved into rap music as a pre teen. Break dancing was big at the time. Run DMC, Fat Boys, Beastue Boys. Then came Prince. Then this blonde headed girl my cousin was hanging with brought out Motley Crue Shout at the Devil and that changed everything for me. I remember Helter Skelter like it was yesterday. So I guess it was the Beatles that changed music for me. I remember spinning my parents 45s as a young child. I also got a "juke box" style radio as a child too. Since then Ive always been into stereo systems. From that to a real stereo to boom boxes to car stereo to Naim. It's wild to look back and remember this stuff and sons of the music that had a huge influence that I didn't expect to at the time. I also had a friends dad that had a nice stereo that would wake us up on Subsay morning before church playing Pink Floyd. Great memories. 

My exposure to the music was rather early as I was enrolled into a ballet school at a tender age of 3 ( Tchaikovsky's ballet scores were almost drilled into me early on ). My father was/is a great advocate for all things arts ( literature, music, visual or performing arts ) so when I showed a slight interest in piano and violin, he was happy to find a tutor.  Many middle-class Japanese baby boomer kids probably took musical lessons one thing or another. It was rather *in* thing to do in the 60s-70s.

Also, I was exposed to church music since I was thrown into a Catholic school. I did like some of the tunes they played and Christmas time was always a big deal practicing for chorus including my mother. Music program, even a public high school later on, was part of curriculum in Japanese education system.

So Western classical music was my beginning of music journey along with I recall a few American pop music. (My father loves Karaoke and Von Karajan! :/)  My parents were not wealthy and didn't have a proper hifi to play music on. But my father taught me art can nourish and enrich one's mind more than any materialistic things in life.

However, I asked my parents to buy me a stereo system in my room *if* I passed a high school entrance exam. I must say, that *materialistic things* made me soooo happy!
Technics SC2500 CD4 surround system/Teac A350 cassette deck + Pioneer Headphones

Post removed. Sorry. Can't figure out how to use Photobucket links!

What an enjoyable read this thread has been.