Do you remember the very first band/singer that you really liked?

I remember playing Neil Diamond records with my brother over and over when I was in grade school. I still like his music.

Queen since it was played a lot in my house.

Madness, because they kicked arse.

Britney Spears. Embarrassing, I know.

@athenasgriffin glad we are annoymous here.~

Bruce Springsteen. He had me with Jungleland.

Well when I was a kid I got this music tape that had these people singing about animals and nature. It was in French, and I always listened to it, except now I don’t remember the name of this. Otherwise, I’d have to say Metallica, most specifically the album And Justice for All. I still like Metallica, but nowhere near as much as before. Justice is still my favorite album though.

@SuperMouse I love his new album

Blue Oyster Cult, Ted Nugent, AC/DC, UFO, and a few others. I was a mellow dude.

AC/DC kicks ass.

Winter Consort.

Anyone ever heard of them?

I liked Pink Floyd and David Bowie, I still do today.

@Symbeline They aren’t pretty, but they get the job done.

The Dead Trousers.

7 years old. The Beatles.

I wonder what ever became of them?

Nsync. And yes, I still listen to them without an ounce of shame. I was probably about 9.

When I was about 8 or 9 – The Beatles. I have some of their music in my music library but never play it.

U2, greatest rock band ever.

The Carpenters. I remember listening to them in the car on my way to & from visitation with my dad around age 5 or 6. “On Top of the World” was my fave.

So this is one of my eccentricities – I didn’t listen to music with “words” until I was probably 12 years old. I don’t know why, really, but as a kid I only liked classical music.

My older sister, fearing for the epic ridicule that likely would have been rained upon me had this trend continued into middle school, tried and tried to get me interested in the bands she liked. My response was always “meh” – I just wasn’t into it!

Finally she got really clever and said “Hey Rachel, this song has a reference to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in it – check it out.” And indeed it did (the song is here; hear a riff from Gershwin at 3:30 if you’re interested). Was just the hook I needed, I became a Ben Folds fan and bought myself one of his albums. I still like him quite a lot, and he’ll always have a special little place in my heart for including that Gershwin riff and reeling me in.

Perry Como. Yes I still like him and you still hear him sing occasionally

I’m going to date myself here, but that’s fine because at my age, nobody else will date me. Frank Sinatra captured my attention in the 1940s with such hits as ’‘Try a Little Tenderness’’.

In the 1950s, such artists as Tennessee Ernie Ford made waves with ’‘16 Tons’’, a great song about the wage slavery of the 1800s that the Tea Party seems determined to return us to. And later in the 50s, the Kingston Trio was a favorite of mine. Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds. Here they are performing ’‘M.T.A.’’, a song about my current home town of Boston. Of course, I had little knowledge of Boston’s actual transit system then, growing up in Southeastern Virginia. It never occurred to me that when Charlie’s wife handed him a sandwich in a bag, she could put a nickle in it and get him out of his Groundhog Day loop.

The first Band I ever really obsessed over was Linkin Park. I still have every CD and know every song….by heart…..literally.

I remember walking into my friend’s house and being struck by the music he was playing. He ended up selling me the LP. It was Hot Rats by Frank Zappa. I have been a fan ever since.

It was Metallica for me, I think I was 8 or so… I remember saving up money for a long time to buy their albums on tape!

Probably Metallica (though I could make the same case for a slew of 80’s Hard Rock / Metal bands), I got into them with their Master of Puppets release in 1986, picked up Ride The Lightning and Kill ‘em All within months because I just had to then in 1988 was blown away by And Justice For All. I was a fan of The Black Album but it never measured up to their prior releases for me. After hearing a couple tracks ahead of the next album, Load I believe, I wrote them off; though I’ve come back, tentatively, with Death Magnetic. My taste hasn’t so much changed as grown since Puppets. I go through genre phases but never really abandon them.

Please tell me that The Monkees and The Partridge Family do not count.

Queen. A guy who lived down the street and his buddies had a band. They loved Queen, and I got hooked. I saved up baby-sitting money and bought A Night at the Opera and would play it for hours.

Tokio Hotel, when I was 11. I even saw them live, and got to meet them backstage.
Then I started listening to real rock music :p I’ve been obsessed with many bands, but TH were the first. I still like some of their songs, but I don’t listen to them much. They’ve changed a lot since 2008, I don’t like them now.

Madonna

Apparently I liked her from a baby because my mum was a fan and so her music was always on in our house, I still like her older stuff but haven’t really been able to get in to her more recent stuff and I wish she would hang up the leotard now.

Brilliant question!, and i’m loving all of these answers.
I’ve always had a fairly wide taste in music, so this is a bit messy, like a few others above i was 8 when And justice for all came out (88), and i still remember hearing that for the first time, i’ve probably only ever gotten that excited about something twice, (the second time was when i heard even flow – on Ten ‘91) still play some pre black album stuff occassionally.
First album i owned was Brothers in arms (86 i think) – this was the first ever release on CD afaik, but i got it on cassette as a gift, it’s only a few years back that i bought a double cd – best of mark knoffler – with a lot of tracks from that on it.
I had a Michael Jackson phase somewhere between those albums, i guess when Bad came out, seeing as i have played bass most of my life i guess that one explains itself.
Probably wouldn’t have even thought of this if not for Leanne’s answer, but i also had Madonna’s True Blue (also 86), may have been my brother that bought it, not sure i’d go as far as admitting i ever liked it, but i got some funny looks recently singing along to it in traffic.
(lesson to be learned there, don’t be lured into the false sense of privacy while in your car in the middle of a town).
The albums i have most listened to ever are still Metallica’s Master of Puppets, And justice for all, and Anthrax’s State of Euphoria, all of which i had when i was around 8 or 9.

Weird Al Yankovich. I believe the video was Eat it.