What music did/do your parents like?

axisus

My mum is a classical music fan, mostly orchestral but also likes Gershwin, musicals etc. She can listen to music on a Hi Fi or a tiny radio in the garden and enjoy both equally. My mum is a very good pianist and can sight read bloody hard classical stuff.

My dad had no concept of music growing up, but he ended up listening to my mums tastes, although he has never been a big fan of music. He was keen on Hi Fi when I was growing up and had some expensive gear, but these days he doesn't have anything. Music at the parental home is just the tiny radios now!

antonyiv

Queen, Depeche Mode, Dire Straits and Pink Floyd - this was my father's collection. These were the first bands I've ever heard. Needless to say, I still like them.

Mom likes some pop stuff.

guitarfishbay

Anything Classical, as far as other music it was either best of The Eagles or Queen and that was about it.

We never owned a HiFi, it was either a tape/radio boom box thing in the kitchen (always on Classic FM from what I remember) or the car stereo until we got a home computer when I was I guess 10 or 11.

These days mum listens on a Bose sound dock thing and dad tends to like to listen on a pair of headphones.  They go to classical concerts fairly frequently - these days if they go on a short holiday to Europe they usually arrange it around going to see some live (classical) music.

guitars4you

Dad brought up on 30's to 50's big band and jazz + pre Elvis jump jive like Joe Turner and Louis Jordan - Via Brian Setzer I'm getting into a lot of this now - and finding some good cool stuff like 'Little Walter and his Jukes - My babe and so much cool jazz/swing/rock a billy and how they all blend

stickyfiddle

A lot of folk & country. 

My mum was/is a huge John Denver fan so that was where I got my love of harmonies from in particular. Both were also huge Beatles fans in the early 60's so my earliest memory is listening to "Help!" from the original vinyl.

english_bob

My dad is a big Paul Simon fan, has (re)discovered Bob Dylan quite late in life, enjoys classical music, Alison Krauss and progressive rock. The stuff I remember from when I was young is mostly Queen, Dire Straits, and Graceland.

My mum doesn't take a huge interest in music these days, but was a Beatles fan as a youth.

DarnWeight

My dad is/was a huge Buddy Holly fan, but over the last 5-10 years has got into country in a big way...Willie, Waylon, that kind of stuff.  My mam doesn't really listen to anything in particular, and as far as I can tell hasn't bought a record or CD in her entire life.

ICBM

My dad is a big jazz fan - he was a trumpet player in bands when he was young, although as far as I know he more or less gave up when they got married, since my mum doesn't really like music… especially not loud brass instruments. If pushed she will just about admit to liking 30s/40s/50s French chanteuse style stuff, but that's about it. We never really listened to music when I was young - my dad had his jazz on a reel-to-reel tape recorder but very rarely played it, and my mum would listen to the radio, but mostly Radio 4.

octatonic

My Dad passed on his love of Dire Straits to me.
He also loved country music- some of it was good, some of it was shit.
I have many, many schmaltzy country lyrics ingrained in my psyche.
I cannot get the words 'Mommas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys' out of my memory, no matter how hard I try.

freakboy1610

My parents would both be in their 90s if they were still alive. My Dad really liked the swing bands that he saw all the time during WW2. I remember him mentioning The Squadronaires who featured Pete Townshend's dad. About the most up to date thing I recall him being into was Stranger on the Shore by Acker Bilk.
Mum on the other liked rock'n'roll, her absolute favourite being Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets.

Dopesick

The Beatles, Genesis (mainly the Phil Collins stuff), Pink Floyd, Chris Rea, Gerry Rafferty...didn't really veer out from these acts from my recollection, although I did hear about Wishbone Ash from my dad.

They both saw AC/DC a year before they got married which is cool, however I don't think they've been to another concert since.

EricTheWeary

Neither of my parents was very interested in music, my late father had about four songs he liked ( although including Lust for Life by Iggy Pop somewhat randomly). He admired drummers though and we went together to see Buddy Rich.

My mother basically likes smooth voices - Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, some choral singing. She went to a few big band and other concerts in her youth including going to see a young Shirley Bassey booed off stage in Dudley ( pretty much they hadn't known she was black when they booked her). 

They did once go together to the Oberammergau passion play ( maybe 30 years ago)which, I believe, has a lot of choral singing. It was also my mother's only ever trip outside the UK. Pretty much the most out of character thing they did in their whole lives and my mother has yet to stop complaining about the hotel food. 

DesVegas

Mum = David Essex and David Bowie
Dad = The Incredible String Band and Neil Young

RocknRollDave

Despite the fact that we always had some kind of tall "entertainment system" type thing with a turntable, my parents were not very interested in recorded music at all.
We had a couple of tapes that were knocking around - A Cliff Richard one I have no recollection of ever hearing, though I can remember the cover clearly, plus my dad liked Crystal Gayle (Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, Somebody Loves You, Talking In Your Sleep) and I think he had a tape of her hits.
Mostly though it was Christian tapes in the car - Ray Bevan, Helen Shapiro (she is of Jewish background but became what they call a "Messianic Jew" i.e. a Jew that believes in Jesus as the son of God and saviour of the world) and a few others I forget...possibly deliberately.

My folks never owned a single record by any of the obvious bands of their era: Beatles, Stones, Who, Zeppelin, Floyd...nothing, nada. 
I remember getting into the Beatles in my early 20's and remarking to my mom that when she was that age, she would have been able to hear Revolver the day it came out. She had no idea what Revolver even was, never mind the fact she didn't buy it. She was 20 when the Beatles broke big in 1964, but never owned a single one of their records.
Didn't help that my Nan regarded it as the Devil's Music (hence why my uncle went out and bought a Rolling Stones record at the first opportunity...!) Hell, my Nan even disapproved of the cinema. "What would you do if you were sitting in the cinema watching a film and JESUS CAME BACK?!" 


My mom plays piano, not to concert level but well enough to have played at church on numerous occasions, and she is a confident singer. 

My dad, however, and he would say the same himself, is the worst singer you will ever hear. Everybody I say that to says "Ah yes, but you haven't heard ME sing" or "You wait til you hear so and so sing.."  ..until they actually hear my dad sing. It really is as bad as I make it out to be, bless him.


So, in a nutshell, my musical discoveries are all my own work.

slacker

My parents had a fairly oppressive religious  background so whilst they were teens in the late 50s and young adults in the early 60s they never listened to 'modern' music. 

Most of it was easy listening (oxymoron) Gilbert and Sullivan and musicals on't telly. The funny thing is that they'll listen to any music style in a musical, Elvis movies, Mama Mia, whatever. 

My Mum currently has an Ipod with a wide range of 'softer' music, swing, jazz, ballads, Beatles etc. My Dad wont listen to anything by choice but likes comedy songs, such as When Im Cleaning Windows. 

So my own tastes were a direct and cynical reaction to their upbringing and I listened to Led Zep, Deep Purple, Motorhead etc and played it loudly in the family home. Now I'll listen to anything. 

impmann

King Crimson Court of the Crimson King was probably my mother's fave album, my dad's was the Crosby Stills and Nash album.

Apparently, I used to sing along with 21st Century Schitzoid Man when I was two quite merrily...

Philly_Q

My parents were both born in 1934 so maybe they were just a little bit too old to get into the early days of rock and pop.

They had a cabinet full of LPs but I don't remember anything ever getting played much, apart from the Big War Movie Themes etc which they bought when we were kids.  The records were nearly all classical, the nearest thing to contemporary music they had was Nana Mouskouri and I don't think there was anything else from any other genre - no jazz, folk or even easy listening.

After my mum died and my dad remarried, my stepmother brought some of her own stuff - again mostly classical and some James Last things.  There might have been an Acker Bilk album.  Or maybe Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.

The only record I remember hearing regularly was The Pearl Fishers by Bizet, which was played nearly every Sunday as the roast was cooking....

It's odd now that I think about it, there were five kids in the house, we had Radio 1 on a lot and ultimately we all started buying and listening to favourite bands (me especially), but I don't remember my parents ever really commenting on it or showing any signs that they could even tell one pop song or artist from another.  Almost like it was a dog whistle and they couldn't hear it.

Nunogilberto

My mum has always been into contemporary stuff, so whatever the radio is playing at the time. 

My dad isn't a typical dad rocker - he's always liked Queen and Bad Company but probably loves his Motown and soul/disco more if anything. My request for a guitar for my birthday at the age of 8 wasn't met with huge enthusiasm...

mike_l

Dad, jazz, classical, big band, marching band stuff
Mum, classical, country, 50's and 60's pop
Mum used to play violin, and occasionally dabbles with piano. Dad occasionally gets his harmonica out (not a euphemism), but I don't remember him playing it in a very long (at least 25 years) time.

thumpingrug

My dad thinks county music is where it starts and ends.  Hank Wangfords "Bumming Around" being a particular favourite.  Needless to say that anything that was not country was considered demonic noise.  Mum was a bit more varied but very mainstream, ABBA, Bread, Demis Rossos.  She popped her clogs in the early 80's when when she was in her 30's so never got to see how her tastes would develop.  Evil stepmother likes classical, opera  and Meatloaf (???) I never could figure her out.

bluechargeboy

Dad (70): Anything bluesy, early British RnB (not "RnB"), Elvis, Cash, etc. Plays keyboards, sings in a Welsh choir although he is from Bolton and has to learn the words phonetically!

Mum (69): Guns n' Roses, Disturbed, New Model Army. She used to be a Stones fan back in the day.