# I was heavily into this when I first got hooked on classical music



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

What band or music were you heavily into when you started to get hooked on classical music? Post an exemplary song to demonstrate, if you can.

The Tangerine Dream album _Zeit_ was pretty much my favourite album when I first became keen on classical music in 1974.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Never been into one thing. But at the beginning I was into prog rock, and jazz fusion. I discovered the classics through a cheesy Reader's Digest box set of old mono recordings my late grandfather left behind in the early 80s.

Got more into it in the mid 80s when I bought a CD player. Bought a bunch of Telarc CDs at the audio shop. Then got into lots of 20th century music through Zappa's influence in the late 80s to early 90s.

Then found this forum, which turned me onto loads of stuff. And I find lots of good stuff on YouTube. Just today I got hooked on Maurice Ohana, and Sofia Gubaidulina. Bought a few of their CDS.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Pink Floyd, Genesis (the prog period), Peter Gabriel, Japan, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, David Bowie. And many others.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I was 12 years old okay....


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

None. My 20-odd year love affair with rock music was totally stagnant by the late 90s - I found nothing current that was of any real interest to me and this was the reason I largely turned my back on it and got into classical (and jazz) in the first place. Fresh start and all that. Best decision I ever made, too.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

He could teach Cziffra a thing or two about _showmanship._


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)




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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Aramis said:


>


I prefer the Furtwangler recording myself...


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> My 20-odd year love affair with rock music was totally stagnant by the late 90s - I found nothing current that was of any real interest to me and this was the reason I largely turned my back on it and got into classical... in the first place... Best decision I ever made, too.


I had exactly the same experience. After the stunning Acid/Psychedelic, Krautrock/Ambient/Electronic, and Neue Deutsche Welle/New Wave/Punk crazes of about 1967-80 (my early teens to early 20s), we were subjected to the likes of rap, hip-hop, R&B, soul, reggae, techno, dubstep, country... one boring trend after another and it hasn't stopped.

Luckily, I already had a well-established taste for and collection of 20th Century Classical and quite a bit of Romantic, Classical and Baroque, too. I even went through a _major_ Medieval Music (troubadours/minnesänger) phase in the '90s  ...And that was when I came to realize that what I saw as youth music was no longer speaking for or to me. I still get out the old albums once in a while, but, like KenOC said, classical music is now "where I remain 90% or more of the time."


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

I'm still heavily into electronic/ambient/space music, that hasn't changed since I got into classical. I'd say atm it's 45% classical 45% electronic 10% other music.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> I had exactly the same experience. After the stunning Acid/Psychedelic, Krautrock/Ambient/Electronic, and Neue Deutsche Welle/New Wave/Punk crazes of about 1967-80 (my early teens to early 20s), we were subjected to the likes of rap, hip-hop, R&B, soul, reggae, techno, dubstep, country... one boring trend after another and it hasn't stopped.


Yes, that pretty much mirrors what happened to me. To be honest, I think I'd just plateaued out and didn't welcome the idea of listening to lots of new music just to see if there was anything in particular that I could relate to (these were pre-internet times for me so I couldn't rely on youtube or suchlike even if those options were around then). The prospect of starting out on such a long journey was daunting when I'd had relatively little exposure to CM and jazz but it has been one of my greatest pleasures and full of little victories when learning something new, even if it's a bit of trivia or a technical term which experienced listeners are cognisant with as a matter of course.

I still have a considerable and varied rock collection but classical takes up about 75% of my listening as there is just so much out there and I hope the voyage will continue until my time is up.

Good to hear your story.


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## MrTortoise (Dec 25, 2008)

Not surprised to find other prog rockers in this forum. I don't listen to rock as much as I did in my younger days, however when I was discovering classical music I was also into Yes, King Crimson, ELP, and Led Zeppelin.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

elgars ghost said:


> None. My 20-odd year love affair with rock music was totally stagnant by the late 90s -


What? Not even _Who Let The Dogs Out?_


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Pink Floyd, The Queen, Impellitteri


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)




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## Katie (Dec 13, 2013)

Couac Addict said:


> I prefer the Furtwangler recording myself...


Performed live before the High Command on the occasion of Poland's subjugation and featuring the Berlin Philharmoniker with special guests the Flying Deutschmen hot off their latest album, "Electric Fatherland"...

...is it Friday yet? I really need Friday./K


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Certainly Midnight Ranger by Lothar and the Hand People. But it's been taken off YouTube, so you'll all just have to suffer...


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Johnny Winter:


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

violadude said:


> I was 12 years old okay....


No excuses VD! 

lol, actually when I was a little kid, I really loved the music of Baha Men, as well as NSYNC and The Village People XD so you're not alone


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

When I got into classical music (in the traditional sense I suppose) I was already a longtime fan of the music of composers like Nobuo Uematsu, and had recently become a big fan of Frank Zappa. That influence coupled with being introduced to some great pieces by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky during high school, as well as my constant desire for new musical experiences that was launched by listening to Gorillaz, led me on the path that has brought me where I am today ^_^


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Mostly I preferred silence prior to discovering the various classical music traditions of the world.


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## drvLock (Apr 2, 2014)

The right term for me isn't "was into", but "still into". I was introduced, many years ago, to the Melodic Death Metal band Children of Bodom, specifically their "Follow the Reaper" album. I got hooked by their neoclassical passages, and as one thing leads to another, I started listening to Vivaldi, Paganini and such.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Well, classical was the first genre I got into, so I can't exactly answer this question, but I can answer the inverse. This was the type of music I first got into (around age 8) when before that all I listened to was classical:






Not embarrassed to admit it  How I branched from classical to this I have no idea!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Tristan said:


> Well, classical was the first genre I got into, so I can't exactly answer this question, but I can answer the inverse. This was the type of music I first got into (around age 8) when before that all I listened to was classical:
> 
> Not embarrassed to admit it  How I branched from classical to this I have no idea!


Nothing to be embarrassed about when you're 8 years old - it's the adults who like the above sort of drivel who need to take a look at themselves.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I've always listened to classical music and enjoyed it. My mother bought lots of LPs, and she plays the piano so it was always there. But quite typically I also listened to Yes, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Beatles. I never listened to up to date rock and roll, often I bought LPs ten years after they were released. The only new LPs I bought were The Wall and In Through in Out Door in 1980 when I was 15. I completed my collections of said bands from the 60s and 70s in the 90s.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

Another prog and fusion guy here!

It was the avant-garde prog bands that lead me to classical. And since they're mostly influenced by 20th century composers, that was where I was lead.

Bands like:

Henry Cow and ETRON FOU from the late 70's.

Motor Totemist Guild, Universe Zero, Art Zoyd, 5UUs, etc from the 80's and 90's.

Ahvak, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Discus, miRthkon, etc from the 2000's.

I still listen to quite a bit of prog and fusion, both from the 70's and the profusion of new prog and fusion, along with a lot of classical.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

It's funny; when I got hooked back into classical music, I hadn't been listening to music at all for about 15 years. I remember during that time reading Nietzsche's quote"Without music, life would be a mistake" and thinking to myself that that's an odd thing to say.


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## Globule (Mar 28, 2014)

I'm newly into classical music. Before that I was into bands like Radiohead and Muse and Nirvana, but now I feel they belong in a dustbin. It's all pretentious brown matter. I never liked most rock music, not really into the sound of guitar or distortion. And I always felt the message was kind of unchristian, not impressed with unchaste lyrics. (I'm young but very religious.) I looked at CCM (Christian Contemporary Music) but didn't like it, it's just rebranded rock. Our Local Indian popular music don't impress me either (I feel as if they only sing love songs, don't they get bored?). I don't want to listen to 'baul music' either.

Then I found classical, and now I can hone an air of superiority because I feel it's one place that Christians can have respect with the likes of religious people like Bach being adored left and right, it even has a lot of music that glorifies God, and daily dose of vibrato is nice.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Hmm, it might've been Black Metal. Seems a bit of an extreme cross-over, but I think my soul was screaming for some refinement.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Given a very early exposure to classical at age four and a half, prior any other musical input, it has been classical all the way. 

"Heavily into" was classical from the very first. That context has me conditioned so that almost all of the more popular genres of music have very little interest or pull on me.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

PetrB said:


> Given a very early exposure to classical at age four and a half, prior any other musical input, it has been classical all the way.
> 
> "Heavily into" was classical from the very first. That context has me conditioned so that almost all of the more popular genres of music have very little interest or pull on me.


One of the blessed ones. It's quite radical how much an appreciation for the more complex musical forms like Classical and Jazz can make the more popular genres of today seem rather dull.

For instance, I tried listening to a pop album the other day and I could barely make it though the first couple of songs before I turned it off.


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