Where Do Our Musical Tastes Come From?

I once had a conversation at work with some friends about punk music. We were all about the same age — born in the 60s, grew up in the 70s, achieved adulthood in the 80s — but we grew up in different places: Australia, the UK, and the US.

My UK friend was interested in how much we knew about the English punk rock movement of the 1970s. My US friend said he knew hardly anything. He’d heard of the Sex Pistols and The Clash, but at the time, he was more into bands like KISS, Journey, or Aerosmith.

“What about The Ramones,” asked my English friend.

The American just shrugged, “Weren’t they an East Coast thing? I’m from the West Coast.”

My UK friend then asked me about the Australian experience of punk. I mentioned how The Saints had “discovered” the punk sound in Brisbane in 1975, independently of The Ramones. And then there were bands like Radio Birdman, Celibate Rifles, and even early Midnight Oil. Still, their ethos and audiences were different to UK punks.

I had to explain how it was difficult for Aussies to relate to the UK punk movement that emerged from the austerity of 1970s British politics when we grew up with sunshine and beaches. The audience of your average punkish gig in Australia in the late 1970s consisted of a mob of drunken surfers with sun-bleached hair and deep tans. They didn’t give a stuff about anarchy and probably would have looked at a bunch of pasty-faced English punks with their gelled, spiky hair and safety-pin fashion and thought, bloody wankers.

“So, were you into those Aussie punk bands?” asked my UK friend.

“Nah,” I said. “I was into ABBA.”

My friends and I were about the same age but had a very different viewpoint of the music of the late 1970s. Clearly, being born in different places affected our personal musical experiences. But I wonder if environment is the most crucial factor in shaping someone’s musical taste.

The Influence From My Older Siblings

I am the youngest of four siblings by a long way. My brother was 21 years older than me, my eldest sister was 18 years my senior, and my other sister is 11 years older than me. They all played the music they liked to me when I was growing up. Some stuck, some didn’t. I enjoyed listening to bands like Pink Floyd and Supertramp, but I didn’t like The Eagles or Steely Dan. Even though my siblings routinely played me music they liked, I didn’t enjoy everything they liked. But does that mean I already had a musical taste different to theirs? Or was I too young to appreciate some of the music they played? Well, fifty years later, I still love Pink Floyd and Supertramp, and I still dislike The Eagles and Steely Dan. So, my taste in music must have been there from an early stage. But where did that taste come from? Was I born with it, or did something else mould my musical preferences? Is musical taste a case of nurture or nature?

So, Where Did My Musical Tastes Come From?

My parents had a small record collection, but we didn’t have a functioning record player by the time I was born, so I didn’t hear much music growing up. We didn’t even have a radio to listen to. But we did have a TV.

One of the shows I watched as a young boy was The Beatles cartoons. I watched them a lot. So, are my musical tastes shaped by repeatedly listening to those Beatles songs while watching cartoons?

My love of The Beatles probably explains my love of Pink Floyd and Supertramp. But it could equally be argued that a love of The Beatles would also lead to a love of The Eagles or Steely Dan. But, in my case, it didn’t. And what about my passion for the music of Philip Glass or the musicals of Stephen Sondheim? I don’t think watching a bunch of Beatles cartoons would lead me to also love Einstein On The Beach or Sweeney Todd.

My music collection is, obviously, full of music I love. In the fifty-odd years of building my music collection, there hasn’t been a single pattern to how I discovered the music I love. I found the music I love from TV shows, movies, and the radio. I’ve searched for new music based on recommendations from friends, family, and the media. Plus, I’ve just explored new music for the sake of hearing something new and different. But, in the end, I’ve always asked myself one question when listening to new music. Do I like it, or not? Yes or no. It’s as simple as that and entirely instinctive, personal and unique to me.

The Heart Wants What It Wants

My gut feeling is that our musical taste is something we’re born with, combined with the music we’re exposed to.

I don’t think you can be taught to love music. Appreciate, maybe, but not love. I appreciate the musicianship and production of The Eagles and Steely Dan, but I’m not into their music. It does nothing for me. I like what I like because that’s what I like.

But my musical tastes have also been shaped by the time and place I was born. Being Australian, I was exposed to a broad mix of both British and American popular music, as well as a lot of Australian popular music, especially from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I’m less into music from the 90s and only have a vague knowledge of music from 2000 onwards. Plus, I only know a little about music from other cultures. And I only have a superficial awareness of classical music and jazz. I’m sure there are whole worlds of music out there that I would also love beyond my current musical tastes that I simply haven’t had the privilege to be exposed to.

But then again, all our musical journeys need a destination. It’s not possible to explore the world of music indefinitely. It’s why most of us stop listening to much new music in our forties and fifties. There’s only so much music you can fit into a lifetime; for most of us, that’s the music we discover in our teens and twenties.

So maybe our individual tastes in music are a combination of time, place, and instinct. A mix of our unique personalities and circumstances. Which, for me, is a great thing. Imagine how boring the world would be if we all liked the same music.