Have your tastes changed over the years?

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Claire M
Date: 22 Sep 12 - 09:58 AM

Hiya,

I can never find said medieval stuff, or Appalachian. I'm still collecting Maddy Prior's stuff. I had no idea she'd done so much. I haven't looked forward to a cd release so much for years. I can actually get to more concerts now because they're smaller & closer. I'd much rather go to several of them than one big rock concert a year,        

I used to love Eminem, but have given up with him because there's so much of his stuff that upsets me it's not worth it. June Tabor + Oysterband upset me too, but I see their stuff more as a sort of warning. I've seen tons of copies of the same cds in exchange shops, but none of my old favourites. So now I just cadge music off my dad.

I used to be always giving stuff away, then wishing I hadn't so getting another copy; the fact I got rid of it in the 1st place should have taught me something.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Stringsinger
Date: 22 Sep 12 - 09:56 AM

Over the years, I tend to find myself listening to voices that are not strained or unpleasant.
That includes many younger artists who attempt to sound trad.

I gravitate toward good lyrics, those that are specific, well-crafted with proper rhyme schemes, and stanzaic consistency. I like many that tell a story.

My taste now includes popular music from Broadway shows or some hit parade type songs from the forties, and most of the songs from the twenties and thirties.

Consistently, I have always admired Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Leadbelly and Peggy Seeger combined with a further interest in jazz, particularly early in the twenties and thirties.

I still admire many traditional singers and players of American folk music such as
Texas Gladden, Buell Kazee, Doc Watson, and I like David Holt.

I'd say that my taste has been consistent but grown to encompass other forms of music.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Shimbo Darktree
Date: 22 Sep 12 - 08:07 AM

Interesting to read ... shows how different people can be, and often are.

My folk tastes have lessened on the protest side, and increased on the light, zippy and humorous side. My folk friends no longer check to see whether anyone is wearing white socks (used to be a cardinal sin - not sure why), and I no longer get into strife for singing country songs (at least, not for the choice of song ... only for the singing).

Used to love symphony orchestras as a child, but no longer.

Never could stand opera, and that hasn't changed.

Shimbo

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Sep 12 - 11:40 AM

I almost enjoy opera now. At one time, I wouldn't have touched it with a ten-foot pole, but now that I've been dragged to productions and experienced the singing, the acting and the costumes, I realize that opera has a point.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,Lin
Date: 21 Sep 12 - 02:39 AM

I got into folk music in the mid to late 60's and started out listening to Donovan, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary and folk rock - The Byrds. So from the beginning I loved songs that were topical or ballads. I still listen to some of these artists; saw Donovan a few years ago in concert in California,
Judy Collins and Baez, but don't listen to Dylan or Joni Mitchell much anymore, (their current music). I then went on to listen to Sandy Denny & Fairport, Pentangle, Ralph McTell and love the music of singer/songwriter, Allan Taylor. He's great but don't think he has ever toured in California. Did see him years ago in the 80's when I was visiting England.

Then in the 1980's and 90's I got into Celtic music and listened to various groups, singers in that style of folk. (Figgy Duff, Lorenna McKennitt,and many others). I also started listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, Richard Shindell and other American folk solo artists - so still really follow the singer/songwriter as I love songs that have strong messages (not necesarily political though).

I have a hugh collection of "unknown" folk artists too - that no one has really heard of. Sometmes I have found quite a few gems of a folk singer or folk group who maybe only had one or two albums out and just never really made it big - but were still very talented.
I have been searching for albums of these type of folk artists lately so that is relatively new fo me in seeking out more "unknown" artists.

I don't really think that my taste in music has really changed that much - just have listened to different artists as the years went by and in some ways - many in similiar genre/styles of folk from the 60's to current folk.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: John P
Date: 20 Sep 12 - 10:40 PM

I don't listen to hard rock much anymore. I just got bored with it. Still listen to a lot of blues rock, progressive rock, and fusion. I used to like almost all electrified traditional music, but now my tastes have narrowed to wanting to hear the electric instruments really playing the trad music instead of there just being a tune played over an electric groove. I had a non-jazz period for about 20 years, but I'm moving back into it now, except I've always hated free-form jazz, especially with saxophones. Medieval music seems to be a constant, as is Bach, Beethoven, and the Beatles. The only musicals I like are the ones I listened to as a kid, but I still like those a lot.

Mostly I keep adding genres. For the last several years it's been a matter of adding more types of traditional music (Irish, English, Appalachian, French, Breton, Balkan). I took up Swedish music about five years ago and that's the only type I'm currently performing, but not the only type I play around the house and in jam sessions.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Bert
Date: 20 Sep 12 - 08:22 PM

Yes.

When I was in my teens I found teenage girls attractive; now in my seventies I find all women attractive.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,Frug
Date: 20 Sep 12 - 03:52 PM

I like to think that my tastes have broadened and whilst I still listen to and like most of my formative influences, I do like to keep moving on.

Frank

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: pdq
Date: 20 Sep 12 - 01:13 PM

"I loved Gene and Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers. I also liked a lot of jazz and other popular music from that era."

It's not a big move from the Sons of the Pioneers to jazz. Just listen to their instrumentals.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,Phil B
Date: 20 Sep 12 - 01:01 PM

I've only ever added to my listening pleasure and never discarded anything. I do find it a bit pathetic when people dismiss music on a genre basis without examining the various facets closer. I'm on record as not being a fan of musicals but I love West Side story and stuff like Anyone can Whistle. I occasionally have to wait until the coast is clear before dragging out the Gentle Giant though;-)

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 20 Sep 12 - 12:30 PM

Like most, my answer is yes and no.

As a child in the 1940s I'd lie awake at night listening to Gene Autry's Melody Ranch radio program. I loved Gene and Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers. I also liked a lot of jazz and other popular music from that era. I didn't know there was anything special about them at the time but The Weavers had “pop” stuff on the radio that I liked.

When Rock & Roll came along in the early 1950s I liked that a lot. I liked the Doo Wop stuff, Little Richard and his imitators, right on through Buddy Holly. When the Kinston Trio came along I thought they were great and bought their records. I rediscovered The Weavers and that was the end of the KT for me. But my journey into folk music soon led me to original artists like Lead Belly, Brownie McGhee, Rev. Gary Davis, and eventually to bluegrass music. Earl Scruggs' banjo sucked me in but I eventually learned to love it all. I never really listened to any “popular” music after about 1961 or so.

Today I listen to the same things, cowboy songs and western swing, country blues, Kentucky thumbpickers (Merle Travis, et al.), bluegrass, old country music, ’50s rock & roll, doo wop, jazz, swing, etc. I never listen to singer-songwriters much and prefer music with more complex instrumentation. Modern country, modern rock, rap, etc., hold no interest for me. I still love classical music but don't really spend much time or money on that. I've always enjoyed the unaccompanied singing from certain Appalachian areas but don't really listen much anymore.

So yes... and no.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Sep 12 - 03:59 PM

50 years ago (nearly) I hated Glad all over by The Dave Clark Five, I hear exactly the same thump thump thump now on disco records and all manner of hideous variants - I still hate them!

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Claire M
Date: 19 Sep 12 - 12:53 PM

Hiya,

Used to love Michael Jackson, so upgraded to cd when the tapes finally had it. Said cds have been played once, if that. I got a load of books about him for various bdays/Xmas-es –- just finished one. It was full of stuff about him being the oxygen to people's lungs. I suppose I'll always like him, but not that much!

That said, I've heard Steeleye Span about 1,000 times & still love them, probably more than I used to. Maddy Prior's voice always made me completely unaware of anything else, & anyone who sounds similar has the same effect.

The only explanation I can think of for them is that I didn't find the latter on my own, & it's so ingrained that I can't help but think it's good. Just wish I'd seen more concerts, even though I didn't know I wanted to see them at the time.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 10:41 PM

I was visiting my son and daughter-in-law last night when I asked if I could borrow a newspaper.

'This is the 21st century, old man,' he said. 'We don't waste money on newspapers. Here, you can borrow my iPad.'

I can tell you, that bloody fly never knew what hit it.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Elmore
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 09:56 PM

" discovered" opera and Leonard Cohen in recent years. Still love folk music.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 10:15 AM

When I was a teenager, I found impure tones, such as from a fiddle or a pipe organ very irritating. I wanted my music pure - say from a symphony orchestra. When my friends were into Beatles, I was into Beethoven.

Gradually this changed, and now I enjoy fiddle and bagpipe, etc. I still don't like saxophone, the instrument which wobbles the most.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: The Sandman
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 09:59 AM

a mans palate can in tine become accustomed to anything,... nap boney

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 09:14 AM

I've always had very diverse tastes in music
but used to say the only music I can't stand is country & western and opera.

Until I, like a lot of middle aged ex punk rock/new wave kids,
started listening to 1990s Alt Country and Gothic Old Timey....

This lead gradually to a curious excursion into the murky depths
of vintage schmaltzy Nashville chart hits.

I now willingly wallow in crappy old country love songs
late at night with a decent glass of malt in hand.

Still can't be bothered with opera though..

..and to be honest for some reason I now find a lot of 'celtic' trad based folk drearily boring and irritating.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST, Claire M (permenant GUEST!)
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 06:10 AM

Hiya,

Didn't start off that way – found them all later. How could I forget Meat Loaf?!

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,Magrat
Date: 31 Jul 12 - 05:22 AM

I too started off with Captain Beefheart, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath! I then saw Fairport and Matthew Southern Comfort and found more joy in that music. Over the years I have added other strings to my bow with Cajun and Zydeco, Bluegrass, Old Time, but a well sung heartfelt traditional sung still hits the spot.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 05:58 AM

When I was a teen I hated modern music; now, I detest it.
The interlude crap on Pawn Stars is a good example of noise on steroids.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: matt milton
Date: 30 Jul 12 - 05:58 AM

If my tastes hadn't changed over the years, I wouldn't be listening to folk music.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: melodeonboy
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 05:16 PM

Developed rather than changed for the most part!

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,Claire M (Permanant GUEST!)
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 04:49 PM

Hiya,

I think if you truly like something you'll always come back to it. There were no other Steeleye albums in the house, so I assumed that was how they'd always sounded, & that they'd just done that one album. Then when I was dragged to see them, & I heard the song at the end ('Gaudete'), I was transfixed. I wrote this after their gig – an early Xmas present of sorts – in dad's Xmas card.

I had a gig booked up for me;
I nearly did not go;
I cannot share thoughts on yon gig,
For those my age never shall know.
Your good taste it hath now become mine;
It once made me lament;
Oh how I longed to be different
Now I wish I'd shown some sense


My hands they shook just like the leaves,
My head was like a sieve
When I tell people what did occur,
They all lose the will to live.


Whenever I feel wretched;
And wish the end was in sight
Even when I'm in the cold hard ground,
I'll remember this stunning night.
 



A family friend's husband loved them too. I asked her if he'd got any cds, (vinyl) sounding like Stewie out of 'Family Guy' when he says "Disney World, I wanna go to Disney World" because he's all excited.

I think the reason it's stuck with me is because my life isn't perfect -- I'm disabled when most people aren't; so I tend to go for nastier songs. A lot of people, usually those who don't listen to my/our type of stuff, think I must be depressed.

Certain music can make me very cross; this doesn't. I don't have a care in the world when it's on.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 02:35 PM

Yes. While I still prefer traditional folk music to folk-pop (or folk-Roc or whatever they're calling it) I started out with a fascination for instrumental music. As the tears passed, my interest has shifted more to vocal music.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,Claire M (Permanant GUEST!)
Date: 29 Jul 12 - 11:17 AM

Hiya,

I love Captain Beefheart. When I 1st heard him I cried with laughter. I didn't realise he really sang like that! Still love my old favourites. I too seem to return to it at turning points, listening to what I found later – heavy metal and stuff like this –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZF5m-vmDzM (warning, turn computer volume down!) less & less, eventually stopping altogether.
I still like the decent heavy rock/metal – Maiden, Sabbath, Priest, Purple, etc. but I just can't hack stuff like the above song now. I thought I'd miss it, but I don't never thought I'd rather hear a violin than a guitar; I was always like "it's not heavy enough".


I'm told that it's changed me, even down to the way I dress – somebody who hadn't seen me for years was shocked to see me in a floaty dress & boots.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: the button
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 04:21 PM

I was a member of my local library's "record library" from about 13-14. I could borrow 3 albums at once for nowt (box sets counted as 1), so that was where I first heard The Watersons, Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, Delta blues, Bach, Mahler, Schoenberg, .... (the list goes on), all of whom I still love to this day.

A couple of years later, I heard Cpt Beefheart -- and "Safe as milk" is still one of my favourite albums of all time. And The Velvet Underground.

A couple of years later still I heard bands coming out of the US like Sonic Youth, Big Black, The Butthole Surfers and Band of Susans, which absolutely blew me away, and that was the musical direction I took. I still like Sonic Youth and Band of Susans.

The Watersons are still there, and it's what I'll put on if I want to listen to some music. In recent years, I've got into the whole "source singer" thing, with increased availability of the music from Musical Traditions, and stuff like the Walter Pardon CD on Topic.

Traditional music's always been there in the background for me, even if most of what I listening to wasn't traditional music. A thread that keeps my life together, and that I seem to return to at turning points in my life.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 25 Apr 08 - 11:05 AM

Deckman:

Good to see you still have your priorities in order. To quote the late Augustus Macrae, in "Lonesome Dove," "The older the violin, the sweeter the music." That's MY story, and I'm stickin' to it!

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: pdq
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:33 PM

Rabbi-Sol mentioned booking Pete Kennedy.

Kennedy was an important part of Mike Auldridge's brilliant record "Eight-String Swing". He contributed "Pete's Place" and co-wrote the title song. This is a possible "desert island pick", especially if you are talking instrumentals.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:31 PM

Of course my tastes have changed ... I musta' learned sumpthin in my 71 years! First there were the likes of Paula, Linda and Mary. Then I moved on to Shirley, Helen and Georgina, then came ... OOOPS...WAIT A MINUTE. I see now that you are talking about taste in MUSIC! sorry for the thread creep. bob

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Gulliver
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:01 PM

Like Don and Leadbelly have said my tastes have broadened, enormousely in fact, since I spent so much time abroad. So now I'm just as much into old German stuff from the Weimar Republic as sixties Bossa from Brazil or nineties pop from Italy or Irish trad or whatever. Takes up an awful lot of time getting around all this, what with YouTube, MySpace, etc!   Don

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 08:57 PM

My tastes have not substantially changed since I was 1 year old.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: M.Ted
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 08:53 PM

I hear a lot that I didn't hear before, and am invariably surprised when I listen to something that I haven't heard in years--often, I am impressed with things that I originally didn't care for, occassionally, I hear something that wasn't as good as I remembered, and mostly, after years of playing and listening, I hear the way things are constructed, which was beyond me the first time around.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:41 PM

I started off with Lawrence Welk and Mitch Miller. My next stop was Broadway Show Music.

I was then introduced to the world of Traditional folk music and Bluegrass. I was anchored there for a long time.

Now that I have become a booker of musicians for the Borderline Folk Music house concert series, I have discovered the wonderful world of acoustic singer-songwriters and my tastes have broadened to include them. We really have some great new talent out there such as Pat Wictor, Red Molly, Joe Jencks, Jed Marum, Freebo, Pete & Mora Kennedy, Lenore, etc.

There are also some really great new talented musicians on the horizon that have really impressed me such as Jude Roberts, Avi & Celia, Amy Laber, Angelo M, & The Gathering Time Trio (Glen Roethel, Hillary Foxsong, & Stuart Markus).

I get approximately 5 submissions per week from musicians looking to play my venue and I am sure that my tastes in music will evolve even more as a result of all this new exposure.

SOL

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: skipy
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:38 PM

I've been the same always:- give me "big girls" anyday!
Skipy

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:35 PM

Not since this morning. Seriously, every day's experience changes one's expectations to some degree, however microscopic. I may listen to many of the same people I heard in the 1950's, but now I am hearing them through a filter of experience and time. I pick up new favorites from every era through which I've passed. I don't know if my tastes have so much changed as grown and expanded.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:17 PM

Ah, but there are times when a tightly clenched bowel is not necessarily a bad thing...

LTS

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: glueman
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 05:50 PM

Always keep your mind and your bowels open they say. Add your ears and yerl no go far wrong.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Gervase
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 05:42 PM

Mine have maybe gone the wrong way. At 18 I had been weaned on the classics but my first choice was folk - lots of Steeleye, early Albion Band, Pentangle, Fairport, June Tabor; the quintessential Seventies anglo-folkie catalogue - with just a leavening of Floyd and some psychedelia.
Now, nearing 50, I've gone back to the classics but, folkwise, find some of the older folk standards seem very much 'of their time' and sadly dated. I still have them on the iPod, but, like some of those above, I'm blown away by more modern stuff like the Imagined Village Project, Bellowhead, Tim van Eycken and Brass Monkey.
I've also discovered a late-flowering love of punk and ska (and a tragic sense of loss for the cutting short of Ian Dury's superb songwriting), plus a new delight in groups like The Killers, British Sea Power and Coldplay. Oh, and a greater appreciation of Glenn Gould's odd grunts.
So, to go back to the original question, maybe tastes don't change so much as broaden.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Cool Beans
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 04:53 PM

No. "Our aesthetics are measurements we are born with," said the sculptor Louise Nevelson. That seems true of me. In my 60s, I still like the music I liked as a teenager (maybe "born" goes too far). And I still love the people I loved as a teenager, the ones I've cared enough to stay in touch with. This precludes neither new music nor new friends; I'm open to both.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 02:48 PM

Ms Lemon - put in some Buzzcocks, some Coope, Boyes & Simpson, some Zep and that's my iPod... not iPoo....

LTS

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Leadbelly
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 02:17 PM

"My tastes haven't changed so much as broadened. The field I get to pick from is so vast and thanks to "The Internet" so available." (Don)

That's what I'm doing.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Ernest
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 01:39 PM

Yes, it has. When it comes to folk music, the first kind I heard was american (probably folk revival stuff mostly), as a teenager I found that I liked Scottish and Irish music (yes, in that order: the people from the radio station seemed to have a preference for scottish folk then), later came Cajun/Zydeco, Bluegrass, Old-time etc. - especially old recordings from the 20s & 30s.

Sometimes I find an interest in classical pieces and jazz as well (ok, Dixieland was something I heard/liked since early youth).

As for more modern styles I still like some Rock (Jethro Tull, Van Morrisson, Bruce Springsteen etc.) but lots of stuff that gets airplay now leaves me cold. A few weeks ago I took a ~25 year old cassette for a longer drive: I found out that I still like the folkier stuff I taped back then, but found the rock music rather pathetic...

Maybe I am just becoming an old fart now...

Best
Ernest

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Silver Slug
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 12:37 PM

My tastes have become more catholic and I am happy to listen to songs written for the music hall of the early 20th century, pre-rock & roll popular music, folk, bluegrass, blues and UK Indie, as well as the music I loved in the 1960's and early 70's. In other words I'll listen to anything which has a good, strong melody and/or meaningful, well written lyrics.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 12:01 PM

When I was in my teens I was told I ought to sing folk songs cos I sound like a folk singer. The idea made my flesh creep. I was heavily into The Monkees, Beatles then progressed into progressive rock and blues, John Mayall, Chicken Shack, Steve Hillage, Pink Floyd,Genesis... (we're talking mis-spent youth here) but as time has passed and I 'cleaned up my act') the easiest stage to get on to is a folk club/singaround/open mic stage, so here I am. I like the songs with stories to tell,and the way trad songs convey history, so it suits me. Mind you given half a chance I lapse into blues and t'other stuff.

sal

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: theleveller
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 11:02 AM

With you all the way there, Bryn. Folk music is just so much more varied (and so much more fun) since the 60s. Last year at Beverley the three headline acts were New Model Army, Bellowhead and Seth Lakeman, all of whom were brilliant, but it caused a bit of a moan from some of the traditionalists (especially NMA - who I love).

Oysterband are still just amazing - saw them doing an acoustic set at Pocklington recently, a small venue where the atmosphere was electric.

Then there are sensational young groups like Mawkin who I seem to see everywhere - and some great but almost unknown singer/songwriters like Dan Webster from York.

I could spend a fortune on CDs if I was allowed.

Just thinking about booking to see Dragonforce at Leeds Uni in October, with my 17-year old lad.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:59 AM

My tastes haven't changed so much as broadened. The field I get to pick from is so vast and thanks to "The Internet" so available.

Don

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:55 AM

For my 21st birthday I got several of the Topic 'Folk Songs of Britain' LPs and several of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger's 'Long Harvest' ballad LPs. Around the same time I bought Ewan's 'The Manchester Angel' LP. I also got to hear Ewan and Peggy perform live at several places including the 'Singers' Club'.

'The Manchester Angel' convinced me that we English had some marvellous traditional songs and persuaded me to seek them out and sing them. It took me a long time to develop the skill to do them any sort of justice.

In the meantime I realised that the strange and wonderful old singers on 'The Folk Songs of Britain' had got inside my head in a way that no other type of music had suceeded in doing. I'm still a great fan of traditional song (especially English) and traditional singers - and I imagine that I will be for the rest of my days.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:54 AM

Mr. Happy's 'yes...and no' is spot on for me.

I have been R&B'd and DooWopped to the point of tearing out what little hair I have. It is sad to see seventy year olds still singing those songs on PBS as if they were in a time warp. I was introduced to folk music with the popularization by the Kingston Trio about 1958/9; then from about the late 1970s thru the mid-nineties, I rarely listened to folk (related) music. And in the last half dozen years I have returned to Cowboy music with a vengeance. It's mostly what I buy now. I have never strayed far from classical music through it all.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:18 AM

Hi, Leveller

We haven't always seen eye to eye on a few things, but I can rub thumbs with you, here. I think the way the "scene" (dreadful term) is going is marvellous.

Once (and probably still) a hard-line traddie or, as they were labelled in one of those fly-bynight, two issue 'Folk Mags' of the early 60s "minuscule-minded traditionalists", I and the missis go to see the

Big Session ; Jim Moray ; Oysterband ; Grace Notes ; Ladies' Pleasure ; Saul Rose ; Rose Kemp ; Benji Kirkpatrick ; Eliza C in whichever line-up ; and, of course, Waterson : Carthy.

I heard one track of Bellowhead 'Burlesque', and couldn't buy it quick enough.

Still like to listen to Martin Carthy ; Nic Jones ; June Tabor, and the other "founder-members".

So. yes, I think my tastes have changed, in my 60s, from those when I was in my 20s. Then, as far as I was concerned, the three-chord wonders in the denim caps which seemed to be infesting folk clubs -

if I'd been a ghost, I wouldn't have given them a fright. I find to my mild shock that I can enjoy Donovan (in small doses !), and I have finally "gotten into" Pentangle.

I have posted previously about my admiration for Steeleye Span. I do go to Fairport gigs (only to please the missis) - in my opinion, you've been to one Fairport gig these days, you've been to 'em all.

Regards, Bryn

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,LTs pretending to work
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:14 AM

Having said that, I've just realised I've got 3 classics of the punk era on my iPoo just now....

LTS

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: kendall
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:05 AM

Folk Legacy records will do that too.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Bee
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 09:28 AM

My tastes in folk and trad haven't really changed, just expanded as I've had opportunities to hear more.

But my response to other genres has changed. There was a time when you couldn't have paid me to listen to any C&W or Bluegrass, but through discovering artists who are outstanding in these areas ('outstanding' of course, meaning 'I like them') I've come to appreciate a lot more music than I once did.

Still cannot stand show tunes, 'lounge' music. Thought I could never listen to opera, but caught myself enjoying some of it a few years ago.

I gotta say, Rounder Records has done more to influence my tastes over the past thirty+ years than anything other than live music.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: topical tom
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 09:19 AM

When younger I was into country music and pop songs of the day. I have now largely left country music (with a few exceptions) and I'm into folk, bluegrass, old time and blues.Most modern music I don't like .I laughingly say that, for me, good music ended in the 60's, certainly not entirely true.Most heavy metal,rock,hip-hop and rap leave me cold.Have my tastes changed?Yes, but I still like the music of old.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: bankley
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 08:54 AM

"plus que ca change, plus que ca reste de meme"

I still like the music I used to like, now there's just more of it.

I still don't like what I didn't...and there's more of that too.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 08:45 AM

Not really, but I've had better access to a more varied range in the last 16 years or so. Since moving to London and getting a proper job, I've felt able to buy a CD or something for just one or two tracks, whereas previously I'd really have to want the whole listing to warrant spending money.

I still don't like punk, although opera in small doses is fair enough.

LTS

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: oldhippie
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 07:33 AM

As far as folk music goes, I still like my early favs the best - Carolyn Hester, Molly Scott, Baez, Dylan, Ochs, Paxton, Oscar Brand.

Other newer artists have joined that list. However, for music in general, I think I listen to more different genres than I used to for enjoyment.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: kendall
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 07:22 AM

People who change are called "Flip floppers"
People who don't change are called "Stick in the mud" (or republicans)

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Santa
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:29 AM

I came into folk music via North Eastern songs and protest folk. I was then not generally impressed by the more traditional performers, and very much came to like the folk/rock "stars". It isn't true that I didn't like the traditional songs, I did own a Shirley Collins and a number of High Level Ranters LPs, but my main collection was Ochs, Paxton, Steeleye Span. I had little depth of knowledge and certainly disliked the nasal droning "finger in the ear" style. This didn't change until moving into the NorthWest, where I became more influenced by the likes of the Taverners and Strawhead, but perhaps the defining moment was listening to Roy Harris at Flyde festival. Here was unaccompanied pure singing of classic songs. I should perhaps add Pat Ryan here, and June Tabor. Joni Mitchell being somewhere inbetween these times.

I came back into folk music when the kids were a little older, my tastes were now much more to the traditional songs, a good ballad by a lovely female voice, Maggie Boyle for one. I do still love a good stomping concert by Tanglefoot, or the songwriting of Steve Tilston, but care less for the more overtly political or the more marginal pop stuff. My buying is Waterson:Carthy, Bob Fox, Jez Lowe, Martin Simpson. And all the others..... time for a new Grace Notes?

I still dislike those who think a love of the tradition and a wish for self-publicity is enough excuse to inflict a poor voice on a paying public, and those who think three undistinguishable blasts of "diddley-diddley" make up an enjoyable set.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:02 AM

Where in the 60's 70's I was into the more trad stuff...interlaced with Dylan and Donovan.....I eventually beame a fan of Steeleye Span and travelled to see them often.....What is acceptable as Folk music now (GEFF as someone put it) is bound to influence many followers and much more variety is accepted in general.
Still write with a traditional style but tastes have changed as to what I listen to.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 06:00 AM

It started for me with my sister's copy of Basket of light - still a wonderful album, incidentally. Then there was Steeleye Span, of whom I was a big fan up until they hooked up with Mike Batt (ugh). But then there was punk, and I didn't really listen to any of this stuff again until after I'd started performing, which was about 25 years later.

As an unaccompanied singer I came to loathe folk-rock, mainly because those arrangements are so hard to adapt ("One morning in the month of May, 2, 3,/When all the birds were a-singing, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, and/") I was stunned by my first, belated encounter with Anne Briggs ("so that's how you do it!"), and more recently stunned all over again by John Kelly ("so that's how you do it!"). I'm on a 4:4 kick at the moment, although it's not the folk-rock kind of 4:4.

Among contemporary artists, I very much liked Espers' first album (not the second); James Yorkston does some nice material, although his interpretation's not very exciting. If we're talking singer-songwriters, Peter Blegvad's probably my favourite (assuming we get Dylan thrown in, like the Bible and Shakespeare).

So ultimately I'm with Mr Happy: yes, rather a lot over the years, and in more specific ways since I've been performing. And no, given that I was listening to Peter Blegvad (and Dylan, and Pentangle) 30 years ago.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 05:50 AM

I don't think my musical tastes have changed with regard to folk music...however I am, perhaps, more discriminating now! "Liege and Lief" still sounds as good today as it did all those years ago, but I feel many of the self-penned works or interpretations of traditional songs haven't stood the test of time very well!

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: theleveller
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 05:37 AM

Thanks.

Or not.

Subject: RE: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 05:19 AM

Yes.

& no.

Subject: Have your tastes changed over the years?
From: theleveller
Date: 24 Apr 08 - 05:12 AM

It occurred to me whilst reading some of the threads here that touch on people's different tastes in folk music, that my own seem to have changed over the years. I've moved away from the traditional unaccompanied style, much of which I respect but now find rather boring, and now tend to prefer either more 'radical' interpretations (Oysterband, Bellowhead, Imagined Village) or the work of good (not always well-known) singer/songwriters.

Having recently purchased CDs of music that I loved in the 1970s, such as early Albion Band and Mr Fox, these now have a rather dated sound that mrsleveller (Jools) finds hilariously 'hippie'.

Do you reckon your tastes have changed over the years…or do you still like the same stuff you did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago? Or both?