Pretty much what the title states. Trace back from where you are now musically, to where you started. How did you arrive at the point you are at right now? What triggered your transitions? What bands, if any, do you still listen to from back then?
Think of it as your musical family tree
For me, up until i was about 11 or 12, i listened to country just because it's what my parents always had on the radio then. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. But then i heard a couple classmates talking about who was better. Green Day or Nirvana. I remember one of them arguing that Nirvana seemed to have more thought and composure to their songs along with better lyrics whereas Green Day seemed to be stuck on 3 chords. Keep in mind, this was about 1994, and Green Day was just coming out with Dookie, and Nirvana was about to put out In Utero. A few months later, Kurt would be dead, but i wouldn't know until over a year later. I asked what station was playing these bands, and after getting a very strange look from both of them, i went home that night and changed my radio from the country station, to 107.7. Seattle's Alternative station.
That night i heard Green Day's 2000 Light Years Away, and was blown away. I would continue to listen to that station from that point on. Kerplunk was the first Rock album i got. Of course being 11 years old, i didn't have a CD player, so it was on cassette, but listened to it constantly. Once i started listening to rock, i remember i started paying attention to what my cousin was listening to in his RX-7. Metallica. But it wouldn't be until i got my license, 5 years later, that i would pick up The Black Album and start getting drawn into Metal. Of course bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit began my transition from the Grunge/Alternative to Metal.
It was Korn's radio debut, Blind, that caught my attention. This was amid the onslaught of Depeche Mode, Better than Ezra, Soundgarden and the like, so i was somewhat torn as to what i liked, and it wasn't until i heard Counterfeit and Faith, that i started turning to the harder stuff, where i would be stuck on until i moved to Arizona. Up through high school i depended on the radio for leads on new music. In 9th grade, Prodigy started grabbing attention with the lead track on their Fat of the Land album, Smack My Bitch Up. But it was Firestarter and Breathe that really got my attention. That year i would start wrestling, and taking note of AC/DC and Pantera since that's what my team mates would listen to before the matches. I think one of the last bands to grab my attention, and catalyze my transition into Metal was Rammstein. This was about 1998
and Du Hast was beginning to burn up MTV. In 2001 i would attend the Pledge of Allegience tour with System of a Down, Mudvayne and Rammstein. These were the last new bands i would follow until i moved to Arizona.
Once in the Valley of the Sun, i began getting fed up with the crap the radio was starting to spew out. Jimmy Eat World, Taproot, Trapt. All the formulaic, manufactured angst that rules the waves today.
My best friend would move in with me at the end of 2003 and expose me to CKY, HIM, Dimmu Borgir, Turbonegro and others. I got hooked on CKY and HIM, but i wasn't ready for the Death Metal, or thrashcore/screamo stuff he was listening to 24/7.
Once i moved to Louisiana, and realized the radio stations were about 10 years behind the rest of the nation and had all of 10 songs for their whole days playlist, i began accepting the inevitable. Green Day was dead to me, thanks to American Idiot and Blvd. of Broken Dreams being played every half hour, my anchor to punk broke.
By now i had every Metallica album, with the exception of St. Anger, and they were dominating my CD player along with HIM. But it was getting old fast. So, i decided to find something new. I had heard Killswitch Engage and In Flames, but i was also staring down Cradle of Filth. I knew who COF was, thanks to MTV-X playing Her Ghost In the Fog, but i really couldn't place any lyrics, so i bit the bullet and bought Nymphetamine.
That was that. I was hooked on my newest chapter to my musical defenition. I still listen to Green Day occasionaly but they aren't one of my favorites anymore. I think of all the bands i started out with, TOOL, is really the only one from back when i started listening to rock, that i still follow. But overall, i've left my older influences behind. It's kind of strange to look back over the bands i idolized and memorized lyricsand have tried to play on my instruments, and to think of where i am now. But i don't think i'd change anything.