How did your family influence your tastes in prog?

I was born for prog. My family had zero influence on my prog tastes. Friends, and several good record stores in the area had the music I preferred. When the Internet bloomed, the door for music discovery was wide open.

I have two older brothers . One was in to bands like The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan Quicksilver, NRPS, The Byrds... The other brothers taste ran more towards Yes, Renaissance,Tull, The Who (Tommy specifically ) Both had a big influence on my musical tastes.

Guldbamsen wrote:  The Stevie Wonder stuff they mostly listened to was his 80s oevre.

My family had very little influence on my taste for prog, except for my grandfather. Coming from a latino background and growing up in Central America, most of the music there was (and is up to today) dance music, full of rhythms and genres like cumbia, merengue, son, etc.  I knew there was something more, and I always liked to hear my grandfather play the cello. He taught me how to listen to music and appreciate orchestration, instrumentation, composition, etc. So I grew up listening to the classics, like Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, etc. I finally met a guy who played Jimmi Hendrix to me, and told me about Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Yes, etc. Then I was hooked, because I could actually listen to something with meaning and intent, just like I had learned to appreciate as a kid from my grandfather. It was difficult to find this type of music down there around that period of time, but I connected with other people who had access to progressive music, and my prog history began. 

rogerthat wrote: Guldbamsen wrote:  The Stevie Wonder stuff they mostly listened to was his 80s oevre.   For a lot of people, Stevie Wonder only starts with Master Blaster.

That is one smoking track though
...but I know what you mean. Having been somewhat late to fully explore his albums from the 70s outside of Innervisions and Talking Book, I recently discovered a whole slew of albums and music I would have loved to have been part of my life much much earlier
...but I can’t imagine NOT exploring further back in this man’s catalogue when you love all of his latter day material. That’s just nuts. I have two coworkers like that. Sure they’re like ‘his biggest fans ever’ but don’t know any of his 70s stuff outside of a few hits
You know what...now that I think of it..it rather mimics the relationship most folks have with Genesis and Kraftwerk. People generally know what the radio/dj plays..and that’s about it.

Edited by Guldbamsen - April 19 2021 at 09:33

rogerthat wrote: Guldbamsen wrote: rogerthat wrote: Guldbamsen wrote:  The Stevie Wonder stuff they mostly listened to was his 80s oevre.   For a lot of people, Stevie Wonder only starts with Master Blaster.  That is one smoking track though ...but I know what you mean. Having been somewhat late to fully explore his albums from the 70s outside of Innervisions and Talking Book, I recently discovered a whole slew of albums and music I would have loved to have been part of my life much much earlier ...but I can’t imagine NOT exploring further back in this man’s catalogue when you love all of his latter day material. That’s just nuts. I have two coworkers like that. Sure they’re like ‘his biggest fans ever’ but don’t know any of his 70s stuff outside of a few hits You know what...now that I think of it..it rather mimics the relationship most folks have with Genesis and Kraftwerk. People generally know what the radio/dj plays..and that’s about it. Yeah, exactly what I have seen.  They will say they love Stevie and I will be excited to talk about his music with them and then they talk about I Just Called To Say I Love You.  Ugh!

Well I have to admit that I have a very loving relationship with that tune...but I know what you mean
It’s my parents’ song. Whenever it plays they look at each other very lovingly, dance, embrace and kiss in the most natural way. I have many great memories of pure love with that track as the background music..or indeed frontground music. It still does the same today actually. I can put that track on and see their love spring out of thin air...and I’ve always loved Stevie for that
...but I’d wish people explored a little further. There’s soooo much more to discover in this man’s repertoire. It’s a shame not to.

Zippo!! My family is from Honduras and the luxury of music did not exist. Not till we moved to the US and most probably I influenced them. My dad eventually, once he started to earn more money, got into hi-fi gear and he became a classical music listener. 

SteveG wrote: rogerthat wrote: They will say they love Stevie and I will be excited to talk about his music with them and then they talk about I Just Called To Say I Love You.  Ugh! That was my Mom's favorite song, so naturally I played it a lot whenever she visited.

rogerthat wrote: SteveG wrote: rogerthat wrote: They will say they love Stevie and I will be excited to talk about his music with them and then they talk about I Just Called To Say I Love You.  Ugh! That was my Mom's favorite song, so naturally I played it a lot whenever she visited. I guess the reason I don't have a warm relationship with that song is by the time I first heard it, I had already started to dislike some of the typical 80s sounds and didn't at the time know that Stevie Wonder was all kinds of amazing. I just knew him as a famous artist.  And THEN, when I did get around to the Innervisions era, I could never reconcile songs like I just called to say/Part time lover with THAT Stevie. I was like, what happened to him!

But I always slipped in "Superstition" just to give my ears a break.

dr wu23 wrote: They didn't listen to pop-rock at all; dad listened to some Ray Charles and mom was into Perry Como, Doris Day, Sinatra, etc. My brother and I got into pop and rock in the early/mid 60's by listening to top 40 radio on transistor radios and 45 singles...then college where we fist got into 'prog'.

You didn't mention that you played your 45s on the family phonograph in the living room.