Idk if this will make any fucking sense to say, but in my 20’s I struggled with knowing a lot of my music tastes weren’t in line with what I considered to be a cool/smart personality. And I know that sounds insecure... cause it was.

I had a fairly broad range of musical influences growing up. When I was little my parents listened to Stevie Wonder, The Beach Boys, Bill Withers, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Natalie Cole, Carole King, Sly & The Family Stone, Johnny Cash, Aretha Franklin, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding...

Then as I got into my early teens, I was heavily influenced by my older brother’s (broad) music tastes b/c he was 4 yrs older than me. So I was hearing Pearl Jam, The Who, Beastie Boys, Prince, Ramones, Three 6 Mafia, Queen, Bob Dylan, Ben Folds, Wu-Tang Clan, 80’s/90’s hip hop.

I come from an obsessive family. Older bros main obsession was music. He loves music history and reads a ton of music related books and watches a lot of docs. He’s really into local bands and indie music. He used to practically live at places like Hi-Tone, Windjammer, etc.

I credit almost all of my “cool” music tastes to come from my older brother & my Dad. My parents listened to a ton of black artists. Dad loved soul music. He loved Stax Records. He also loved songs that told stories. He loved meaningful lyrics, but he also loved feel-good music.

My mom listened to a lot of love songs. She was into a lot more female artists. She also listened to pretty much any music that made her wanna dance. She loved dancing. She loved Tina Turner. To my mom, Tina Turner was just TINA. Period. (She also always wanted Tina’s legs. )

From there, I think my mom became nervous about me & my brother’s incoming teens years and started wanting us to listen to more Christian music. My interpretation of that was if wasn’t my parents specific taste, it usually had to be Christian/Gospel music or older “clean” music.

Growing up, usually the only times I got to listen to the music I specifically wanted was when I was by myself or with friends. Otherwise, my parents got to pick. And then my older bro was driving first, so he got to pick. And if I listened to rock it had to be Christian or old.

I didn’t feel a real sense of agency over my own life & my own tastes for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of those artists I’ve mentioned in this thread. But when it was finally time for me to get to choose, I chose pop, pop-punk, rap, R&B, & vocalists like Whitney.