I have developed pretty diverse musical tastes; indeed, I find it difficult to pin down what I like and what I don't, since I can honestly enjoy just about anything, and there are a very wide variety of things that make a song appealing to me.

I was in the ITT: name all the genres you like thread, and I found myself posting almost every widely known genre (and a few lesser known ones). As it turns out, if you took a list of all the genres I know of, it;d be much easier to compile a list of ones I don't like (it would seriously have like 2 or 3 things on it, and even those would be conditional). Even among genres that I don't like as whole, there are still exceptions.

Anyway, I thought it might be interesting (to me, and hopefully you), to chronicle the history of my musical preferences. Prepare for a totally long-ass story:

As far back as I remember listening to music (maybe 4 or 5), I mainly just listened to what my parents put on (classical, jazz, disco, some soft and classic rock from mom, classic rock and some country from dad). I remember greatly enjoying things such as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (which I spelled correctly the first time ), and in fact, it was my "cleaning music" (my mother would put it on when we were cleaning together. This was back when I was ~4-6ish). She also loves Earth Wind and Fire, and I listened to a fair amount of that. I don't remember much of my dad's music from that far back, likely because back then, he was at the office all day, so I wasn't around his music much.

Fast forward a bit to elementary school. This was the mid-late 90s, and boy bands were gaining popularity. My mom was against most modern pop music at the time, at least for someone so young, so while I liked some Back Street Boys and N*Sync, I never listened to them much. In fact, I hardly listened to music at all back then.

A bit further forward, in 5th-6th grade, I still wasn't listening to much, but I do distinctly remember some stuff I heard, mainly on the bus rides to and from school. To this day, I enjoy Drops of Jupiter (by Train) and Smooth (Santana w/ Rob Thomas). Nostalgia ftw.

In 7th grade, I started listening to more radio, and also became friends with some people who liked what was "alternative" back then. These people got me into Green Day, which was the main focal point of my music for awhile. After it started getting more popular, these friends started going Indie/hipster and got me into Franz Ferdinand and We are Scientists.

It would be good to note that at this point, I was very band-centric; somebody would introduce me to a band, give me their CD, and pretty much without fail, no matter the genre, I'd think "hey, this is pretty good" and it would go on my mental list of good bands. I would listen to bands on this list exclusively, never branching out on my own. For awhile, all I listened to was Green Day, Franz Ferdinand, We are Scientists, and a few songs another friend got me liking (Vertigo by U2, Comfort Eagle by Cake, some Queen and a little Cold Play).

I actually look back on this time in my musical history with some degree of shame; I was so impressionable, yet close-minded at the same time; someone would tell me a band was good, and I would say "okay, this band is good". Only bands I was told were good were good to me, and I would largely ignore everything else.

This continued into 8th and 9th grade, with one major change; I was been introduce to metal, and holy fuck, I was in love with this shit. I distinctly remember the first metal song I ever listened to, and what I was doing at the time; The song was Needles by System of a Down, and I was being taught how to play Magic: the Gathering by my best friend (who was also the one who put on the SOAD). This best friend is important, as he is much more musically inclined than I am, and is responsible for introducing me to a lot of genres and bands. I owe him a lot.

Anyway, I was basically listening to SOAD exclusively, and loving every second of it. My love of SOAD is going to become important later. Another friend showed me some Rammstein, and I liked it well enough, and started listening to it a bit, though not much.

Another of my friends was obsessed with Epica, and gave me a all their CDs for my birthday that year (well, burned copies, anyway). This marks me first journey into more progressive metal (yes, I know Epica isn't really prog metal, but it's more prog than SOAD or Rammstein), and would become more important later.

It should be noted that the aforementioned best friend was in the International Baccalaureate program and was not at the same high school. Anyway, I would IM him quite a bit, and he got me into more metal, namely Dragonforce and Disturbed (it should be noted that I no longer like Disturbed very much; it is one of the very, VERY few bands that I liked in the past but no longer like).

A friend of mine, who I was briefly infatuated with, got me into Nirvana, which I still like. But this would not be the last time romance would effect my musical tastes, nor the most dramatic. I met an amazing girl and fell in love (well, a sort of psuedo-love that was more like intense infatuation backed up by some actual feelings, because she was really awesome). At this point, SOAD was still far and away my favorite band, and it was hers, too. We'd listen to it all the time, pretty much any time we were together. All was well for a while, but then I did some stuff that I'd really rather not go into right now (nothing too bad, no cheating or sex or illegal stuff involved, just me being a giant dumbass and a bit of a jerk), and ended up completely pushing her away, which not only gave me a broken heart, but her dad called me and told me to stay away from her.

Well, fuck.

I am quite audio-oriented, and several SOAD albums are still heavily associated with her in the deep, dark corridors of my brain; basically, listening to anything off Steal this Album, Mezmerize or Hypnotize calls up emotional memories of her and gives me horrible stomachaches and borderline depression, which really suck because those were some kickass albums. Luckily, the self-titled album and Toxicity aren't nearly as effected, because she didn't like those as much (they're more metal than the other albums, and she liked the weirdness of those).

Anyway, at about this time, my best friend had started to branch out a bit more and told me of Symphony X and Opeth. I instantly loved Opeth, but for some reason that eludes and angers me to this day, I don't even remember trying Symphony X. Seriously, I hate myself because I could've been listening to one of the greatest prog metal bands ever for at least an extra year of my life

Sooo... Death metal having been successfully injected into my brain, I started looking for more, as the webcomic Questionable Content put it, "growling Scandinavian men", and I grabbed some Arcturus and Helheim. Helheim, being blackish metal, also got somewhat interested in actual black metal, and I downloaded some God Dethroned. It's okay, not really my thing, but it's not a bad listen every now and then.

Not long after that, I decided that, if Wikipedia has so much info on other things in a user friendly format, they'd probably be a good place to find new bands. I discovered that Epica had originally been called Sahara Dust, and renamed their band after a Kamelot album because it was awesome. I got the album in question and it was indeed awesome. I also noticed that Epica was playing a show with Into Eternity and Symphony X in my town, and I listened to some tracks from both bands. For some reason, I once again neglected Symphony X (seriously, please shoot me), but found Into Eternity quite to my liking. I downloaded most of their albums and listened to it nearly exclusively for awhile, until one day, they suddenly became annoying (it is another band I no longer like). I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about them just really annoys me :/

Oh, by the way, while in my Into Eternity phase, we moved, and I was obviously in a new school. Since this district had adequate funding, we had some awesome electives, not the least of which was History of Rock. It was pretty much an insta-sign-up for sophomore year. This started me into a lot of classic rock, as well as classic metal. Started my forays into thrash, namely the Big 4 of thrash, starting with Metallica and ending up with Slayer. I never really liked Megadeth, and while I did like some Anthrax, it hasn't stuck as much as Slayer. I still ocasionally pull it out, along with Metallica, when I'm in the mood. I think it's Slayer's faster, more erratic playing that I like, not to mention the macabre charm of their over-the-top, bloody and gorey lyrics. I went through a full Thrash phase for a few months, grabbing some Dark Angel and Metal Church, but Slayer was always my favorite. While I've largely gone off Thrash, Slayer's Reign in Blood still has a place on my iPod

A cute borderline-goth girl in my science class (still a sophomore at this point) got me into Avenged Sevenfold. I had a crush on her breifly, but I could tell it wasn't going anywhere, so no heartbreak to ruin music there. Still don't like A7x all that much, but they're okay.

Anyway, to fill the preogressive void left by Into Eternity, I found myself looking up "progressive metal" on wikipedia. I saw Symphony X pop up again and thought "what the hell, they keep popping up in my life, let's see what they're all about". I listened to a few tracks on YouTube, decided they were pretty good, grabbed a few albums, and started listening to them on the bus, while doing yardwork, etc. It seems now that I had the bad luck of grabbing some of their weaker albums, because while I thought they were good, I wasn't yet to the point of "holy fucking jesus tits this is amazing", which is roughly how I feel about Divine Wings of Tragedy and New Mythology Suite.

Nevertheless, I went full prog, listening to Symphony X and increasing my Kamelot and Opeth collections by a few albums each.

I found I quite enjoyed concept albums, so I asked my best friend if he knew some good prog metal concept albums.

His reply was a mere 3 words, but it changed my fucking life:

"Look up Ayreon"

I did, and it blew my fucking mind to Planet Y and back. This was like pure awesomeness that Arjen Lucassen captured and compressed into a CD. The weird thing was, for a long time, I only listened to Into the Electric Castle. I guess it was so awesome I didn't need more? I don't know, maybe I was just an idiot

I went full prog, which would lead to a whole string of mind-blowing musical encounters.

I went to Japan as an exchange student and saw an add for a new Dream Theater album (Black Clouds and Silver Linings). The band name sounded cool and it had nice album art, so I gave it a listen.

Mind blown.

Came home, listened to more and more Dream Theater, which practically blew my mind with each new album I downloaded.

I decided to find more Ayreon, and did so.

Mind blown.

Found a band called Shadow Gallery who had a very well recieved double concept album; Tyranny and Room V.

Mind blown.

Found myself wanting more Kamelot, Opeth, and Epica. Downloaded some.

Mind blown.

Wanted more Symphony X. Downloaded Divine Wings of Tragedy and New Mythology Suite.

Mind blown.

Wanted even more Ayreon, so I got some.

Mind blown.

Needless to say, Progressive Metal is easily my favorite music genre.

Now, sometime during this progressive enlightenment I was experiencing, I decided to branch out into electronic. I liked techno remixes of memes and wuch as much as the next guy, so I listened to a bunch of random electronic bands and eventually got some Prodigy and Chemical Brothers. They lasted awhile, before both fell to more of a passive enjoyment rather than an active liking (meaing, they're good but I don't really listen to them anymore). I found myself longing for more bass, and oddly enough, found it in the car. More specifically, the car radio; modern pop is trending very much towards electronic, and it has bass. I found myself listening to Rihana, Lady Gaga, and other such drivel simply for the catchy beat and nice bassline. But still, it wasn't enough.

I got some Basshunter (surely something with "bass" in the name is bassy as shit, right?), and enjoyed it for awhile. Another romantic problem ruined it forever, one even worse that what ruined System of a Down, mainly because I maintain to this day that I was truly in love with this girl. My feelings for her were unlike any I've had for someone before or since.

Long story short, I miscommunicated, there was a horrible misunderstanding involving several parties, and she told me she never wanted me in her life again. I was utterly destroyed in the emotional sense, and Basshunter was the happiest music I had, so I listened to a ton of it. It worked somewhat, but after the misunderstading was brought to light, the conflict resolved, and we were back together, I found that even thinking about basshunter brings up horrible memories, giving me those same debilitating stomachaches and depression. So there's another band ruined by romance :/

Here, we insert a phase of -core. I found myself wanting fast, heavy, weird, erratic music with dudes yelling about stuff. I instantly became fond of mathcore, because it is all about being fast, heavy, weird, erratic, and yelling about stuff. SikTh was my first advance into mathcore, mainly because I love the simple awesomeness of it's name. Shai Hulud soon followed as a slightly less math and slightly more progressive mathcore band, and remains my favorite -core band. Look them up if you haven't, Misanthropy Pure is a great album.

Anyway, back to electronic, I still needed more bass, and I was also looking for faster paced stuff, so I got some Headhunterz. I found myself satisfied for awhile, but eventually, yup, you guess it, I wanted more bass.

I turned to Drum n Bass, a genre with bass in the goddamn name, I had also heard of this thing called "dubstep" and thought, what the hell. I found Noisestorm, a pretty good drumstep artist, and enjoyed it. Also got some Black Sun Empire, and the two are satisfying my current electronic needs (which have cooled off in favor of more metal recently).

A bit before Noisestorm and BSE, these forums became a large part of my internet life (and, by extension, my life in general). This forum, specifically Crispy's Metal Thread, gave me Strapping Young Lad (which, to me, currently holds the title of Ultimate "Needs to be Louder" Band, because I frequently have to stop myself from absentmidedly turning it up to dangerous levels when I'm not paying attention), Meshuggah, Alestorm and a few others, all of which I love.

A user called Neverpony joined not long ago, and I remember him for his particularly awesome intro thread, and how we had stuff in common. He spoke briefly of a genre called "Dark Cabaret", which I tried out. I have been listening to little else recently, and all I can say is, Dresden Dolls are fucking awesome. So far, The Kill and Gravity are some of my favorite of their songs.

What I also find interesting is that, with the exception of a few songs and bands, everything I've liked at some point in my life, I still like. My favorites change frequently, but the general spread of my musical tastes only widen.

Now obviously, the story doesn't end here, and as this is all from memory, this is by no means all-inclusive, nor would I speak highly of it's accuracy. While it is, in general, correct, I likely have some bands and when I got into them mixed up. But still it paints a pretty good picture of my changing musical tastes throughout my life.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this (not so) little insight into my mind as much as I enjoyed typing it up, and I hope I've done more than reinforce my penchant for long-winded posts. This really took me back, and I'm nothing if not a sucker for large bouts of nostalgia