the first piece of music I purchased with my own money was a Scott Joplin LP which my father then copied to cassette for me. I was 8 or 9 at the time. For some reason I have always loved "The Entertainer".

Once I was actually employed and had money to burn on music (circa 1988) I never went with tapes... CD's all the way. Most of that music I still own and listen to... Aerosmith, AC/DC, Metallica, Genesis, INXS. But it would appear that my dad's influence on my taste in music still pervailed as I bought Bethoven's 9 symphonies as my 10 or 11th purchase (Peter Norrington dirrecting the London Classical Players).

The college arrived (1991) and it was time for a mild shift... Nine Inch Nails, Fugazi, The Dead Milkmen, aSoundgarden... plus the addition of a lot more of the stuff that I already listened to.

Two summers in Nashville (1994ish) before graduation then moved me over to country... Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride were some of the first purchases.

After that my tastes have remained rather diverse. About the only thing that I do not like is hip-hop/rap. I just can not get into it. The other thing that got weeded out of the collection were many of the long haired bands... and those were replaced with some good jazz and R&B.

I still listen to pretty much all my CDs and since I now have them all burned to MP3 it makes that task easier (I have a playlist with only the tracks I like).

As I move forward I am starting to listen to more classical and bluegrass... so that will likely come into the collection more and more.

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