Hypothesis
by GinafishI have a musical hypothesis. Whatever sort of music your parents listened to, your tastes will fall in the same vein.
My parents listened to music often while my sister and I were growing up. My mother had a lot of records, and the radio was usually on when we drove somewhere. It was set on the 70s Top 40, never country, never gospel and never talk radio. The record collection was only slightly more eclectic. Dad loved the Beach Boys, and Mom loved the Pointer Sisters, the Andrew Sisters (from the 1920s) and Barry Manilow. Dad would tolerate some small doses of country like Kenny Rogers and the Gatlin Brothers, I think.
Mom kept up the Top 40 listening until my sister and I were old enough to have control over our own radios in our bedrooms. After I got a radio, I had no clue what my parents listened too because I turned the dial from then on (yes, physically got up and twisted a dial!). And for the most part, stuck with Top 40.
Course, you start to listen to the music of your friends and peers you admire, so slowly I acclimated some more modern sounds into my music collection. In the late 80s, I was anti-Top 40 if anyone asked and instead was all about ‘alternative’ music.
A few years down the road, I listened to ‘angry’ and ‘misunderstood’ music like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, NIN, and others.
Then I got counseling and went back to peppier, full of life music. 
These days I enjoy a wide range of music, but honestly, there are still some styles I just can’t sink my teeth into. Like Gospel. I enjoy Barbershop Quartets, but something about the style of Gospel just doesn’t sit right with me. I enjoy classical music (and with my hypothesis, that’s normal, because I took piano and classical violin lessons). Now I even enjoy Lawrence Welk sometimes! Polka! All thanks to the Andrew Sisters and their big band swing style. With my Kenny Rogers influence, I can even sway to some older country songs now, well…not really old…just stuff from the 70s or 80s…like whoever was making an appearance on the t.v. shows like Crystal Gale or whoever on Hee Haw.
So how about you? Do you agree with my hypothesis? That your parents steer you in a musical direction, and then if you get sucked in, whatever style of music you listened to in your teens and 20s will form your internal ‘favorite hits collection’?
If not, what kind of music do you listen to that your parents would have never gone for?
