My parents belonged to a classical LP club in the late 40s, when LPs
were first appearing.  The first music I remember listening to was
Andres Segovia and Rachmaninov concertos.  Reading people's entries on
this thread revives an old depression.  Rock music, in fact pop of all
sorts, was originally for me the music of kids who, in grade school,
persecuted me for the crimes of intellect and non-athleticism.  A few
years ago I became interested in Kurt Cobain.  From what I read, his
childhood was rather like mine; I think an aspect of his suicide was
that he played rock music, the music of his enemy, in the service of his
own, rather than that enemy's, values - and ultimately that can't be
done.  Nirvana is one of the few rock bands I've liked; the others are
Who, Devo, and the Talking Heads.  And I'm a great fan of The Boss. And
Randy Newman.  In the early 60s I followed the folk music of the time;
it served adolescent self-pity and self-righteousness, and was the price
of scoring with a certain type of girl.  Otherwise I occasionally like
Afro-Pop - Salif Keita - and World Beat: Kaksi from Finland, Madredeus
and Misia and Dulce Pontes from Portugal, Angela Ionattos and George
Dalaras of Greece.  But basically the aerobic aspect of music, and warm
fuzzy populist emotions (or the insipid harmless violence of punk etc.),
aren't for me.   95% of my CDs are classical.  In college I had every
Shostakovich piece then recorded, and all of Bruckner and Mahler and
most of Wagner.  I like modern classical - England means Brian
Ferneyhough and Nicholas Maw and Hugh Wood, Australia Peter Sculthorpe
and Richard Vine, New Zealand - who after Douglas Lilburn?  The last few
years I've been obsessed with the Moment of Transition at the beginning
of the 20th century.  I'm fascinated by the problem of the conservative
artist, the one who sees and even understands what the revolutionaries
are doing but who can't bring himself to follow and searches for another
way out of the old style.  In painting, late Derain.  In music, people
like Zemlinski, Pfitzner, Richard Wetz (whose 3 symphonies on CPO I've
been listening to over and over), Hans Huber, Victor de Sabata.  Or
people who go entirely their own way like Sorabji or Rued Langgaard
(whose complete string quartets on Da Capo are an emotional/intellectual
FEAST, a must-have).  Ah well.  Baby baby baby baby baby baby baby yeh
yeh yeh.  Roll over Beethoven give Tchaikovski the word. Stanislaw Jerzy
Lec said, "Any stink that fights a ventilator thinks it's Don Quixote."