The role of childhood space in the development of musical taste

I don't know if this is exactly what you're talking about, but I grew up in the southern US, and I think it definitely had a bearing on my musical development cuz the South is such a storytelling culture, and I don't think it's a coincidence that I gravitated to arguably the two most narrative-centric genres of music, country and hip-hop.

That's a different strand of the same thing I think, Josh.

Best thread in a while, Nick. I'll answer as soon as I find the tiiiiiii*echoes away*mmmmeee...

I grew up in a classic sterile midwestern US suburb. Stuck right between rural and urban. The amount of space available to an individual was tightly contained, controlled. Exploring past the limits of your quarter-acre lot -- physically or mentally -- definitely not encouraged. So I gravitated at a very young age to what I perceived as urban music/culture: soul/funk/disco, glam/punk/new wave rock. And then I moved to a big city first chance I got. So I guess environment ("space") shaped my musical tastes/obsession, although in a negative way. Probably more a sociological process than the psychological/developmental one Nouthall describes. This fascinating question desrves more thought!

Bump, lest this get forgotten.

I think in environment is crucial.

I've always thought my enduring love of early Genesis is related to a semi-rural childhood. Trespass is totally long walks on long summer days for me. Will think about this whole thang more when I get back from holiday.

I think my entire life is still shaped by the way I grew up.

>How much does the way you grow up and experience the world in
>your formative years affect your taste?

In a word, no. Totally irrelevant. I'm merely one of far too
many counter-examples.

I live at the edge of a vast wilderness and thumping gritty
urbeats are cool for me.

There's little doubt in my mind that Chilhood Space plays a crucial role for many people's tastes, although I can't think of what that role was in my life. Like LovebugS., I grew up in a suburb but otherwise I don't relate to the story he or she told.
My biggest "environmental" influence, if you can call it that, was my parents, who were big, big music fans in those days. The radio was played frequently (tuned to soft rock or oldies), watching Beatles docs or Motown 25 or music videos were family events (and my parents kept tapes of these things and we watched them over and over), and they had a large collection of rock and disco vinyl which were played all the time (my parents even taught disco lessons in our basement).
Thus, my "environment", music-wise, didn't extend outside of our house. We brought the environment to us, through the TV and through records.
Strangely enough, I was thinking about starting a thread along the lines of "At what age did your musical taste become independent of your parents?". But I don't want to hijack this thread, unless others start claiming "parents" as their environmental influence as well.

Makes sense that childhood surroundings would be a factor in later taste, absolutely. As lovebug says, sometimes because it reminds you of your surroundings, and sometimes because it reminds you of somewhere else. I grew up in a college town some distance from a real city, and I always romanticized New York. So something like "Take the 'A' Train" gave me all these pleasureable images that had nothing to do with my immediate experience. At the same time I've always loved the sound of a mourning dove, which were quite plentiful where I grew up and which always reminds me of delivering newspapers on the empty streets at dawn, and I like music that delivers a similar sensation. Short melodies with lots of space repeated. Also, the sound of cicadas, another great sound from childhood, has something to do w/ why I gravitate toward Fennesz and Sogar.

I grew up in the countryside and am into all those urban beats etc... though I did spend the years from 0-9 in London, so maybe that means I should be somewhat schizophrenic in my taste.

A couple of flaws off the top of my head -

-there are different ways of growing up in any one location - you can be the sort of person who has a rural upbringing and is actually in tune with it, or the sort of person who romanticises the bright lights of the city (and presumably vice versa)
-too much music can't be defined as either 'urban' or 'rural'... eg I'm not sure how Tori Amos or indeed a lot of music whose appeal is so strongly personal would fit into this paradigm. Bubba Sparxxx is either someone who'd prove it very wrong or very right but I don't know which yet.

I knew Mark would have something to say about this :)

Well, I came of age right around the advent of grunge, and a few years later, gansgter rap. Being a Catholic-raised only child from the inner city and having no friends outside from school, I hung out mostly indoors with my mom, eating delivery pizza and watching TV. By the age of 7, I'd about had it with the dubbed Brazilian soap operas my moms tuned on and I needed to stake out some much needed privacy/space. I was always a sensitive and quirky kid; an escapist at heart. Living close to the beach also played a huge role in the tastes I would later develop. I wasn't a junior jock, but I did play basketball, and I had good grades and studied (at my mom's insistence), which set me apart from the other kids early on. At the tender age of 9, I was the only freak in my class, along with another buddy, who grooved to Salt 'N' Pepa and Snoop Dogg and talked about MTV in class. Early 90's MTV made a huge impression on my young mind with its schizophrenic programming. It helped shape my influences, as it was the only outlet we had at the time. Radio was crap, so otherwise I would've been deprived, truth be told, as my parents have never listened to much music. I had to find this out all by myself. By '93 (probably 11 by then), I was asking record store employees for A Tribe Called Quest singles, which they seemed to not be knowledgeable about, surprisingly enough.

Essentially, I looked out for that underlying sense of urban desperation in music; one that would provide me with empathy in its want to escape. Yet angst needn't to be the dominant trait in said tunage I treasured early on. As I've grown up and become increasingly frustrated with life in general, and developed strong claustrophobic feelings, yet withholding hope as is typical of my age, I've mellowed out some, and seem to be more inclined towards spacious, sometimes psychedelic textures and productions that BREATHE freely; whatever's evocative of wide open spaces. And purtier melodies.

I don't think childhood environment has anything to do with musical taste except in the sense that people often return again and again to music they heard when they were young. So if they grew up in the 60's that means one thing, and if they grew up in the 80's that means another. I'm grateful that my dad had a pretty exhaustive collection of music, but I can count the artists I like and heard through his collection on one hand.