I said on another thread that I remembered seeing the Beastie Boys at a festival and the expereince introduced me to a range of different styles of music.. including funk.

I realise that is infact a big lie.

Beastie Boys introduced me to hip hop. They had just put out 'the in sound from way out' and since I was into jazz, funk etc at the time, I was more receptive to hip hop afterwards...

Now FUNK... I was introduced to funk in two ways... both kind of silly.
The first would be from watching the muppets and loving that crazy horn player.. the other was from a stupid Dr. Hook song that I would play over and over when i was about 13.... to this day it is still one of the funkiest things I've ever heard though.

Listened to MJ when I was a lil' kid, then I moved on to Prince, and after that to funk.
I also started listening to fusion jazz, funk jazz and some classical jazz. I always like ballads done by funk bands, so my main focus eventually shifted to sweet soul, which is currently my favorite type of music.
[Edited 9/2/08 21:04pm]

Funk/Rock - MJ & Prince.

Jazz/Blues - Billie Holiday.

Hip Hop - Slick Rick.

Rock--Elvis, the Beatles
Hip Hop--the Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash
Blues--Stevie Ray Vaughn
Jazz--George Benson (does Give Me the Night count? )
Funk--Prince
R&B--Stevie Wonder

Rock: Lil Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis
Funk: James Browm
Hip Hop: Gil Scott Heron/Sugar Hill Gang
Jazz: George Benson
R&B: Donnie Hathaway
Soul: Otis Redding
Blues: BB King
Big band: Duke Ellington
Electro: Kraftwerk
House: Steve Silk Hurley/Jack Master Keith Farley

for the rest

rock- INXS, billy idol, kiss
jazz- watching musicals... High Society (Billy Holiday and Nina would have been my firsts after that)
R&B- Prince
Reggae- Bob Marley
Hip Hop- Beastie Boys followed by attendance to the DMC DJ comps.
Blues- always.. but took it to the next level after those scorsese doco's... Howlin Wolf would be my first blues album
Soul- ? not sure.. maybe dusty sprinfield
Funk- Dr Hook (I think that's hilarious anyway) and there was a doco on the evolution of music in america.

Disco was my first love. When it died in 1979, rather than just accepting the change to new wave and rock, I went to the closest sounding thing to disco at the time which was funk. Then, when Shitney Houston came on the scene in 1985, was a big success and influenced other artists to make dull ass adult contemporary R&B which killed funk, I went to the closest sounding to funk at the time which was house music (which was a modern reincarnation of disco). When house music died and there was absolutely nothing similar to funk or disco, I dropped current music altogether because Andy ain't got time for no dull shit.

funk - James Brown on Merv Griffin back in the 70's. Orange suede jumpsuit and all.

jazz - Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" from my Mom's record collection.

blues - B.B King on PBS back in the late 70's.

rock - KISS..my 1st rock concert in 1979..."Some Girls" soon after.

hip hop - "Rapper's Delight"..the 12 inch in 1979.

funk: mj, prince, eddy grant, the time, rick james (yeah I know mj isn't funk now though)

jazz-does sade count?

blues-bass clef blues in piano class and my yamaha keyboard

rock-van halen, beatles, 80's pop/rock

hip hop-hate to admit it, but kris kross is the first hip hop I remember liking, if I don't count the rap in I Feel For You
[Edited 9/2/08 15:22pm]

Funk

Source: My next door neighbor's parents and 70's radio

Acts: Parliament, "Flash Light" and Rick James, "Bustin' Out"


Jazz

Source: My father in the 70's, and my grandfather, a high-end collector, in
the 90's

Acts: In the 70's, Hubert Laws and Quincy Jones (Walking In Space)
In the 90's, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Thelonious Monk

Blues

Source: My grandmother, my parents, and Memphis radio in the 70's and 80's

Acts: B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Z.Z. Hill

Rock

Source: My parents and radio of the 70's and early 80's

Acts: KISS (to the chagrin of my parents), The Eagles, The Rolling Stones,
The Clash, The Steve Miller Band, and The Police, among many others.

Hip-Hop

Source: late 70's and early 80's radio

Acts: The Sugar Hill Gang, Run-DMC, The Fat Boys, Kurtis Blow
[Edited 9/2/08 15:26pm]

hiphop - Ice Cube, even though I never listened to his music again. But it led me to other hiphop acts that I really liked(A Tribe Called Quest, Outkast, Nas...).

rock - The Rolling Stones

blues - From learning about The Stones' many blues influences.

jazz - Stan Getz

funk - I honestly dont remember! But I sure dig the music now!

Hip Hop: My Brother and my cousin who was a DJ

Funk: My aunt who would play Rick James, Prince, Funk Mob, Cameo etc.... records while babysitting me in the 80's

Jazz: My father played nothing but Jazz when him and my mom were still together back in 80's, Miles, Coltrane, Shorter, Hancock etc.... played all day long, especially on the weekends.

Blues: The Cosby Show, lol!!

Rock: MTV
[Edited 9/3/08 17:06pm]

vainandy said:

dear god!!! you poor man

alphastreet said:

whatever introduced you to the genre...could be sesame street, still counts...could be a negative reacting... like vainandy and miss housten

Abdul said:

anyone introduced to turntable-ism from Grand Master flash on the H.Hancock track Rockit?

I blame the Finnish public library system and living in a small town with nothing to do as a teenager for that, for the most part.

Funk was the basic MJ -> Prince -> P-funk -> other 70s stuff progression, as I guess is the case with many others here. I personally got into white rock music kinda late, I must have been 17 or 18, and I've never had much affinity for it (the last rock record I bought was in, uhm, 2003). Never was into blues in the recorded format, other than what you heard in the jazz context - and of course, I was a massive Hendrix fan at 16-18 when I did basically nothing else than played the guitar a whole lot. Though I had developed a great appreciation for the African-American avant-gardist end of music during that age as well, so basically my later interest for experimental music and "noise" comes originally from people like Coleman, Coltrane and Taylor. My favourite Miles Davis records still to this day are "Live at the Fillmore East" and "Dark Magus", which were also the first "jazz" records I ever heard.

My interest in hiphop has always been rather limited, though I always liked the Public Enemy type of acts and was really into the British "trip hop" movement for a few months in the 90s.

Rock & roll/Blues - My father
Pop/Soul - My mother & daytime radio as a kid

The most important musical influence was Paul Weller. I got into his band The Jam when I was 11 and he would mention certain songs or artists and I would check them out. This led me into funk, rock, reggae, folk, jazz, classical, punk. He made me realise that I could find good music in all genres and I've had quite a broad range of musical tastes ever since.

Via Weller I discovered Prince.....
His band The Style Council did a live cover of One Nation Under A Groove. From checking out the original I became a huge lover of Clinton/Parliament. I began to notice the P-Funk influence in Prince's music and thereby began another musical obsession....

robinesque said:

Yeah it was either Rockit or Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McClaren that first introduced me to what was then called "scratching". They were both hits in the UK in early 83 but I'm not sure which one I heard first....

My mom introduced me to music and I was off on my own from there.

Being a musician from a young age also exposed me (live in concert) to Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich, then BB King, Mozart and I found James from there.

Hip Hop: 2Pac
Funk: Prince & MJ
Jazz: Miles Davis
Blues: Jimi Hendrix
Rock: Queen & Electric Light Orchestra

pacey68 said:

I just bought a best of album of this guy, on the recomendation of a friend (he was all excited about a new album I think). One of those situation when i played it and thought.. 'oh right, I know this'.

You are so right here... i ignored country music for so long, but eventually came to realise that it also had alot to offer (my introduction was through hanging with some old guys that lived near by who would sit on their porch and play on sundays)

Funk: MJ and Prince
Blues/Rock/Jazz: Picking up the guitar because of Prince

Rock--Incubus and Garbage

Hip Hop--TLC

Blues--Nina Simone, BB King

Jazz--Ella Fitzgerald

Funk--Prince

R&B--Babyface