I have always found this interesting, as certain acts led most of us to Prince. I was originally going to post this thread in Prince and more, but really its discussing other artists so its not really Prince. This is a summaris of my musical journey before 1991.

1976 - 1981 (Age 0 - 5) My mother was listening to a lot of dico and folk rock, country and western, most of this music had little impression on me, but I think my love of Disco (She played a lot of Donna Summer, Bee Gees, Earth Wind and Fire - she was funky... as she was white).

1981 - David Bowie - She played Fashion to death (I got into Bowie big time only really in the late 90s)

1982 - 83 (Age 6/7). Discovered the music of Michael Jackson and Culture club, remember Beat It on RTR Countdown and Boy George's do you really want to hurt me.

1984 - 86 (Age 8/10) Not much here, too young, maybe a bit of Madonna from my cousin, some more funky stuff like MJ and Prince (Remember Raspberry Beret, reminded me of raspberry popsicles). Remember getting a sesame street tape for my 8th birthday.

1988 (Age 12) Really got into Terence Trent D'arby and Madonna, Whitney Houston also liked Alphabet Street (But not enough to make me a fan). The album Bad and the Dirty Dancing song "I had the time of my life.

1989 (Age 13) All strictly Milli Vanilli (And into 1990) and Kylie Minogue (How gay), Madonna's liek a prayer, by this stage I was really into music. Anything funky too like Pump up the Jam. First tape I had with Prince "Pump up the hits 89" I bought it for the Pump up the jam song and Blame it on the rain. Partyman was track 4 on Side 2.

1990 (Age 14) I was totally into Rap, I loved all the pop crap like MC Hammer and Spunilla Ice, but one of my friends got me into hardcore rap like Ice T, NWA and 2 Live crew. I remained obsessed with rap until 1996. I was still into Milli Vanilli, but went off them after the Lipsinking scandal. Then discovered Colour Me Badd and Fresh Prince.

1991 (Age 14/15) As above, mostly rap, Public Enemy and Color Me Badd, half of me hardcore rap other half pop pap. Still really into Color Me Badd and Madonna (Wore out 2 copies of Immaculate collection in 91 alone)

November 1991 - Staying at a friends place, watching the Video hits show, on comes Cream, I stop talking and turn around to his TV and are like "What the fuck is this', its great turn it up. Look at this guy and all of these girls, this song is so dirty etc etc (I was 15). At the end, I have got to get that song.

Anyone else have a great story,

Ernie’s Hits and Bert and Ernie Sing-Along. I’ve been listening to Prince since I was too young to understand.

Everything I listen to now aside from funk. Prince really was what turned me on to funk.

I kinda discover Prince at the same time as Michael, Madonna, Janet, Whitney, George Michael, Boy George, Aretha, Diana and Stevie...

[Edited 6/14/12 18:53pm]

Basically heavy-metal/modern-rock and 91-01 commercial pop (yeah, I know it doesn't make sense, lol, the female acts were pop and the male acts metal), and many old hits of the 60s (Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys, Presley, etc. my mom's stuff)

Prince introduced me to funk and 80s music

soon after that, Stevie and Bowie introduced me to the 70s scene...

[Edited 6/14/12 19:00pm]

Whatever my elders had in their music collections (Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes/Teddy Pendergrass, Earth, Wind & Fire, Stephanie Mills, Rufus/Chaka Khan, etc...) and whatever was on Top 40 and Urban radio in the early '80s. My earliest memory of Prince is when "1999" came out. In the summers we would visit my grandmother and aunt (who had cable). That's probably the first time I saw Prince on TV.

As long as Ive been alive, there has always been Prince.

dreamfactory313 said:

As long as Ive been alive, there has always been Prince.

When I was little I lived with my grandparents in the woods. My grandfather played guitar and all he liked was the blues, mostly country blues. I heard a lot of stuff like Slim Harpo & Silas Hogan. My grandmother had these CL Franklin sermon albums. I heard them so many times, I still remember them, especially one about Nicodemus.

The first song I remember having on tape was Madonna's first album. Also liked the 'Make it big' album of Wham. I remember my grandmother walking into my room with posters of Wham on the wall saying "You have some really cute guys on your wall"

I remember seeing "Kiss" on tv and really thought, what a scary little man.

Janet released "Control" and was totally hooked. She made a big impact on me.

But than Prince released "IIWYG", still remember hearing it on the radio with his Camille voice and it was like heaven. Bought Sign 'o' the times, got Parade on tape from a friend and it was Prince all the way. My love for Janet stayed by the way.

I became a Prince fan in 1980,so before that,I was into all the great 70s artists (Stevie Wonder,Donna Summer,P-Funk,Bee Gees,etc).

I got heavy into prince with 1999 album/singles, though i had heard of him before i didnt purchase him till the 1999 record came out, and even then because i was young i could only afford singles, i used spent my saturday going to the record shop and picking out a couple of 45's and spending my allowance that way. So at that time was when i startiing buying my own music and forming my own world of music, but my oldest brother had music all around so prior i heard everything from Billy Joel and Elton to Bowie to Stevie to Donna Summer to Queen to Manilow etc..chicago,fleetwood mac, u name it. But on my own, Rick springfield, Inxs, Berlin, and basically everything out at the time pretty much, then you had singles so u could pick.

Michael led me to Janet who led me to Prince

Well.. I'm 17 now. So, I grow up with Madonna, Janet Jackson, Kylie Minogue, No Doubt... still love all of them. those were the ones that I start listen to when I was younger. (so mostly pop music.) First real CD I bought was No Doubt's the singles 92-03. (I did have tons of cd singles tho.) Around the age of 9.. I started to become a HUGE Madonna fan. First Madonna CD I bought was Confessions on a Dancefloor.

After that I became diehard Madonna fan. Madonna introduced me to older music.. 80's music mostly. Started listening to all 80's classics. But when I was around 12-13 years old(2007-2008).. I started to get into other artists... MJ.. and of course Prince! I remember seeing When Doves Cry when I was very young(when I was 6 years old) but I never knew who it was, and you don't really see Prince often on music channels. so, I didn't discover who it was until I was 12.. so after I saw When doves cry after 6 years again on a music channel. I got into Prince. Searched his other songs.. bought Ultimate Prince cd.. I was hooked.
After that I got into loads of other artists. Mostly discover them through the internet, music channels.I didn't like rock, r&b, funk, soul, hard rock, etc,etc when I was younger, but after I got into Prince that totally changed. I LOVE allmost every kind of music now. and I love the older music from the 60's... 70's.. like The Beatles, I got into them very late actually. I started listen to them in 2010. around the same time I got into David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Rolling Stones, The Cure... etc,etc.I'm so happy I discovered all the amazing music now. I do like new music. I enjoy some of it. but I have to say that I really don't like most of it.

I was and still am into The Beatles (group and solo) before Prince. They still are more important in my music world.

MJ was the artist that took a back seat once I discovered Prince. I was such a huge fan of Jackson 5/MJ up to Thriller, but then I heard 1999 back in 83 and all of a sudden MJ was a very distant 3rd (Beatles still being #1). I did NOT like Bad when it was released...way too poppy for me. I thought then and still do think Parade and Sign of The Times were so much more interesting and artistic. But since sorta rediscovering MJ over the last few years have to admit he still had some good stuff on Bad and after.

Michael Jackson and a bit of modern music. Prince opened me up to funk, which led to many, many other genres.