The Queen, Kiss and Bee Gee's albums appeared to be about it for a long time musically. I had a 45 of Blondie's Call Me and I played the livin' snot out of that disc. All that was basically elementary school, by the time I entered middle schooI I was almost entirely lost in terms of music. I can recall discussions in my speech/drama class about Eddie Van Halen and not knowing who anyone was talking about - this was when 1984 came out and was huge everywhere.Most of what I learned musically during this time I was learning from MTV. At the time, the early 80's, MTV played, you know, music. It played an odd mix of things that were not your basic AOR (album oriented rock whihc at the time meant AC/DC, Zepplin and the Beatles) mix. There were lots of odd English bands like Duran Duran and Billy Idol rolling about and smaller American bands like the Go-Go's and Wall of Voodoo. Bascially I suspect they were so starved of content they'd play darn near anything - I know, for example, that one time I was Killing Joke's "80s" on MTV. I digested a ton of this music at my Grandparents' house over the summers and at Christmas breaks because I couldn't watch the channel at home. Not so much because my folks objected but when you had one TV, Mom and Dad still got to choose your shows. I didn't really act on them at the time but a lot of these bands survived in my interests today.By the time I was 14 I owned three tapes (my albums had long vanished to somewhere): Loveryboy - Lovin' Every Minute of it. Bryan Adams Reckless and Survivor - Vitals Signs (the one without Eye of the Tiger). My musical tastes, well, sucked but at 14 I didn't know that. Still, when the Loverboy tour came into town the middle of my freshman year of high school I was able to get a hall pass from the folks to go and see the show by myself. The Hooters opened up for Loverboy and at the time that seemed like a pretty cool thing. It was loud, it rocked and the energy in the air was greatness. I mean it is rare to be surrounded by 10,000 people who all share the same interest as you do and that was pretty thrilling. I bought the concert T-shirt (first of many) and wore it home in my Mom's care after she picked me up.It was also sort of the last moment here I really didn't "get" music. From this point on I'd develop a much clearer set of tastes and was a lot more aware of the musical world.