1. I was born in June of 1981. My earliest musical memories were my Dad's Beatles LPs and nationally-syndicated oldies on FM radio which, in that era played late 50s and early 60s rock-n-roll and "oldie" Billboard pop tunes.
By age 15 contemporary pop radio was a vapid cesspool of musical garbage. 98PXY -
"Your #1 Hit Music Station!" played absolutely wretched R&B-rap-step dance tracks 24 hours a day. I'm taking about atrocities like:
Haddaway - "What Is Love"
Corona - "Rhythm of the Night"
Real McCoy - "Another Night"
La Bouche - "Be my Lover"
Alice DJ - "Better Off Alone"
The station thought The Crypt Keeper rapping "The Crypt Jam" was a good idea.
So I did what any young suburbanite would do with absolutely no cultural chops - I started a Bush cover band. And, like all garage bands of the 90s, we called ourselves, "Spork."
Still, I began to cut my teeth on prog rock staples like Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant in 10th grade. Their wild time signatures and cadences were a refreshing alternative to the crap on the FM dial.
'Cos b*tches love madrigal rock.
Crate digging for prog tunes (and my father bestowing upon me his record collection) really determined the next decade of my musical life. Tull was a gateway drug into heavier and more experimental music. In a year, I was mainlining German electronic music and 20th century minimalist works.
3. These days....
I'm a published music journalist with 200,000 readers and over 100,000 tracks in my catalog. This has opened musical doors to some fantastic non-commercial content. Artists send me promo copies of their work and I have a large library of live and demo material from many of my favorite artists and composers.
The loudness war really has had no effect on me as the majority of the works I enjoy were recorded ~45 years ago. Thankfully, many of these titles are finding new life with audiophile remasters and greater distribution through a highly-refined network of file sharing. I can't think of a better time for a music lover to be alive than right now.