Influences on Musical Tastes & Discovering Bands

I've been slacking on my writing lately, not so much for Rocksins but certainly on this site so I'm hoping I'll rectify that in the next few weeks.

Something I've been thinking about lately is how people acquire their musical tastes (in this case relating specifically to metal and its associated sub-types, but you could apply it to anything). I got into metal around the age of 13-14, literally thanks to channel surfing one night and catching the last 30 seconds of the video for The Unforgiven II by Metallica on MTV2. I had never heard anything like it and I was hooked after less than a minute.

After that, I found Kerrang and it was the time of the boom of Nu metal, so like most teenagers around then I was into the standard likes of Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, System of A Down, Good Charlotte & Sum 41. At that point I couldn't stand Slipknot, and having heard "Bay of Pigs" on a Kerrang compilation CD, I thought Machine Head were awful (an opinion that I did rectify quite quickly) and typically the heaviest I got was my beloved Metallica. My fully metal ears hadn't developed at that point but over a decade later I'll happy listen to anything from Alter Bridge to Absymal Dawn (though I still draw the line at Anaal Nathrakh on record, its just TOO mental. Very good live though!).

Then I went to Uni and met other like minded individuals, largely Matt, Div & Iain. Matt in particular was a large source of new bands for me, and for 3 years it was almost a one-way street, where I only really started paying him back in later years. I've always had a personal need to continue to discover new music, but Matt gave me a violent shove onto the next level with some of his collection. To give anyone reading this some idea, I think the exchange since then (or at least the notable ones has been something like this):

Matt > Jamie

Dream Theater
In Flames
Trivium
Strapping Young Lad
Pelican
Red Sparowes
Machine Head (properly)
Devildriver
Amon Amarth
Children Of Bodom
Arch Enemy
ISIS
Lamb of God
Shadows Fall
Mastodon
Mono
Explosions In The Sky
American Head Charge
Behemoth
Nile
Fear Factory
Anthrax
Vex Red
Vacant Stare

I'm sure there are many more I'm forgetting too.

Mutual:

Judas Priest (how heinous were we to leave it so long)
Opeth
Saxon (!!!)
Steel Panther
Kamelot
Swallow The Sun

Jamie > Matt:

Chimaira
Katatonia
Gojira
Chimp Spanner
Skeletonwitch
Insomnium
Blue Gillespie

Whilst Iain and myself were responsible for swapping slightly more commercial stuff as A Day To Remember, Enter Shikari (pre Common Dreads), Rolo Tomassi and others. Div's contribution was to add to my prog and power metal collection with things like Symphony X and Sonata Arctica.

Since joining Rocksins, I've had access to large volumes of new music which has opened the floodgates even wider. Combine that with Twitter, where some of the people I follow often make excellent suggestions and there are more options of new music than you can shake a stick at. I often wonder how other people have discovered their musical libraries, so this is just a small insight into my ever growing collection. If you wish to share opinions, comment away.