What music was like in my generation

I was born in the early 1950's. My parents had no interest in music at all, not even on the radio, but fortunately I have a brother 11 years older than me. So he had his transistor radio on while I was growing up, and I consider the rock and roll and the blues of the 1950's to be my baseline music. The only exception is that I was not Elvis crazy, but enjoyed him along with the other stars in his time. So even as a three year old I had pretty great exposure to the music of the time. The early 1960's was the same, all radio based. I had a childhood record player and I was able to check out a few albums from the local library. I think my first rock album was Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection, which I checked out of the library a lot of times as I recall until I bought my own copy in college. (I saw EJ and BT in concert in the college gym too; I was quite a fan). But back to talking about the high school years. My best friend's dad had a real stereo because he was a classical music fan, so we could sometimes play a few albums on his stereo. But neither of us could afford either record players or records themselves, with a few exceptions. In addition to rock and roll I liked easy listening, like Andy Williams, and movie soundtracks. I really did not like the references to drugs in rock and roll. For example, I disliked the Moody Blues, one of my favorite groups, for many years because of their Timothy Leary ode. I would not listen to them at all for years because of that song. The same with the Beatles with their psychadelic period, I got very mad at them. I leaned more toward the Rolling Stones because at least their drug reference was sardonic ("Mother's Little Helper"). By high school I could afford a reel to reel tape recorder. It weighed 14 pounds. I learned to set up the microphone by the transister radio speaker, hit the record button really fast, record some favorite songs, and then physically splice the tape. In college I bought my first stereo, as was very common in my generation, where lower class and poor kids like me got their first real system, albeit cheap, as a college freshman. Radio was still a huge influence though and the main source of listening because I was a college student on $200 per month benefit from my dad being a deceased Veteran, so buying a lot of records was unthinkable. I bought Bee Gees and Rod Stewart, also Mountain. I know an awful lot of music from the 1950's-1970's, but often not details (or even remembering the performers) because I didn't actually have the record in front of me. In the 1980's I was working long hours and so my radio listening dropped to nearly nil. The 1980's-1990's are kind of black holes for me for that reason. Rap totally turned me off, for the same reason much rock and roll turned me off when it glorified drugs. I'd sometimes listen to CD's, but usually sticking to tried and true older items from the 1970's - early 1980's, such as Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship, Poco, the Who, especially Pete Townsend. When I'd give listening to pop or the hits music a try it would be a disappointment because of the contorted depressive messages contained in so much "product," which is true to today. I love music but hate what has happened to it. I started listening to more blues and more gospel because they weren't written with the depressive agenda that so much music is packed with today. I'm no creampuff, I do like music with an edge. For example, I like "Breathe" by Fabolous, surprisingly enough. But the drug fueled hidden message of the depressive manics that is behind even the most superficially seeming pop song is a total bummer trip. I have an IPOD but not much variety on it, so I've been mining back in time to the good stuff and buying the CD's. For example I just ordered a Marvin Gaye collection. He was such a presence on the radio during the decades I mentioned before. So while most kids are downloading the hits (and upcoming or niche artists) I'm still buying CD's because I'm putting together elements of the play lists of when music was really great as a total package, and not to be endured. An example of music I like that is edgy without making a listener want to kill themselves is Good Charlotte's most recent CD. So GC has found themselves on my IPOD along with the Beatles and the Byrds and the Doobie Brothers.