kinda long?
@SwooshyCueb I think it's partially because the whole anchoring musical tastes into whatever you were listening to back then is both a product of it being the time you first start really actively paying attention to music (which for me at least was a lot earlier than that) and also only really "works" if you have positive memories from that time to anchor that all to (something us queer millennials especially tend to y'know, not have).
Then again, I suppose it's also better explained as "these will be your musical tastes for the rest of your life, with only minor changes to come" and more as "this period of time will have a great impact of what elements in music you'll be listening for, along with your tastes in music in general along with any other major formative experiences you may have later in life".
3. At some point in high school, Last.fm recommended Voyager, who would later genre-jump from power metal to progressive metal and become my favorite band
4. I started watching Adam Neely's YouTube channel.
@Thaminga
Here are a few things that I think have had the biggest influence on my musical taste
1. Haegr got me into metal by playing Disturbed all the time when we played Halo on his 360.
2. The Journeyman Project, which was the first real video game I ever played (way back in like '95, IIRC) had absolutely amazing music, as did its sequel.