Personal Pop Culture History.

[tragula]

I thought it could be interesting and fun to list the pop culture elements that had the biggest effect on us. Things that struck a DEEP chord, changed us, and that we watched/read/listened to repeatedly at some point in our life.

I'll go first:

Spiderman Comics (age 7, purchased with allowance when living in England)
Mazinger Z (Age 8, Anime TV cartoon viewed in Spanish)
Prince Valiant Comic Books (Age 9)
Tarzan and Barsoom novels (age 10)
Asterix and Obelix Comics (Age 9 to present)
Monty Python (Mid Teens)
Pac Man/Nintendo (Mid Teens)
Sex Pistols/Dead Kenedys/Punk (Late Teens)
Hitchhiker's Guide (Late teens/Early 20s)
Indiana Jones Movies (age ?)
The Cure/The Smiths/ New Order Music (Early 20s)
Elvis (Late 20s)
NY Times (Late 20s to now)
P.G. Wodehouse Novels (Now)

[YardGnome]

Mr. Wizard (5 / 6 yrs old)
Star Wars Movies (5 yrs old and on)
Super Mario / Nintendo (7 til now)
Spaceballs / Mel Brooks movies (8 yrs old - teens)
TOOL (13 or 14 yrs old)
Robert Anton Wilson (18 or 19 yrs old)
John Marco Allegro (19 or so - a little off my rocker around this time)
Phish -> Medeski Martin Wood -> (The entire realm of Jazz) (19 - now)

There is probably more than this but my attention is waning...

[crule81]

Early years:
Buck Rogers (70's version)
Mr. Rogers
Star Wars
Wonder Woman (probably first inadvertent boner)
All in the Family (should not have watched that progam at such an early age, it completely desensitized me to everything.)

GI Joe: 7-10 years old (turned me into a militarist)

Rush (the band) 14 years old to present
The internet 16 years old
The History Channel 17 years old (liked it better when it was the "Hitler Channel" with never ending WWII documentaries. Then started to notice all of the ridiculous generalizations and historical inaccuracies.)

Internet porn 18 years old.

The Who 22 years old.

Lord of the Rings trilogy 25 years old.

MBTI 26 years old.

Edit: forgot the Transformers and the Civilization video game series.

Edit #2: forgot Legos!

[MacGuffin]

Star Wars (duh)
Superman
Marvel Comics
Dukes of Hazzard
Knight Rider
G.I. Joe
Transformers
Nintendo
Alien & Aliens
The Simpsons
Led Zepplin/The Beatles/Rolling Stones
Smashing Pumpkins
Pavement
The X-Files
Radiohead
Buffy/Angel
Sleater-Kinney
Indie music
Xbox Live
Lost

[booyalab]

I'm far younger than everyone else who's posted so far....but oh well.

Sesame Street
Mr. Rogers
Captain Kangaroo!
X-men
80s and early 90s rap
Disney movies until The Lion King
Mariah Carey (until I was in 8th grade when she officially became skanky)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Alice in Chains
Star Wars and Star Trek (only liked the show when I was a kid)
(edit: after reading Tragula's) ooh I loved Asterix! Also, Tintin

hatred of:
The Power Rangers
Captain Planet
Full House
all live-action kids flicks....except the Sandlot

High School and beyond:

too subtle and varied to pinpoint
also..what I dislike tends to represent me better..

[MacGuffin]

God I hated Full House. Bad sitcom cliche after cliche, with bad child actors all over the place.

Pure crap.

[booyalab]

God I hated Full House. Bad sitcom cliche after cliche, with bad child actors all over the place.

Pure crap.

those 3 shows I mentioned have played a huge role in my disdain for the vast majority of TV.

[booyalab]

OH SHIT I FORGOT TO MENTION INFOCOM!!!!!! *faints from the beautiful, euphoric nostalgia*
(granted, it's not exactly pop culture...but it was a huge influence on me!!!)

[L. Bartholomew]

Simon and Garfunel (7th Grade)
The Wizard of Oz (very young)
MBTI (I think sometime in high school/middle school?)
The Beatles (8th grade)

eh... I really wasn't much of a pop culture kid I guess.

[YardGnome]

http://www.bobsagetisgod.com/

Full House...

[snarled]

I'd post my list...but MacGuffin has already done it. *Stop your mind tricks Vader - AAARRGH!*

I would add Voltron and He-man.


Full House was shite alright...'Mork and Mindy' was far superior. :)

[indie]

I'll fess up the childhood ones, at least:

Turtle Magazine
Sesame Street/Mr. Rogers
Jem and the Rockers
Smurfs/Winnie the Pooh
Fraggle Rock

Choose your own Adventure Books
Marvel Comics
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Wallace & Grommit

[Edmond Zedo]

Let me stick to the nearly intrinsic, from my earliest memories.

The Police
Phil Collins/Genesis
Star Wars, ESB, RoJ
Tron
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Superman I,II,III
The Wilderness Family
Transformers
He-Man
Sesame Street
Mr. Rogers
3-2-1-Contact
Garfield

[Warrior413]

Mm... here's some stuff... semi-chronologically even.
Star Wars
Redwall
Freddi Fish - some stupid kids game, first I played. I just played one minigame where you shoot numbers. It was my prelude to Doom.
Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett
Sid Meir's Alpha Centauri. I was building advanced civilizations at the age of ten. Hmm...
Anime, I guess.
Bourne Identity/Supremacy. I don't know why, but I just like 'em. A lot.
Electronica. Kinda pop culture...
And I couldn't think of anything else that had much of an effect. Asterix was alright though.

[snarled]

Jem and the Rockers


Wasn't it Jem and the Misfits? I think the Rockers were Barbies' backup band, though I didn't play with Barbies.

[C.J.Woolf]

The first thing that comes to mind is MAD magazine. In the early 70s, when I read it, it satirized the Nixon administration, TV, and other organized hypocrisies mercilessly. It was the first time I was exposed to subversive ideas. And the minister's wife was all for it!

Monty Python gave me a taste for absurdist humor.

The Dr. Demento Show (on radio) introduced me to bizarre records -- much to my spouse's regret.

Skipping ahead much later, They Might Be Giants.

[Sackanaka]

Screw you guys, I thought Full House was fun to watch :p
At least, I think it was the pinnacle of the twins' careers.
early
Transformers
Ghostbusters
video games
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Muppet Babies
Michael Jackson (Kindergarten talent show- full on dance impersonation happppy )
Sesame Street
Reading Rainbow
Looney Tunes
DragonBallZ (Japanese, pre-Americanized, tyvm.)
Magic Schoolbus!

a little later (late elementary-mid high school)
Mariah Carey (always be my baby struck a chord with me :mellow: )
and the revelation that life beyond elementary school has a lot of suckiness to it

highschool til now
Beatles
Techno music (in general)
Internet
Reading (Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance; Flowers for Algernon)
OCReMix (a few 'touching' songs)
Naruto

[file cabinet]

TMNT
[...]
Pogs
Mainstream music
Non-mainstream music
Internet

my mind comes a blank really.. my answers seem like filler. doesn't look like anyone else had that problem though..

[Geoff]

Well, mine is predominately a British angle here, so I dont recognise some of the American childhood stuff, and you wont recognise all of mine.... but anyway.

Early influences

David Attenborough - Life on Earth books and nature documentaries (first serious adult book I read, aged about 6 or 7 I guess!)
Everything Tolkien, Adams and Pratchett.
TV - Blue Peter (I always wanted to make the space rocket out of Mum's left over washing up bottle)
The Flumps
Edit : I nearly forgot Ivor the Engine... and the Magic Roundabout (how could I Do that!)
The Clangers (I was terrified by them!)
The Smash adverts (weird aliens advertising mashed potato)
The original (and best) Star Trek
Lego (Space Lego especially)
Everything Star Wars
Collectable Sticker Albums - I loved the dinosaurs ones when I was very young! Done by pannini - anyone else remember that craze?
I loved everything dinosaurs, in fact.
DR WHO!!

Moving on...

I followed the RPG craze through - played a lot of D&D.
Elite (the computer game)
Blakes Seven and Dr Who again for sci-fi TV!
Andre Norton Sci-Fi - I loved this stuff as a kid
Blackadder and the Young Ones (seminal for me, these series)

-Geoff

[indie]

Wasn't it Jem and the Misfits? I think the Rockers were Barbies' backup band, though I didn't play with Barbies.

lol

Hmm, yes, I think you're right . . . the lesson is: don't rely on the memory of a former 7-year-old who is now 25.

;)

[booyalab]

I, too, liked Jem, Legos, Fraggle rock, Tolkien, and choose your own adventure books

I'm so disappointed that no one else mentioned INFOCOM, and you call yourselves geeks!

["InsertNameHere"]

hmm... let's see if i can think back that far
Sesame Street
Howard Stern- started watching since i was about 8 yrs old
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- tv show, movies, and action figures
Oldies but Goodies-music stations
Aladdin
goosebump books
Clueless- movie
Doug and Pepperann -cartoon series
Ghostwriter-tv series on PBS
HipHop and Rap
Anne Rice
Internet- got a computer late in life
SailorMoon and DragonBallZ
Felicity-only the first 2 seasons!
AtTheDrive-In
Inuyasha- Japanese version with english subtitles that i burned off of Kazaa
Real Sex on HBO...yup thats about it!

[indie]

Whoops, how could I have forgotten She-Ra, the Princess of Power!?

[mgb]

This is going to be tough.

Sesame Street
Raffi
Hot Wheels
GI Joe
Transformers
Cabbage Patch Kids
Queen (mostly the Bicycle song)
Blues Brothers/Condorman
First computer (1985)
First computer games: Spy Hunter and lame version of DnD
Hockey Cards
Stephen King
Bulgariad/Mallorean
Beach Boys
Beatles
Rap
Simpsons (on going)
Internet (compuserve)
Patagonia and The North Face
Grapes of Wrath
On the Road
Seinfeld
Lots of movies
Art House movies
Napster
Foreign movies
Lots internet.
Crazy t-shirts
Anime movies
Settlers of Catan
The Daily Show

I'll probably end up editting this list.

[jimkopelli]

I'll have to get back to youse guys on this one... but I will get to it.

[Helios]

Hmmm I try to do this more or less in order:

late 70's to early 80 (yes I relaize I was only 3, but I thought Blondie was cool!)

Flintstones
Scooby Doo
Blondie (I still love "Heart of Glass")
Star Trek (my grandparents watched it, cut me some slack)
Dallas/Dynasty (mom), some how that catfight with Linda and Joan Collin got burnt in my young mind

Dukes of Hazard (it came on before "Dallas")


early-mid 80s

All New Wave music. Duran Duran, U2, The Police, etc
Muppet Babies
He-man
I must have a thing for blondes, I'll never forget the day I discovered Madonna


late 80s

Some what late I get to Depeche Mode and New Order
I am sorry you can stone me if you like , but I always HATED rap, from the very start. That was rough, here I was listening to Duran Duran and DM, while all my friends like MC Hammer or Guns and Roses (yuck!)
I also reached my zenith of being a history geek around this time, but it would linger on for years after.

early 90s

I go to home school which open a HUGE new world of free time! Which I devote to more history and music, till I find myself unsatisfied with the games on the market and spend great amount of time creating my own game, which I then draft my defencless younger brothers into playing, and goad them into fighting each other in my epic war for global power.

Thankfully I soon discover "rave" and get completely into dance music, and UK music. I still listen to House of some sort half the time.

by the mid-90s I am in my late teens and start to learn how to socailize and my interior world become less intense, since there are goings on outside now too. Which was just as well , prior I could/did spend aleast 10 hour a day in my room, in my head. So a little socail time was needed lest we get really weird.

In 96 I stumbled into a job that has evolved into a career for now, it has afforded me the chance to see the world , which has completely changed everything , I still can't believe sometime that I have see/done/climbed on/etc all those things I read about as a kid.

Today, I never watch TV, so little I turned off my cable I only miss Family Guy and the rare times when M2 played videos. I am still a HUGE music geek, but only as a consumer, I can only wish I know how to make music. I express myself mainly thru writting and visual art. Oh well can't do everything!


snapshot; in my car at this moment you'll find: Depeche Mode remixes 83-04, The Killers, Seal Waiting for You (single) and a burnt CD full a old wave pop. The "Details" mag with that goof ball married to Britney Spears on the cover and one of those Fitness Mag (yes I stole it from the gym! :whistle: )

ok that is enough, God bless you if you waded thru all the crap!

[jimkopelli]

Lemme see... in order... the first thing I remember watching, ever, was Rude Dog. (couldn't have been more than three.) After that... not neccesarily in order, but I tried...
David The Gnome
Euraeka's Castle
various Muppet shows
Raffi (still whimper at the sound of Bananaphone...)
Sesame Street (not too much, though...)
Legos (starting with Magnetron series, still buy some every now and then)
Ren and Stimpy
TMNT
Looney Toons
Taz
Wolfenstein 3D (beat it before my dad did... boy, that pissed him off)
Doom, Heretic, Hexen
Beast Wars
Magic TCG (seriously started at Masques)
Reboot (want both seasons on DVD, dammit)
The internet
Beatles
Offspring
Santana
The first two seasons of Toonami
Classic Lost In Space
Classic Twilight Zone (they were what was on when I got home from school... way better that those merchandising whores on Pokemon)
Pop-up Video
Douglas Adams
Terry Pratchett (anything I can find)
Robert Heinlein (anything I can find)
Ayn Rand (Anthem first, and thicker from there)
Orson Scott Card (Enders Game series)
Band, then Marching Band (major influences)
Futurama


One thing I should mention... I'm almost never on something as soon as it comes out. I don't pick things up until a year or three after they get big... I blame a sheltered childhood and lack of pocket money.

[gypseymothlee]

Wasn't it Jem and the Misfits? I think the Rockers were Barbies' backup band, though I didn't play with Barbies.

It was Jem and the Holograms, the Misfits were the rival girl band.

[Helios]

It was Jem and the Holograms, the Misfits were the rival girl band.


Dear God! I knew that! :blush:

[gypseymothlee]

Let's see...

Smurfs
Today's Special
Jem
Muppet Show
all the old TV shows on Nick at Nite
Vincent Van Gogh
Legos
The Soundtrack to The Big Chill
Travelling Wilburys
The Babysitter's Club
(I had very bad taste in books as a child)

high school
The Crow
Star Wars
Empire Records
Roy Lichtenstein
Tori Amos
Barenaked Ladies
RENT
Buffy/Angel
Douglas Adams
Francesca Lia Block
Poe (both the singer and Edgar Allen)
drama club

College/ now
Chuck Palahniuk
Neil Gaiman
White Oleander
Joss Whedon
Wonderfalls
The West Wing
The Daily Show
Photoshop
Photography
and when I want to feel depressed I watch CNN or C-SPAN

[YardGnome]

Oh my, I completely forgot Wierd Al Yankovich, that's all I listened to from when I was like 7 till nearly high school...

That may explain a few things about me...

[Sackanaka]

Oh my, I completely forgot Wierd Al Yankovich, that's all I listened to from when I was like 7 till nearly high school...

That may explain a few things about me...
me too :whistle: