I am convinced, at least for myself personally, that the music one listens to as a child heavily influences the music that one writes later in life.  I know this is true for me because, for the most part, I forgot about most of the music I used to listen to at age five and younger, until just recently, when I was surprised by the similarities between such music and that which I write today.

So the question is... what music did you listen to as a child, and has it influenced your outlook on music today?

During my formative years, my favourite music was Rush, The Cure, and Frank Zappa.

hmmm... or maybe not...

as a child i listened to celtic folk and country bluegrass

now i'm an acid jazz funk rock reggae musician.... any real connection? i dunno, you decide.

I used to listen to classics from the sixties; The animals, The foundations, Manfredd Mann, Gerry and the pacemakers. I don't really have a specific genre of song writing, mainly Rock, Ska, Punk and acoustic chillout type stuff. Kind of a connection between all of them.