Mere exposure effect on my taste of music

The other day I read from one of my readings for the class about the mere exposure effect, how people tend to like what they are familiar with and dislike or are afraid of what is new for them and the more they are exposed to new the more comfortable they become with it and the more they start to like it. So, reading this made me think of an example in my own life.
The development of my own music taste and preferences through the time is definitely something to do with particular phenomenon. Mere exposure effect depends on our environment: our friends, family, culture.
Early teens: I remember being a radio music fan. That means just regular pop-music. There was always radio palyin at my house. Besides it was the era of Spice Girls obsession. Probably everyone is familiar with that. So, everybody was listening to them, girls wanted to be like them. Yes, I loved them too :)

Then mid teens: the transformation from pop into punk. At that point I would have never expect me start listening to punk music. My best friend's boyfriend payed in the punk band. So, she listened to punk music. At the beginning I couldn't understand why she likes it. Did not like it at all. But then the more I hung out with her the more I got into it too. Eventually it was the only kind of music I was listening to. I still have some "leftovers" from that period of life in my computer...Blink182, Sum41, Good Charlotte...

Well...that did not last long. After the elementary school I moved and went to high school in another city. I went to a boarding school for athletes, so we had to live in a dorm. My roommate was a total drumm and base fan. She could listen to it 24/7. It drove me crazy in the beginning. I didn't see the music in it. But then again...I learned to listen to it. It didn't take much time for me to become a total D&B freak! The music was playing even during the night when I was sleeping...Aphrodite, Ill Skillz, Future Prophecies, Roni Size would be the keywords.

Late teens, after graduating became an era of jazz, oldies, ambient, chillout music. I am not sure how I got into that. Maybe it was my team mate who I started hanging out with and who kinda exposed me to a new genre. He was 9 years older than me, but we became good friends. He listened a lot to ambient and chillout music. So, I probably explored the charm of it through him. Ambient led me to another style: nature sounds, meditation music. Nina Simone, Amos Milburn, Cafe del Mar, Lamb, Air, Koop, Jose Padilla...

Then I came to America...
Exposed to a lot of black music I started loving it. It is everywhere: radio, people. Back home hip hop, rap, r&b are not popular at all. Not sayin nobody listenes to them, but it's just not common as it is here. So, now that's the only music I'm listening to. And to be honest I cannot stand any other styles. Except ambient and chillout...I can still tolerate these. So...Lil Wayne, Ciara, Nelly, Nicky Minaj, Jamie Foxx, T-Pain, Roscoe Dash....yaiiii!

Funny that I have something left from every stage of my music life in my computer. I shuffle through my music folders and think about the times...it brings out some memories, makes me sentimental sometimes. My computer is like a chronicle of my life kinda...
It would be interesting to get to know how this development will go on...what kind of music I will be listening to in 5, 10, 15 years...