The earliest one I can remember as my own would be Soul 2 Soul, as I was in the fan club and won tickets to see them, but was too young to go 🙁
My older brother had great taste in music so from about 12 I tended to follow that pretty closely. So the arc was basically metal, grunge, shoegaze, indie. Then one day I was at the record shop with him and he'd pre ordered Selected Ambient Works. But didn't have the cash to pay for it, so I took a punt. Did not see that one coming, and looking back I'd rate it as the most significant thing I've ever bought. Directly linked to my educational choices, my career, my marriage and subsequent child.
The kind of music I look back on as being most aligned to, is 90's mostly guitar-based indie/rocky stuff: Breeders, Pixies, Belly, P J Harvey, Echobelly, Stone Roses, Skunk Anansie, Smashing Pumpkins, Massive Attack, Tricky, Sneaker Pimps...
My real roots, though, are what I cut my teeth on as my younger, pre-uni self: Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple.
Nowadays, there's less that I hear that really grabs me. I'm very much enjoying Wolf Alice at the moment. They're good musicians, come up with some cracking tunes and Ellie Roswell has an amazingly versatile voice.
I've also discovered a few older bands that I simply didn't appreciate at the time, that I now think are great. Tears for Fears being a prime example.
Morris dance backing tracks?
