@maghister,
I didn't have a lot of money growing up either. I would work odd jobs and use the money to buy records. All of the records I bought in high school were classical. I couldn't stand the bubble-gum music on the radio.
When I got to college friends introduced me to jazz and some of the better pop. I was very lucky to go to Berkeley in the mid-sixties. I saw Sunny Terry and Brownie McGhee several times, once at a party where I was sitting at their feet. Big Mama Thorton sang on the bar in a joint I went to. I went to San Francisco to hear Pharoah Sanders in person. I went to the Fillmore Auditorium to hear Mary Wells and Otis Redding. Plus other interesting rock groups like The Dead.
I met a girl and she introduced me to the Beatles. I would have danced with her to anything. I introduced her to Stravinsky. Music has been woven through my life since I can remember.