For me it was something like:

Kid: I think I liked a few Nickelback singles, and Blink 182 for the funny videos
Slightly older kid: No Doubt when I was old enough to find Gwen hot, maybe a small Good Charlotte phase
13-14-ish: Ben Folds/Ben Folds Five, one of the first artists I remember actually trying to download all his songs, inspired this thread as I listened to a few again recently
15: The Killers - still close to #1
21: Bruce Springsteen

Interesting question, what music / artist did I really listen to as a kid, seems hard to answer, maybe just pop music / artists at the time and I didn't have a favorite yet. I think my first favorite singer whom I bought an album from is Robbie Williams during my high school time, so I'll start there.
12-15: Robbie Williams
16-17: Delta Goodrem
18-20: Kanye West
21: Bruce Springsteen

But throughout all that time I had and have loads of favorites, anyway the above are probably in my top 5 of all time though.

As a child, before my music taste developed, I used to listen to Shola Ama, the "Glory Glory Man United" tape, and the Rocky Story tape a lot. But also a lot of those Now That's What I Call Music compilations. I don't remember much else as I was never a big music fan as a child. It was all about movies for me. I got into music more in my teens, which coincided with our house getting channels such as Q, VH1, and Kerrang.

Hmm interesting idea. If I recall correctly it went like:

Kid - Jim Johnson
Tween - Eminem (or sometimes Limp Bizkit)
First half of High School - Linkin Park
Second half of High School - My Chemical Romance
College through early adulthood - The Beatles (or sometimes Metallica) and LCD Soundsystem if I needed something hip and new to show off to friends / ladies
2018-Now - Tool, mostly thanks to their unbelievable live show
Now - Taylor Swift

Anything before like ~1995/1996 is probably impossible to say. I remember listening to a lot of Disney songs, but most little kids probably do. Otherwise, you sort of just listen to what's on the radio/TV or whatever your parents listen to. And among the stuff I heard on the radio in the car or on TV, I recall liking Wannabe (Spice Girls), The Sign (Ace of Base), Macarena (Los Del Rio), November Rain (Guns N' Roses), Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran Duran), and Living on a Prayer (Bon Jovi).

So, let's do 1996 onward when I began hearing and searching things out myself at school and stuff.

1996-1998 (Kid): Marilyn Manson
1998-2000 (Tween): Korn
2000-2003 (Early Teen): Linkin Park
2003-2007 (Teen): Evanescence
2007-2008 (Late Teen): Epica
2008-Present (Adulthood): Nightwish

Oh yeah, add Spice Girls to my kids list. I forgot about them. And Corpse is right. You listen to what your parents listen to.

I used to go home from school and watch music videos on tv for a few hours. Definitely a more simple time for kids than the modern social media era.

Great idea! It’s fun to reflect on different personal eras in music taste.

I’ll say that pretty much all of these (except for young kid Christian era) are still ‘favorites’ in terms of having an everlasting place in my heart, though I don’t actively listen to a lot of them anymore—

young kid: Michael W. Smith / Amy Grant (Christian pop) (also classical music)

older kid: Michael Jackson / Celine Dion (+ Powerline from A Goofy Movie)

tween: 311 / Garbage / TLC

teen: Radiohead / Outkast / Led Zeppelin

twenties: Radiohead / LCD Soundsystem / Vampire Weekend / Sigur Ros

thirties: Haim / The 1975 / The Weeknd

Taylor put me on the waitlist again so I'm switching back to Tool for my current favorite.

I forgot to HM Nelly Furtado when I was a preteen, another crush