1. The Beatles - Cliche, but whatever. I started listening to The Beatles before I could even talk, when my parents would play them around the house. I adored them as a child and often wonder if my interest in music would be so great if they hadn't sparked it at such a young age.

2. Tori Amos - Inspired and influenced me lots as a pianist and also as someone who's gone through similar life challenges as I have.

3. Tool - Obviously. The first time I listened to Tool meant raising the bar in terms of being a musician and a music fan. They also changed the way I critique the world.

4. Mozart - I am a classically trained pianist so inevitably the music I grew up listening to and learning during piano lessons has influential qualities.

5. Cog - An Australian band who I had the pleasure of meeting once before they became 'big.' Cog influenced me to be proud to be Australian and to stay true to our roots.

1. Peter Gabriel: What can I say... the man is a living legend! From his early Genesis stuff to his fine and amazing solo work... his music has always been with me in one way or another,somehow shaping my outlook on things...

2 R.E.M: In spite of the fact NONE of my friends liked them at all... I absolutely have come to love each and every song and album by these guys...even the throwaway tracks! Every era of their evolution as a band pretty much throws up some special music for me.

3) The Church: Possibly my all time favorite band... definitely the one which I respect the most... to go through so much in as many years they have been around and not produce even ONE bad album... thats brilliant work IMO... oh yeah and their most album was absolutely brimming with ideas and creativity too... rare for near thirty year old band....

4) Midnight Oil: The first band I ever came to completely idolize... all that leftt wing politics to raucous guitars and some downright thumping drums... how could one not feel energizrd?

5) Devin Townsend: So heavy yet so endearingly gentle in sound sometimes... he hs the perfect musical blend for my ears... Terria is a bloody classic modern heavy rock / metal album... and all that amazing guitar work, all through his career...

I dig

Well thanks!

Can't really put them in order, but these five:

Brian Wilson [The Beach Boys]
Norman Blake [Teenage Fanclub]
Alex Chilton [Big Star]
Gordon Gano [The Violent Femmes]
Jim Reid/William Reid [Jesus and Mary Chain]

Sorry for going with a tandem as one of my picks, but J&MC were massively influential to my tastes, introducing me to the great pop merits of wrapping catchy guitar pop in noise.

Here mine are (not in any particular order):
Bright Eyes (Conor Oberst)
Chad VanGaalen
Bon Iver (Justin Vernon)
Dntel/The Postal Service (Jimmy Tamborello)
Death Cab/The Postal Service (Ben Gibbard)

Others almost on there:
Iron & Wine (Sam Beam)
The Rural Alberta Advantage (Paul Banwatt)
Meiko
Thrice (Dustin Kensrue)

The Beatles
Nirvana
The Smiths
Joy Division
Led Zeppelin

Off the top of my head and in no particular order.

Beatles
Kiss
Cold Chisel
Queen
Guns n Roses

hmmm its always changing around but some obvious ones are

The Beatles- Pretty much the same story as everyone else here, they "got me into good music" and so on.

Elvis Costello- I've never understood why he doesn't get more love. One of my favorite songwriters of all time, and a huge discography that's hard to get tired of

The Grateful Dead- Another band that a lot of people seem to not appreciate. These guys seem to embody the whole idea of "let's go have fun making music". Maybe not the best musicians, maybe not the best songwriters, but the best jam band and one band that always seemed able to have a good time on stage

Neutral Milk Hotel- These guys are actually a relatively new discovery for me. I had heard of them somewhere, and went home only to discover that I actually already owned an album by them (now how did that get there?) I put the first song on, (King Of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1) and instantly I knew it was something special. I know they are kind of a love/hate band, but I definitely fall into the former category, every time I listen to them the music and especially lyrics surprise and amaze me.

Pixies- I'll admit it, the only album I own by them is Doolittle. But even just the one album is enough to push them into my top 5. These guys are, to me, a better, more original version of Nirvana. Every song on the album is top notch, no weak points or filler. It is also the album that convinced me to start seeking out more genres than just plain old rock.

The Beatles.
The Velvet Underground
The Who
David Bowie
The Clash
This list is basically a summary of the first bands I was ever obsessed with. I don't feel like going into detail is really necessary because I assume most of the people who venture to this site know who they are and why people like them even if they don't agree. Not necessarily the most original choices, but how original do you really get at age 7? I listened to these bands for years, and still do. Subjectively speaking, they're awesome.