What's your music taste like?

Astronomer · 11-30-2009, 04:42 PM

This is a really cool idea! Mainly because although we get an indication of each other's music tastes through other threads/posts/discussions, it's a lot different to hear someone describe their taste so outwardly.

Anyway, when I first joined this site I had a pretty poor and narrow taste in music. I only listened to a small circle of my 'favourite' bands such as Tool, Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, and other proggy-kind of bands. I was also really cynical when it came to listening to new music and set really high standards with any new artist I listened to, especially with any artist outside of the genre I was comfortable.

Now however, I have much more interest in indie/alternative music. I think as well as Musicbanter, my band has also shaped this attitude because the kind-of music we play would be categorised as indie/alternative/softer kind of rock than what I was used to listening to. Being in a band and finding our 'sound' has pretty much completely turned my music taste around. I am loving indie, alternative, post-rock, avant garde/experimental, pop, even electronic music much more than the closed off little genres I used to confine myself to.

Anyway, all in all I think my musical tastes are ever-changing and difficult to put a finger on. But in recent times I have opened up my mind and am pretty much open to give anything a try

Guybrush · 11-30-2009, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dieselboy

So atm, I'm probably 50% Electronica, 30% Metal/Hard sh*t, 15% Jazz/Classical, 5% Hip-Hop/Other.

^I wanted to make this a pie chart since we're talking about taste, but I couldn't figure out how. I tried to figure it out for about 30 seconds and gave up. :|

You mean like this?

It's all in a day's work for .. Toretorden.

Dieselboy · 11-30-2009, 04:47 PM

Haha, ty

Sneer · 11-30-2009, 04:55 PM

I was an NME whore up until about 17 when i put on my Dad's 'Best of Psychedelia' compilation. I was completely submerged in the atmosphere and mood evoked from this album and it changed my outlook on music completely.

I'm still a sucker for melodies and hooks, i have a huge admiration for pop music and the artistry implicit within it. However, these days it's more about the mood and atmosphere music gives me, i actively seek music that's going to take me out of my box, because to me it's when you're removed from the numbing monotony of the mundane that you really learn about yourself and your reality. If that sounds pretentious and/or stupidly obvious i apologise, but this is literally what music does for me; it's an escape from the blinkers.

I wouldnt say i favour a particular genre or two. I'm a big fan of Indie Rock, Folk, Psychedelia, Noise Rock/Punk, Screamo, Underground Hip Hop and Punk (as well as it's offshots, Post-Punk and Hardcore Punk). I'm also getting really into Post-Hardcore, particularly bands from the 90's such as Rodan and Unwound.

In terms of decades, i would say the 60s, 80s and 90s do it for me. Although recently i've made a concerted effort to immerse myself in new music, and the more i hear the more my appreciation grows for the 00's.

I think boundaries are an unecessary evil that can and often do stifle creativity. Consequently i think it's important that music be played without fear and with sincerity.

Mojo · 11-30-2009, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NumberNineDream

That's what I thought too

And metal was the only thing I really enjoyed in my teenage years, especially Doom and Black Metal (but also I don't know much of the bands).

We'll have to rectify that sometime.

NumberNineDream · 11-30-2009, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toretorden

You mean like this?

It's all in a day's work for .. Toretorden.

are you looking for an excuse to practice your passion for charts?

mr dave · 11-30-2009, 05:22 PM

this is kind of hard to answer for me because i despise the concept of genres, and i see a clear distinction between playing songs and playing music (like the difference between having sex and making love).

a lot of that attitude comes from a combination of growing up as the child of a musician who wasn't interested in passing along the beat to the next generation as well as the so-called alternative music revolution of the 90s. it's not to say alt-rock wasn't a huge staple of my listening in my youth but it's the attitudes presented by the musicians that really stuck and influenced me as i grew older. like Pearl Jam sticking it to Ticketmaster because you don't need to play for 15 000 people who had to pay $100 a pop in order to be 'successful'. or the guys from Soundgarden talking about the fact that having a modicum of business sense does NOT mean your artistic integrity becomes compromised (incorporate your own publishing company so YOU retain full control on your songs even when signed to a label).

at this point i'm far less interested in hearing 'new' styles that are either rehashes (hey let's all be folkies ....

) or rebrandings (i swear electroclash is NOT the same as 80s new wave synth pop....)

what i like to hear is a sense of aggression, some fire from the soul coming out through the instruments at play. it doesn't need to be furious jazz noodling, it's not necessarily some liquid finger guitar shredding, but it has to touch me in a way that let's me know that the people playing the music are letting it out. complexity and virtuosity are irrelevant if they sound sterile, formulaic anything is garbage that serves little more than an expansion to the ego far more often than not.

on the other hand i also really like lush textured atmospheric music as well, something where there so much sound coming at you that you can't help but get lost within it. enough layers that you can always hear a new combination of sounds every time you listen to it.

as such i find myself listening to stuff that lends itself more towards jamming / improvisation. like stoner rock or free jazz, spastic electro, dub, shoegaze, or Mike Patton.

Schizotypic · 11-30-2009, 05:26 PM

My music tastes literally began with Music Banter, and admittedly I'm still finding myself musically. In my life directly before MB, on the rare occasion someone wasn't playing techno, I listened to The Mars Volta, Tool, System Of A Down, Nirvana, Guster, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and some of my friends had a lot of like Nofx or The Misfits playing.

Bout that time I put myself in rehab and decided in there to expand my taste, starting by using the counselors to make a list people I should check out. I was very cautions about it and actually convinced the three counselors that I thought had the best taste to go through a couple hundred names and kick out whoever didn't get a 2/3rds vote. My rehab was only for people under the age of eighteen, so needless to say about half of that list was gone an hour later.

After two months there I moved next to the Mojave desert to rely on dear old mommy for all my financial needs. I've been trapped in this god forsaken hell hole with nothing to do since. So I found MB very early on, and every name I saw in an album review or Journal, I instantly would look-up songs on youtube, and after four or five songs if I liked it I'd add that band or artist to the list. Takes me a while to get through a page, maybe a month, and at the end I enter it into the computer somewhere all alphabetized and whatnot and download all the ones I really wanted that I underlined. I actually used to keep up with those downloads but after page three I had so much music I figured I should listen to it, but I'm rambling on.

It's been a while but I remember about a year ago the first thing I clicked with was The Animal Collective, and I remember writing some crappy Air reviews. Some more stuff too I think, Gram Rabbit, Sonic Youth a little bit of The Doors.

I checked out a bunch of bands but I think my personal real music taste began with my sister turning me onto PJ Harvey. I didn't love it right away but her album Dance Hall At Louse point eventually became an old favorite, and since I've listened to at least three quarters of her discog. The next movement I made was into Nick Cave, listened to maybe three or four of his albums but I <3 his music so much. I sing and dance to them regularly. Then from there a couple Leonard Cohen albums, Comus, Leaf Hound, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, I don't know there were so many.

I'm going to stop here. Man, I spent so much time with a few albums but looking back I really feel like I rushed things... now it's just kinda how I do things. For instance I've kinda been on a late 60's psych kick lately. I don't know, I'll do this again in a year and we'll see what I say... for now, this: My music tastes literally began with Music Banter, and admittedly I'm still finding myself musically.

Mojo · 11-30-2009, 05:44 PM

I think you win the award for the most interesting story so far Schizotypic. It's good to see that music genuinely seems to have quite a positive effect on your life and you certainly seem to be checking out a lot of it.

Engine · 11-30-2009, 05:55 PM

In the mid-80s I began to have my own taste in music (I was about 10). My first albums (vinyl) were J. Geils Band - Centerfold single (Rage In the Cage on the b-side), Def Leppard - Pyromania, and Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry and I loved them. They were the only things I heard outside of my parents music for a long time.

Then I began to listen to the radio so I heard Top 40 pop for the first time. INXS became my favorite band and I bought Listen Like Thieves (my first cassette). After seeing an advertisement for the album on the wall of my school I got Head on the Door by The Cure. Then came a huge onslaught of music and I listened to everything I could and pretty much settled on metal and metal-approved punk like The Misfits and the Ramones. My first 2 years of high school were dominated by that music until the Violent Femmes and Jane's Addiction taught me about "alternative rock". One day around this time I decided that it was OK to listen to Depeche Mode, so I did. Also at the time, shoegaze and other crazy-sounding pop (JAMC) was coming out of the UK and this was my new favorite music by far. My last two years of high school were spent on that and I also liked RHCP, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Fugazi and a smattering of popular indie stuff. I even came around to liking REM who I previously hated but I continued to hate U2.

College years (early-mid-90s) were all indie-math-rock-post-core or what have you. And Jazz and then experimental rock. For a while I started to dislike music that sounded familiar at all and I began to listen to a lot of "world music" like Hindu ragas and Gamelan music. Also got really into Delta Blues during this time. Friends of mine were into electronic (rave) music so I heard of lot of house and trip-hop during these years although I rarely liked it.

This brings us to the late 90s when I got back into metal thanks to bands like ISIS, Matodon, Pelican and all that. I also really got into the "metallic" hardcore bands like Botch, Coalesce and drowningman. I also got into hip-hop during these years thanks to all the underground stuff that came out throughout the 90s. I went back through all of that.

As new finds go I spent most of the 00s listening to stuff that I had missed from the past (like old Dischord stuff and old metal). Listening to instrumental hip-hop got me into other electronic music but I almost exclusively like 'downtempo' or otherwise dark sounds (not like 'darkwave' but like electronic dub). I can't remember why it started but several of my mid-00s were spent listening to vintage reggae, rocksteady, and ska. As for current tastes and current music, I like a little bit of all the genres that I have mentioned here but I'm pretty picky and I don't find much comfort in any one genre because there is so much that I love and hate about every genre.

So the sum of all that is what my music tastes like.

11-30-2009, 04:42 PM	#31 (permalink)
Astronomer we are stardust Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 2,894	This is a really cool idea! Mainly because although we get an indication of each other's music tastes through other threads/posts/discussions, it's a lot different to hear someone describe their taste so outwardly. Anyway, when I first joined this site I had a pretty poor and narrow taste in music. I only listened to a small circle of my 'favourite' bands such as Tool, Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, and other proggy-kind of bands. I was also really cynical when it came to listening to new music and set really high standards with any new artist I listened to, especially with any artist outside of the genre I was comfortable. Now however, I have much more interest in indie/alternative music. I think as well as Musicbanter, my band has also shaped this attitude because the kind-of music we play would be categorised as indie/alternative/softer kind of rock than what I was used to listening to. Being in a band and finding our 'sound' has pretty much completely turned my music taste around. I am loving indie, alternative, post-rock, avant garde/experimental, pop, even electronic music much more than the closed off little genres I used to confine myself to. Anyway, all in all I think my musical tastes are ever-changing and difficult to put a finger on. But in recent times I have opened up my mind and am pretty much open to give anything a try __________________

11-30-2009, 04:55 PM	#34 (permalink)
Sneer Let it drip Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 5,430	I was an NME whore up until about 17 when i put on my Dad's 'Best of Psychedelia' compilation. I was completely submerged in the atmosphere and mood evoked from this album and it changed my outlook on music completely. I'm still a sucker for melodies and hooks, i have a huge admiration for pop music and the artistry implicit within it. However, these days it's more about the mood and atmosphere music gives me, i actively seek music that's going to take me out of my box, because to me it's when you're removed from the numbing monotony of the mundane that you really learn about yourself and your reality. If that sounds pretentious and/or stupidly obvious i apologise, but this is literally what music does for me; it's an escape from the blinkers. I wouldnt say i favour a particular genre or two. I'm a big fan of Indie Rock, Folk, Psychedelia, Noise Rock/Punk, Screamo, Underground Hip Hop and Punk (as well as it's offshots, Post-Punk and Hardcore Punk). I'm also getting really into Post-Hardcore, particularly bands from the 90's such as Rodan and Unwound. In terms of decades, i would say the 60s, 80s and 90s do it for me. Although recently i've made a concerted effort to immerse myself in new music, and the more i hear the more my appreciation grows for the 00's. I think boundaries are an unecessary evil that can and often do stifle creativity. Consequently i think it's important that music be played without fear and with sincerity. __________________ LastFM Sneer's Emporium of Sound Fright Team radio show

11-30-2009, 05:44 PM	#39 (permalink)
Mojo Melancholia Eternally Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: England Posts: 5,018	I think you win the award for the most interesting story so far Schizotypic. It's good to see that music genuinely seems to have quite a positive effect on your life and you certainly seem to be checking out a lot of it. __________________ Last.FM \| Echoes and Dust

11-30-2009, 04:47 PM	#33 (permalink)
Dieselboy Music Addict Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 608	Haha, ty

11-30-2009, 05:26 PM	#38 (permalink)
Schizotypic Souls of Sound Sailors Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Mojave Posts: 759	My music tastes literally began with Music Banter, and admittedly I'm still finding myself musically. In my life directly before MB, on the rare occasion someone wasn't playing techno, I listened to The Mars Volta, Tool, System Of A Down, Nirvana, Guster, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and some of my friends had a lot of like Nofx or The Misfits playing. Bout that time I put myself in rehab and decided in there to expand my taste, starting by using the counselors to make a list people I should check out. I was very cautions about it and actually convinced the three counselors that I thought had the best taste to go through a couple hundred names and kick out whoever didn't get a 2/3rds vote. My rehab was only for people under the age of eighteen, so needless to say about half of that list was gone an hour later. After two months there I moved next to the Mojave desert to rely on dear old mommy for all my financial needs. I've been trapped in this god forsaken hell hole with nothing to do since. So I found MB very early on, and every name I saw in an album review or Journal, I instantly would look-up songs on youtube, and after four or five songs if I liked it I'd add that band or artist to the list. Takes me a while to get through a page, maybe a month, and at the end I enter it into the computer somewhere all alphabetized and whatnot and download all the ones I really wanted that I underlined. I actually used to keep up with those downloads but after page three I had so much music I figured I should listen to it, but I'm rambling on. It's been a while but I remember about a year ago the first thing I clicked with was The Animal Collective, and I remember writing some crappy Air reviews. Some more stuff too I think, Gram Rabbit, Sonic Youth a little bit of The Doors. I checked out a bunch of bands but I think my personal real music taste began with my sister turning me onto PJ Harvey. I didn't love it right away but her album Dance Hall At Louse point eventually became an old favorite, and since I've listened to at least three quarters of her discog. The next movement I made was into Nick Cave, listened to maybe three or four of his albums but I <3 his music so much. I sing and dance to them regularly. Then from there a couple Leonard Cohen albums, Comus, Leaf Hound, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, I don't know there were so many. I'm going to stop here. Man, I spent so much time with a few albums but looking back I really feel like I rushed things... now it's just kinda how I do things. For instance I've kinda been on a late 60's psych kick lately. I don't know, I'll do this again in a year and we'll see what I say... for now, this: My music tastes literally began* with Music Banter, and admittedly I'm still finding myself musically.*

11-30-2009, 05:55 PM	#40 (permalink)
Engine air quote Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: pollen & mold Posts: 3,108	In the mid-80s I began to have my own taste in music (I was about 10). My first albums (vinyl) were J. Geils Band - Centerfold single (Rage In the Cage on the b-side), Def Leppard - Pyromania, and Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry and I loved them. They were the only things I heard outside of my parents music for a long time. Then I began to listen to the radio so I heard Top 40 pop for the first time. INXS became my favorite band and I bought Listen Like Thieves (my first cassette). After seeing an advertisement for the album on the wall of my school I got Head on the Door by The Cure. Then came a huge onslaught of music and I listened to everything I could and pretty much settled on metal and metal-approved punk like The Misfits and the Ramones. My first 2 years of high school were dominated by that music until the Violent Femmes and Jane's Addiction taught me about "alternative rock". One day around this time I decided that it was OK to listen to Depeche Mode, so I did. Also at the time, shoegaze and other crazy-sounding pop (JAMC) was coming out of the UK and this was my new favorite music by far. My last two years of high school were spent on that and I also liked RHCP, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Fugazi and a smattering of popular indie stuff. I even came around to liking REM who I previously hated but I continued to hate U2. College years (early-mid-90s) were all indie-math-rock-post-core or what have you. And Jazz and then experimental rock. For a while I started to dislike music that sounded familiar at all and I began to listen to a lot of "world music" like Hindu ragas and Gamelan music. Also got really into Delta Blues during this time. Friends of mine were into electronic (rave) music so I heard of lot of house and trip-hop during these years although I rarely liked it. This brings us to the late 90s when I got back into metal thanks to bands like ISIS, Matodon, Pelican and all that. I also really got into the "metallic" hardcore bands like Botch, Coalesce and drowningman. I also got into hip-hop during these years thanks to all the underground stuff that came out throughout the 90s. I went back through all of that. As new finds go I spent most of the 00s listening to stuff that I had missed from the past (like old Dischord stuff and old metal). Listening to instrumental hip-hop got me into other electronic music but I almost exclusively like 'downtempo' or otherwise dark sounds (not like 'darkwave' but like electronic dub). I can't remember why it started but several of my mid-00s were spent listening to vintage reggae, rocksteady, and ska. As for current tastes and current music, I like a little bit of all the genres that I have mentioned here but I'm pretty picky and I don't find much comfort in any one genre because there is so much that I love and hate about every genre. So the sum of all that is what my music tastes like.