Gray on 10/7/2006 at 03:23
True, I wasn't really asking for a "bands I like" dumpfest. I was just trying to save the thread. But good job.
Which, for new readers, is about bands that changed your life. If no bands ever changed your life, feel free to not tell us about it here. By not posting "no bands changed my life, natch."
Scots Taffer on 10/7/2006 at 03:24
Changed my life? Difficult to say. If you mean changed the way I view the music and the standards I hold other musicians to, well, I can answer that with a top 5:
1. Zero 7
A band that effortlessly captures cynical hope, bitter love, almost every oxymoron you can think of is summed up in their music - their relaxing music is floating on air and can put you at ease, but their lyrics bear a weight worth thinking about and plumb the greyscales of our society.
2. Queen
They are a rock icon, doing what I love most about rock songs - progressing, endlessly shifting, changing tone, sudden movements into operatic insanity, catchy little beats. I love what they do and they are the standard that I hold a lot of modern rock bands to.
3. Interpol
Their music is almost always perfection to me. The lyrics. The music. It sums up a cynical near-depressed view of the world in the new millenium but infuses it with that desperate longing of the heart, the bittersweet hope. That strikes a chord with me, combatting nihilism with a cynical weary hope is a pleasing concept.
4. Guns 'n' Roses
Sheer poetry. The poetry of a 14 year old who's obsessed with tits, guns, violence and wealth of the computer game age of the 90's. I grew up on a diet of Appetite for Destruction and the Use Your Illusion albums. They operate on a popcorn level of music - they provide entertainment for your ears in the form of riffs, solos and squealing vocals in the same braindead manner that directors like Bruckheimer throw down the explosions, fancy cars and knockout chicks in their movies.
5. Los Van Van
Salsa. I know, this doesn't belong here. Oh, but it does. I never embraced latin pop. It was dreadful. Shakira bleating over a latino beat could only be suffered if I was able to watch her hips swivel in a figure of eight that makes me cross my legs. Los Van Van are a salsa sensation. They deliver brilliant beats that are not only accessible to the cuban salsa dancer, but is excellent background music - provided you don't have a healthy loathing for anything ethnic. They simply have to be here because without them, I wouldn't have the half the urge to leap to my feet and scorch a portion of the dancefloor. They are legendary.
henke on 10/7/2006 at 05:36
5 bands/artists that changed my taste in music (and the artists they opened me up to):
Beastie Boys -> all rap music
Rage Against The Machine -> Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, nu-metal music
Insane Clown Posse -> Twiztid, Dark Lotus, Gravediggaz, MSI
Cake -> bob hund, Flaming Lips, Decemberists, everything that's labeled "alternative" or "indie"
Buck 65 -> Tom Waits, Sage Francis, Johnny Cash, stuff from the Anticon collective, country
Ko0K on 10/7/2006 at 05:42
Freddy Mercury has got to be one of the best vocalists of my time, and I felt inspired by his music. I joined a local choir about the time I was into Queen, although I couldn't even hope to have half the range FM did.
Gray on 10/7/2006 at 05:53
Quote Posted by henke
5 bands/artists that changed my taste in music That's... a bit more clever than I anticipated. Had I been smarter, that's what this thread would have been about :p
But I'm not smarter.
Scots Taffer on 10/7/2006 at 07:39
I said it before him, you 'orrible cunt!
Aerothorn on 10/7/2006 at 07:55
As much as I appreciate various bands, A. Much of my life-changing music is non-band, and B. conversely, most of the band music I like I wouldn't call life-changing, so I guess my answer is
1. R.E.M. Weee
Rogue Keeper on 10/7/2006 at 07:58
Quote Posted by Strontium Dog
I guess a lot of people have been influenced by this amazing band.
Actually, whole pop scene has been heavily influenced by Kraftwerk.
Fingernail on 10/7/2006 at 08:36
1. The Beatles
I started listening to the Beatles and then playing the songs on guitar (the Beatles Six Chord Songbook anyone?) from the age of about 6 or 7, gradually moving through their catalogue (The Complete Beatles songbook) and remained a great "fan" until I was probably about 11 or 12, by which time I'd realised it was all in the 60s. Nonetheless, I'm sure this early exposure has had a lasting impact. I used to lap up TV documentaries and all sorts of shit. I've still got a Beatles souvenier mug from the 60s.
2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
You can blame older brothers for lots of things, and this is one of them. My brother is 6 years my senior so he started moving off into loads of music when he was at secondary school, and I was still at primary school. For years Jimi became the hallmark of electric guitar playing. I play/listen to less of it now, but again, it's always been there.
3. Radiohead
I actually remember the release of OK Computer in 1997 (I would've been what, 9?), and watching videos to No Surprises on one of the Video Chart Shows they used to have on Saturday mornings. I hated it back then. I really detested it. But then when I was probably about 15/16 my brother (durf) gave me a load of CDs for my birthday (sort of "essential" albums), one of which was OK Computer, and it grew from there so that now I own all of them and know it all backwards. My brother actually isn't a fan.
4. Cat Stevens
He may not be a band but on the other hand, shut up. This one's a bit more recent, rediscovering my love of a simple, catchy tune and some sincere lyric and song writing. He's also a generally enlightening character.
5. Now it's tricky because there are lots of other bands that have had influences on my life and my music, but there isn't particularly one that leaps out, so I'm just going to make a list of the rest.
Oasis, Blur, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Smiths/Morrissey, Jeff Buckley.
None of these particularly changed my life as much as they defined certain eras within it. Oasis and Blur was the thing going on as I was growing up and developing a musical awareness, principally.
Now I'm going to make a second (pretentious) list of classical composers/pieces that have had a similar impact.
1. Gustav Mahler
I don't really know where to start on this, it's just utterly fantastic. From the most haunting melody to the most over-the-top cacophony, he was just a fucking genius. There isn't a time when there isn't a movement of one of his symphonies that resonates with your mood. As he said "a symphony should encompass everything", and he succeeded. I seriously recommend no. 9, no. 1, no. 6 and Das Lied von der Erde (especially der Abschied). EDIT: I forgot to mention that you should watch Death in Venice as well.
2. George Gershwin
Erm, just listen to Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Porgy and Bess. Songwriting/melodic genius.
3. Richard Wagner
hurf DAS JUDENTHUM IN MUSIK
anyway, if you can stomach it, sit through one of them. I found the televised Ring to be pretty enjoyable, otherwise just listen to the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. It's like the best bits without the 3 hour opera in the middle.
4. Franz Schubert
Master of songs, Lieder. It might be in German, but even with my GCSE understanding they can be some of the most effective and moving pieces of music. Special recommendations go out for Der Doppelganger and Erlkonig.
5. John Dowland
English lutenist hero, wrote several hit ayres in his time, most of them equally fucking depressing. Oh, sorry, "melancholic".
Scots Taffer on 10/7/2006 at 08:58
Aye, similarly with Aerothron, life-changing music for me does not come from bands, but from composers. And to echo Fingernail, I've got a top five composers, mine aren't as esoteric however.
1. Johann Sebastian Bach
2. Philip Glass
3. Jesper Kyd
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Motzart
5. Karl Jenkins
