Considering I've been working diligently the past 3 years on preparing myself to become a professional musician and have gone through a ton of sacrifice (and continue to do so) for the sake of the one artform I love above all others, it stands to reason that I'm a pretty big music fan. When narrowing down my tastes, it becomes pretty difficult with a collection of 200+ CDs on hard copy (meaning I legally bought the CDs and didn't just illegally download them because I want to support the artist).
Overall, my favorite genre of music is what I define as "rock and roll", which I believe truly existed from the 1950s up to the early 1990s, followed by a sharp and immediate downward spiral. I consider everything from Dave Clark to Ratt to fall under the category of "rock and roll", so the genre has a wide variety. There are AOR bands like Journey, classic metal like Black Sabbath, classic rockers like Joe Walsh. I love all kinds of bands from the genre.
And there are other genres I love too. I love 60s bubblegum pop (but that may fall under my "rock and roll" category). I love old Motown, soul, funk, blues, and r&b (once we get to the 90s, all those genres tend to go downhill). 40s crooners, big band, jazz and swing and Tin Pan Alley stuff is pretty cool, as is old folk music and classical. Hell, I've got some old Gregorian chants that I really dig. I like very small amounts of musical theater ("My Fair Lady", "Sweeney Todd", "Tanz Der Vampire", "Rocky Horror", "Shock Treatment", etc.)Of course there's also video game music, which is some of the best post "music apocalypse of the 90s" music out there.
It’s probably easier to state music that I don’t like than music that I do like. I’m not a fan of most music that has come out since the 1990s. And no, I don’t mean I’m a fan of the music in the 90s, I mean I’m a fan of the music in the 1980s and prior and the 90s is where my musical tastes tend to stop. Alternative rock, grunge, emo, the vast majority of rap and modern r&b, modern pop, nu metal and the like do nothing for me. There are exceptions to the rule (I actually think that “Good Girl Gone Bad” album by Rihanna was a fantastic pop album and there’s a resurgence of quasi-classic rock bands coming out of Europe and Asia generally produces a decent amount of decent music) but for the most part, I don’t listen to any modern music.
I’m not a fan of “super heavy” stuff in general. I do listen to some metal bands, but I feel that at a certain point of heaviness these bands focus on becoming evil rather than writing songs that have melody. So while I do listen to small amounts of thrash, I tend to not go much heavier than Megadeth or Anvil. For example, I hate Metallica and Slayer (but I’m “okay” with Anthrax).
My favorite bands tend to fluctuate in order (save for my top three), but generally they are:
* The Beatles - They rise above all other bands so while they may be my favorite I feel unfair to compare them to other bands, so when people ask my favorite I generally give them my “trilogy”. I don’t think I need to get in to the specifics of why The Beatles are amazing.
* Kiss – The second band in my trilogy, Kiss are actually very similar to The Beatles in the sense that they have a distinct look with 4 different singers who sing and write their own material, allowing different personalities in the band to shine. Musically, there’s a surprising amount of variety in the discography, everything from progressive rock to power pop, and I’m usually able to impress people with the wide array of stuff Kiss has done over the course of their career. I’m generally familiar with the solo works of each Kiss member.
*Jim Steinman – The mad songwriting genius behind Meat Loaf’s two “Bat out of Hell” albums (meaning he wrote every single song on them, including “Paradise by the Dashboard Light and “I’d Do Anything For Love But I Won’t Do That”) and also Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, Air Supply’s “Making Love Out of Nothing At All” and Celine Dion’s “It’a All Coming Back To Me Now”. If you noticed how twice a decade it was odd that there was an epic 8 minute romantic power ballad that became a radio hit, it was because of Steinman. Steinman has done one solo album “Bad For Good” and various songwriting projects over the course of his career, including creating puppet groups to sing his songs like “Fire Inc.” and “Pandora’s Box” and has entered musical theater with the likes of “Tanz Der Vampire” (a German musical about vampires ---it’s actually pretty amazing). I have a pretty decent Jim Steinman discography.
After the trilogy, it fades into various other bands including:
Rush – A Canadian progressive rock band with tons of cool songs, including the essential classic rock guitar jam “Working Man”.
Warrant – 80s hair metal band that is ironically remember for the song “Cherry Pie”, which was written in self-parody of sleazy sexual songs and the band’s overall discography is actually very intelligent. Jani Lane (the original lead singer) wrote most of the band’s early material by himself and is a very talented songwriter.
Alice Cooper- The Coop! Alice Cooper is the original king of shock rock, a master of gothic horror and brilliant lyrical sarcasm. Alice has done so much in his career that it’s difficult to know where to start, but the man has done everything from concept album’s about hell and mental asylums to having heartfelt ballads that have been covered by the likes of Tina Turner and Frank Sinatra(!). A music legend.
Thin Lizzy- By far the most underrated classic band of all time. Known in the US for only three songs (“Jailbreak”, “The Boy Are Back In Town” and “Whiskey in the Jar”), the band has one of the finest discographies classic rock has to offer. The band is fronted by bassist/singer Phil Lynott, a songwriter genius poet who was able to write quirky and romantic lyrics combined with a hard rock background into a perfect blend. People should be worshipping Phil Lynott instead of Jim Morrison.
The Doors – But I still love The Doors. Great, great band and one of the first really “dangerous” rock and roll groups. Musically, the heaviest part of the band is the killer drumming, and Jim Morrison’s vocals are that of a classic crooner like Sinatra which makes for a cool sound.
Queen – ‘Nuff said.
T. Rex – Glam rock genius Marc Bolan decided to morph 50’s rock and roll into his little playtoy and created T. Rex, a band full of groovy boogie and spacey lyrics. T. Rex doesn’t have too much variety in their discography, but I still love ‘em, and Marc Bolan falls under the category of “one guys writes all the songs and fronts the band but isn’t a solo artist” kind of guy. Generally considered a one-hit wonder in the states (“Bang a Gong (Get It On)”, they’re one of my favorite classic rock bands.
Styx – Yeah, they did “Come Sail Away”, and that’s pretty cool, but there are lots of great songs in that discography other than that song. Stuff like “Blue Collar Man” and “Crystal Ball”. Great classic rock. The current keyboardist, Lawrence Gowan, had a successful Canadian progressive pop rock career in Canada before joining Styx and I like his solo stuff as much as, if not more than, Styx’s music.
Loudness – Japanese hair metal one-hit wonders (at least in the States) known for the song “Crazy Nights”, they’ve got a wild and insane discography showcasing a lot of variety (and a lot of their stuff I really don’t like because it falls into the “noise metal lacking melody” category) but the stuff I do like I LOVE, and there’s at least 10 albums by this band I adore. Great, great underrated band.
Poison – Yes, the band with the guy from “Rock of Love”. I liked Poison a long time before that show came out and thought it was cool that it was introducing people to Poison again. They’re one of the most sincere bands out there; they write what they truly feel at that moment so there’s a real heart behind the songs. They’ve had a lot of hits over the course of their career including songs like “Talk Dirty To Me”, “Nothin’ But a Good Time”, “Unskinny Bop”, “Something To Believe In”, and, of course, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”.
And what am I listening to right now? Well, the last two CDs I bought were Judas Priest’s “British Steel” and Iron Maiden’s “Killers” (which features the KILLER Paul Di’Anno on vocals, back before Bruce Dickinson joined the band) and recently ordered two CDs off the internet which should arrive any day now (Karla DeVito’s “Is This a Cool World or What?” and White Lion’s “Pride”).
Here are some song samples by some of the bands mentioned:
Karla DeVito – I Can’t Stand To Reminisce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnZ2I0JgJkYThin Lizzy – Dedication
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOB7HuoLgjYWarrant – Stronger Now (great lyrics)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvFNg7dksEILoudness – In The Mirror (Original Japanese Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHDvZPU2us0Jim Steinman – Tanz Der Vampire clip (for anyone who likes Magus, check out this musical. Count von Krolock should be to your liking. Badass and cool but also dark and romantic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzXA-3G5Rd8 The Raspberries – I Wanna Be With You (not mentioned by name, but they’re a cool 70s band that kinda has a retro 60s pop kinda sound and are considered power pop peers of bands like Cheap Trick. Just figured I’d toss it in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFUYm5QFUEYeah, pretty long post. But like I said, I love music, and if I'm willing to sacrifice basically my entire life for it, I probably have strong feelings about it. Oh, and my music tastes have been often been said to be that of a 40 year old man, so if you were wondering, I'm 20.
