The Obvious (already stated here):

Beatles: duh

Led Zeppelin: duh again.

Queen: genius that sold well and made people happy. Not hard or inaccessible. Just beautiful, polished, invigorating rock music.

The Sorely Missing:
Paul Simon/ Simon and Garfunkel: genius stuff here, and I can't imagine the history of music without it. Graceland is possibly one of the greatest pieces of work ever put together.

Wilco: one of the most consistently genius bands going today. Check out Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. After about ten listens, you won't regret you did.

Korn: the first rock I ever really listened to, and I will always respect them for getting me into the entire rock/metal scene

Slayer: my gateway to the harder stuff

1.Depeche Mode
2.The Cure
3.The Smiths
4.New Order
5.Van Halen
6.Motley Crue

What can I say...I grew up a New Wave Headbanger. 120 Minutes and Headbangers Ball were must see TV for me back in the day.

Incubus ... excellent musica

Uncle Tupelo
 

when i moved to chicago (1990) i would involuntarily vomit if i heard anything with a twang. i lived near an awesome, small rock club called Lounge Ax, and would just wander in a few times a week to see what was going on that night.

one evening i walked in, ordered my old style, heard the band play some acoustic hilljack shit, started drinking my beer faster so i could leave. fortunately for me, on their next song they plugged the gibson sg into the marshall stack & fuckin raged.

bluegrass-based songs about drinking & depression, overamplified & distorted. and then they covered a clash song for an encore. i was, and still am, hooked.

they, uncle tupelo, cut a few albums, mellowed a bit, the broke up, and split into two bands (wilco & son volt), which are both great but just not quite uncle tupelo.

anybody who likes punk/rock and has even a remote interest in country should give "no depression" and "still feel gone" a listen. great stuff.

Tommy Dorsey
Glen Miller
Artie Shaw
Benny Goodman
Charlie Barnet

this is a difficult question. Metallica got me into the metal scene (back when they were good) and GnR always kicks my ass. Then Trent Reznor really got me into the good shit ..not to mention some great dj's... so overall I guess my list would be

1. Metallica
2. GnR
3. NIN
4. Dj Dara
5. Deftones

Frank Zappa, from the early Mothers of Invention up through everything coming out posthumously. I have everything he offically put out, and most of all of the unofficial stuff. FZ RIP

Tool - Gave me an appreciation for music that has something other than a 4/4 time signature.
Pantera - Got me into metal where I also still graze
The Lords of Acid - Opened up the world of techno to me
Alice in Chains - Gave me an appreciation for melodies and harmonies
R.E.M. - The first truly "alternative" band I listened to that opened up the whole genre to me

Some earlier influences were The Beach Boys, CCR, and The Beatles. My dad would play that stuff all the time when I was a kid and I'll be darned if I still don't like it today.

this is tough. i have been thinking about it for a while now. best i can figure out is:

early on--king crimson, roxy music, exp. brian eno.
david bowie, esp, aladdin sane
john coltrane
weather report (mysterious traveller)
miles davis (on the corner, live/evil)
pink floyd (through meddle)
genesis (through the lamb lies down on broadway)
zappa and the mothers of invention, particularly freak out and absolutely free
black sabbath

later on:
john carter octet
sun ra
ornette coleman
art ensemble of chicago
cecil taylor
julius hemphill (rip)
steve lacy (rip)

still later
joy division
mad professor/lee perry
scientist
old burning spear/studio one more generally
fela anikulapo kuti (rip)
sonny sharrock (rip)
captian beefheart

recently

elaine radigue
can
james tenney
stockhausen
pandit pran nath
lamonte young
lots of persian/central asian classical music
acid mothers temple
aki onda

there is a load of hip hop in there somewhere.
lots of african music as well.
i cant figure out where to put it.

King's X
The Samples
Public Enemy
N.W.A.
Alice In Chains
Prince
...I listen to almost all genres if you couldn't tell, 2000 cd's & counting...

Above all else:
Talk Talk for making the most sublime music ever. I expect these guys to be canonized one day.

Tom Waits for showing that exquisite beauty can be made with components that in themselves are ugly as sin.

Meat Loaf, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks and quite a few others for accompanying me to loads of bonfires at the beach and wild rides in cars when i was young.

U2 for showing me that commercialism is the Shite. Not through any of their lyrics, but simply from growing to be the biggest band in the world.

Vaughan Williams for connecting it all ..

gotta say.. the prodigy. after hearing them i fell in love with electronic music.

Pink Floyd - made me fall in love with Classic Rock

Joe Satriani - made me learn to play the guitar...

i would have to say linkin park.

I thought I'd be the only one so far to mention Depeche Mode. I got laughed at a lot by my friends for being into them, but there was something about their music back then that I felt made them innovative. Their earlier music sounds somewhat dated now, but when it was new, I couldn't find much to compare to it. There were other synthpop bands out, but I didn't think any of them had the same depth that Depeche Mode had.

Also, the Flaming Lips. I had no interest in them until I heard Zaireeka. This album caused me to rethink completely what music could be and how it could be performed and published.

The Gun Club - to me, this is what punk was supposed to be. The fact that I could ever only find a few people who had heard of them made them even more punk to me.

Psychedelic Furs - this was the band that drew me into new wave music. Before hearing them, I was listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc. Psychedelic Furs changed my tastes in music.

My Bloody Valentine - this was the band that made me realize I love heavy distortion combined with a great melody and made me search out Jesus and Mary Chain.



The bands that have the biggest influence on my tastes these days would be: Death Cab for Cutie, Beulah, Magnetic Fields, Beta Band, and Fountains of Wayne.

My pops used to sit me on his lap when i was really little and play beatles songs, and i guess that ultimately is what spawned my love of music, but it wasnt until i saw PE on TV for the first time that i found the music/politics crossover that i've spent the last god knows how long of my life on.

Nirvana - Simple, yet very powerful songs.
Faith No More - Experimental, bizarre.
Nine Inch Nails - The darker emotional side of music.

The three pillars of my musical tastes. Everything I like or will like in the future will more than likely stem from one of these three bands.

From NIN, I got into more of the intellecual, controversial, and "dark" artists like Marilyn Manson, Tool, and White Zombie.

From Faith No More, I got into anything experimental - mainly anything that Patton does, as well as a few other artists like MSI and John Zorn. Any music I create falls into this category as well. Patton works with a LOT with other artists like Dillinger Escape Plan, Sepultura, Dan the Automator, etc.

Nirvana is the biggest. I went both backwards and forward from there. Got into Zeppelin, Bowie (Bowie also a big influence on Reznor of NIN), later works of the Beatles. Post Nirvana - got into Alice In Chains, Sonic Youth, Deftones, System of a Down, etc.

Some of these blend into each other. For example, Mike Patton (of Faith No More) works closely with The Melvins, who were a strong influence on Nirvana. King Buzzo is in Fantomas with Patton, Kevin Rutmanis (bass) is in Tomahawk with Patton.

It's really interesting to see all these artists working together.

I guess I'm kind of the odd man out on this one. I probably started with the Platters, Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, Simon & Garfunkle, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash among others. Then worked my way back to Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima and Nat King Cole. The whole jazz and motown theme led me to Dave Matthews, U2, Jack Johnson and some of Sting's music. I like the Doors, Led Zeplin, Pink Floyd, Beatles, and Queen.

mother lovebone was deadly........too bad that andy wood was fucked on junk.

soundgarden .......lotta great shows in small clubs up here....the fuckin' commodore show is an alltime high on the concert trip.

...and black sabbath......love jammin' to the heavy shit.........real heavy metal right there folks

-ROCK-
Sublime
Silverchair
Nirvana
311
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rage Against the Machine

More recently -
Opeth
A Perfect Cirlce

-RAP-
Dr. Dre
Snoop
Eminem
Big L

Wow. So many possible answers and so little time. So, in no particular order...

The Benny Goodman Orchestra - one of my first albums was the Live at Carnegie Hall recorded in 1939. On that album is a 20 some odd minute version of Sing Sing Sing featuring solos by Goodman, Krupa and Hampton, amoung others. Many of the gods of Big Band were in on this concert and it was amazing. The first ever jazz/big band concert at Carnegie and perhaps still the best.

Styx - one of the first rock albums I ever got was Pieces of Eight. I loved the song Renegade from the radio and so asked for it for Christmas. I had heard little of Styx's earlier work but the album was so diverse. It showed me that rock was not all screaming guitars and screaming singers.

Simon and Garfunkel along with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young impressed upon me the beauty of well done harmony. Something that is almost lost in the music of today, I might add, in the age of the single lead singer who might get joined by other members for the chorus.

And finally, the Dave Matthews Band who are proving every year that it matters little what you can do in the studio where almost anyone can be made to sound good. What matters is if you can do it live, day in and day out. These guys actually sound better live than they do on studio recordings. They give you a great concert everytime you go to see them and they don't worry about the show, if you know what I mean. You also get what you pay for as this band is working to keep ticket prices down and still puts on a 3 plus hour show evernight. My first real exposure to DMB was the accoustic Live at Luther CD and I feel for a song called Seek Up. When I saw my first concert a little over a year later, they opened the show with it and I was hooked. Been that way ever since. They are the only band I will travel to go see play live.

100% behind this answer.......Dave kicks it live........fucking amazing.:thumbsup:

Ok, let's go through the ages of my musical taste:

Early stages:

Alice Cooper - I was kickin it to his tunes when I was only about 5 or 6... my parents HATED that I listened to it

Intermediate:

NOFX - Still the best punk band ever
Pennywise - They had some good tunes to split up the NOFX
Metallica - Kick started my taste in metal

Current:

Led Zeppelin - You really need to go back ~30 years to find decent lyrics... Zep delivers in spades
Bob Dylan - Some of his lyrics really speak to me, it's fun
Dream Theater, Children of Bodom, In Flames - Evolved my taste in metal... It's still the only place you can find decent drum & guitar solos anymore.

NWA. When I first heard Fuck Tha Police... it was just off the hook, I'd never heard someone say shit like that before. And I liked it.

let's see....

Goo Goo Dolls got me away from children's music.
Counting Crows made me live the music.
Better Than Ezra just rocked it hard for me.

1. Pink Floyd/Roger Waters - Was in high school when "The Wall" came out. Unfortunately, that was the last of the Waters Floyd albums (The Final Cut is basically a Waters solo effort). Was hooked, am hooked and continue to collect them. AM a HUGE Waters fan. Great lyrics, great music.

these are in no particular order, with random thoughts:

2. U2 - Saw them at a small county fair back in late 70's early 80's with a girl who was not my girlfriend. (But I was wishing she was, but then the GF would have had to go.)
Did a great show. Except for the Zootropa crap I've liked them ever since.
3. The Who/Pete Townshend - Rockers who rocked for the sake of rocking. Like Pete's solo stuff as well.
4. Grateful Dead - Love the freeform music, and the obvious joy they had when playing. When Garcia died I worked in a state job, and the Sate Director of the program (answered to the Gov.) gave me a black armband to match hers, because she knew I was a fan, as was she. We were at a statewide conference, and she explained to the hundreds there that she and I were in mourning.
5. KISS - the first band I liked, as a kid. Loved the make-up, the firebreathing, blood spitting, flashing KISS sign and even the music :). To this day, when I hear a KISS song, I can sing along. I think I need to get some of their DVD's and CD's.

Pink Floyd first and foremost...
Led Zep... of course.
The Cure... love em
Tu Pac...

Too dam many to list... my taste runs the gammit

Yes and Allman Brothers when I was in high school. Genesis and Police when I was in college. Since then it's been XTC for over 20 years. Early on I idolized players. Now I'm more into songwriters. Andy Partridge of XTC, being a white middle-aged shy softy who writes about life experiences instead of life excesses, has kept my interest for over 20 years now.

the violent femmes

Mr Mephisto

2Pac turned me on to Hip-hop. Tool and Soundgarden were the first rock albums I bought.

The Doors got me interested in Classic Rock.

I didn't really have a musical taste until I started listening to the bands that my parents loved "back in the day." Once I was at the age of appreciating music I began to be obsessed with all of the bands my parents liked. REM, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty are the main ones, with METALLICA being the biggest. Metallica is still my favorite band to this date by far. I LOVE St. Anger (their newest album that most people hate) with a passion. They've shown me that it doesn't matter what your fans like -- you write music based on your own style and wants, not just to please your fans.

Aside from the aforementioned, Paul Oakenfold is easily next on the list. After hearing "Tranceport" for the first time I was in utter disbelief that music of this quality could be created with little or no instruments. I'm still not sure how Oakenfold crafted this album but it's pure genious. If I have to make a long drive or write a paper I just start up Tranceport and find myself at the end. Oakenfold led me to other bands in similar genres like Chemical Brothers, BT, and JUNO REACTOR, another excellent band. Juno Reactor has some amazing tracks.

I've loved rock/alternative and eletronica/trance music since Metallica/REM/Oakenfold discovered their way into my ears so they're probably the most influential.

-Lasereth

Korn probably got me interested in the "Rock" side of things in general. Back in grade school, around the time ADIDAS was released. That stuff was pretty bad, but "Follow the Leader" was awesome and got me hooked. Silverchair, I listened to initally for their hard tunes, but fell in love with the softer stuff, and got me interested in.. mellower rock. I really got into Pink Floyd for a while. About the same time, I picked up NiN and from there I found all sorts of 'industrial' music. Mostly, that's where I've stayed.

my "gateway" bands/artists:

Stone Temple Pilots - pointed me towards other 90's rock (AIC, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Tripping Daisy, Hum, Tool, NIN, Radiohead, Shudder to Think, System, Incubus, etc) and classic rock (Zep, Aerosmith)

Metallica - a sizable portion of my record collection, but i can't claim they turned me onto metal any further than Megadeth. actually, i find that lots of people's metal tastes start and stop with Metallica

Led Zeppelin - obviously. steered me towards the blues and other classic rock (Sabbath, Allman Bros, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Hendrix, etc)... and veered away from Floyd and The Stones. Blasphemous? maybe, but... ugh

Killswitch Engage - their melding of melody with screaming/growling let my ears adapt to modern metal vocalists and appreciate a whole new generation of metal (Shadows Fall, Lamb of God, Mastodon, All That Remains, In Flames, Opeth, Unearth, God Forbid, Blood Has Been Shed). Plus I went back to check out Pantera \m/

Stevie Ray Vaughan - went crazy for the blues back in college (Roy Buchanan, Black Keys, John Mayall, Indigenous, Albert King)

The Guess Who - Really opened me up to classic rock, and I'm sure has molded my enjoyment of bands with singers who can shatter glass with their voice (manifested in my enjoyment of SoundGarden).

Nas - Hearing "One Mic" got me to buy his album, and subsequently begin to thouroughly enjoy rap and hip-hop. Before I heard it, I had been generally dismissive of, even against those types of music. Now half of my albums are rap or hip-hop.

Medeski, Martin, and Wood as well as Robert Cray - First jazz group and jazz/blues artist that I really really enjoyed, and got me more into jazz and blues.

U2 - Not exactly sure how they've affected me, but having heard "The Joshua Tree" numerous times from childhood on (thanks to my dad) and loving it, definitely had some sort of impact.

Metallica and Slipknot are totally what got me into heavy metal music.

You brought alot to my attention that i really like:

- King crimson discipline (i like elephant talk)
- Bowie: i loved Lodger, but I have to say 'let's spend the night together was outstanding on Aladdin Sane
- echo your floyd and Genisis. But I do like parts of Duke
- and I like sheik Yer bootie from Zappa.
- didn't like sabbath until recently, and backed into it via Crazy Train and ozzfest

- Hated Sun Ra (maybe due to a guy that really bugged me.... no.. just hated it)

- am really into Focus (eg hocus pokus)
- also the Moody Blues
- Yes to Joy Division too.


- recently it has been good ole Canuckian rock (sam roberts, finger 11, GOB etc etc)
- and i am back into the music of my youth too (primitive punk a la Sham'69, 999, buzzcocks, slits, viletones, diodes)
- I have a love affair for schmalzy '70's ballads. i think Will Ferill has my number. :thumbsup:

Soundgarden initially got me into the Rock/Metal thing. They are still one of my favorites today.

Public Enemy got me into Rap, and in my opinion, nobody has even come close to what they have done for the genre.

I grew up on Stevie Ray Vaughn, and is probably the first music I actually started listening to as a kid.

I really hate to even say this, but as a kid the first record I remember listening to was "Thriller". M.J. may be a complete freak now, but I have to admit that that album shaped the way I look at music today.

The other band that sticks out in my childhood was Huey Lewis & the News. That's the phase of my life that I refer to as "rock-bottom".

The Ramones were next and without them I'd hate to think what I'd be listening to today.

Motley Crue and Guns n Roses are in there too.

But for the past 10 or so years, Green Day has definitely been the most influential band in my life. I was listening to them when they were on Lookout records, and they've been my favorite band ever since.

Oh, and I'll throw in the Donnas, cause they definitely don't get enough respect.

N.W.A. Opened the door for me to the whole west coast sound back in the early 90's, Then i got a taste of Wutang when they slammed the eastcoast..Been a hiphop fan ever since.

Jedi Mind Tricks also opened the door for me into the underground..along with other MC's, But JMT had a whole different sound that sunk it's hook into me deeply. I have also been opened up to some very ill MC's that are affiliated with JMT.