What have you been listening to? (music discussion)

Giving my own answers here:

I've been listening to many different things (hey, I said my tastes were eclectic)... "new country" including artists like Rascal Flatts, Katrina Elam, Gretchen Wilson, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and more.

Thanks to my XM subscription, I've also been listening to music like Journey, Aerosmith, Eddie Money, Rush, Boston and other older favorites (late 70's to mid 80's time frame).

And finally, besides broadcasts of my beloved Washington Nationals baseball games, I've been listening to modern artists like All American Rejects, Coldplay, Maroon 5, John Mayer, Natasha Bedingfield, Jewel, Kelly Clarkson and more.


I bounce back and forth between several stations on my XM radio, Highway 16 (which I'll be avoiding heavily over the next week or so as they "feature" some interviews with the Dixie Chicks who I absolutely refuse to listen to), Flight 26 (their new music channel) and Big Tracks ("my" classic music channel). There are plenty of similar "over the air" stations I can listen to in the D.C./Baltimore area and I occassionally listen to those stations but wind up jumping over to Sat-Rad fairly often just to avoid commercial saturation.

Oh, I can do this!

I have a very wide variety of musical tastes. For instance, my current playlist (which has a lot more "favorite songs," as opposed to my normal playlist which just has various CDs queued up) has the following: Something Corporate, Oasis, James Blunt, Finger Eleven, The Verve Pipe, American Hi-Fi, Bowling For Soup, Metallica, Rufus Wainwright, Tool, Elliott Smith, Cursive, Shakira, Dan Bern, Imogen Heap, The Fray, Sufjan Stevens, Anna Nalick, Iron & Wine, Fountains of Wayne, KT Tunstall, Better Than Ezra, Blink 182, Jason Mraz, Regina Spektor, and Lostprophets. This list, for the most part, doesn't really matter (though it does back up my claim that I listen to a fairly wide variety of music) to the question, but I'm bored so I thought I'd list some super-awesome bands/singers anyway.

I'd say I definitely favor rock, punk (even the pop/punk stuff) for genres of choice... But my absolute favorite genre is the more modern/recent "indie folk" stuff. These are bands like Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, Joshua Radin, and Elliott Smith to name a few. They each have a wide variety of sounds (well; except Joshua Radin. You either like him or you don't) which vary greatly in the scope of a single CD and even moreso if you look at each CD separately. It's truly great 'anything' music, even if it does get a bit depressing after a while. I don't really pay attention to lyrics as a message (which is odd, since a singer's voice generally completely determines my interest in a band) unless I'm adding a quote at the end of a blog post, so I can't necessarily vouch for their complexity or ingenuity or anything. Still a very awesome, if slightly underappreciated, genre.

There are only two genres of music which I avoid at all costs: rap and classical. I can't stand the lack of any real musical talent in rap songs other than recognition that Beat A sounds better than Beat B, and when you mix the two you get background tone for vocals which are almost always vulgar, violent, or simply bad. I understand a lot of people like it, it's just not my thing (along with hip-hop, though to a slightly lesser extent). And I appreciate classical as an achievement or accomplishment, but my favorite part about music is the sound/tone of vocals. Therefore, I don't really listen to classical at all in my spare time. I'm not a big fan of country, but I can tolerate it. Especially if we're talking Johnny Cash.

It's kind of fun to keep track of my music-listening habits and trends with Last.fm too. For instance, my profile: http://www.last.fm/user/mittense/. Really kind of neat to look at how my listening changes over time.

And while I've heard the name Rascal Flatts before, I don't think I've heard a single song by them. Unless I have and still have yet to connect the song with the name.

Tool: 10,000 Days for the last few days, along with revisiting the older albums. Also The Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex mini-sountrack "Be Human".

Usually I just leave all my ripped CDs on shuffle and don't pay much attention, sadly.

I'm currently listening to King Crimson and Genesis.

King Crimson is at the forefront of the newest technology.

Favorite genres: Classic Rock, Blues, Jazz, Progressive Rock.

I can't stand rap/hip-hop.

I have Been listening, to Loreena Mckennitt, Enya, Clannad, recently, I am starting to listen more to the Celtic music.

My wife's influence. Colleen.

Favorites:

Tom T. Hall, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Hank Williams (Sr., NOT Jr.), Rush, Harry Chapin, Black Crowes, Bob Dylan, John Cougar (mostly before "Mellencamp", but a few songs since), Willie Nelson, Nirvana, Leadbelly, David Bowie, Queen, Van Halen (NOT Van Hagar), Pete Seeger...the list goes on.

Eclectic enough for ya!

And damn! Not knowing who Rascal Flatts is! That's bordering on blasphemous!

My favorites are Less Than Jake, No Doubt (why Gwen why?), Rancid, Goldfinger also new alternative like Yellowcard, Matchbook Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Saves the Day. I also have some sentimental summer songs that I've been listening to which include things like the Grease Soundtrack. Oh and I love Kelly Clarkson too.

I don't like country. Well I like a few well chosen country songs or singers. I like Dwight Yoakum, Radney Foster and a few songs by the Dixie Chics. But I can only take country in small doses. Too much twangy and yodely gets to me after a while. And why do they always have so many lame covers in country music? If you can't do it better, leave it alone. I don't like rap, jazz or the blues. There is a lot of music that I can handle a song or two but if I have to listen to it all day it will make me crazy. Like oldies or 70's type music.

I do like Mayberry by Rascal Flatts. It's fun to sing along to. I don't know any of their newer songs.

On the radio, the 'oldies' station which is 60s and 70s.

On CD?  Moody Blues and Led Zepplin.  Middle Beatles, and New age (Enya and Loreena McKinnit).

8 by Dr. Guy Sun, June 18, 2006 5:24 PM

(Enya and Loreena McKinnit).

one more thing we have in common.

I have Been listening, to Loreena Mckennitt, Enya, Clannad, recently, I am starting to listen more to the Celtic music.

Excellent choices. I like McKennitt and Enya a lot myself. Could also toss in a recommendation for the Chieftains, and a more popular style selection (as an example) in The Corrs.

Could also toss in a recommendation for the Chieftains, and a more popular style selection (as an example) in The Corrs.

Well, if you put them in the same class as Enya and McKinnit, I need to get some of their CDs and listen as well.

The Chieftains are more traditional Celtic style music. By memory, they are mostly instrumentalists, sometimes paired with nice folks like McKinnitt, members of the Corrs, etc.


The Corrs are pop, straight up, but with a great bit of Irish influence. Some of their life recordings have been made with people like Mick Fleetwood. They are a family act, one brother, three sisters (all gorgeous). They have fantastic voices and their music is very easy to listen to.

As a sample for The Corrs, check here and try the "sample listen" for a few clips.

Actually, this album/cd has the more instrumental clips on it.

Here is a sample of The Chieftains (Greatest hits): here

By the way for the "Who is Rascal Flatts?" folks: CMT page for Rascal Flatts

I've been all over the place lately. Here's a small list

1.) The Last 5 Years Soundtrack (Broadway)

2.) Rent (I like the movie soundtrack right now)

3.) Ben Folds (rock and just amazing)

4.) The Dresden Dolls (interesting Goth, cabaret mix)

5.) Panic! At the Disco (alternative rock, lots of fun)

6.) Daniel Powter (my pop artist of the week, but I love it)

7.) Juanes (my Latin lover )

Who is Rascal Flatts? Heathens, all of you!

Let's see ... favorite genre - would be Country, pure a simple. I'm of the opinion that a little steel guitar and a fiddle will improve almost ANY music (except Rap, there's just no hope there).

What do I listen to? Let's see... I've currently got Randy Travis, Alabama, Travis Tritt and Rascal Flatts queued up. I'm like Baker, though. I queue up the playlist and forget what's on it.

I also listen to Green Day, Jim Croce, the Corrs (lovely group - to listen to AND look at ), Kelly Clarkson, and musical sound tracks (currently Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and Rent). I'll listen to most types of music (including most pop/hip-hop) but Classical tends to make me sleepy ... and Rap makes me want to vomit. Explosively. All over the stereo hoping to make it go away. I'd prefer to vomit all over the "artist" but that's not really likely to happen, sadly. They vomited all over my stereo with that crap, why can't I return the favor?

Who are your current favorites?

Michael Buble!

What genre do you consider your favorite

Right now, jazz. It changes every so often. I'm still quite fond of punk.

what genre will you absolutely not listen to

Heavy screaming metal that I can't understand the words to and where all the different instruments are played so loud and discordantly that the layers of the music become muddy and pointless to waste my time on.

currently Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and Rent

Congratulations! You just got about 1,000,000 points in my book! I love all three of those musicals, they're all in the top 5 best ever, for sure.

oh shoot, um, my favourite genre is probably show tunes or classical. I also like rock, pop, and alternative.

The ones I dislike tend to be really heavy death metal, very explicit rap, and country in general. I've never really like the modern country, bluegrass I can handle.

I just saw Corrine Bailey Ray on GMA. She was great and I'm going to buy her CD.

Right now

3121 - Prince
At This Time - Burt Bacharach
This Guy's in Love with You - Steve Tyrell
Live at Carnegie Hall - Judy Garland
The Best of the Ronettes
Slow Train Coming - Bob Dylan
70s Preservation Society - Various Artists
The Poet - Bobby Womack

...but then again, I'm an old guy.


"There's only two kinds of music - good and bad." Duke Ellington

"There's only two kinds of music - good and bad." Duke Ellington

Now that is an awesome quote and so true!

btw - my current fave is Elvis Costello - always challenging and rewarding.
Generally, I will not listen to heavy metal, hip hop or countrypolitan, but honestly, there's something good in each of those genres. Best to keep an open mind- you never know whne you'll hear your next favorite.

Best to keep an open mind- you never know whne you'll hear your next favorite.

This is also a great quote!  I normally do not listen to country, but a song will catch my fancy every once in a while.  The same with Rap (less of a while tho).  And I dare say that some would call my love of Led Zepplin Heavy Metal (but now a days I am not so sure they qualify).

Even though Chrissie Hynde pissed me off when she said what she thinks of people who aren't vegetarians, The Pretenders keep getting better and better imo.