Describe your musical journey of genre, influences and places throughout life.

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1st The Beatles
Beach Boys
Cat Stevens
Glen Miller
Lindisfarne
ABBA
Steve Gibbons Band
Thin Lizzy
ELO
Supertramp
Queen
Pink Floyd
Rainbow
Status Quo
Uriah Heep
Juluka/ Johnny Clegg
Hotline
REM
Stranglers
Prince
Afro Celt Sound System
Katie Melua
That's my musical journey as far as my memory serves me.
Still got an ear out for something different.
Rock n roll, Rock, Folk and easy listening have held me over the years
 
wash said:
1st The Beatles
Beach Boys
Cat Stevens
Glen Miller
Lindisfarne
ABBA
Steve Gibbons Band
Thin Lizzy
ELO
Supertramp
Queen
Pink Floyd
Rainbow
Status Quo
Uriah Heep
Juluka/ Johnny Clegg
Hotline
REM
Stranglers
Prince
Afro Celt Sound System
Katie Melua
That's my musical journey as far as my memory serves me.
Still got an ear out for something different.
Rock n roll, Rock, Folk and easy listening have held me over the years
Click to expand...
Love Easy Listening music like fuck. Driving the car tonight going home after dropping of my daughters and this came on the radio, I was buzzing like fuck!!!

 
Born in '67 so early influences were Cliff and Bobby Vee (Mam) and Beatles, Stones, Kinks (dad) then by mid seventies found Elvis, ELO, Bowie and Queen and actually influenced my parents to like them, then like most loved The Clash, Squeeze, Blondie and Boomtown Rats then along came Wham! , Duran Duran and Japan which was short-lived apart from George Michael, always thought he was quality, after that I can't say i followed any real trends, I actually went back over to see who influenced who i liked, now I'm more inclined to listen to country music more than anything but never lost the love of early sixties pop/rock n roll, I never got rap, hip hop or souless electronic stuff and even stuff I liked in the 80's does little for me now, I'm basically living in 1979 as apart from 'new' country everything I listen to was made then or in the years previous!
 
Got my early music appreciation from my Mam who with her two sisters used to sing together mostly swing/jazz style. She loved The Beatles, Neil Diamond as well as Nat King Cole, Doris Day and Frank Sinatra. We used to listen to the radio making the Sunday dinner and sing along to songs from musicals.

First band I went to see was Sparks who I still think were way ahead of their time. Then the New Romantics, Spandau Ballet, ABC and dressing like a cross between Boy George and Bananarama - with lots of diamanté and big hair. At this point I was also going to Northern Sinfonia concerts as a Uni lecturer used to give me and a friend free tickets.

Songs From the Big Chair and Nina Simone remind me of what I used to listen to before going out on dates or with friends. And a boyfriend got me into Suzanne Vega and Tom Waits. This led to The Cure, XTC and Crowded House.

These days I've moved towards alt-Country, indie, some Americana and mostly listen to Dawes, The Decemberists, Deer Tick and have a small obsession for Johnny Flynn, whose new album Sillion is out next weekend! :lol:
 
Kid Galahad said:
Born in '67 so early influences were Cliff and Bobby Vee (Mam) and Beatles, Stones, Kinks (dad) then by mid seventies found Elvis, ELO, Bowie and Queen and actually influenced my parents to like them, then like most loved The Clash, Squeeze, Blondie and Boomtown Rats then along came Wham! , Duran Duran and Japan which was short-lived apart from George Michael, always thought he was quality, after that I can't say i followed any real trends, I actually went back over to see who influenced who i liked, now I'm more inclined to listen to country music more than anything but never lost the love of early sixties pop/rock n roll, I never got rap, hip hop or souless electronic stuff and even stuff I liked in the 80's does little for me now, I'm basically living in 1979 as apart from 'new' country everything I listen to was made then or in the years previous!
Click to expand...
The samples in Hip Hop and House music introduced me to loads of the originals along with discovering who were the influences to the artists that that I love. The more I have went forward in music, the more it has took me to the past music. I've grown a lot more fonder of really old music pre 50's that paved the way for the musical revolutions afterwards.
 
tunstall birdman said:
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Growing up, my parents listened to a lot of Radio 2, my mum was into easy listening, anything soppy and really crappy chart stuff, my dad liked some classical but mainly jazz - fairly mainstream stuff like Glen Miller. Meanwhile my elder sister was into Adam And The Ants, Supertramp, Meatloaf, and for a period when I was very young, that 70's boyband with the jumpers and possibly checked trousers? I forget the name.

From this, I vaguely remember singles that were bought for me along the lines of "Grandad, we love you", "Daddy's home", "Grandma", "Frog Chorus", "There goes a mouse, where? There on the stair!" etc.

Eventually by age 7 or 8ish I was exposed to hip-hop and after a few years collecting enough tape copies of rap songs started making mixtapes on my ghetto blaster, and the odd rap song with my mate down the road with shite lyrics based on movie posters for films we wanted to see but were too young. Most of the stuff I was buying was shite, but I did get the odd gem too. I had my own bit of lino to "breakdance" on but I was shit at it. At age 7, I started learning the piano and over the next few years was bought a variety of shit keyboards.

By age 11 or 12 I'd discovered Iron Maiden after being mesmerised by the artwork on the record sleeves, posters and picture discs. The fact my parents hated it, so it was "mine", was a bonus, but I still remember the first time I put the needle on the record of their eponymous first album. Absolutely magical moment. The guitars were loud but the arrangements were like classical music. I loved it.

At about age 13 I met a guy who did graffiti art who was heavily into hip-hop. I thought he was cool and I wanted to get into the artwork thing, so I put aside the Maiden and got back into hip-hop. After a while I realised I was shite at graffiti art ("writing" as we called it) and found out that some guys at school were starting an Iron Maiden tribute band but had no singer. So, I joined the band but despite my enthusiasm I was wank at that too, probably due to the fact I was a pre-pubescent kid trying to emulate an operatically-trained rock legend. We never did a gig. The graffiti-friend disowned me "publicly" (in front of a load of other kids at school) when he found out I was in a rock band. :lol: Tit.

At 14, I took up electric guitar because I wanted to play like Maiden. I practiced my arse off and had a teacher. Went to see Maiden in 1990 on the No Prayer On The Road tour. Absolutely awesome gig.

Due to playing guitar and my love of Iron Maiden, I decided that with my first ever work earnings (car park attendant for Seaham Show \o/ ) I'd buy some other rock music.
I bought albums by rock bands I'd heard of or liked the look of the album sleeves of - Van Halen's Van Halen, ACDC's Back In Black and Who Made Who, Guns n Roses' Appetite For Destruction, Metallica's Master Of Puppets, Helloween's Keeper Of The Seven Keys parts I & II, Megadeth's Rust In Peace, Motley Crue's Dr Feelgood album... and I loved it all.

In my college years I was a bit more open about being into more than 1 genre at once. I still loved rock/metal and expanded my range within that genre into Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Bolt-Thrower, GWAR, Faith No More, Skid Row, Extreme, Little Angels, The Almighty. At the same time I was going to Ku Club and The Basement regularly, so I got into indie/alternative bands like The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself, Carter USM, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, The Levellers, Jesus Jones, Sisters Of Mercy, and American alternative/grunge stuff like Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Natural Life, and quite liked a lot of songs on the legendary Ku Tapes... REM, The Cure, The Doors, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rolling Stones, Steeler's Wheel, House Of Pain, The Pixies... that sort of thing. Got into a band playing indie. Got into another band playing rock. Neither band played a gig.

During this time I caught a few more gigs - Metallica at Whitley Bay Ice Rink, GWAR at Newcastle Riverside, Chuck Berry at the Sunderland Empire, and Bryan Adams at Gateshead Stadium. Really enjoyed all of them. I became a born-again Christian around this time, so most of the other live music I saw over this period were small Born-Again Christian indie bands like K (Sort of Carter-meets-U2 ish) and Eden Burning (folky indie like early Levellers). Both of these bands were actually really good live despite the Christian connection. Many of the other Christan bands I saw very much weren't.

When I got to Uni, I fucked off the Born-Again Christian shite pretty quickly but I was still kind of existential in my outlook.

Musically, I was still practicing guitar heavily and there was a rock pub in my uni town so I got more into the rock and grunge side of things for a while. I was starting to need more "complicated" music for the most part, (or at least bands that had "good" guitarists in them) as most guitar music wasn't challenging to play any more, but still had a soft spot for stuff that ROCKED. Got into Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Skunk Anansie, Wildhearts, Dream Theater, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Pantera. I was still a sucker for the heavier end of the rock/metal scale too, which led me to Sepultura, Pro-Pain, Therapy?, Suicidal Tendencies, Paradise Lost, and for lighter stuff if it had something "different" about it, such as Tori Amos.

Got into a prog metal/grunge band doing kind of Dream Theater-meets-Pink Floyd-meets-Alice In Chains sort of thing. Played my first gig on lead guitar at a battle of the bands concert playing mostly our own stuff! We were on first. Then the crowd started turning up after we'd finished. Needless to say we didn't win. The last band on played a load of Beatles covers and Don't You Forget About Me for their last song so they walked the pissed-up vote at the end by a mile. Around this era of my life I got introduced to a load of Rush, Led Zep, Pink Floyd and Fish-era Marillion and couldn't get enough of them all.

Left uni to concentrate on the prog band, who were convinced we were the next big thing. Prog band split up after about a year and a handful of gigs.

At age 19 or 20, I got a job in a local guitar shop where I met a load of musicians. Pretty quickly got invited to join a disco/funk/soul band that had the most professional home-made demo I'd ever heard. I was in this band for 8 years, during which I was introduced to a huge amount of jazz, funk, jazz-funk, disco, acid jazz and soul; Parliament/Funkadelic through to Brand New Heavies, Aretha, Mingus, Jamiroquai... and bits of jazz/soul-influenced electronica like 4Hero.

A girlfriend around this time introduced me to Counting Crows' album August And Everything After, which at the time I thought was OK but not really where my interest lay. Twenty years later it would be one of my favourite albums of all time.

Started getting pretty good with music software so I went back to uni to do a Music Technology degree in September 98, aged 23.

During my time in the disco band I had made a bit of a name for myself on the local musicians' scene, so I was getting offers left, right and centre to join bands, write music, record people's demos, do live sound engineering, stand in for ill band members for gigs, and was playing solo acoustic sets and jam nights / open mic nights. By the time I got to my final year at uni I was trying to juggle something like 10 different musical projects at once. The genres ranged from pop to punk, folk to nu metal, various funk/soul/disco/house/party bands and for a single gig at uni, a covers band that did a couple of Iron Maiden tracks amongst others!

I was listening to such a range of music by now it's hard to know where to start with listing them... basically everything around the periphery of pretty much everything I've named so far, but also including modern metal bands like Korn, Deftones, Marilyn Manson, Limp Bizkit, Tool and bits of Techno and Electronica from hanging around with a group of friends I knew that went clubbing regularly, a few of which had their own decks.... Leftfield, Underworld, various DJs, and stuff on the Ninja Tune label.
 
In 2001, aged 26, I graduated Uni and started work at the local college for the Music Technology and Performing Arts departments. Got introduced to loads of brand new music by the college kids; muso-metal bands like Incubus and Dillinger Escape Plan, loads of electronica from trance to techno to happy hardcore... abstract sonic art, post-rock, and in my spare time I discovered a load of historical gems that I'd missed or hadn't appreciated the first time around, like KLF, Tony Christie, all the Beastie Boys stuff that came after Licence To Ill (which I knew from the hip-hop years), Gordon Lightfoot, Hank Williams. For a time I even found a few things in the charts that I liked, (which had been a massive rarity since about age 12), such as Shakira's Laundry Service album and the Geri Halliwell single Look At Me. Got into some more interesting jazz-influenced electronica like St. Germain and some well-produced-but-not-really-that-good stuff like Mr. Scruff.

Wrote loads of bad electronic music (and one fairly decent progressive techno track) that spanned pretty much all subgenres of electronica after discovering the pseudo-studio PC app Reason.

Got stabbed by the punky-covers band's drummer. Left that band.

Had an argument with the band-leader of the disco-soul band. Left that band.

Started a new female-fronted funk/soul/jazz/rock band with a couple of guys from the college and a vocalist we'd found who sounded like Michelle Pfeifer in The Fabulous Baker Boys when she wanted to. Had an amazing 6 months gigging intensively then everyone moved away from the area to go to their various uni choices / year-out destinations. One of my favourite bands I've ever been in.

In 2004 I got a "dream" job in London working for EMI at Olympic Studios and Abbey Road Studios as a technical engineer. Despite being surrounded by bad pop and modern derivative UK indie music, was introduced to loads of amazing alternative/underground/historically superb music from PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley by the guys I worked with.

Wrote loads of hard rock / prog rock/ metal music and a bit of industrial stuff solo, and did a bit of writing with a few different studio-based projects but didn't have the spare time to get into a proper gigging band. Guys I was writing with introduced me to a load of well-produced modern hip-hop and electronica but I don't really remember many of the names. I remember one guy gushing about The Grey Album by Danger Mouse, which is a mashup of Jay-Z's The Black Album with The Beatles' White Album., but if I recall correctly I was unmoved by it except for the production quality.

One of the people I lived in a flatshare with was French and into loads of interesting music I'd never heard but grew to love, from folk-indie band Tryo to jazz legend Serge Gainsbourg, house band Down To The Bone, and crazy DJ gymnastics stuff like C2C and Birdy Nam Nam.

In 2008 I was made redundant by EMI and moved back to my uni town to live with my lodger, also a Frenchman but with tastes much more based in jazz and hip-hop but also bits of electronica, rock, metal, funk, and to be fair happy to listen to music of any genre from any country in the world. Almost every Friday and most Saturday nights since then until last month (when he moved back to France) were TV, take-away and music nights where we played each other our most recent music discoveries during ludicrously eclectic playlists that had no rules other than "don't stick with one genre for too long".

We found so much amazing music in the last 8 or 9 years or so that it's hard to list them all, but here's a select few of my favourite new discoveries and rediscovered/newly-discovered oldies from this era of my life...

Adrien Moignard (laid-back jazz guitar)
Anglagard (scandinavian post-rock)
Babymetal (stupid fast J-pop/metal featuring the musicians from Dragonforce)
Beck (didn't really get him back in the day but love it now)
Brian Culbertson (easy-listening jazz pianist who did one amazing album, "Bringing Back The Funk", with loads of old funk stars)
Burial (kind of dark chill-out electronica with vocals)
Cake (Beck lite)
Calima (jazz-flamenco)
Choc Quib Town (Colombian hip-hop/latin jazz/electronica)
Chrome Hoof (f***ing barmy head-melting experimental rock/electronica "orchestra")
Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit (the "godfather" of "jam bands" and his blues/jazz/fusion band)
Aquarium Rescue Unit (same band minus the Colonel, with a much more rock-oriented fusion sound without so much of the bluesy side)
Common (rap)
Common Market (rap, no relation)
Control Machete (Mexican hardcore hip-hop)
Doigts De l'Homme (French modern "gypsy" jazz manouche)
Esperanza Spalding (young but incredibly talented female jazz bass / vocalist)
Galactic (began as jazz-funk/soul, went more hip-hop, then more electronic, but all their albums are amazing in their own way)
Gogo Penguin (jazz/electronica. some of it's pretty crazy)
Hiromi (absolutely amazing and eccentric female japanese jazz pianist)
Jacob Collier (very talented young abstract vocal jazz multi-instrumentalist. Weird but very good in a kind of Frank Zappa way.
Jazz The Roots (Ecuadorian jazz-reggae crossover band. Very interesting mix and very good musicians)
Kamasi Washington (modern sax-fronted epic jazz)
Karl Denson's Tiny Universe (mostly small-band modern jazz with bits of hip-hop and other stuff thrown in occasionally. Awesome stuff!)
La Shica (Female Spanish flamenco/hip-hop/pop artist. Her voice has this sexy gravelliness to it.)
Lonely Island (modern comedy electro-pop/rap)
Macaco (Spanish electro-flamenco-reggae-hip-hop)
Maria Pia De Vito (bizarre Italian abstract jazz vocalist)
MC Frontalot (the "godfather" of Nerdcore rap)
Nacao Zumbi (Brazilian trip hop/hip hop/latin/alt rock)
Nils Landgren (scandinavian jazz/funk)
Ninja Sex Party (comedy classic rock by an egotist vocalist and his psychotic friend Ninja Brian, who has a habit of killing almost everyone he meets)
Noir Desir (French 90's alternative band whose singer was jailed for killing his girlfriend during a drunken argument)
Ojos De Brujo (Spanish flamenco/funk/jazz/hip-hop/electronica band)
Old Gods Of Asgard (tongue-in-cheek modern classic rock from Scandinavia)
Peter Muller (German slap bassist. Listen if you like Marcus Miller)
Rock Candy Funk Party (modern funk / jazz-funk)
Sasha Masakowski (modern trad jazz vocalist)
Sélébéyone (modern ultra-produced jazz/electronica/hip hop)
Slowly Rolling Camera (interesting jazz/soul-influenced vocal electronica. mostly laid-back but then a couple of stonkers!)
Snarky Puppy (insane jazz-electronica)
Theo Croker (awesome modern jazz)
Tia Fuller (female modern jazz saxophonist whose main job is saxist for the Beyonce band and also teaches jazz at Berklee)
Tiro De Gracia (Chilean hip-hop)
Watsky (young white middle-class half-jewish "kid" doing sharp, amusing and thought-provoking yet authentic and at times very impressive rap music for nerds and hipsters. Actually very good)
Wicked Jazz Sounds Band (Dutch modern jazz-funk/soul)
Yoko Kanno (amazing Japanese jazz / anime soundtrack composer)
Youn Sun Nah (Japanese jazz, from the laid-back to the abstract to the bizarre choice of covering Ghost Riders In The Sky)

There you go @tunstall birdman

Was this what you had in mind?

Four hours. FOUR HOURS it took to write that post. :lol:

I bet nobody reads it, either. :lol:
 
Last edited:
tunstall birdman said:
The first tune I ever remember liking was 'Mr Postman' by The Carpenters, I was about 3 or 4 years old.
I then remember when my dad was out I went digging into my dad's box of 7" singles which mostly consisted of Rock 'n' Roll songs. The song that I played the most was 'The Wanderer' by Dion.

As I got older my dad got into Country and Western, so the likes of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash filled my young ears and shaped my thinking.

I was still into Rock 'n' Roll in my very early teens and learn't how to do The Bop'

My first teen disco's was at 'The Alexandra' in Grangetown and in the church hall at St' Aidan's Church. The 'Alex Disco' influenced me massively with it's eclectic range of music such as Ska, Rock 'n' Roll disco and Soul along with the current tunes of the day. St Aidan's disco had The Mods going there so I heard some of the music that catered for their taste.
I was then drawn to New Wave and the New Romantics music and became very obsessed with the likes of Depeche Mode and The Human League.
I then became a Skinhead and got into Ska music. I'll never forget seeing 'The Station Skins' pogoing and nutting each other on the floor as the Sunderland band 'Zone 57' were playing in the YWCA.

Then It was 'Gens'. What place, got me into disco and soul music big style and and after watching on Top of the Pops Lionel Richies video 'All Night Long' it was here that I started doing 'The Robot' dance as early Hip Hop emerged.

I then became a Break Dancer and got into Hip Hop and Electro music. I went to Tiffanys in Newcastle every Saturday afternoon to listen to electro and Hip Hop and battle other crews. My life was changed forever.

Aged about 17 I heard the track 'You Sure Love To Ball' by Marvin Gaye and this converted me into a true 'Soul head' and since then up to this present day I obsessively seek out soul songs, constantly!

Then there was the shit 'Rick Ashley' years, that was barren as fuck but suddenly 'Acid House' music rescued us. From that point I got into House music and lived life to the full in the 88-91 Rave scene. Went to the likes of Back 2 Basics, Club Havana, Chambers etc. I felt privileged to also witness and be a part of the emergence of 'Brit Pop' which was born from these places. Also at this time I ended up smoking loads of Joints and Bongs in bedsits and such with Hippies and forward thinking people. I fell endlessly in love with folk music.

The later House scene I follow passionately and went to The Arena, Hard Times, Cream. Got disillusioned with the whole scene when the 'Super Club' and the 'Look at me, look at me' culture bled in.

Got into Drum and Bass and Jungle music.

Fuck all happened after that due to no new genre coming along and making such an impact on society as the genres above had done. I have witnessed the death of the passionate 'Youth Culture' and their music shaping society for the better, writing songs that shape the world and telling the world 'We are sick of the shit around us'.

But today due to the internet making the world smaller their are new artist who are just as good as the old one's and change and dream's are still being formed though not as visible and prominent. I'm finding new music that restores my faith in it's creativity. I dream of a day a new grene will come along and have the impact of the past genres in everyday life and the shaping of it.

I now listen to everything and anything as long as it is good shit. The influences of the genres of music have now gone into one big cooking pot and I feast on this lovely broth on a daily basis.


If you think this opening post is too long then you are thick as fuck.:)


Ahh!!
Logon or register to see this image
Click to expand...
It didnt mention puerile flatulence japes so the duckies will not be interested.
Otherwise a canny read down memory lane
 
fyl2u said:
In 2001, aged 26, I graduated Uni and started work at the local college for the Music Technology and Performing Arts departments. Got introduced to loads of brand new music by the college kids; muso-metal bands like Incubus and Dillinger Escape Plan, loads of electronica from trance to techno to happy hardcore... abstract sonic art, post-rock, and in my spare time I discovered a load of historical gems that I'd missed or hadn't appreciated the first time around, like KLF, Tony Christie, all the Beastie Boys stuff that came after Licence To Ill (which I knew from the hip-hop years), Gordon Lightfoot, Hank Williams. For a time I even found a few things in the charts that I liked, (which had been a massive rarity since about age 12), such as Shakira's Laundry Service album and the Geri Halliwell single Look At Me. Got into some more interesting jazz-influenced electronica like St. Germain and some well-produced-but-not-really-that-good stuff like Mr. Scruff.

Wrote loads of bad electronic music (and one fairly decent progressive techno track) that spanned pretty much all subgenres of electronica after discovering the pseudo-studio PC app Reason.

Got stabbed by the punky-covers band's drummer. Left that band.

Had an argument with the band-leader of the disco-soul band. Left that band.

Started a new female-fronted funk/soul/jazz/rock band with a couple of guys from the college and a vocalist we'd found who sounded like Michelle Pfeifer in The Fabulous Baker Boys when she wanted to. Had an amazing 6 months gigging intensively then everyone moved away from the area to go to their various uni choices / year-out destinations. One of my favourite bands I've ever been in.

In 2004 I got a "dream" job in London working for EMI at Olympic Studios and Abbey Road Studios as a technical engineer. Despite being surrounded by bad pop and modern derivative UK indie music, was introduced to loads of amazing alternative/underground/historically superb music from PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley by the guys I worked with.

Wrote loads of hard rock / prog rock/ metal music and a bit of industrial stuff solo, and did a bit of writing with a few different studio-based projects but didn't have the spare time to get into a proper gigging band. Guys I was writing with introduced me to a load of well-produced modern hip-hop and electronica but I don't really remember many of the names. I remember one guy gushing about The Grey Album by Danger Mouse, which is a mashup of Jay-Z's The Black Album with The Beatles' White Album., but if I recall correctly I was unmoved by it except for the production quality.

One of the people I lived in a flatshare with was French and into loads of interesting music I'd never heard but grew to love, from folk-indie band Tryo to jazz legend Serge Gainsbourg, house band Down To The Bone, and crazy DJ gymnastics stuff like C2C and Birdy Nam Nam.

In 2008 I was made redundant by EMI and moved back to my uni town to live with my lodger, also a Frenchman but with tastes much more based in jazz and hip-hop but also bits of electronica, rock, metal, funk, and to be fair happy to listen to music of any genre from any country in the world. Almost every Friday and most Saturday nights since then until last month (when he moved back to France) were TV, take-away and music nights where we played each other our most recent music discoveries during ludicrously eclectic playlists that had no rules other than "don't stick with one genre for too long".

We found so much amazing music in the last 8 or 9 years or so that it's hard to list them all, but here's a select few of my favourite new discoveries and rediscovered/newly-discovered oldies from this era of my life...

Adrien Moignard (laid-back jazz guitar)
Anglagard (scandinavian post-rock)
Babymetal (stupid fast J-pop/metal featuring the musicians from Dragonforce)
Beck (didn't really get him back in the day but love it now)
Brian Culbertson (easy-listening jazz pianist who did one amazing album, "Bringing Back The Funk", with loads of old funk stars)
Burial (kind of dark chill-out electronica with vocals)
Cake (Beck lite)
Calima (jazz-flamenco)
Choc Quib Town (Colombian hip-hop/latin jazz/electronica)
Chrome Hoof (f***ing barmy head-melting experimental rock/electronica "orchestra")
Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit (the "godfather" of "jam bands" and his blues/jazz/fusion band)
Aquarium Rescue Unit (same band minus the Colonel, with a much more rock-oriented fusion sound without so much of the bluesy side)
Common (rap)
Common Market (rap, no relation)
Control Machete (Mexican hardcore hip-hop)
Doigts De l'Homme (French modern "gypsy" jazz manouche)
Esperanza Spalding (young but incredibly talented female jazz bass / vocalist)
Galactic (began as jazz-funk/soul, went more hip-hop, then more electronic, but all their albums are amazing in their own way)
Gogo Penguin (jazz/electronica. some of it's pretty crazy)
Hiromi (absolutely amazing and eccentric female japanese jazz pianist)
Jacob Collier (very talented young abstract vocal jazz multi-instrumentalist. Weird but very good in a kind of Frank Zappa way.
Jazz The Roots (Ecuadorian jazz-reggae crossover band. Very interesting mix and very good musicians)
Kamasi Washington (modern sax-fronted epic jazz)
Karl Denson's Tiny Universe (mostly small-band modern jazz with bits of hip-hop and other stuff thrown in occasionally. Awesome stuff!)
La Shica (Female Spanish flamenco/hip-hop/pop artist. Her voice has this sexy gravelliness to it.)
Lonely Island (modern comedy electro-pop/rap)
Macaco (Spanish electro-flamenco-reggae-hip-hop)
Maria Pia De Vito (bizarre Italian abstract jazz vocalist)
MC Frontalot (the "godfather" of Nerdcore rap)
Nacao Zumbi (Brazilian trip hop/hip hop/latin/alt rock)
Nils Landgren (scandinavian jazz/funk)
Ninja Sex Party (comedy classic rock by an egotist vocalist and his psychotic friend Ninja Brian, who has a habit of killing almost everyone he meets)
Noir Desir (French 90's alternative band whose singer was jailed for killing his girlfriend during a drunken argument)
Ojos De Brujo (Spanish flamenco/funk/jazz/hip-hop/electronica band)
Old Gods Of Asgard (tongue-in-cheek modern classic rock from Scandinavia)
Peter Muller (German slap bassist. Listen if you like Marcus Miller)
Rock Candy Funk Party (modern funk / jazz-funk)
Sasha Masakowski (modern trad jazz vocalist)
Sélébéyone (modern ultra-produced jazz/electronica/hip hop)
Slowly Rolling Camera (interesting jazz/soul-influenced vocal electronica. mostly laid-back but then a couple of stonkers!)
Snarky Puppy (insane jazz-electronica)
Theo Croker (awesome modern jazz)
Tia Fuller (female modern jazz saxophonist whose main job is saxist for the Beyonce band and also teaches jazz at Berklee)
Tiro De Gracia (Chilean hip-hop)
Watsky (young white middle-class half-jewish "kid" doing sharp, amusing and thought-provoking yet authentic and at times very impressive rap music for nerds and hipsters. Actually very good)
Wicked Jazz Sounds Band (Dutch modern jazz-funk/soul)
Yoko Kanno (amazing Japanese jazz / anime soundtrack composer)
Youn Sun Nah (Japanese jazz, from the laid-back to the abstract to the bizarre choice of covering Ghost Riders In The Sky)

There you go @tunstall birdman

Was this what you had in mind?

Four hours. FOUR HOURS it took to write that post. :lol:

I bet nobody reads it, either. :lol:
Click to expand...
Took me four hours to read it!
 
Born in 1969. As a young kid, I remember prime influences being:

a) we had a tape of dubious one hit wonders that used to get played a lot. Mostly acts managed by Jonathan King, probably.
b) Parental influences - mam was/is a fan of Queen, Neil Diamond, John Denver and Don McLean amongst others, dad was/is into classical music (the big names, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach), Al Jolson, Glenn Miller and Mario Lanza. Both were big fans of The Spinners (the folky ones not the American disco act we know as Detroit Spinners).
c) watching TotP every Thursday. I remember being very into Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks (which with hindsight is quite morbid for a 5 year old) and Slade and being scared of the androgynous one from The Sweet.

Later (by secondary school), my influences were more down to mates and Radio 1 (Evening Session (or forerunner, Peter Powell, Peel and Annie Nightingale mainly) as well as some TV (The Tube and Whistle Test). Mates at school were into rock/metal and I picked and chose a bit from that but also post punk, new wave, goth etc. Became a big fan of amongst others, The Cult, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Jesus and Marychain, Prince, Rush, Fish era Marillion, The Smiths, and REM in my early to mid teens.

The sixth form common room tape deck was always being fought over. On the one hand, there were the rock kids (who, sadly, mostly wanted to listen to Bon Jovi) and then the indie kids (Smiths, The Cure, New Order). I remember getting very into the Kitchenware bands around this time. Listened to "Steve McQueen" loads and, likewise, "Boat to Bolivia" and then, a bit later "Gladsome, Humour & Blue" by Martin Stephenson & the Daintees loads. Got very into The Wonderstuff. Around this point, I became a regular reader firstly of Record Mirror then NME.

I was mostly a student from 1987 to 1993, primarily in Leeds then a year in York. This was the first time when I'd been able to go to gigs regularly without the logistical extras of transport to and from them. Mostly indie stuff, I guess, although I remember seeing de la Soul and Public Enemy in Leeds. During this spell, I remember seeing local heroes The Wedding Present, The Bridewell Taxis and Cud a lot and becoming a fan of, amongst others, The Family Cat, The Triffids, Kitchens of Distinction, They Might Be Giants, Fatima Mansions, Blue Aeroplanes and The Band of Holy Joy. The prevailing wind was, of course, with both Manchester and acid house. I saw The Stone Roses quite early, Happy Mondays (shambolic), The Charlatans, James (several times) and Inspiral Carpets as well as a lot of lesser lights (The High, The Farm, Paris Angels) and bands who were connected to the Manchester thing primarily by geography (World of Twist, Dr Phibes & the House of Wax Equations). Also began my fandom of The Fall. Saw early gigs by Blur, The Manics and Ride. All three were sort of promising but, sort of, disappointing. Saw The Pixies and Leeds Poly. Probably went to less gigs in York because the course I was on was pretty intense and less bands played York but I was on a research council grant, which meant a bit more money so I could buy more albums/singles. Spent Saturday mornings and the occasional Tuesday trawling York's record shops.

In 1994, I moved to Cambridge for work. This coincided more or less with Britpop. Through my love of indie stuff, I was already a fan of Suede, The Boo Radleys (who were more of a shoegaze band really) and, as an outlier PJ Harvey. Listened to a lot of Oasis, Blur and Pulp. Went to Glastonbury in 1994 and 1995 and mainly remember seeing John Otway and Frank Sidebottom. Also, more interestingly, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Pulp and Radiohead. Listened to a lot of triphop, realised that Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky were by far the best bands in that scene.

Earning money meant I could buy more albums and also switch to primarily buying CDs, which were easier to listen to on the move than vinyl and better quality than tape. Kept going to a lot of gigs, Cambridge has/had some decent venues and London is reachable by train. Extended network of friends got me listening to things I otherwise wouldn't have and, sometimes, might not listen to again. Through starting to read Uncut, I became interested in the burgeoning alt-country/Americana scene (Lambchop may have been my starting point for this) and also got interested in folk via a chance hearing of "The Lang Toun" by James Yorkston. Went to Green Man festival in 2004 and got immersed in the overlap between folk, psychedelia, indie and electronica that was happening there. Since then, thanks to the internet, I think my tastes have extended outward from what I was into rather than having any major musical epiphanies, thanks in part to the internet. In saying that, I can't imagine that my 7, 17, 27 or even 37 year old self would have spent the journey to work listening to Malian desert blues rock as I did today.
 
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