Alright, we're all pianists, most of us presumably listen to a lot of classical, jazz, art music, etc. Many of us will enjoy rock/pop if it's "intellectual" (like Radiohead, etc). So, let's admit a few of those "guilty pleasures"-things you like to listen to, but don't often admit that you like to listen to them.

I'll start:

Justin Timberlake
Eminem
Marilyn Manson (some of it)
Bloodhound Gang (Some of it)

Blink182 introduced cyclicism into their last album. I really like them. It sounds honest, if cheesy, like the adolescent experience itself.

Weird Al Yankovic
Frank Zappa
Disturbed
Gwen Stefani (for the videos mostly)
70's/80's Heavy Metal
Any Disco
George Clinton/Parliament
Spike Jones (anyone heard his Flight of the Bumblebee? Awesome)
Dred Zeppelin
Beat Farmers
Joe Walsh

I could go on all day . . .

The point is, any music that gives you pleasure is good, and has accomplished it's purpose. I never feel guilty about listening to anything. Well, except maybe for my kids' Spongebob CD which has not left my car CD player for weeks. . .

Hmm, I used to listen to Linkin Park once upon a time... Maybe I'll dig out those CDs.

Actually, I really didn't listen to any music before I started listening to classical. So for me, classical music is the guilty pleasure. I feel like such an idiot when others are talking about all these bands and people and I have no clue who they mean, much like with WildWillie's list. Then I reveal my secret: I listen to classical music. *gasp*

I'll only speak in the presence of my lawyer

I love gothic and symphonic metal. Also enjoy industrial, folk metal, after-punk...
There's nothing like live music, and I go to as much concerts as I can (both classical and rock)

Some of my favourite bands are:

Apocalyptica
Blackmore's Night
Deine Lakaien
Die Toten Hosen
Die Ärzte
Epica
Hagalaz Runedance
Haggard
Hammerfall
In Extremo
Kamelot
Leave's eyes
Lordi
Meat Loaf
My chemical romance
Nightwish
Oomph!
Qntal
Rammstein
Sirenia
The Bates
The 69 Eyes
Therion
Visions of Atlantis
Within Temptation
Xandria...

[Edited to add some more bands ]

Atac - abolish trite advertising concepts!

Pete Seeger
The Weavers
The Almanac Singers

and all that lefty folk stuff

Tomasino

Hey, there's quite some music from my country (Germany) in that list! Didn't expect it to be popular in other places. I used to listen to The Bates a lot as well (always identified with the Little Dinosaur), and I've seen the Tote Hosen in concert (uh, about eight years ago)...

A few names that I occasionally come across below piles of classical CDs....
Regina Spektor
Carla Bruni (before she started dating Sarkozy...)
Evanescence
Portishead
The Pogues
The Cake
Heather Nova
Placebo
Jason Crest

Good Charlotte
The Shins
Justin Timberlake
Wakefield
Greenday
Johnny Cash
Kanye West
Rob Thomas

. . . i hate Simple Plan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


also, is it me or does this Jem song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usskBq3DNH4&feature=related sound like Bach's Prelude no.12 in F minor from WTK II?!!

Gangster Rap such as Ice Cube and Comptons Most Wanted.

Rave and drum n base)- DJ SS, DJ Jumping Jack Frost, DJ Hype, DJ Fabio

Diana Ross and the Supremes

Dionne Warwick

Randy Crawford

Clannad

I feel blessed that I can appreciate such different genres of music.

I actually dislike pop music or at least it does not interest me much, but I do "keep up".. I hate to admit it but it is not fun to be labeled a classical geek at school..you would end up having to hang out with the less exciting crowd.. So the guilty part is that it feels a bit dishonest.. but then again it is not soo bad I guess..SO people to be acquainted with now would be the timberlake guy, Rihanna, Avril Lavigne, the Jonas brothers , Spice Girls, S Club 7.Oh and the TV show "Gossip Girl" for your information... thankfully the britney spears thing has faded ..
it is not easy being a "teen", I tell u..

Hey, that's interesting, Elise. I was pretty much the same in high school. As it was, I was really only on the outer edges of the "exciting crowd" anyway, so being a geek didn't do me much damage that wasn't already done. However, at home it was a bit different. All my friends were being rebellious by playing Rolling Stones records up loud and annoying their parents - I was being rebellious by playing Stravinsky and other 20thC music up loud, the more discordant the better. My parents must have wondered what on earth they'd spawned, but they were very tolerant - they never once yelled "turn that Rite of Spring rubbish down!"

But I did rather like Roy Orbison (that dates me) - and I guess if listening to him sometimes now for nostalgia's sake is a guilty pleasure, then I'm guilty ...

I don't feel guilty about it, but I have a weakness for Prog rock and Prog-metal:

Genesis
ELP
Spock's Beard
Jethro Tull
Rush
Kansas
Yes
Riverside
Porcupine Tree
Dream Theater
Fates Warning
Queensryche
Opeth

MUSE MUSE MUSE MUSE MUSE MUSE MUSE MUSE MUSE


I also like underground rap artists like Immortal technique, and DIablolic. There are some mainstream rappers i like too like Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco.

Faith No More
GNR
Pearl Jam
Blind Melon
Living Colour
Dubstar
Republica


Nothing to be guilty about though they were/are great bands.

Acts I'll admit to liking within the "hallowed" realms of the Pianist Corner:

Tears for Fears
The Clash
Rufus Wainwright
Panic At The Disco

Metllica
Dream Theater
Ozzy
Rush
Explosions in the Sky
Russian Circles
Apocalyptica

but still none of them are known for simplistic music

Depeche Mode
Joni Mitchell
60s through 80s pop, soul, disco, funk, new wave, synthpop

Steven

I love Rufus Wainwright he has such style and an expressive voice with seemingly little effort.

My high school students asked me what kind of music I listen to. Is it oldies? I said yes, oldies, very OLD. They were very perplexed when I said the oldies I listen to are between 500 and 75 years old.

I've been known to deviate a little: blue grass and acoustic guitar but that's pretty rare.

I too find pop music either does not interest me or just plain irritates me. IMO the skill level of pop musicians and the complexity and richness of the music they play just does not approach that classical music or musicians. I can appreciate that many find pop music speaks to them emotionally but I find most of it to be skill-less, repetitive and boring.

(I'm waiting to be blasted for saying this.)

I used to listed to Die Ärzte and Die Toten Hosen a lot, specially while I was learning German. I like the 80-90's CD's better than the late recordings, though. And I've seen Rammstein live twice
Right now I'm more into In Extremo and Subway to Sally.


4 more names to add to the list:

Placebo
Garbage
The Rasmus
Subway to Sally

I listen to a ton of bands already listed (and also, admittedly, have not heard of a lot of them also!) but I just wanted to add my personal current favorite, Pink Floyd, to the running. Not that I feel guilty about it.

The Monster Mash
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Little Shop of Horrors
Cats
Cat Stevens
Elton John
The Police

I don't get offended very often, but 'guilty pleasures'? ...wow

It actually hurts that on the forums there are a couple handfuls of very talented musicians that, due to their intellectualism, elitism, 'properism' (or whatever it is), they starve themselves of the rest of the world's beautiful music... and when they do they consider them 'guilty pleasures'?




Annnnyways The list would be too long to put down,,, but here are some:


Tom Waits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wfamPW3Eaw

The Handsome Family:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99gdFUDleEU

John Prine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEy6EuZp9IY

Sleep (this is one of the best youtube videos out there )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj9IAvv32wE

Earth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtwZXNIFPrU

Josh Ritter (this video is with Hillary Hahn)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6IORb4PRZ0

Electric Wizard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO7VP34n2Ps

Dry Branch Fire Squad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsAymFfpdUc

Drive-by truckers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPihc9a_3vI

Sunn o))) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS53zy-DPF8


You name it, I love it!

You guys should also hear The ****ing Champs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3b3EcFNGGg

heroic band

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Coldplay and O.A.R.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yBXUDNiUKR4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nzgd51nWfgU

Great music.

Muse
Radiohead
Weezer

Job for a Cowboy
Dillinger Escape Plan
Unearth
August Burns Red
Between the Buried and Me

Obsidian Gate, Nokturnal Mortum, Dimmu Borgir, Gorgoroth, Mayhem, Deathspell Omega, Summoning, Emperor and **** and Ball Torture to name a few. I prefer them to classical composers.

You can tell how long ago my teens and twenties were from this list, probably (and also, there ain't no guilt about enjoying any of it):

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Miles Davis (especially the electric stuff the jazz purists hate)
Janis Joplin
Jeff Beck
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Jimi Hendrix
Laura Nyro
John Cale
The United States of America
Jon Hassell
Joni Mitchell
Prince
Mr. Bungle
The Flaming Lips
Brian Eno
Richard Thompson
The Stones and the Beatles, of course
CSNY
Neil Young
Buffalo Springfield
The Soft Machine
Steely Dan
Fairport Convention
Velvet Underground
Nico
Can
Procol Harum
The Moody Blues
Led Zep
Aphex Twin
Jethro Tull
Blue Cheer
Grateful Dead
Willie Alexander (and his Persistence of Memory Orchestra)
John Scofield
Anders Osborne
Taraf de Haïdouks
Ry Cooder
Van Dyke Parks
and on and on...

I don't have recordings of many of these people, but just know them from radio, TV, concerts, friends, and the internet. Miles, Jon Hassell, and Captain Beefheart are the ones I have lots of recordings of (odd, two of the three are trumpeters, which I'd never thought of before now).

Dudes, the best prog-rock band if you´re a pianist, is the band KayaK from holland! They´re mainly a 70s band, pretty unknown (which is so unfair one feels like crying), but in some ways the only prog band I know to have their focus on expressing emotions rather than flashiness.

Almost every track has some really original pianowork, especially some of the lenghty intros and ballades. Check out the track Royal bed bouncer or Evocation for a perfect introduction! (Although, it´s too obsucre for you tube I´m afraid).

This is my favorite band in the whole rock-genre, though they´re not quite as prog as my other faves Yes, Genesis and ELP, but KayaK easily surpasses them in terms of content and musicality.

But since you're merely "listing" certain acts, perhaps -from San Francisco alone- you forgot:

Jefferson Airplane
Great Society
Country Joe & The Fish
Santana
Moby Grape
Tikis
Mojo Men
Knight Riders
It's a Beautiful Day
Blues Project
Hot Tuna
Quicksilver Messenger
New Riders of the Purple Sage

Don't tell me you didn't trip out to one of the greatest voices of the era, Grace Slick? And certainly you remember Moby Grape's original album cover?

Whatever, it helps that I have an American mother raised in the Pacific Northwest. She remembers the San Francisco stuff, and I in turn was raised with it also.

To this day, albums by the Airplane, Santana, Quicksilver, and The Blues Project (how underrated they were!) are part of my CD collection.

Blue Cheer is one of my favorite bands from that San Francisco scene... they paved a lot of ground that the later stoner rock bands would walk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTiRNvZwvoE

Aye, thanks for the link. Superb stuff!

But I had to grab my Blues Project CD anthology, and to this day it makes for superb listening. Their first LP, "Projections" just said it all -remember "Two Trains Running"?- and their second and final LP was "Planned Obsolescence".

A very sad departure, those West Coast boys were so talented. Okay, they didn't come within a mile of Jefferson Airplane or The Doors in LA, but I feel they never got the recognition they deserved.

Such a tragedy. I must have been all of 7 years old when I first heard the Blues Project -how exciting it was!- yet alas, the next year I heard Liszt's Eb and all bets were off.

Chico Marx!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kDHD4Bs_EI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cneZbh2vx0Y

Why do you make that assumption?
All I can say is that I've heard of/read some of the names mentioned on the posts in this thread so far, but there's not one that I have ever listened to.

What am I missing?

Regards,

A simple click of the link Bruce ,,, try some of those!

Because I can read?

Hehe, you say you aren't easily offended, but given your reaction to this thread title, I'd say I must disagree.

Clearly, none of us in this thread who are making long lists of non-classical music that we love are "starving ourselves" of other music. I used the term guilty pleasures only as an indication that the music I listed was enjoyable despite not being very intellectually stimulating. I just like it because it makes me laugh/smile/wanna dance/whatever.

It's kind of like calling a McDonald's hamburger a guilty pleasure. The food is tasty, although much higher quality food exists and I try to eat it more often. Or enjoying the movie "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" even though you know it's low brow humor. Guilty pleasure-pretty apt (and harmless) designation I thought.

Guilty is a heavy word,,, it assumes that part of your conscience knows you ought not do what you've done. Now give me a reason you ought not listen to any particular music.

The thing is, music is like people.

Each one of us has a beautiful body and a shimmering soul and personality. We each, before going off to our day, dress ourselves in a certain way. Sometimes people put on overalls and boots, sometimes people put on a suit and tie, etc etc. Classical music fans, I feel (too often), spend all the energy of their minds focusing on the delicate weavings, the intricate colors of it's clothing and forget that it (like all people) is a beautiful thing at core.

Saying you feel guilty about listening to a particular kind of music is somewhat like saying you feel guilty or ashamed spending time with a particular kind of person. It is a vile thing to think/say, and usually it's based on some form of thinking you are better.

And I say they starve themselves without guilt because I believe if you are a MUSICIAN, the naked body and naked soul of the music is what you love and what you are hungry for... if you are a 'classical music fan',,, you are hungry for more complex patterns and more structure and form of dress.

Sorry to come of as brash,,, but it deeply offends me that you think one music is of a higher quality than other. Pretention will get the world nowhere

The wonder and the beauty,,, the true spirit of music can be bound by nothing. It appears in all cultures, and all musics.

I love reggae

I can't think of anything more interesting or unique than Smashing Pumpkins or Nine Inch Nails. I am always quite shocked to see that people never mention these bands in threads like this one.

Anything with words or lyrics is adulterated in the greatest sense possible. What classical composers have accomplished is to create a music born out of reason. I can say with certainty that by and large circumstance does not influence one's appreciation of classical music. In other words, if you like classical music, you like it. If you're happy, you like it. If you're sad, you still like it. If you're angry, you like it just as much.
really cant say the same of other genres because in classical music, the music itself engenders the emotion and subsequent appreciation, not the other way around.

Alison Krause
Eva Cassidy
Crosby Stills and Nash
Seals and Crofts
Dire Straits
Bob Dylan

Yet you do[/b] understand, L'echange, that my remarkable discovery of the Liszt Eb only added to what I had loved before... priorities were not necessarily adjusted.

@cherub_rocker1979= let me guess your two favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs.....Cherub Rock and 1979. I"m a huge pumpkins fan.....but I didnt care for zietgiest or whatever their new "back together" album is called. I also like Musical Starstreams. It 's on during the wee hours of the morning on a local jazz station. Bruce, you might like it!!

web page

Of course Argerichfan! One cannot weigh the value of a remarkable musical experience by it's style or genre, but by it's musical importance in your life. Some songs of Tom Waits have moved me more than some of Mozarts works and vice versa. ...and it's hard not to have a profound experience with that piece .

Hey, thanks to your post, I had to steal the planned obsolescence LP from my mom for a couple days (never heard it). Turtle Dove is a really cool track, but I didn't like this album half as much as Projections.

But try tripping out to Sleep's Dopesmoker, I just got the 2LP yesterday and it tastes soooo good! I really think Sleep is the 90s' answer to the San Francisco scene (but moreso a 2nd generation black sabbath/sabbath worship band):

(Jerusalem is a commercial and shortened version of Dopesmoker,,, a 63 minute tune ) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ0SHGFGKuE

I can't believe how this thread released such a flood of memories for me. I love it. And I can't believe that I left out some other musicians who I really love (or at least loved at one time), from my already lengthy list of musicians who mattered to me. So here's an addendum:

Cream
Blind Faith
Traffic
Derek and the Dominoes
Allman Bros. Band
Chet Baker
The Band
Carole King
Devo
Mothers of Invention
Little Feat
Dan Hicks, with various bands
Tim Buckley
Doobie Bros.
The Animals
Dionne Warwick/Bachrach
Sweetwater
Earth, Wind, and Fire
Laurie Anderson
Jimmy Smith
Talking Heads
Joe Cocker (especially with Leon Russell in the Mad Dogs and Englishmen flick)
Stevie Wonder (his "Fingertips, part 2" changed my entire consciousness about music, when I was a kid)
Sly and the Family Stone
Manhatten Transfer
The Lovin' Spoonful
Marvin Gaye
Sylvester
Antonio Carlos Jobim
Keith Jarrett
King Crimson

Oh, well, I'm sure there are more that will pop into my head over the next couple of days. Plus, there are many others that I remember with some interest but somehow aren't real favorites: Chicago, the Pointer Sisters, Leslie Gore, the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys, the Association, et al.

I'd never thought of this before, but it is really surprising to me that, within the time frame covered, I probably am aware of more non-classical music created during that time period than classical. And I think of myself generally as MUCH more involved in classical than non-classical. Weird.

Sorry to come off as equally brash, but you need to chill out, for real. There are so many perfectly offensive things in the world, to take such exception to such an obviously innocent thread title is rather silly, don't you think?

But while we're talking: You say two things I couldn't disagree with more. First, you take offense to my statement that some music is better than other music. Clearly, you see all music as being equal in value. I believe you are wrong, here. This doesn't mean one is wrong to enjoy music of lesser value; however, Beethoven, by all reasonable standards and possible measures, IS BETTER than the music of the Bloodhound Gang. Does that mean you can't be moved by or enjoy the music of the Bloodhound Gang? Of cousre not. But there are differences of value. Just as, as I used in an example before, we can accept that a McDonald's burger is food of lower quality than a Filet Mignon from Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in New York. Just as we can accept that Shakespeare is of greater literary value, or BETTER THAN the latest grocery store checkout aisle romance novel.

So, assuming that value does exist, and that some things are better than others, we examine your other statement, that pretension, by definition the "assigning of value or merit" to things, gets the world nowhere. I couldn't disagree more. Again, I'm not asserting that something must be of supreme quality to be enjoyed; sometimes a Big Mac is all I really want to eat, sometimes I want to watch a dumb sci-fi flick and yes, sometimes I want to listen to the Bloodhound Gang. However, to fail to recognize some things as being better than others would slow any real progress in humanity. Why do we remember and celebrate the music of Bach hundreds of years after its composition, whereas Britney Spears's work is not likely to be heard a century from now? Because Bach's music is better. It's worth saving and sharing with future generations, and indeed building upon.

Some things are better than others. We all celebrate "great art." In order for something to be "great," however, it must be in comparison to something that is...well...not great.

With you 100%. And lets not think it's 'just a bit of fun'. Language is no toy. Innocent CC? It's as serious as your life.

Only at PianoWorld can such a simple topic can create such a heated debate. :rolleyes:

i actually like and listen to basically everything and anything except black metal and simple plan. i hate typing, i much prefer talking so i can use exaggerated hand gestures to help explain what i am trying to say, but here i will do my best. i'm 18 so for me, the opposite of classical in this context would be contemporary music eg Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Linkin Park, Blink 182, Sum 41, etc.

i get bored very, very fast with contemporary music. mostly because i tend to over-listen to it. if i hear something i like, i'll just listen to it everyday for a week and then get bored with it. (except Justin Timberlake's LoveStoned. it's AWESOME!!) of course this does not apply to ALL contemporary music, but MOST of them.

however, i never feel this way about classical music. when i heard the 18th variation of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, i just listened to it over and over and over for years and NEVER got sick of it. i don't know why! this is not to say i never tire of it, some days i just don't feel like listening and dislike it for a while but it never lasts for more than 2/3 days. no matter how much classical music i listen to, be it the same piece or different pieces, i always enjoy it.

but if i had to listen to Rihanna's freakin Umbrella song another time, i swear i will kill someone and cook my neighbour's dog for dinner. i just find most contemporary music a bit annoying after a while! but this is probably due to the fact that it's EVERYWHERE - unlike classical music which you only hear at certain places, so it's not as nauseating.

i don't necessarily prefer classical to contemporary, in spite of what i said earlier. contemporary music is very, very entertaining and enjoyable but classical music is so fulfilling and satisfying; i feel so many types of emotions i NEVER feel when listening to contemporary stuff. contemporary music is so...temporary. they last like, 2 weeks on the charts and people forget it ever existed. but classical music is still quite alive (i hope) and i think there is a reason for that.

i think it is mainly because classical music invokes emotions which many contemporary songs today do not. granted, Eminem's When I'm Gone makes me so, so sad, but i said MANY, not ALL. today's society is so full of sex, drugs, pregnant teenage girls, and rubbish, it's all reflected in the music produced. it's all about clubbing, parties, booze, taking your clothes off, going to jail, blah blah blah and we hear all these in a lot of today's music.

i think this is the one criteria which separates classical from contemporary. (aside from the fact that contemporary music usually contains words, and would sound really, REALLY bland without a singer. which, to deviate a little, is another reason i think classical music is so enduring: it captures the whole essence of what music is really all about. MUSIC. without words. we don't need words. there are no cultural barriers, no language barriers, nothing. just music for all to enjoy.) societies are becoming increasingly dynamic and fluid that nothing really sticks around for long. theres just a power in classical music which is absent in today's music. classical music is superior to mankind, it has been and will be around for a long, long time; but today, contemporary music is reduced to matters too trivial to last as long.

just what i think, so don't attack if you disagree! they're both so diverse, TOO different, in fact, i feel they're actually incomparable. it's quite pointless to do so, and i don't know why i just typed an essay. blarghh. of course we all know classical is not for everyone, which is why i think we're all very lucky to be able to appreciate what others can't. or won't. we're lucky.

that said, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE IS HOT!


(i'm going to regret this a few years later but what the heck.)

ahhh...Es, then there's............................................................................................................................................................................. ...............................................................
.................................................................................................................................................................................... .................................................................................................................................................................................... ...................................................................................................
...................................Kapustin.

XDXD

Not guilty for me, I just like them and listen to them alot, apart from classical.

Loreena McKennit
Mike Oldfield
Genesis
The Cranberries
Nightwish
Jean-Michel Jarre
Deep Purple
Jon Lord

and so on ...


M.

Loreena McKennitt of course, I almost forgot.

She was yasterday in Barcelona, BTW

I am amazed that no one in this thread has mentioned Björk.

I've loved her work since her debut solo album here (1993). I think she does a good job of being an "experimental" artist (from the mainstream perspective) while still producing very listenable music. She is perhaps a step farther along a path that included Laurie Anderson in the 80s.

For the curious, here is excellently-written medium-length article about her from Alex Ross at The New Yorker and here is her Wikipedia entry.

And I have to agree with several other posters, "guilty" is not quite right--this artist is just someone I cannot always discuss meaningfully with my "classical music" friends, much as I cannot discuss classical music with my "mathematics" friends, etc.

In my non-classical time, I enjoy film scores very much.

-Thomas Newman
-John Williams
-Philip Glass

They certainly aren't guilty pleasures, though.

Yeah, me too, now that you have pointed it out. She's way more interesting than most.

I heard Björk, once on a recording played on the radio, trying to sing a standard ballad - I don't remember what it was, but it was a well-known song from the 30s or 40s. What I do remember was that her pitch was badly off through the whole song, she couldn't muster up enough breath to get through a phrase without gasping, and her voice was as pleasant as a file on a rusty saw.

Her "interpretation" gave the impression that she had no idea what the words meant, she sounded like the most rank amateur with no musical sense, and for this - I thought - she gets paid?

I know you can't judge an "artist" from one recording, but, give me a break, OK? This was just garbage!

Regards,

I've always kindof liked Bjork. I love the way she phrases her lines. I saw her last year in NYC, and it was a great show.

A cool tune from a somewhat cool movie, dancer in the dark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNysuGZYDCY

and the original recording from the album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyNBrnzvXVU&feature=related

I wouldn't worry about it, Bruce. Yes, Björk is quite popular -she sells a lot of CDs- but she is certainly not to everyone's fancy... and one can definitely understand why.

The CD to avoid at all costs is Gling-Gló, her "jazz" album dating from 1990, three years before her official debut album, called (appropriately) Debut.

All but two of the songs are sung in Icelandic (that could be a good thing), but the sound of her voice is utterly past bearing, all the appeal of a temperamental, screeching child at the local mall.

No thank-you.

Knuckles O'Toole and the Gang

Sorry mate, we'll have to agree to disagree!

Anyone heard of Unexpect? Certainly the most technical and diverse music I've ever heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Lpds1P6sg

I have listened to their In a Flesh Aquarium one hundred times and there is still new things to discover.

Right. We Bjork fans are all just into garbage. Nice explanation, really simple one, too...

Funny you should say that, wr. I thought about mentioning Garbage too, some of their work was truly impressive (super-slick production values, lush "wall of sound" effect, etc.) but interesting productive output lasted only a few years. Björk seems to have better staying power and a pretty grand long-term vision.

BruceD, many people feel the same about many contemporary (20th century - present) "artists" whether music composers or, say, painters or sculpters. In fact, I often feel that way. But it's possible that I haven't heard or seen work of theirs which would appeal to me, I may not be "deep enough to get it", or it's possible that they're just not to my liking in general. So I refrain from declaiming all such work worthless.

We, the great unwashed, do deeply appreciate the sharing here in the fora of authoritative, all-encompassing judgement of what's good and worthy and what's not.

Kool and the Gang!

Steven

smashing pumpkins

Guilty pleasures?

I seem to like the lion's share mentioned so far, and bagpipe music (I am of Irish and Scottish heritage on my mum's side of the family). Though I have been listening to Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider and Chilliwack in my mp3 player as well.

- Mark

OK, so this is what you like to do in your spare time, but what about music you like to listen to?

(- Society for Prevention of Violence to Vegetables)

Boira - great list of symphonic metal bands, I learned more from you than already knew ;-)

You can add in that genre "Almora" a Turkish metal band. Best harmony in 17ths (bass-soprano) I've heard for long time - in '1945'.

Also (older rock with symphonic links):
- Procol Harum (mostly known for 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' but I delight in 'Repent Walpurgis')
- Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, ELP, Mike Oldfield, Scorpions
- metal like ManOWar, Ozzy Osborne...

If I feel 'guilty' of some music, it would be ABBA and Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus' continuations (Chess, Kristina fran Duvemala, Helen Sjoholm, BAO!). Now feels back cheesy-popular with the release of Mamma Mia ! the movie (can you imagine Meryl Streep sing soulfully ? yes, she does!).
And their like (girl harmony): A la Carte, Maywood, Pussycat... and most Swedish country/dansband.

Couldn't agree more!

I barely recognized a few band names here and there...
I strongly recommend Yann Tiersen, he's really very good, he usually writes instrumental music, but he did a few soundtracks (amelie poulain, goodbye lenin for example)

For non-classical music, I'm more on the alternative rock side, i'm not sure it's called alternative, but it's that light, smart music you don't get fed up with after a few loops:
massive attack, muse, arctic monkeys, noir desir are just a few

My really[/b] guilty pleasure is Lacuna coil, an italian metal band with a cute lead singer who write absolute crap but for some reason i still like them (that some reason being a long story involving a crush on an italian girl back in high school :p )

Never heard of them before, but I'll search for some of their CD's.

I love these posts, you always get to know new music and make great discoveries

Sorry, double post.

Triple post! Somebody stop me, I'm out of control.

nice!