Ok, Most of us probably listen to music. We probably all have different tastes. (Well, if everybody was the same, life would be boring. No wounder debating here at AD is so much fun. )

So the questions are the following:
What is/are your favorite band(s) or musician(s)?
What is/are your favorite song(s)?
What is/are your favorite genre(s) of music?
And if you want to, state why you answered the above questions way you did.



Edited to add:
My favorite bands or musicians are KJ-52 and Thousand Foot Krutch.
My favorite songs are "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Why" by KJ-52.
My favorite genres of music are, well, verity from Rock to Country.

I like "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Why" because of the lyrics and the beat. Also, I would sugest you to listen to "Why". It is funny if you realy listen to it.

WOW! I could just about fill a page answering those questions, but I'll try not to do that. I don't think I could live without music. I grew up playing trombone and I've played in big bands and our community concert band. In elementary and high school, I picked up a few other brass and woodwind instuments as well. I also play bagpipes.

As to genres, I would have to go with:

My #1 favorite genre would probably be early and Swing-Era Jazz and Blues. I would include sub-genres like Boogie-Woogie, Jump Blues, Swing Blues, etc. in that as well. If it's a good tune for a Lindy Hop, it would be in that list. That's where 'Hepcat' came from. Some of my favorite artists from that genre are Louis Armstrong, Count Basie (got his autograph in '74), Benny Goodman, Cab Calloway, Louis Jourdan, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Fletcher Henderson, etc. Some of my favorite tunes are In The Mood, One O'Clock Jump, and Moten Swing. They're all GREAT Lindy Hop tunes.

#2 in my list of favorite genres would have to be Punk Rock, with bands like The Clash, Stiff Little Fingers and The Pogues just to name a few.

I would have to say #3 would be Ska. My favorite Ska bands are The Skatalites, Madness, The Scofflaws, New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble, and The Specials.

I also like classical music. I've got all 9 of Beethoven's symphonies on CD. His 9th Symphony always reminds me of the movie A Clockwork Orange.

I still listen to some 60s and 70s rock and roll, too. Neil Young, The Who and Jethro Tull have always faves from that era.

Like I said, I could go on forever, but I'll just leave it at the basics for now.

QUOTE

What is/are your favorite band(s) or musician(s)?
What is/are your favorite song(s)?
What is/are your favorite genre(s) of music?

1. The Broadway songwriter Stephen Sondheim.

2. I could list any number of Sondheim songs, but my single favorite is probably "Someone in a Tree," from the musical Pacific Overtures.

3. Musicals.

Good questions, but ones that are very hard to answer. Let me sort of mix them up, and divide things up by genre.

Classical

I tend to like instrumental music more than vocal music, and I tend to like chamber music more than orchestral music. Some of the most profound moments in my life having been spent at live concerts of a small group of musicians.

I tend to prefer the Baroque and Classical periods, although there are wonderful works from all eras. I do not claim to be anything of an expert on music, so my favorite composers tend to be the Usual Suspects: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and so on.

If you back me into a corner and ask me to name one work as a personal favorite, it would have to be "The Swan" from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens, which is heartbreakingly lovely.

Classic Rock

Also known as "old stuff that I like." This would be a mixed bag of the British Invasion (Stones, Zeppelin, Tull, Who, and so on) and psychedelia (Hendrix, Airplane, etc.) Late 1960's to early 1970's, mostly.

[Note how I can fake being an expert by giving shortened versions of names.]

If I have to name my favorite classic rock song, it would be "Satisfaction."

Alternative

Which might also be called "modern rock that isn't lousy." There's no particular pattern here. I like the dreamy romantic Gothism of October Project as much as the nihilistic frenzy of Nine Inch Nails or the quirky surrealism of They Might Be Giants. Possibly I tend to like solo female artists the best, since some of my favorites are Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, and Bjork.

It would be very hard to name a favorite, but let's go with "Isobel" by Bjork, which sends shivers up and down my spine.

What is/are your favorite band(s) or musician(s)?

Well, my taste is pretty varied overall, but my favorite genre is definitely R&B, particularly the more soulful stuff commonly referred to as 'neo-soul'. Most of my favorite all -time artists come from that genre: D'Angelo (neo-soul pioneer), Raphael Saadiq, John Legend, Anthony Hamilton, Amel Larrieux, Glenn Lewis, Calvin Richardson, Angie Stone, Jill Scott, Floetry, Lyfe, etc. Stevie Wonder is one of my two favorite artists (along with D'Angelo).

Outside of the 'neo-soul' R&B, I like jazz, Motown, and some hip hop/rap (the 'intellectual' stuff, mostly, though I do like certain mainstream hip hop anthems solely based on their beats). Favorite hip hop/rap artists would be Digable Planets, Wu Tang Clan, and Common. Also like reggae and reggaeton (Spanish reggae) - Bob Marley, of course. And classical (Chopin, Tchaikovsky, & Prokofiev are by far my favorites)...and Afro-cuban/Latin (Afro Cuban All Stars, Gipsy Kings, Los Munequitos de Matanzas)...and various other 'world' music artists: Cheb Khalid and all sorts of random Arabic music artists, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Fela Kuti thanks to quarkhead's recommendation, and a bunch more) .

What is/are your favorite song(s)?

Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer, If You Really Love Me, My Cherie Amour, Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder)
Send it On, Higher, Spanish Joint (D'Angelo)
A Song for You (Donny Hathaway)
PYT, Don't Stop Till You Get Enough, Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson)
Change is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke)
For Real (Amel Larrieux)
Girl from Ipanema, Desafinado (Stan Getz)
Spain (Chick Corea)
Misty, Lady Be Good (Ella Fizgerald)
practically the entire Get Lifted album (John Legend)
No Rain (Blind Melon)
More Bounce to the Ounce (Roger & Zapp)
Atomic Dog (George Clinton)
When Doves Cry, Kiss (Prince)
Three Little Birds (Bob Marley)
Poloniase no 6 "Heroic" op. 53 (Chopin)
Arabian Dance (from the Nutcracker)
Peter and the Wolf (Prokofiev)
Sleep to Dream (Fiona Apple)
Don't Say (Jon
Heart of Glass (Blondie)
Never Felt This Way (Brian McKnight)
He Loves Me (Jill Scott)
Nothing at All (Santana f. Musiq)

I LOVE music and have tons of 'favorite' songs depending on my mood, so I know I left some of my favorites off...

What is/are your favorite genre(s) of music?

'neo-soul', R&B (Motown-era stuff), jazz, funk, reggae, Afro-Cuban, hip hop, classical

The only styles of music I don't like much at all are metal/hardcore stuff and most country (though I like a lot of country singers' voices, I don't much care for the music). I'm not too fond of most techno either (same bass beat pretty much throughout...makes it pretty boring for percussionists ), though one of my college friends' roommates played a lot of jungle and some of it was not too bad.

I also dig a lot of "neo-soul" but I have to be in the mood for it. Being from Chicago, I'm biased towards John Legend - love his new CD - cool harmonies with Kanye West straight-up hip hop production style. And being a fan of early hip hop, I remember Angie Stone when she was gonna Funk U right on up as "Angie B - hey, that's me, I'm rhyming in the key of R-A-P" in a female rap group called The Sequence. All I need is the boombox on my shoulder for that one.

I'm all over the board from straight-up jazz, mostly be-bop (Parker, Coltrane), to latin jazz / Afro-Cuban stuff like Arturo Sandoval, Paquito DiRivera and Tito Puente...

Also some ska...The Specials, Madness, 311 and Sublime mostly.

I'm a complete freak for Prince, which means I've bought like 30 albums, as the guy is prolific. Musicology was a very pleasant return to roots for "The Artist."

Also I love old rap - Public Enemy, some West Coast gangta rap, and the original New York stuff like Eric B and Rakim or Doug E Fresh. Had an interesting time with 3 (white like me) friends at a Big Daddy Kane show 4 or 5 years ago - he had 8 local pimps on stage at one point... I don't know what happened in the 90's but there is very little new rap I can stand, exceptions being the older-sounding stuff like Cypress Hill or Jurassic Five, Beastie Boys and some Jay-Z. I also like old skool funk like P-Funk, Bootsy Collins, Maceo Parker, James Brown. It always used to be fun to listen to rap and "spot the sample" where they lifted the original beat or music track.

Rock - some heavy metal from new groups like Disturbed and Godsmack fuels my running and workouts. Along with more modern-rock like Poi Dog Pondering, Tragically Hip and Wilco. I see T-Hip every chance I get, even though no one outside of Canada has heard of them. T-Hip is what R.E.M culd be if R.E.M didn't suck.

I couldn't possibly list my favorite songs, but lately I've been more into singer/songwriter stuff like Warren Zevon, Bruce Cockburn, John Hyatt, etc. I must be getting OLD!

Old Stuff: ERIC CLAPTON! He is the greatest guitarist of all-time, yes, including Hendrix. I could listen to any one of his CD's for hours, especially when he was with Cream...Crossroads, Layla, Cocaine [my personal favorite], Change the World, She's Wating, I could go on forever...He's the best. The Allman Bro's are up there also, but only a few songs...Midnight Rider is one of my favorites...ever. Ray Charles, Led Zepplin also.

As for modern music, I'm with Vicky...Alternative=Good rock. I like Godsmack, Disturbed, REM, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Dave Mathews Band is great, Blues Traveler, Creed when they were together [how does a Christian Rock band split up?], Green Day. I think I'm the only person I know who haaaates The Eagles.

I love some rap too, I have a very varied taste in music, my iTunes library spans form the Charlie Daniels Band to Jay-Z and Mos Def.


Oh, God, this is impossible.

Cocaine-Clapton
The Last Stop-Dave Matthews
Pity for a Dime-Creed
It's the End of the World as We know it [the national anthem of cynicism]-REM
If I could Change the world-Clapton
Midnight Rider-Allman Brothers
Tusk-Fleetwood Mac
Funk #49- James Gang
Hook-Blues Traveller
Jessica-Allman Bro's
Cry Freedom-Dave Matthews [I normally don't look for songs with great lyrics...but wow]

On edit: Ack! I forgot: Sunshine of Your Love-Cream
Crossroads-Cream
White Room-Cream
I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home-Grand Funk Railroad

CP