its influenced everything i listen to

Deeper answer, with more truth: Steely Dan

no question that record set me off on a path from which I'll never return. Little Richard, Sandy Denny, arabic music, prog, Memphis Minnie .. all in that record. The Doors a close second.

Now I know. But I listen to the rock records less. But I may not have taken that path w/o those classic rock warhorses to guide me.

And... well... that's not even it, exectly. I've also heard Howlin' Wolf, but that doesn't diminish my enjoyment of Beefheart or Tom Waits. What I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, is that I have learned through careful listening that Zeppelin and the Doors suck. They just (it's all I can do right now not to apologize for this opinion) suck. They weren't very talented, save for John Bonham. I might even make an exception for Jimmy Page, but I would argue that he was past his prime by the time he got to Zep. And as for Jim Morrison... he has come to symbolize much that I hate about the world. He's pretentious in the worst, most empty way. His songwriting is thin, and to call it "derivative" is almost a compliment. Hate that guy. Fucking hate him. And I hate the part of me that ever liked him.

blandly derivative = excitingly recombinant

Growing up on a ranch with bluegrass pickin' neigbors and ready access to washboards, fiddles, guitars, etc. Voracious consumption of mail order music catalogs. Headbanger's Ball (Nuclear Assault and Nirvana on the same night). Japanese Noise compilation. Ligetti. Eric Dolphy. Many other things along the way for many different reasons.

I mean my own personal experience of violence and the perpetual threat of violence, at home, at school, on the street, etc. Not as an abstract idea, but as a concrete daily reminder of mortality, passion, and the extremes of human capability (both in terms of beauty and brutality). Most of my musical choices reflect these extremes in one way or another...with the occasional and necessary escape into bubblegum for respite.

I think Beefheart's 'Trout mask replica' changed things for me. All of a sudden I wasn't 'afraid' of trying 'new' things. I stopped thinking in terms of emotion. I stopped listening to songs (in the conventional sense anyway, though melody is important but not the only thing).

from there I went to free jazz, modern classical, musique concrete, improv.

Trout Mask Replica seems to be a key to many people's opening up in terms of what musical structures, tones, and colors they are able to appreciate. Classic dividing line for many people. I still think this is an album tinged with emotion though*...especially compared with the mathematical-basis of the works of Anthony Braxton, for example...then again I read emotions into the wind in the trees.

*As further evidenced by comparisons of TMR era Beefheart to U.S. Maple, whose performances are like an aborted exorcism of ill-defined primordial emotions...the precedents of fear, disgust, martyrdom, tension, etc.

That's pretty much the seed for everything I listen to now. K Herbert is OTM re Zepelin & the Doors, by the way

now i love pretty much all music - electronica, hip-hop, rock, metal, funk, jazz, punk etc...

i guess hendrix did shape my early tastes a lot (led zep, pixies - guitar stuff), but becuase he encompassed so many genres it lead me to funk and jazz, electronica etc.

That and Spacemen 3, who got me out seeking out all kinds of related/inspired/historical stuff. I'd heard some of the MC5 and Stooges material before, a little Velvets and the like, but nothing whacked me over the head to start digging before _Playing with Fire_, though i heard that first at a relatively quiet New Year's party. Well, quiet except for the guy whizzing off the balcony and then trying to walk home through the scrub. Same guy. Weighed considerably more than the other partygoers, too, making the whole process a bit more difficult.

And of course Peter Buck was all about namedropping influences. So by the time I was 13 I was listening to all sorts that I would blindly buy after reading that Peter Buck liked them. VU, Mission of Burma, Television, Dbs, Pylon, Feelies, Patti Smith. I would say if it wasn't for REM I wouldn't have had that history leeson that early on. I was a weird girl.

'emotion' is one dodgy word to me when used in criticism. Few discuss emotions in music. Music seems to either have emotion or it doesn't. Music which hasn't is usually damned for it.

I really enjoy some of the Braxton I've heard.

Haha -- that's the way I learned about Television, Patti Smith, and Mission of Burma.

The Smiths, The World Won't Listen

Public Enemy, It Takes A Nation...

The Orb, "Little Fluffy Clouds"

B. B. King on TV hitting that one big B.B. King guitar note, over and over, that big B.B. King ring vibrating, that did it.

For pop, "Radio City."

is that too many? they're all absolutely vital to my continuing all-consuming LOVE.

20 minuts after writing the first two lines of this post i think
its absolutly twisted, there's absolutly no consensus to it for me

I wonder if there was something that explains why I like the pop and rock music I do. Hmm. This is an interesting question.

Awww man, I thought you were talking about Vio-lence!

As for me, taking in Mr. Bungle's Disco Volante at an early age probably did immeasurable damage. (Zorn, Japanese noise, Morricone) Later, Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works vol. 2.

kieth jarrett "facing you" i don't rate him at all now but...my first exposure to improv/solo piano and bloody hell this isn't difficult music, is it?

Sex Pistols. music in socially aware scenius shocka.

NME circa 1982. Ian Penman/Paul Morley. (I seem to remember Penman did a review of the Police live where he just bit Barthes Death of the Author & replaced the word author with the word Sting!)

Street Sounds comps. Slick contemporary black dance. Couldn't STOP listening.

Chuck Eddy. Genre/Granola essay in the Wire.

Certain drugs.

Gilles Peterson playing Inner City Life. Summer 94.

Also, discovering punk rock in middle school--bands like Minor Threat, Bad Religion and Black Flag turned me into a huge asshat.