The Defining Artist

[Shorty]

What would you consider to be the defining band/artist/composer/dj/whoever of your musical taste? What band did you discover that let you to cultivate the taste you now have?

I know that picking one would be difficult for many, so as a compromise let's try to stick to a handful or so.

[Jinx]

Just one name for me: Tori Amos. I first listened to her when I was six years old and fell in love. I listened to her CD over and over again. I think I lost it when I was eight, and that song still haunted me for years. When I was thirteen, I found out that my mom had a copy of the CD...I stole it, and the rest is history.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I would say Relient K. Some of my offline friends like to joke about them being the only thing I ever listen to just because they know I like them so much (despite the fact I actually haven't listened to them very much in a while).

Honestly, when I was a kid I grew up only listening to country music because that's all my mom listened to. When I say country, I mostly mean Garth Brooks. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a good chunk of my life as a young kid where I didn't know popular music existed outside of country music. Relient K was the first band that I really got into after that stage in my life, and that style of music has generally been my favorite ever since. It's also what really led me to branching out with the kinds of music I would listen to. I like a little bit everything now, and Relient K is the defining reason for that despite the fact that their latest album is absolute garbage.

[Minami]

L'arc en ciel. Back ten years or so ago I discovered Japanese music and randomly bought their album from eBay. I loved it and have listened to Japanese music ever since, my favourites being Dir en grey, X Japan and Mucc. I also love anything Hello! Project. I've only recently started listening to English language music again.

[AssassinDX]

Simple one for metal, Black Sabbath.

As for the band I discovered to get into the genre, believe it or not it was Kid Rock. A wrestler called The Undertaker used 'American Badass' (which samples Metallica's 'Sad But True') as his theme tune and I love it, so from there I got into nu-metal as a lot of kids did in the early 2000's and from there it gradually got heavier.

[Pike]

It was the late 80s, I was about five years old, and I was obsessed with this song by Cyndi Lauper (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GT9CmKbSrk). (I was also obsessed with "Bad" by Michael Jackson to a slightly lesser degree.) Now I only listen to cheesy 80s synth music.

Alternatively David feckin Whittaker and Rob Hubbard. I'd put a tape recorder up to our Commodore 64 computer, record the game soundtracks, and then carry the tape player around the house and use it as the soundtrack to my imagination.

ArUJtN8zN3g

I just love this synth/sawtooth stuff, it makes my heart soar in a way that no other music does

pxy3XBpFmV0

I genuinely tear up at this one, idgaf what anyone else thinks

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[Loony BoB]

My tastes have changed so notably over the years that I have such a "wide" taste in music. I genuinely wouldn't know where to begin. :(

[Night Fury]

Beyonce.

[Jessweeee♪]

I think Boom Boom Satellites with their wide range of styles if I had to choose one to represent them all.

[noxious.sunshine]

When I was little, I listened to 80's rock & country with my brother- Guns 'N Roses is probably most notable though.
Then Backstreet Boys & Britney Spears happened. And Spice Girls. <3

Around 98/99 after my dad bought me my PS1, I started buying PSM (PlayStation Magazine) & discovered Suzuki Ami in a little snippet (I still have that issue somewhere).. From there I fell in love with J-Pop, and eventually J-Rock (X Japan & Dir en Grey & hide are my favs) then K-Pop (Shinhwa!) & C-Pop (Joey Yung & Jay Chou).. I love Spanish banda/cumbia/duranguense too now, but Selena- Quintanilla, -not- Gomez is my all time favorite.

[Rantz]

If I had to pick just one defining artist, it can only really be Bob Dylan. Before I started listening to him my music taste was very... sporadic and flimsy. Like, one year I'd listen to pop music and be all "why would anyone listen to anything but pop it's what's popular so obviously best LOL" and next year "hmm metal is probably the one true genre for me, I'm only gonna listen to metal now" and then next year again I'm a hip hop fan. And I still today listen to all those things and many more, but it was only really during my Dylan period that I started paying attention to music, how it made me feel and sort of learned what I really like about music in general. Before that, music was nice to listen to and all but never really had any deeper significance to me than just that.

To this day Dylan is still my most listened artist (according to last.fm), and I guess in a way my tastes since then have sort of branched out from there. That's the best I've got!

[Slothy]

I know that picking one would be difficult for many, so as a compromise let's try to stick to a handful or so.

Tool.

Huh, guess that was easier than you expected.

[Spuuky]

I can do even better and narrow it down to one song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmq9T0MZ_RQ

[Calliope]

durrr (http://thecorner.co.nz/2012/05/23/top-ten-tracks-blur/)

[Shorty]

I have DK to thank for introducing me to Alkaline Trio eleven or twelve or so years ago (I do not remember) by taking 45 minutes to send me Hell Yes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWbrtXACEfQ) via my troutty dial-up connection. I don't know if I'd say that they'd led me to other bands that I liked, but I do think they helped me cultivate the taste for punk and alternative rock (and they remain one of my favorite bands).

Other than them, my first experiences of "holy trout what is this" go to the White Stripes when I heard Seven Nation Army (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J2QdDbelmY) and The Strokes' Reptilia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8-tXG8KrWs) for the first time when I was thirteen or fourteen or so. I clearly remember thinking "I need to find more music like this" while listening to both of these songs, and they ultimately kicked off my search for more alternative rock, which is the genre I would say I learn the most toward. The music videos themselves also might have had something to do with it, I was completely mesmerized by both the first time I saw them. MTV and VH1 midnight music videos did a lot for me as a teenager and probably had the most effect on my taste of music since discovering it (The Von Bondies, Jet, Incubus, The Killers, Chevelle, My Chemical Romance, Marilyn Manson, and many more).