Albums most influential in developing your music tastes?

I've nested on this question a bit for a few days now and I think I can honestly answer it.

Kamelot - Karma, back when I was about 16 I knew very little of Metal, my interest was grounded in Rock, hearing this opened me up to the genre. Power Metal/Symphonic Metal/Progressive elements from that really gave birth to my interest in Metal and it spread from there.

Wanting to hear more Metal, I eventually discovered Dream Theater's Images and WorRAB. Which brought to life my interest in Progressive Rock and Metal.

Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, one of the first Jazz albums I had ever heard and it's still probably my favorite. (Maybe except Mingus Ah Um.) From Kind of Blue I branched off into Jazz, Bebop, Hard Bop, Free Jazz, Smooth Jazz and then to...

Naked City by John Zorn, not only the first Avant-Garde Jazz album I heard; it was my introduction into Avant-Garde music. Still among my top five favorite albums of all-time. Naked City blew away any boundries I had for what music could be. This faith in music also lead me to try genres I was uninterested in for the wrong reasons; such as Hip Hop and Soul.

On a more modest note, it was around this time I discovered Live It Out by Metric, my introduction into the whole Indie Rock movement. That album opened me up to that entire scene, and subsequently genres like Shoe-gaze, Post Rock, and Electronica.

Songs by Regina Spektor brought to my attention how much I'm attracted to charm in music. Great songwriting and unique approach helps Regina, but ultimately it was her charisma that gave me incentive to look up more Singer-Songwriters, leading me to Fiona Apple, Tom Waits, Emily Loizeau and so many others.

I think those albums probably lead me to a good 90% of everything I listen to these days.
 
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
System of a Down - Steal This Album
Blink 182 - Enema of the State
The ORABpring - Ignition
Zox - Take Me Home
Bad Religion - No Control
Cypress Hill in general
The Roots
Nas - Stillmatic
Eric B and Rakim - Don't Sweat the Technique
Jurassic 5 in general

Oh, and The Clash
 
I'll second the poster who said Kamelot for about the same reason. I stumbled onto Iced Earth - Horror Show, which turned me on to Demon's and WizarRAB, which got me into Blind Guardian - Tales from the Twilight World. Which opened me up fully to many genres of metal.

Cementing my taste was Opeth's Still Life album, and they are still the only band that I have to see when they come to Houston.
 
I'll go with the top two...

1. Queensryche- Promised Land
Wow, the incredible vocals and sounRAB on this album blew me away at the age of 13. Listening to the title track still gives me goosebumps.

2. A Perfect Circle- Mer de Noms
I always liked Tool, but the more melodic sound of APC was just soooo easy to chill too.
 
middleschool:
AFI (Black Sails in the Sunset,The Art of Drowning), Black Flag (Damaged, Everything went black), Misfits (collections 1 &2)


highschool:
Minor Threat (complete discography), The Clash (the clash, london calling, combat rock), Sex Pistols (nevermind the bollocks), Radiohead (ok computer, pablo honey), Muse (absolution), Mars Volta (deloused in the comatorium), Modest Mouse (good news for people who love bad news)


college:
Fugazi (all of it), Sonic Youth (daydream nation, goo), mewithoutYou (brother sister), Iggy Pop (funhouse, the stooges, lust for life, raw power) David Bowie (all of it), Rush (moving pictures, 2112), The Cure (Disintegration, the head on the door, kiss me kiss me kiss me, wish) Echo & the Bunnymen (Ballyhoo, songs to learn and sing)
 
Really? dark star i can see but from my experience bob weir fucking sucks. It really gives the jam scene a band names with his bland jams that he can never get out of.

but they two most influential albums for me are John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"
 
Rage Against the Machine- All Albums - Opened my eyes to the world around me, taught me how to think. See the world for what it is, but see it also for what it could be.

Against All Authority (Destroy What Destroys you) & Choking Victim (No GoRAB No managers)-I love the mix of hardcore punk and ska they bring in their sounRAB, but i love the guerilla message they preach in bringing down the system around them.

Operation ivy-Energy- im a sucker for Ska, this is the band that realed me in, and their unity and freinRABhip message is what kept me listening to them.

Bad Religion-All Ages- Listening to bad religon simply melts my face because their songwriting never sucks, even after being a band for so long. On that note, listening to Bad religion makes me sad, because the music that comes out today is ass.

i really like this thread. op
 
Well I guess that show was more because of the big crowd that was there. It really felt like being at a Dead show and since I never got to see the dead with Jerry that was the closest I had gotten to the community that grateful dead concerts had. I actually missed most of Ratdogs set because of really tight security and the fact that we stayed in the lot to finish a few more beers, but the Allman Brothers Band just totally blew me away with a 45 minute mountain jam among many highlights.

Now The Dead show i saw last month at Penn State with all remaining members of the band really blew me away. Phil Lesh and FrienRAB is definitely a much better show than Ratdog though I'll give you that, Phil knows how to put together some great musicians and they have never disapointed me yet. That Ratdog show was also the first and only time I've seen him so you're probably right.
 
Also, I've been starting to get into good jazz lately what would you recommend as a good starting point? My frienRAB told me to get some Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk.
 
for miles i recommend:

Kind of Blue
Birth of the Cool
Bitches Brew
Agartha
Steamin'
Cookin'
Workin'
Relaxin'

as for monk, my favorite album is him with coltrane live at carnegie hall. another must have album is Wayne Shorter's "Speak No Evil."
 
Thursday - Full Collapse - First got me into 'heavy' music, from the first listen I was absolutely hooked on this album, and I still am today. Mellow harmonics fused with grinding riffage, Jekyll and Hyde vocals and superb lyricism. Awesome stuff.

Avenged Sevenfold - Waking the Fallen - Sure, they're just trying to be Guns 'n' Roses now, but they rocked back then. This is the first big step that took me from punk to metal, and I haven't really looked back since.I absolutely love the dual guitar work, and M. Shadows's voice was a lot less grating before City of Evil.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine - I wouldn't be listening to much of the stuff I am today if I hadn't heard this album. First listen: "What the fuck?", but then over time completely changed the way I thought about writing and playing music. Genius is not too strong a word.

Public Enemy - It Takes a nation of Millions - A bit of Yin to my Yang (or Vice Versa, I dunno...) Got me into Hip-Hop and rap. I couldn't believe that a rap group could sample Slayer, and yet they manage it.

Rise Against - Revolutions per Minute - After Waking the Fallen broke for me, I listened to virtually nothing but metal, until a friend showed me this album. This album resurrected punk for me. Rev's just has everything that is good about contemporary punk. End of.
 
im not gonna list the albums just this moment, but rather i'll post the one song that started my musical obsession: alison by slowdive. the ethereal singing from around 1:40 to 1:48 blew my mind back then.. i HAD to listen to more music like that. it's still one of my all time favorite songs and probably always will be. what a fuckin song.
 
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