Music

[Renagade]

Two comments about my new signature and a suggestion to make this thread have... inspired? me to start something.

Obviously this is a gaming website but it would be interesting to find out a few things about people's tastes in music, cause it generally doesn't come up anywhere. Which is good.

I was just wondering:

Anyone have any ultmante favorite bands?

Any specific music you listen to while playing (genre/artist)?

Any thoughts about gamers general interest in music?
(i.e. WoW players always like ____. or Lot of gamers play musical instruments in their free time.)


Obviously you don't have to answer all of those, don't give me alist. I've just always been really interesting in music, music tatses, and why music does what it does for/to people. I'm a very auditory person, if that's not evident already.

---

To start it off it appears to me that there's definetly a range of genres that I would call gameplay music. But that may be because for the most part I play first person shooters (http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,...tw=wn_index_22) and I have no context to compare possibilities in.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance,
~Renagade

[AzzMan]

http://www.last.fm/user/AzzMan/

Pretty well descriptive of my musical taste. Everyone who listens to alot of music should get a last.fm.

While playing games it really depends. If I'm playing online, either I'm playing at TG and I don't listen to music, or I listen to metalcore and other 'ass kicking' music and shoot people.

If I'm on my 360, I listen to hte albums I have ripped, which mainly consist of NIN, QotSA and some thrash or metalcore.

[icky]

I like all kinds of stuff, but lots of my preferred stuff comes from older hard rock.

Some bands I've enjoyed forever:
Led Zep
AC/DC (old) <--- I can't say enough about these guys... nothing beats loud AC/DC
Van Halen (old!)
Pink Floyd (old)
Ozzy (old)
Genesis (OLD!)
The Who
Hendrix
Stones

Newer stuff tends to be from so many different bands that it's hard to name any. Most bands these days don't have entire collections that I like.

I don't enjoy music aimed at suicidal teens, or songs about how much money some dudes are making selling songs. It makes me laugh that the creativity impaired can be so successful doing something creative.

The songs of Guitar Hero nailed it for me.

I almost never listen to music on my computer. It just isn't the right tool for the job, and most games come with sound that you need to hear.

[Adrielle]

Above all other forms of nerdery, I am a music-nerd first and foremost.

I love all kinds of music, almost every genre and something (everything) always seems to suit me at different times.

Some all-time favorites that I can almost always listen to:
Jewel (I'm a girl, leave me alone)
Kelly Clarkson (See above)
Green Day
NIN(Downward Spiral was my favorite)
Something Corporate
Meatloaf(don't judge me)
Prodigy

...the list goes on.

When I was in college (I talk like it wasn't 6 months ago, ha) I was a music major and music has pretty much been my life since high school. I usually find common bonds with people who know how to invert major 7th chords and stuff like that. I play clarinet, piano, and I will beat anyone here and anyone you know at ANY Karaoke Revolution game. :evil grin:


Also, I taught at Band Camp in high school, and nobody will ever let me live it down ...

[leejo]

Originally Posted by Adrielle

Above all other forms of nerdery, I am a music-nerd first and foremost.

I love all kinds of music, almost every genre and something (everything) always seems to suit me at different times.

Some all-time favorites that I can almost always listen to:
Jewel (I'm a girl, leave me alone)
Kelly Clarkson (See above)
Green Day
NIN(Downward Spiral was my favorite)
Something Corporate
Meatloaf(don't judge me)
Prodigy

...the list goes on.

When I was in college (I talk like it wasn't 6 months ago, ha) I was a music major and music has pretty much been my life since high school. I usually find common bonds with people who know how to invert major 7th chords and stuff like that. I play clarinet, piano, and I will beat anyone here and anyone you know at ANY Karaoke Revolution game. :evil grin:


Also, I taught at Band Camp in high school, and nobody will ever let me live it down ...

You're so cute! I'd totally hit your avatar

Today I listened to:

Let it Bleed - Rolling Stones
Remain In Light - Talking Heads
Hail To The Thief - Radiohead
Katy Lied - Steely Dan
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady - Charles Mingus
Rage Against The Machine - I can't remember the name of the band...they're grumpy whoever they are
Bachelor #2 - Amiee Mann
Figure 8 - Eliott Smith
Amerika's Most Wanted - Ice Cube
Fear Of A Black Planet - Public Enemy

No country, folk, bluegrass, or classical today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe Aretha and James Brown. Yeah, probably that.

[TychoCelchuuu]

My LastFM page pretty much sums up my musical tastes, except I listen to a lot more classical (Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky [whatever] etc.) than it suggests.

[AzzMan]

Originally Posted by icky

Pink Floyd (old)

This is where I imply you don't REALLY mean 'old' because you might not know who Syd Barrett is. Normally I'm not wrong here either, and I hope you can prove me wrong.

I don't enjoy music aimed at suicidal teens, or songs about how much money some dudes are making selling songs.

THIS statement requires examples plzzzzz

[icky]

Originally Posted by AzzMan

This is where I imply you don't REALLY mean 'old' because you might not know who Syd Barrett is. Normally I'm not wrong here either, and I hope you can prove me wrong.

THIS statement requires examples plzzzzz

LOL!

I may be a slightly bigger Floyd fan than you suspect. I owned almost all of their albums on vinyl, including Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, and possibly more that I don't remember.

That said, with the exception of a few songs, I don't really like much of the pre-Dark Side stuff. Offhand, I remember See Emily Play and Careful With That Axe, Eugene (even this, I think, was post-Barrett).

Regardless, Sid was with the band for an extremely short time, and was out of the picture long before they became a major success. 'old' Floyd is The Final Cut and earlier, though some would choose to say The Wall and earlier.

Anyway, all of my Floyd collection happened before you were born, so it's a little hazy in my memory now.

[AzzMan]

99.999999% of Floyd happened before I was born.

And most Floyd "fans" don't know who Syd is, it's actually quite scary.

[Santa]

My favorite band is Tool. The band probably gets a bad rap that its real hardcore metal and is only about doing drugs. But if anyone actually takes the time to read the lyrics and understand them, its easily some of the most deep lyrics ive ever seen a band create. Their latest album, lateralus, could be skewed to be a story of someone tripping under the influence of acid, but instead its about soul searching and the Qabala.

Aside from the insane lyrics, the drumming is amazing as well. The music also goes from loud and angry to soft and melodic depending on what the lyrics are trying to convey.

As for other bands i like system of a down, modest mouse, old rock, and a not too well known band named Dredg.

[AzzMan]

Lateralus isn't their latest album, 10,000 Days leaked yesterday and I already have it and it's not nearly as good as Lateralus

And in the indie circle, EVERYONE knows Dredg. Hell, they were touring with Coheed and Cambria (who I hate) and The Blood Brothers like 4-5 months ago.

[AzzMan]

In this post I will explain metal through a small group of examples because after all, this is the music topic, and I can't just not mention my favorite genre, which most people don't know much about. For more information on any of the bands mentioned here, you can google their name and find all sorts of information. It should be noted here that the content under death and black's descriptions, as well as Pig Destroyer's myspace (namely the Terrifyer cover art) should all be considered NSFW, as they might be (or not?)

Firstly, most people always assume that metal can be described perfectly by using bands like Staind, Slipknot and Mudvayne as examples. This is entirely untrue, those bands are numetal (as is the case with Slipknot and Mudvayne), and sometimes just plain hard rock (Staind). Numetal is a term coined by Korn's vocalist, and has stuck since the early 90s. There's really no arguing whether or not these bands are metal, because they are simply not. They do not show the attributes of real metal bands.

The first REAL metal genre I'm going to mention is power metal. Power metal is a genre of metal that tends to have clean vocals, the music is usually upbeat, and the lyrics are usually rather cheesy- dragons, Tolkien, whatever. There's alot of melody to be seen in Power metal. Two good examples of power metal are the bands, Blind Guardian and Rhapsody.
http://www.myspace.com/blindguardian
http://www.myspace.com/rhapsody

Not all metal is that fruity and, overall, basic though. Next, I'm going to talk about Progressive (prog) metal. Most of our older members (and SOME of the younger ones) are going to be rather familar with the prog rock of the 70s. Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes, all prog rock bands. In more modern examples, The Mars Volta are prog rock. In prog metal, however, most bands abuse their (sometimes) incredible technical skill to it's absolute maximum and deliver entirely one-dimensional music that revolves around playing guitar really fast and really technically. Sometimes you'll come across prog metal bands that actually fit the term PROGRESSIVE. They do something DIFFERENT, they progress. Sometimes these bands are actually very technically talented as well.
A good example of prog-wank is Dream Theater http://www.myspace.com/dreamtheater2112 (The track Metropolis is actually really good though)
A good example of actual progressive metal is Pain of Salvation http://www.myspace.com/painofsband (none of their truely amazing songs are on this myspace though)

Now for thrash. Most people already know what thrash is. Megadeth and OLD Metallica are really mainstream examples of thrash, and if someone in America has yet to hear One, Peace Sells... But Who's Buyin'?, Battery or Hanger 18, they are either 10 or don't know anything about music. However, on the opposite spectrum of thrash, the real definition of thrash is.... it's fast, you can headbang to it, and it's really fast. Plus there's alot of speed and fast and fast involved.
http://www.myspace.com/officialkreator That's Kreator's myspace page, they're a perfect example of the more 'brutal' side of thrash. Not to say they don't have any melodic tracks, check out People of the Lie.
http://www.myspace.com/megadeth Megadeth's page
http://www.myspace.com/metallica There's Metallicas too.

Moving on in a more agressive way, I'm going to explain Melodeath and Melodic Death next. If you ask most numetal fans what their favorite melodic death album was, they'd reply with In Flames - Reroute To Remain. Now that album has some catchy songs with it, but it was their first album that sent them down the terrible sellout road they're on now. REAL melodeath usually gets tagged with the term Gothenburg, which is from where it originates (gothenburg, sweden), and it's a more toned down version of melodic death. Now let me make sure you all have that right- Melodic death and melodeath are two different things. Melodic death is death metal with alot of melody thrown in. I'll get to Death later, and it'll make more sense then, but for now that's all I can really say about melodic death. Melodeath incorporates lighter vocals than melodic death, more catchy riffs, et cetera. I'll give examples of melodic death and a better explanation of it when I get to death metal.
At The Gates explain melodeath perfectly, for now. http://www.myspace.com/atthegatess

Folk metal is up next, and it's JUST like the name implies. Folk music combined with metal. Some bands will incorporate black metal with folk, or even some melodeath. Folk Metal often incorporates traditional scandinavian folk instruments.
Otyg are folk metal http://www.myspace.com/otyg
As is Falkenbach http://www.myspace.com/falkenbach1

Doom metal was the first genre of metal ever created, and done so by Black Sabbath in the '69-'70 area. Most doom metal is slow, but there are many subgenres of doom metal. This is best explained through examples of each.
My Dying Bride's early material was death/doom, their newer stuff is melodic doom http://www.myspace.com/mdbride
Candlemass are traditional doom http://myspace.com/candlemassdoom
Sunn O))) is drone doom http://www.myspace.com/flightofthebehemoth
Thergothon are funeral doom http://www.myspace.com/thergothon
Two different sites for Electric Wizard, they are stoner doom http://www.myspace.com/Wierdtales http://www.myspace.com/electricwizard13monkey
Isis are Sludge (or arguably, post-sludge), which is a combination of doom metal and punk or hardcore elements. http://www.myspace.com/sgnl05

Now we get to what is easily my favorite genre of metal. Most of the stuff you've heard is NOT TRUE AT ALL, despite the fact that the news talks about it, some of it's fans give it a bad name, and most people think Slipknot are the 'best' band in it. Death metal. The idea of death metal is to be physically talented for the most part, and then put in some technical parts, maybe some breakdowns... it's VERY diverse, really. Most of the genres explain themselves. Melodic death band pages are apparently hard to find, but the bands Kronos and Intestine Baalism are both melodic death, if you can find their material.
Necrophagist play brutal technical death metal with neoclassical style guitar solos. http://www.myspace.com/necrophagistde
Suffocation play brutal New York style DM. New York DM (NYDM) is a combination of death metal and hardcore, meaning they incorporate both the guttural growls and alot of breakdowns or slam riffs. http://www.myspace.com/suffocation
Immolation pretty much play standard NYDM as explained above. http://www.myspace.com/immolationny
Morbid Angel is VERY standard death metal. http://www.myspace.com/morbidangelmusic
Decapitated play more standard death metal. http://www.myspace.com/decapitatedofficial <-Official. http://www.myspace.com/decapitatedpl <-listen to Spheres of Madness.

Black metal is another big media attention getter, but I suppose it has it's reasons. Black metal is very raw, very 'grim'. It's usually rather minimalistic, the vocals are raspy yells normally. HOWEVER this is not the rule, this is only a general thing. It turns out finding black metal myspace pages is hard, too...
Burzum play(ed) standard black metal, up until he was imprisoned, then he began playing ambient. http://myspace.com/burzumfans
Aborym play industrial black metal which is again, just like it sounds. http://www.myspace.com/aborym666
The top track on the Arcturus myspace (http://www.myspace.com/arcturusband) is melodic black metal, the rest of their material is all avantgarde/prog metal though.

And last, but not least, are the -core bands. Metalcore (mxc as it is sometimes called), deathcore, grindcore, and the bands therein. Metalcore is a more metallic version of the punk subgenre hardcore. Deathcore is metalcore fused with death metal (it's to metalcore what NYDM is to DM in that way) and grindcore is very spastic, fast, weird music. Most grindcore songs are VERY short. Metalcore is today's hair metal, as sad as it is. There are however, some VERY fun to listen to bands that have come out of the genre. However, most metalcore bands that you might know of (Atreyu for example) are really not the creme de la crop (or whatever). Most "tr00" metal fans disregard metalcore as being real metal.
Pig Destroyer are without a doubt, the most popular grindcore band of today. http://www.myspace.com/pigdestroyerband
The Agony Scene play straightforeward metalcore, however the song "We Bury Our Dead at Dawn" is required metalcore listening. http://www.myspace.com/agonyscene
Despised Icon play deathcore and IMO The Healing Process was album of the year 2005. The track "Warm Blooded" on that page is of the EP that the band put out before releasing The Healing Process, but the exact same song appears on THP with slightly different production. http://www.myspace.com/despisedicon
Converge play more metalcore, but it's rooted right at home with it's hardcore influence. Their myspace page is apparently nonexistant, so here's an mp3 link. http://www.convergecult.com/download...mevultures.mp3

That's about all there is to it, please read and comment on this big thing, hopefully it'll get some people into new stuff.

[UnDeaD77]

I'm enjoying 10,000 days quite abit, I really liked APC to.

I'm like. If the music sounds good to me and its catchy I'll listen to it and like it.


I like stuff like

LP
Damien Rice
Morriessy
Tool
APC
....Alot of trance/techno/house
Cranberries
Metallica
Hendrix
Some Zeppelin
Def lep....list goes on.

[Morg]

Ultimate favorites?
Subway to Sally (german folk rock, medieval touch)
Tool (gonna see them live this summer!)
Korn
Megaherz

I listen to a lot of stuff, generally more Rock, Metal and Industrial than everything else. But I also enjoy classical music.

[Coridon]

There are far too many artists I enjoy for me to list, but two that stand out as still producing decent music over 15+ year careers (minimum) are Morrissey and Stereolab. Sure someone can put out a fantastic album or two, but to keep churning out the goods for around 20 years is phenomenal.

That being said, among the "newer" artists I'm really fascinated by The Fiery Furnaces. They're certainly not for everybody...every time I'm caught with one of their CDs when my GF gets in the car she gives me a dirty look and mutters "I love you a little less catching you listening to that crap".

Oh, and Sufjan Stevens "Come on feel the Illinoise" is getting a lot of rotation in my player, but I'm starting to digress...