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Post by chemicalbrother on Apr 23, 2014 16:27:21 GMT -5
Another thread I posted in recently got me thinking about back in the 90's and 'Dance' music. And it reminded again that there was quite simply one CD back then that opened me up to all of the electronic music I've been listening to for the last 20 years. One CD that truly ignited a fire in me I've followed every since.
It was a time of 'high-energy' dance music. Of songs like that terrible Rednexx "Cotton-eyed Joe" and the like. I was dating a dancer at the time and she was a big fan of this type of stuff. Used it in her routines, worked out to it,etc. It was absolutely not my thing. There were songs I could tolerate but for the most part...just not interested. Though I admit I always did like it when she danced to Lords of Acid. I was mostly into my alternative/rock/hip-hop. But because she was always subjecting me to this stuff one day when I was at the CD store I wandered over to the 'Dance' section. Half-looking for something for her, but really trying to see if I could find something she would like that I could also listen to without wanting to run out of the room. Something we could enjoy together. To this day I'm still not even sure what drew me to this particular CD. I know she wasn't aware of it. The CD cover was fairly simple, not eye-catching in any way. In retrospect maybe that's why? Because it's simplicity was probably uncharacteristic of many of the covers in that category. Who knows really? But there it sat....."Exit Planet Dust" by the Chemical Brothers. I bought it knowing pretty much nothing about it or them. Walked out to my car, popped it into the system, and that CD blew my mind.
From there it led to groups like Crystal Method, Prodigy, Death in Vegas, Junkie XL, more Lords of Acid,Moby, Fatboy Slim,etc over the next several years as I explored different groups and different sounds of electronic. Eventually I discovered DJs and the DJ culture, the party scene,and the party favors one associates with the aforementioned. And all of that just blew it even more wide open. Now I had this crazy scene to play the setting for this music I'd grown to love. I was suddenly introduced to more different types of electronic, more genres than I'd even dreamed had existed. I suddenly realized there were as many different types of electronic music out there as there were of 'regular' music. And I spent several years exploring this stuff almost exclusively before I starting making my way back to more traditional music again.
But all of it....every bit, started with "Exit Planet Dust" by The Chemical Brothers. And I wasn't even led to it by a friend or anything. I just 'found' it....as if it were meant to be. It, in turn, led me to a whole new world of music and even people like Popsicle Sarah over the years. And I'm thankful for it. I wouldn't go so far as to say it is the greatest CD in the world or anything...but it probably changed my life in more ways than any other CD or album ever. Hence the screen name. I've used variations of 'chemical' etc as my online handle in everything from message boards to gaming and music sharing sites virtually every since.
So my question to you Inforoo, after that long-winded story, is what single album or CD changed your life?
Post by theologians on Apr 23, 2014 17:22:24 GMT -5
I'm 25. This album came out when I was 13. I heard it at 14. Really shaped my musical tastes for the next 10 years. Also encouraged me to go to live shows and my first few fests.
Really the moment that my dad and I's modern music tastes diverged. I was still in High School went it came out and a friend gave me the album to listen to. I had grown up on a lot of grunge and rock from the 60s-90s (which was my father's influence). I started liking more indie pop/folk/rock and he started liking more standard pop/rock (Nickelback, Imagine Dragons, etc.). Its sad to think about, because this is the man who took me to see Kiss, AC/DC, Rush, Tom Petty, and a host of other classic bands when I was a kid. Now he and his girlfriend are surrounded by 18 year-old girls at concerts. I haven't been to a show with him since I was 16.
A band that was a national phenomenon at the time (1976). "Beth" was the song everyone in town knew, and Detroit Rock City just screamed awesome from that opening guitar riff.
"First I drink, then I smoke." Who can argue with lyrics like that?
Post by krunchykat on Apr 23, 2014 19:27:49 GMT -5
I first heard this when I was 12 years old and was totally blown away. This is where my love of heavy, aggressive music began.
I was 16 when this album was released. I had a brief friendship with a batshit crazy girl who was such a huge Sonic Youth fan she wanted to officially change her name to Goo. Goo gave me this album on cassette with the instructions to "listen deeply". On the first listen I didn't quite know what to think, and after the third or fourth listen I was a fan. This album turned me on to the indie, experimental and noise rock genres.
Post by FortSteuben on Apr 23, 2014 19:49:47 GMT -5
I actually wrote a small paper about this in college.
I was a senior in high school. And although my music tastes weren't horrible at the time, I really didn't listen to anything that wasn't grunge or legendary classic rock. I also never really listened to albums. I downloaded this for a whopping $0.00, simply because I heard Radiohead was releasing a "pay what you want" album which really wasn't heard of at the time. I was hooked. Saw them in Cleveland that summer (my third concert ever) and the rest was history. I wouldn't be who I am today if not for this album
First heard this when my brother played it on a long drive out to a concert. I had primarily been into the more rock and psychedelic side of alternative music (White Stripes, MGMT, Arcade Fire, The Kills, Flaming Lips, etc.) but this album served as an entry point for me to start exploring the realm of folk and Americana beyond Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel. The genre and all that extends from it is now what seems to dominate my listening. Moved from this to Fleet Foxes, Decemberists, The Avett Brothers, and Bon Iver, and then to artists like Dawes, Ray LaMontagne, The Bees, The Civil Wars, and more roots/bluegrass/country leaning stuff like The Felice Brothers, Blitzen Trapper, The Lone Bellow, and Punch Brothers. I also went back to slightly older artists (Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams) and much older artists (The Band, Pete Seeger) with a much greater appreciation. I could just go on listing artists I love now, but I'll force myself to stop here. I owe a lot to this album.
Post by codyisawesome on Apr 23, 2014 20:59:35 GMT -5
The nostalgia is strong in this one. I was 10 years old and I had heard "Jesus Walks" and LOVED this guy, Kanye West. So my mom took me to Wal-Mart and let me pick out any album I wanted. I saw this and assumed it had "Jesus Walks" so I bought it, I was wrong, it didn't matter to me though this was my first ever album purchased by me for me and opened a whole new world I grew up on country for the most part... So this new kind of music was amazing, I still have that actual copy to this day, and here we are like 9 years later and I finally get to see the man that introduced me to it. I can absolutely say that Late Registration changed my life.
I know you said "single album" but this is a strong number 2 for me.
Fast forward like 5-6 years. This is the album that opened me up to the folk/indie scene, which I had previously hated... I had a friend who I would listen to/share new music with and he had me listen to this and 'Sigh No More' both were great but something about this album really stood out to me and it made me feel so calm and relaxed when I would listen to it, no music ever did that for me, I was amazed. I had it on repeat for months. 3 years later I am an HUGE Avett fan and finally get to see them! This is still one of my go to albums when I'm feeling down and will always be a favorite of mine. xD
btw, this was a beautiful idea! I enjoyed looking back. Thanks to these albums I have such an emotional attachment to music now.
I grew up in a household that basically only listened to 90's country. This album came out when I was 12 or 13 and opened my eyes (ears?). From there I transitioned to Bob Dylan and really took off.
Post by umphlovecincy on Apr 24, 2014 7:13:33 GMT -5
Couldn't figure out how to post a pic of the album cover, stupid phone, but for me My Morning Jacket's okonokos double live album changed the type of music I listened to forever. I listened to a lot of different genres but was mostly into punk and metal at the time. I used to get a lot of my music from the library and I walked in one day and without knowing anything about them, I picked up the album. The first time I listened to it I was blown away. While I will still listen to metal, not so much punk anymore, this album opened the door to a whole side of music I had no idea even existed! Literally, they changed EVERYTHING with that one album.
There's a couple, but one sticks out as definitively the most life-changing:
This is the first album I listened to that opened my world beyond hip-hop. Before this album, I wore nothing but sweatpants, gym shorts, and running pants; XXL tees and backwards basketball jerseys (thanks, Nelly). I listened almost exclusively to Eminem, Ludacris, Ja Rule, etc. I was straight-up white boy thuggin', bling bling and all. Then came Good Charlotte. I played this album through once, and I loved it. You know, because BOYS DON'T LIKE GIRLS, GIRLS LIKE CARS AND MONEYYYYYYY. This was the album that really got me to say "Hey, other music is good too". To this day I'll still throw this album on and jam out. I still stuck with hip-hop mostly for a couple years, but slowly but surely, I started to branch out. The Beatles, Marley, Hendrix, Pink Floyd. And then later down the road, Mumford and Sons' "Sigh No More", which brought me to Iron & Wine and The Avett Brothers. Then eventually Alt-J, Bjork, and Boys Noize. My musical tastes are pretty eclectic nowadays, all because I learned how to branch out - thanks to Good Charlotte.
Who knows? Maybe one day I'll even start listening to Tool.
5.5/four tet, daphni b2b floating points, avalon emerson 5.12/neil young 5.19/mannequin pussy 5.21/serpentwithfeet 5.25/hozier 6.12-16/bonnaroo 6.28/goose 6.29/goose 9.17/the national + the war on drugs 9.23/sigur ros 9.27-29/making time 10.17/air
Post by heyyitskait on Apr 24, 2014 10:00:24 GMT -5
It's not so much one album, but a band. Your Favorite Weapon kicked the door open for me. Got me into music, got me out and going to shows almost every day of the week. It came out my freshman year of high school (2000). Deja Entendu came out in 2003, just before I had my spinal surgery (scoliosis). I was an athletic kid. Played basketball and softball pretty much all year round and surgery meant being completely inactive for 6 months and not being able to start doing any running until 1 year after surgery. Needless to say, I was really depressed my last two years of high school. This album kept my head above the water. I'll still listen to this album when I feel down, because I know if I'm not feeling better by the time "Good To Know..." comes on - I'm not going to that day. And then The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me came out. It's hard for me to talk about how much that album means to me. I guess it helped me gain perspective and grow up a little. I'm listening to it right now and getting emotional. I went through a period of isolation (I guess that's the best thing to call it) with this album. I'd just sit in my shitty bedroom, in my miserable apartment with my dog, listening to this album and thinking about my life, how I behave, and what I really want. Made some changes.
I plan on having a beer with someone from Brand New at their Ommegang show this summer. Because they last time I met them, I cried and had a panic attack. It was embarrassing.
In high school I went through a phase that I think a lot of people can identify with - I listened almost exclusively to "classic rock" and shunned hip hop and pop music because "music sucks now." I slowly got into grunge and alternative rock, and fell in love with bands like Radiohead during this time because I guess I considered them an older band for some reason so in my closed-minded brain it was okay. I absolutely stayed away from anything described as "indie music" because I associated that with a few artists I had heard that I really hated like the Shins and some modest mouse songs I didn't really get at the time. I ascribed that wispy acoustic sound to any indie band basically, not realizing how broad and ineffective of a genre it was at the time.
So during this time when I was getting more into the 90s stuff and googling shit like "best 90s alternative CDs" I found two records that I still love to this day and I honestly had no idea how close and influential they were to "indie" music. There was something about those CDs that were unlike anything else I really ever listened to and it was a game changer. I continued to have a chip on my shoulder about newer stuff for another year or so until a friend of mine gave me a CD of a band he was really into and that had a name that evoked in my mind the lamest most feminine epitome of indie douchery. Turns out I loved the CD and it was a springboard for my interest in new and fringe stuff. It's funny too because while that CD had a pretty profound effect on me and I still think it's that band's best record, it's considered by a lot of fans of them to be one of their weaker efforts.
The first two indie records that I loved that made me a subconscious hipster:
And the record that changed my outlook on music entirely, for most a relatively unassuming and unremarkable album by this band:
To this day I don't fashion myself a huge Death Cab fan, but Narrow Stairs really does it for me for whatever reason. Grapevine Fires takes me to a really great place.
Emoney serves more of a purpose than any of you, especially Nate, whose incessant, garbled ramblings are so mindless and pointless that I get depressed just seeing them.
I was in middle school and had previously just listened to pretty generic and inoffensive radio hits... Then this album came into my life and showed me that there was so much more music out there than what my friends and I listened to. Kurt's death also rattled me and in an odd way forced me to get out for live shows to SEE the artists I loved.
Does anyone else remember those BMG CD deals? I signed up for those a few times (somehow?? I was a child) and this was in my first shipment.
This one was also pretty special to me around that same time. I remember feeling kind of sneaky buying it at the store, because of the parental advisory. Seeing Dre and Snoop at Coachella was a dream come true for the middle schooler in me, for sure.
Post by zenmastermatt on Apr 24, 2014 13:03:21 GMT -5
I am the latest to the craze of ranking things using the Mount Rushmore format. These are the most important albums that shaped the way I listen to music
Abbey Road definitely isn't my favorite Beatles album, but it was my first. Long before I knew anything about them I heard Oh Darling on spotify, and that is not how I expected the Beatles to sound. I always imagined them as a bubblegum pop group. You can imagine how happy I was to find out I was wrong.
Same story with Neil Young. I did not know anything about the man, until I met a girl who claimed he was the best musician ever. I bought the greatest hits to check him out, and know I own so many of his albums.
Post by rustyautoparts on Apr 24, 2014 13:46:10 GMT -5
There are so many "The One" albums for me, that this was really hard to boil down into just one. I think I could make a case for Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral, but I think the one album that formed and shaped my current tastes has to be:
Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young: 4 Way Street
This was lent to me by my Uncle. He also lent me Siamese Dream, In Utero, and Superunknown, and that solidified my affinity for rock. But this album has a special place in my music history because it was just so perfect. There's an acoustic, folky disc and an electric jammy disc, and that represents my dual loves, singer/songwriter material and dirty, garagey rock and roll. I remember receiving a warning when he handed me the album: you might hate Neil's voice, but he's a great guitarist and an amazing songwriter. Neil's songs were easily my favorites, I loved his guitar playing, and his voice just spoke to me. This is what started my Neil Young love affair, and he's since surpassed the Beatles as my all-time favorite artist (Dylan is a close second, now). The stories and stage banter are beautiful, as well. Neil's three bandmates hardly hold a candle to his genius, but they still put in great performances (loved Nash's King Midas in Reverse, Crosby's Triad, and Stills' Chicago). In the end, this live set established the essence of my most long held tastes, and to that I'm eternally grateful.