70s Aerosmith is the first band I really loved.

Tomorrow Never Knows

There's a possibility of a new Roger Waters album for 2016. 

Not sure if it'll be out in 2016, but Deep Purple is going back into the studio this month. 

Anthrax also is putting out a new album soon. 

Crazy, I know.  I've never gotten into the Beatles.  In fact, I don't think I could list more than 3 of their songs. 

Are those 3 songs by any chance I Should Have Known Better, Tell Me Why and You've Got to Hide Your Love Away?

Congrats Low man!

Mariah Carey: everything

 

In fact, every vocalist who splashes melismata in all directions for no good reason. 

Whitney Houston too.

Loved Take the Money and Run, Sleeper, Annie Hall, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Crimes and Misdemeanors and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Liked Bananas, Interiors, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, Husbands and Wives, Match Point, Midnight in Paris.

Magic in the Moonlight, Irrational Man and To Rome with Love were so-so.

Have yet to see the rest.

Lennon's. That one never really gets old for me.

The Gabriel era is just amazing. Possibly my favorite prog rock band.

I like them, but only really listen to In the Court, Larks' Tongues and Red. The other albums are kinda hit and miss for me, mostly miss.

William S. Burroughs's Junky.

Queer now.

Rio Grande is the one I return the most to, but Midnight's Another Day is the one that gets me the most emotional.

I really like Self-Portrait, always have, even before the Bootleg re-release. I think it needs to be judged on its own terms, for what it is, without the shadow of his 60s albums. A homespun, unpretentious, humble tribute to the music Bob loved and that shaped him as an artist. The live performances are out of the place but other than that I enjoy pretty much all songs. Copper Kettle is just gorgeous.

It's Over Now

Kudos for this!

Girls on the Beach
Cuddle Up
Good Vibrations
Don't Worry, Baby
Kiss Me, Baby

1. Beach Boys

2. Who

3. Beatles

4. Pink Floyd

5. Bob Dylan

6. Band

7. Velvet Underground

8. Oasis

9. Ramones

10. Kinks

I never understood what people see in Queen. I never will. Queen was shite.

So, as to the question:

The Byrds' best LP is 'Younger Than Yesterday', despite the presence of the dreadful 'Mind Gardens'. It represents the apex of that band's unique blend of uplifting stuff and beautiful melancholia. The production (Gary Usher) is great. It has their best Dylan cover on it.

I agree Queen was $#!t, I guess people love them because Mercury died young. Nothing is better for becoming an rock god than to die prematurely.

Totally, that's what I base my musical tastes on - if their lead singer lived past 50, then I ain't listening to that sh*t.

Diverse and decade-spanning list. I really like it.

To Gervais and Merchant fans - am I the only one who thinks Hello Ladies the TV-Show was achingly funny? The movie was terrible, though.

I'm a huge Wu-Tang Clan fan so I would say each member is worth listening to both within the band and for his solo stuff. With ODB, his best work is his earliest released since later he would lose it because of the drugs, the scandals and the fact that he was shot twice. Here's the Wu song with what I consider to be his greatest verse and one of the most entertaining ones of all-time. It's taken from their debut and ODB comes on at minute 1:40 (and you can hear him crooning along with the chorus right before that):

https://youtu.be/YsiAsTa0oEI

And here's his most famous and recognizable solo song, from his solo debut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2zgB93KANE

If you like those I can recommend more.

Eric B. & Rakim work better when viewed as a singles band so I would recommend pretty much every single from their first 2 albums as a start - I posted Microphone Fiend in this thread, but Follow the Leader, I Ain't No Joke, Paid in Full or I Know You Got Soul as just as good.

https://youtu.be/95gP3m-uBHA

https://youtu.be/2TN-kDEKxF0

However, my main problem with rap is simple----when the lyrics become more important than the music, I'm out of there. Same goes for protest stuff and a lot of ballads. So it's not just rap... 

I do understand this, but not all rappers concentrate on the lyrics. Ol' Dirty Bastard from the Wu-Tang Clan is among my very favorites and his words are literally non sequiturs and even gibberish at times. With him, it's all about how he delivers them, with a unique style that combines rapping, singing, grunting, screaming and whatnot in the most crazy way you can imagine. You really have to hear it to believe it. I once compared his rapping style to Keith Moon's drumming in a review. Rakim is the father of modern rapping and MC-ing and his words aren't really that interesting either, it's more about the unstoppable flow, the crazy rhyme schemes and the laid-back tone. Snoop Dogg is more about style than content too in my opinion, at least in his early stuff that I'm familiar with. With Dr. Dre's solo albums, I force myself to ignore the idiotic lyrics in order to enjoy the brilliant beats and the atmosphere he creates with them. So it depends for me.

Yeah, fair enough. I do hope to get into EDM more someday - I love Daft Punk, but don't know much else.

I said earlier in this thread that rap's not my thing.  While I'll acknowledge that it's an art form on some level, it holds almost zero appeal to me.

I just don't get it.  And I know I never will.  I don't have nearly as much time to listen to music as I used to, so there's really no reason for me to sit down and listen to a full rap album from start to finish. 

I can kinda relate to your feelings as a big fan of the most critically disrespected genre in popular music - hard rock/heavy metal 

Did you at least listen to the songs I posted?

The reason why you should try listening to an album is because I feel your opinion is based on what you heard on the radio over the years and based on the reputation the genre has among certain groups of music fans. Sort of like one only hearing Kokomo and Surfin' USA and never sitting down to give Pet Sounds a listen.

I would say hip-hop is at least acknowledged if not liked by anybody with an interest in contemporary music (many even consider its glory days have passed), but it's the rock fans that generally have a problem with it.

Given that hip-hop is the genre I've listened to the most this year I can't relate to the attitudes in this thread at all. To each their own I guess, but from my experience usually the people who say they flat-out hate hip-hop are the same who don't consider it music or an art form. And believe all rappers have no talent whatsoever. It's the same people who've probably never sat down with a hip-hop album from start to finish in their lives. I honestly don't think I've ever read somebody say "hey, I respect hip-hop as a genre, it's just not my thing at all" in the same way one would say if they disliked jazz or prog rock (not comparing these genres in any way). It's always looked down upon and I feel a bit of that attitude present in this thread as well, though I could be wrong. I used to share it to an extent, but then discovered what people like GZA or Rakim could do with words or Dr. Dre and RZA with a beat. I would definitely say it's a genre essential to my life. I don't expect to convince anybody, of course, you like what you like, but this is just to put things in perspective - hip-hop means a lot to many people.