Favorite Musicians

[Sami]

So after spending the majority of my day listening to Korean Indie music and Japanese Hip-Hop, I wondered why the only music-related thread that gets attention on SSMB is the "What are you currently listening to?" thread. There's a large number of members here with a huge variety of musical tastes (and hell, even talents), so why not talk about those tastes more in depth? I'm honestly confused as to why we don't have a thread for this yet.

 

That being said, I figured I'd go ahead and make one myself, so here we are. Talk about your favorite musicians. Doesn't matter who they are or what kind of work they do; just share some of your favorite songs and tell us why you like them. 

 

I'll start by raving about my all-time favorite vocalists, Lee Yung Jin, Hyoi, and Nagi Yanagi. I'll be talking about their respective bands later anyway, but I wanted to begin with the ones whose voices I absolutely adore. 

 

Yung Jin, Hyoi, and Nagi, respectively -

 

It's hard to think of a good way to describe someone's singing voice, but if I had to try... Yung Jin and Hyoi just feel "blissful" to listen to.

 

Yung Jin has excellent range and is amazing at both stronger, more passionate singing and softer, more calm voicework, which further strengthens Casker's fantastic ability to constantly evolve and tweak their musical style with each new album, creating a rich new sound with each song. Songs like 

really show off the power of her voice in my opinion, while other songs like 

feel a lot more soothing to listen to. Of course, the other member of the duo, Lee Jun Oh, is also amazingly talented. The instrumentation of each song is brilliant, with fantastic use of electronic instruments to create a unique sound. I think the title of their fourth album, Polyester Heart, is a good descriptor - it's electronic, but it still has heart to it. It still feels soulful. And that's something that really makes them special, in my opinion. Fun Fact - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA5zmhb-Co4. Yeah, I really like this band.

 

Hyoi, whose stuff I've only recently started listening to, seems to fit the "soothing" type of voice a lot more often. Most of Fanny Fink's Mr. Romance album is just very relaxing and nice to listen to. Just close your eyes and listen to 

Signal Lamp. Seriously, just do it. With headphones on, of course. God, I can't get enough of it. I feel like I'm just floating in space, drifting on a soothing stream of musical euphoria (poetic, I know). The two guitarists, Young Bin (who unfortunately left after Mr. Romance was published) and Jae-Mok, are also fantastically talented. The instrumentation in each song perfectly compliments Hyoi's voice, and it sounds brilliant in execution.

 

In contrast, Nagi Yanagi has a very different style. It's something much more fitting of a typical anime opening, which certainly isn't a bad thing. Her voice is very powerful, she has good range, and in the Today is a Beautiful Day album, her work with supercell is complemented by some great instrumental work. The album itself covers a variety of genres, with some rock, blues, and more. It's all great stuff. I quite like Feels So Good and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBI01oLcBsM.

 

On another note, I've recently started listening to Nujabes' music. It's a really cool mix of hip-hop and jazz, and while I'm not quite as into it as some of my favorites (well, not yet anyway. Who knows if he'll go up later?), it's definitely some cool stuff. My favorite song of his so far, 

Edited March 25, 2013 by Discoid

[LATER BUDDY]

It's changed over the years and I had to think about it for quite some time, but last year I decided that my favorite musician/band of all time is prolly Streetlight Manifesto.

 

 

Ska music is probably my favorite genre of music, and these guys take it to another level. They follow the beat of their own drum in the genre, their compositions and lyrics are extremely riveting, and probably my favorite bit about them is the sheer energy they emit with their sound. My favorite music of all time are the epic kind that can give my chills down my back and give me the cockiest damn grin anybody's ever seen. Something that makes me want to get up take the day head on, and these guys pull through so many times over for me.

 

Streetlight also are one of the view bands I know that have an album that I can legitimately listen to the whole thing front to back and favorite every song on the album. It's the

album, and it's probably my most played album in general. My favorites on their seem to always change, but if I had to choose, probably the songs When We Fall, Would You Be Impressed?, and Somewhere in the Between are my favorites.

 

Aside from them though, there's a few others just to point out quickly:

 

-The Aquabats: Manage to keep their music fun and silly while at the same time being super catchy and energetic.

-Big Bad Voodoo Daddy: Prolly my favorite swing-revival band.

-Eluveltie: A super melodic pagan metal band which even if you don't like metal, you should still check out.

-Five Iron Frenzy, Reel Big Fish, and Less Than Jake: three ska bands I consider kings of the main modern ska sound.

-Lapfox Trax: An electronic artist online that does different sub genres represented by furry aliases. This guy gets mad respect for being able to dish out music constantly and always being so good and original.

 

Might come back and go into more detail about some of these, or maybe a different post for game composers and game soundtracks and whatnot since that's a whole 'nother story on it's own haha.

[Urban Flow]

I love Nas. He is like probably the best rap lyricist. Hip-hop is mainly my favorite genre next to Jazz. I know hip-hop is not well respected to people who don't listen to it because of terrible dumb downed artist like Drake and lil wayne but Nas is the epitome of what hip-hop should be. He covers topics of the wide variety, from social commentary to the struggle and ghetto life he lived in the queensbridge projects in new york. He is regarded as the best rap musician of all time. This guy is my idol and this song alone can explain it. His lyrics make you think and with a bunch of classic songs like the critically acclaimed "One Mic" its not hard to believe why he is regarded as the best.

 

Edited March 25, 2013 by Urban Flow

[Sean]

Robot Science

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHPZDwAgiGk

I first discovered Robot Science (Charlie Yin) when I played the prototype version of Dustforce. He didn't compose the music for the final version, but the demo, which used an entirely different engine, featured four or so of his songs. I deeply enjoy soothing electronic that sets a mood rather than a melody or a beat, and Robot Science does such a perfect job at that. Unfortunately he isn't too prolific and I don't think he's made anything lately.

Stereolab

Quirky British/French band that broke up recently. I own a couple of their albums and for what they lack in individually strong songs, they make up for it by articulating each album to have a feel of its own. While Sound-Dust is my overall favorite of theirs, Chemical Chords sports some of my most listened songs, including the above which has such a charming feel to it. Margerine Eclipse is rather unique due to both channels having different sets of vocals and lyrics; you can mute one channel and get a different song altogether. It's a marvelous experience.

Susumu Hirasawa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKXJhZtYFfg

This guy is insane. Hirasawa is one of the great geniuses of the anime music industry, and he strives to make each piece extremely memorable. In fact I've often shown his BGM compositions to others because they work so damn well as standalone pieces. He often contributed stuff to Satoshi Kon's work including Millennium Actress and Paranoia Agent. The theme song for Paprika, The Girl in Byakkoya (which he also performs), is one of my favorite songs of all time; it sounds overwhelming and somehow timeless.

Clazziquai Project

Clazziquai is objectively the greatest electronic group to ever come out of Korea. I don't like a lot of popular Korean music since it all sounds really samey... but Clazziquai doesn't. It's soothing as hell, and god I just love bands that have male and female vocals. It's a different kind of sound from most Asian pop music, and it's a damn shame that they weren't more popular.

[#AR]

 

Public Enemy.

Favorite artist. It's because of these guys that I became interested in doing music in the first place. My dad introduced them to me when I was around 11 or 12, and my musical tastes evolved drastically since then. After listening to them, a lot of the later hip-hop songs that I used to like just paled in comparison. I began to actually listen to rap music on a deeper level, past the infectiously catchy beats.  Now I can't really appreciate most of the rap songs I've heard nowadays. They weren't the most punny with their raps, but they didn't need a gimmick. They told it like it was, and didn't give two fucks about what people said about them. They made people think more about current events and what was really going on in the world. They're still making music today, and still got it. It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is still my favorite album of all time.

 

 

Lupe Fiasco.

My favorite current hip-hop artist. He's very intelligent and extremely clever with his lyricism. One thing I love about Lupe is that he's a nerd (he throws in video game and anime references from time-to-time). Despite making his major debut in 2006 (when mainstream rap started to decline), he stayed true to himself and actually brought conscious rap back into the mainstream. He's never really lost that about him, and hasn't dipped to the lows of misogyny, overabundant materialism, and the mindless rhyming of the word "nigga." 

 

 

Zebrahead

First discovered them while playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and rediscovered them when Sonic 06 came around. I went on a Zebrahead binge and loved everything I heard from them. Even their latest albums are consistently awesome (Panty Raid <3 ). They're not ones that can be exclusively categorized in one genre, sincce they've dabbled in punk rock, ska punk, funk metal, and rap rock. Apparently they're working on a new album, and I loved their last effort (Get Nice!) so I'm looking forward to this one as well!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_VMDJ5iW5o

Edited March 25, 2013 by Ash Crimson

[Applejack1973]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK9Aze8kCME

 

DJ ötzi.

 

He can make serious songs like the one above.

 

And also classical like La Ola Walzer.

 

 

Traditional songs too.

 

Edited March 25, 2013 by Applejack1973

[iDEATH]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

 

nick Cave is, in my opinion, the most talented songwriter of all time. His work can move from the sublimely beautiful (tracks like Into my arms, god is in the house) genuinely heartbreaking (lay me low) and gritty, hardhitting anger (Sorry dog, Dig! Lazarus! Dig!)

A bad seeds album is a wonderful thing and i'd recommend pretty much every one of them. his soundtrack work with Warren Ellis for films like The proposition and Lawless are great and his side project Grinderman is one of the angriest sounding bands around, like every damn track is spitting venom.

Not to mention he's a kick ass screenwriter and novelist

 

Tom Waits

 

If Nick Cave is the greatest songwriter then TomWaits is the most versatile, name pretty much any genre and he's done it. His early stuff is jazzy, then comes his blues album, experimental records, industrial, cuban beats, his records are and ecclectic mix and are simply wonderful. If you haven't heard his album Rain Dogs, frankly you've missed out on one of the greatest albums ever.

[Riff-making Love]

 
Noboyushi Sano.
 
The guy is probably responsible for any and all chord progression that I know, just by listening to his original works.
 
A few years ago on his myspace he made a playlist thingy called sanodg makes music everyday that had bits and loops of stuff he was working on and I listened to them all the time and just when I thought it'd be all scrapped wip stuff, the majority of it ends up on his next commercial album. Song above included. It's great to see the breakdown of each song and then the end result. Really puts things in perspective.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-pG8Hq6T6c
 
Zinger & Bacter
 
While I love both of their works individually, when these guys get together and collab on some old school video game music, it blows my head off. Their FM work in the scene has just been unreal to me. That sick combination of 80s funk and FM makes me jam out every time I hear it, their comiket doujin stuff included.
 
 

[SkyLlama]

Viktor Tsoi was the leader of Kino, a soviet era band and incredibly famous in Russia. The lyrics he wrote are great, his voice is one of the easiest to listen to I've heard and the music Kino made was awesome.

Kino has to be one of my favourite bands. And remember, Цой жив!

Anyway here's one of my favourite songs by them, Gruppa Krovi.

 

 

I'll post somemore when I have time.

Edited March 25, 2013 by SkyLlama

[Dizcrybe]

Let's see...

 

George Clinton

 

This guy headed my favorite Funk group, Parliament, as well as Funkadelic. His music is like someone giving my eardrums a blowjob. He's also managed to create an entire mythos with his music - mainly with Parliament; an alien figure known as Star Child comes to Earth to unite and move people with Funk. However, another alien called Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk doesn't hates Funk, and by extension, Star Child, and seeks to destroy him and all he stands for, all the while claiming that "I will never dance!" It's interesting listening to their songs and seeing how their "fights", so to speak, play out. Since there are obviously no visuals, it's all up to your imagination to figure out what's happening.

 

 

The Avalanches

 

These guys took sampling to an art form, taking snippets of other songs and combining them into something new. They're also responsible for one of my favorite albums as of late, Since I Left You (in fact, the album cover is my current avatar). This album uses 3,500 to create a unique blend of Hip-Hop, Trip-Hop, Easy Listening, Big Beat, and House. Unfortunately, it's their only album to date, though there are some EPs floating around. You probably know them for "Frontier Psychiatrist", but I strongly recommend you give their other tracks a listen as well.

 

 

Fun fact for those who don't know: every song on this album leads into each other.

 

The Prodigy

 

What I like about the Prodigy is the great use of breakbeats and sampling. Liam Howlett (the producer) does a great job of blending samples with his own original melodies.

 

Their music can range from either fast-paced, high-energy dance tracks to Rock-esque tracks with funky beats. Their sound changes with every album, but I love it all the same. Shame they seem to be only really known for Firestarter, good a song as it is.

 

 

Todd Edwards

 

Todd Edwards has mastered the art of sampling, and is the main reason I think this whole belief that sampling is unoriginal thievery is such bullcrap. His music takes miniscule samples (often less than a second long) and creates new melodies out of them, a process I've had difficulty creating. He's also very much a Christian, and some of his songs are about God, but they manage to be Christian without being cheesy or over-the-top or heavy-handed.

 

 

Daft Punk

 

A duo that needs no introduction. I like their sometimes pumping house beats and other times chill stuff.

 

 

KOAN Sound

 

One of the better Dubstep/Glitch-Hop acts to come out recently. KOAN Sound is a very creative duo, combining funky licks and harmonious chords with the Dubstep wubs we're all familiar with. Sometimes, there won't be any wubs at all, or at least, very little of them. I think it's safe to say that these guys aren't your average Dubstep duo.

 

 

And that's all I can think of for now.

[Sami]

Clazziquai Project

Clazziquai is objectively the greatest electronic group to ever come out of Korea. I don't like a lot of popular Korean music since it all sounds really samey... but Clazziquai doesn't. It's soothing as hell, and god I just love bands that have male and female vocals. It's a different kind of sound from most Asian pop music, and it's a damn shame that they weren't more popular.

 

Hm. I've seen Casker compared to them a few times, and while they sound somewhat similar because they cover the same sort of genre, I think the difference is still pretty big. Does Clazziquai also change their style with each album like Casker does or something?

 

Juding from this song, they sound a bit similar to the style Casker covered in their second album and their Your Song EP -

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccZdkHRTh_8

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYxUhXKHYE

 

That being said, I might just download Sweetest Name, that song was pretty cool.

 

Also, the OP to Paranoia Agent is a real earworm, haha.

Edited March 25, 2013 by Discoid

[Frank Sinatra]

The guy in my avatar, Prince.

 

First off, give a listen to When Doves Cry, not only my favourite song of the 80's but one of my favourite songs of all time. 

Prince- When Doves Cry 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Diudbhut4

Then of course his signature song: 

Prince- Purple Rain 

In my opinion, Prince is one of the most talented musicians of the last 30 years and he is certainly one of my favourite talents that have been around since the late 70's. He is an extremely prolific musician and has released an album almost every year since 1978! 

He is often compared to Michael Jackson because they were both most popular around the same time in the 80's and shared a lot of the same audience, although MJ is undeniably more popular, particularly in recent years where Prince has somewhat been forgotten about as the large force in music he was.

During 1980-1987 for example MJ at his peak only released two studio albums (Thriller and Bad) whereas Prince released: 

1980: Dirty Mind 
includes songs such as Uptown, Dirty Mind, When You Were Mine and Head. 
1981: Controversy 
includes songs such as Controversy, Let's Work and Head. 
1982: 1999 
includes songs such as 1999, Little Red Corvette, Delirious and D.M.S.R. 
1984: Purple Rain 
includes songs such as When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy, I Would Die 4 U and Purple Rain. 
1985: Around The World 
includes songs such as Raspberry Beret, Pop Life and Paisley Park. 
1986: Parade 
includes songs such as Kiss, Girls and Boys, Mountains and Anotherloverholenyohead. 
1987: Sign 'O' The Times (a double album as well!) 
includes songs such as Sign 'O' The Times, U Got The Look, If I Was Your Girlfriend, I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man and Adore. 

The albums of which in bold are STONE COLD CLASSICS rated highly by fans AND critics! Even the songs not in bold which are more inconsistent have some classics on them such as Controversy, Raspberry Beret and Pop Life! Purple Rain and Sign 'O' The Times are often called two of the best albums of all time! Also there are B-sides which are up there with his greatest songs such as "Erotic City", "17 Days" and "She's Always In My Hair" which are unbelievably good songs! 

Even after this period and IMO up until the mid-90's he still released countless classic songs and a few classic albums such as The Love Symbol album in 1992 and The Gold Experience in 1995. After this his music is admittedly nowhere near up to its previous standards but there are still stand out tracks that hold up well such as "Black Sweat" (2006) and "Colonized Mind" (2009). If you get bored of looking through his MASSIVE back-catalog of over 30 albums he has 100's upon 100's of unreleased songs of which those that have leaked include many that are arguably better than a lot of officially released tracks! 

Edited March 25, 2013 by Madhatter

[Sean]

Clazziquai's style isn't as diverse but there are differences between their albums. I've only heard about a third of their stuff so far, even though I have nearly every album they released in Korea. Their earlier stuff on Instant Pig and

was very playful for lack of a better description, while one of their more recent releases, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOkkK6-0tXY, is defined mostly by male vocals and subdued electronic sounds. Everything in between seems to fluctuate, but I generally find all of their stuff to be pretty good.

[Carbo]

Masafumi Takada.

Genius behind the soundtrack for Dangan Ronpa. God Hand. Killer7. No More Heroes. The latter of two which helm part of the top spots as my favorite games of all time.

For him it's not just about capturing a good scene, it's all about fueling the insanity of each and every one of the titles he works with. There's not a single game in his discography that lacks some fuel worth burning, every last one brings the best to offer.

The best part about where some of his killer tracks lies is that so many of them give off the perfect atmosphere of just pure evil. This is his area of expertise. Killer7 and Dangan Ronpa in particular, are just absolutely demented. It's nuts. Each and every moment is one worth experiencing.

I'd even go so far as to say he surpasses Akira Yamaoka in the things he's the best at, for while Yamaoka has the edge, Takada just has that midas touch bringing out the emotional atmosphere associated with each track he makes.

Which is to say nothing about his absolute range though. He's done everything; smooth jazz, aggrotech, punk rock, trance, etc. It goes on. Simply put, he's one hell of a talent.

[Sami]

Clazziquai's style isn't as diverse but there are differences between their albums. I've only heard about a third of their stuff so far, even though I have nearly every album they released in Korea. Their earlier stuff on Instant Pig and

was very playful for lack of a better description, while one of their more recent releases, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOkkK6-0tXY, is defined mostly by male vocals and subdued electronic sounds. Everything in between seems to fluctuate, but I generally find all of their stuff to be pretty good.

 

Downloaded Instant Pig. I'm gonna stop with the downloading for now though before I overwhelm myself, haha. Got two albums from Han Hee Jeoung, two from Nujabes, and one from Fanny Fink just yesterday. This is really awesome, though. I'm definitely going to get more once I'm done listening to all of these.

 

Edit: I haven't played any of the games Takada composed for, but what I've heard from him sounds pretty legit. I may check out some OSTs when I have time later.

Edited March 25, 2013 by Discoid

[Chili Dawg]

Tony Harnell.

 

After a quick bored Google search a couple years ago I found out that the "It Doesn't Matter" guy has had quite a career, one that keeps going and has been for like thirty years now. He's been in a lot of bands, all fantastic. Something about this guy's voice, man, just makes everything awesome.

 

He's best known for his time with TNT, a Norweigian hair metal/hard rock/pop rock/whatever the fuck they felt like being bad. A lot of great songs there.

 

From their heyday in the 80s:

 

 

To some 90s experimentation:

 

 

And all the way into the 2000s, till he quit the band in 06:

 

 

But TNT just scratches the surface, there was his side project Westworld- only three albums, but three damn good ones:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KLDKdsdEgg

 

 

 

And also Starbreaker, heavier than he usually goes, only two albums.

 

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

 

 

 

Then he had his "Tony Harnell and the Mercury Train" album a couple years ago, where he sung acoustic versions of his older stuff. And it was good.

 

 

 

And he's got a fair bit of other random stuff on his resume but I ain't gonna sit here and list everything the guy's ever done.

 

So yeah, pretteh kewl guy. Has dat maaaaaaagical voice that can go high as fuck in ways that would give any other human throat cancer. Whole lot of stuff and it's all pretteh kewl.

Edited March 25, 2013 by Chili Dawg

[Gregzilla]

I tend to mainly listen to video game music and some metal (not death metal, Metallica-type stuff).  There aren't many musicians/bands I actually actively follow as a fan.  The exception being:

 

Nightwish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj5X6om515Y

 

I've mentioned these guys several times before.  They are a Finnish symphonic metal band, with songs blending rockin' guitars and lovely orchestra sounds.  The reason I love them so much is because more than any other source of music, their songs give me goosebumps.  It's the type of music that makes me want to run outside, climb the highest mountaintop, and slay a friggin' dragon.  The feel ties into my love of games, as a lot of their music sounds very "final boss"-ish.  

 

The above song, Nemo, is probably one of their more famous songs.  It's sung by their previous lead vocalist, Tarja Turunen.  She was eventually replaced by Anette Olzon (which the Youtube comments will not shut up about).  She isn't as operatic, and at first I didn't like her, but I've grown to really like her style.  Though it may be because the instrumentation seemed to have evolved as well.  She sings The Poet and the Pendulum, which is my favorite song ever.

 

So yeah, they're the only band I really geek out for.  Whenever I'm writing a story and am thinking about a big battle or climax, chances are something by these guys is going through my head.

 

Also, you may know them better as EPIC MANEUVER.

[Sami]

Nightwish

 

Also, you may know them better as EPIC MANEUVER.

 

SO THIS IS WHERE THAT CAME FROM. I'd been wondering ever since I heard JonTron use it ages ago. Thank you.

[T-Min]

ohhh dear ohhhhh dear

 

welp, ladies and gents

 

It's that time of year.

 

It's time for...

 

T-MAN HAS AWFUL TASTE IN MUSIC: THE MOVIE: THE GAME

(these aren't necessarily arranged in any order)

 

Yeah, so these guys are pretty fantastic and stuff um

 

Actually...even though I consider these guys my favorite band, I'm...not entirely sure just what I can say to justify that other than...they're really just experts in their craft. Chevelle falls into the amazing sub-genre known as ALTERNATIVE METAL - think metal except more ALTERNATIVE and yeah - which is better known for such overrated more popular acts as Breaking Benjamin and Tool. Also, fun fact: a lot of people accuse Chevelle of ripping Tool off. Except they're not, cuz that would be dumb. And Chevelle isn't dumb.

 

 

 

 

The difference in quality between all three the latter two is just staggering, isn't it? See, while Chevelle certainly share their similarities with Pretention: The Band Tool (I'm totally not butthurt you guise) and are obviously influenced by said band, they take the concept of dark alt-metal and kinda take it in their own directions. While maintaining a very consistent sound across all six of their studio albums, their music is highly varied. They are able to convey all kinds of tones, atmospheres, ideas, feelings - very few of them even wangsty beyond the first couple of albums - and you'll rarely find two songs that sound quite the same. This is, of course, aided by some extremely clever lyrics. Unlike your average, run-of-the-mill wangst-fests that beat you over the head with every negative emotion they happen to be feeling, Chevelle conveys emotions and, at times, even narratives in a much more subtle way, often using some pretty unconventional metaphors and abstract imagery. Listening to a song without paying attention, you might be able to get a general grasp of what's going on. Focusing on the lyrics, on the other hand, will reveal that there's much more to a song than originally thought at first glance, and even then, you might not get the full picture without a few more listens, and a lot of personal interpretation goes into it as well.

 

And another thing I can't help but appreciate is that they don't focus on expressing their extremely important opinions (not to say they don't have them, they're just not emphasized) or more pretentious philosophizing unlike Tool. Their lyrics, more often than not, tend to deal with more personal subjects, all conveyed in a very tactful and even relatable manner. On the whole, it just makes them a very rewarding band to listen to, and I absolutely love them.

 

Hey, speaking of pretension...

 

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS

 

ohhhh snap goin' back a couple of decades here

 

but yeah

 

So...the Smashing Pumpkins. Out of all of the bands that I would call one of my "favorites", this is one of those I have the most problems with. Mostly...their frontman, Billy Corgan, is extremely full of himself and turns the entirety of their discography beyond Siamese Dream into pretentious cluster-effs (

). For the record, Siamese Dream was their second album and also the one that gained them mainstream success thanks to the likes of the brilliant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUZ6nCFNoU, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-KE9lvU810, and...

(please ignore the title, it's amazing). Long story short, it was a pretty freaking awesome album. So they wanted to follow it up with a true magnum opus, an unforgettable album of epic proportions that would win ALL teh critic aclaims, and would be AMAZHING. Corgan called it "The Wall for Generation X". Yes. The album's title?

 

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

 

I know, right? And, I mean, with such deep and meaningful lyrics as "EMPTINESS IS LONELINESS AND LONELINESS IS CLEANLINESS AND CLEANLINESS IS GODLINESS AND GOD IS EMPTY JUST LIIIKE ME" or, perhaps "

", it certainly does sound like something that would win all teh aclaims.

 

And it did.

 

You know why?

 

Because it was freaking great.

 

Yeah, for as self-absorbed as they are, teh pumpkins almost deserve it. They are extremely talented and creative musicians, and to be honest, after listening to them so much, I almost thing the ungodly amounts of Narm that you'll find in their songs kind of adds to the experience. You'll find so many gems in that XYU song, it's just insane.

 

Anyway.

 

DEFTOENZ

 

Much like Chevelle, these guys are alt-metal, and they're also pretty amazing. For a lot of the same reasons, too, except they're different and more experimental and more screamy and more CRAAAAZY but yeah it's still great.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQAa2oxb5TM.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUHzPeQb-CA.

 

But HOOONESTLY, I'm kinda running short on time here.

 

so I will post more of my crappy T-Bands later.

 

sorry

 

yeah

 

such a terrible loss

Edited March 26, 2013 by Eh Ok Fine It's T-Man

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

T-Man, why would you say your taste in music is terrible and then post Smashing Pumpkins? That's gotta be a crime, I swear.

[T-Min]

T-Man, why would you say your taste in music is terrible and then post Smashing Pumpkins? That's gotta be a crime, I swear.

Holy crap, your name DID come from that song! O:

 

Personal theory = thoroughly PROVEN

[-Mark-]

This is probably going to be fairly obvious, but I'm gonna have to go with Wada Kouji. Butter-Fly is my favourite song ever, and FIRE!! is a close third after Brave Heart (which granted isn't a Wada song but still). His work for Digimon is consistently amazing, for the most part.

 

This does raise an interesting point that I've been thinking about lately, though; is it the singer, or the composer, that should take the credit for a song? As I said, I love Wada Kouji's work on Digimon... but the songs would sound just as good with another competent singer at the helm. Sure, I do like his voice, but that's not really what makes a song; it's the melody and composition that make a song catchy and memorable. 

 

It's a real shame his throat cancer has come back, though. I really hope he can get over it and get back to singing soon. Although granted, he has done fairly little outside of the Digimon franchise, but still.

[188Eternal]

Liam Howlett, the founder of The Prodigy is a real legend who was totally ahead of his time and who makes n00bs like Skrillex look lame.

Whoever in Japan is responsible for composing the soundtracks for Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure deserves to have a monument built in their honour somewhere on this planet. Amen.

Christina Aguilera will always be loved by me, regardless of how much scandalous information I ever receive about her. I bought every single one of her albums (except for those "greatest hits" compilations, those don't really count).

The lyrics of ABBA keep me naive and hopeful for the future despite all of the pain that I keep having.

Last but not least, although Huepow00 aka DJ EAR is more of a mixer rather than an original composer, I still admire his works a great deal and have fond memories of providing him with reviews and motivational inspirations.

[Dizcrybe]

Whoever in Japan is responsible for composing the soundtracks for Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure deserves to have a monument built in their honour somewhere on this planet. Amen.

 

That would be Hideki Naganuma and Tomoya Ohtani, respectively.

[Goldenlink64]

Favorite Musician? Oh boy, I can't quite choose a definite favorite, there's way too many. I'll probably start off with one of the most influential for me. Whose that? Why, ZUN of course!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgh-TL6M2pU

 

I love this guy's music, he single handedly created the Touhou Project series and it's filled with great music all composed by him, not counting the terabytes worth of remixes found online (seriously, if you type in "Crowning Music of Awesome" into Google, Touhou is one of the very first pages to come up). His style of music seems to emphasizes piano a lot and seeing as to how that's my favorite instrument, I love every bit of it. All this while you're playing a really good Bullet Hell game too.

 

When the guy's not just emphasizing piano, his stuff also tends to have a lot of trumpet focus, which he tends to make rather awfully high pitched. Fans call 'em "ZUNpets" with the way he uses him and I think it's a pretty funny and fitting name, haha. They're also kinda iconic for the series, but they might annoy you depending on your preference. I always thought they sounded best in Nuclear Fusion, which is one of my favorite final boss themes.

 

 

Really, it's because of this guy that I've learned to get better at piano so I can play his stuff (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wFRIWFraWQ, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETTk83qis0w and

my first songs to push me to read sheet music and so I could play these songs, though to be fair, Koji Kondo deserves some credit too with his Stone Tower Temple and Zelda's Lullaby).

 

After learning to play his music, I can say I've learned how to get better at composing music too with the new different types of chord progression I learned. On top of that, half my remix library I created is Touhou stuff, or Sonic/Zelda remixes with Touhou crossover ideas. I can honestly say this guy's made me a better musician myself.

 

I just love ZUN's style and music so much though, every song he makes feels so sophisticated and unique, while still staying to ZUN's traditional style fans know him for now. I really find it quite fascinating how every song he makes follows a completely different chord progression (save Touhou 4, which uses a motif for several tracks), yet they still have a very familiar and identifiable style. I really look up to the guy and I hope I can match him at composing such good music someday...

 

"What? No mention of UN Owen Was Her or Necrofantasia? GoldenLink64 you idiot you've doomed us all!!!"

Shuddap I like these songs are better! >:/