Your Five Most Influential c.d.s (Share Why, Stories, etc.)

Soot and Stars

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1. Smashing Pumpkins-Siamese Dream

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My birth into music and everything it means to me started with "Siamese Dream". Before I bought this on cassette (remember those) I had never heard anything like it before. It was moody, spacy, melodic, emotional, otherworldly and epic all at the same time. My favorites before that album were Aerosmith and Gangsta rap. My taste have never been the same since!

Favorite track: Mayonaise

2. Fiona Apple-Tidal

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Before "Tidal" I was into just guitar rock. The only female artist I had started to get into was Jewel and I had crossed the bridge into Tori Amos yet. I had heard "Shadowboxer" on MTV and I wasn't blown away but something intrigued me about it. It was a groovy, jazzy style I never heard in any my music and Fiona sang with a conviction I had never heard vocally before. It was also the first time I felt the power of a piano in a pop song. After that I saw the c.d. in the store I couldn't stop being drawn to the cover. Something about Fiona intrigued me and after I picked it up and put it back a dozen times I finally gave in and bought it. Needless to say, I loved it. It evokes more internal soul than almost anything since. This c.d. opened the floodgates to female artist as well as the piano which has been my favorite instrument ever since!

Favorite Track: Never Is A Promise

3. New Radicals-Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

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I used to hate pop. I rebelled against what I thought was pop until I became obnoxious to everyone around me. "Maybe You've been Brainwashed Too" slapped me in the face, told me to lighten up and made me respect what a good pop album could do. It took every pop contrivance, mixed into a blender, multiplied the pop soul times 1,000,000,000, added psychotic almost non sensible lyrics that may or not have been dealing ironically with evils of commercialism and all the doo doo doos, heys, and whoos you can shake a stick at. Not only did this c.d. convince me to spend the most amount of cash on any one c.d. ever, it did it twice. I bought both of Greg Alexanders solo c.d.s for $40 each. I even bought Danielle Brisebois c.d., who was also a contributor to the group for about the same price. After the New Radicals I opened myself up to artist without prejudice and eventually found myself enjoying c.d.s from everyone to Christina Aguilera to Mandy Moore to Justin Timberlake to more recently Kelly Clarkson and even Hanson! It also influenced me to discover groups like Junior Senior and Scissor Sisters.

Favorite Track: I Hope I Didn't Just Give Away The Ending

4. South FM-Drama Kids

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SouthFM is my favorite band to come out since the Smashing Pumpkins but that's not what the influence is. South FM was the start of my finding bands that I wasn't exposed to on radio or MTV. Bands that were real discoveries. It wasn't the first band I had found through the internet but it was the first band to start my obsession of finding that hidden gem in music. I was on a lot of forums at the time and had Kazaa to download whatever I wanted at the time. One girl, who I still remember her name after all this time gave me tons of good suggestions. I worked at Best Buy at the time so I found the South Fm c.d. and payed a really cheap price for it. It was worth a LOT more! I LOVED it! I savored discovering and buying that next hidden underground band! I've been scouring and an addict ever since. Honestly, SouthFMs second and last c.d. is a lot better but "DRama Kids" was the influential one.

Favorite Track: Driving

5. Anberlin-Never Take Friendship Personal
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While solid and gracing one of the most pure sounding and amazing vocalist in rock, Anberlins "Never Take Friendship Personal" didn't break the mold for a rock c.d.. I would argue their c.d. "Cities" came closer to attempting that and arguably succeeded but this one came first. What this c.d. did for me was once again eliminate my prejudice through great music. I always hated Christian rock. I had friends who were into and I wanted to be open minded to it but all the stuff I tried was the most generic pile of emotionless trash I ever heard. Anberlin changed that. It had a fierceness and passion I had never heard in Christian rock before and I could feel it without being beat over the head with blatantly obvious lyrics. It made me think about faith rather than ignore the topic altogether outside my own opinions. This c.d. opened the doors for some of the best bands of heard in the last three years with groups like Mae, Relient K (later stuff), Waking Ashland and Switchfoot!

Favorite Track: Feel Good Drag

I know that was long but I'm passionate about this sort of thing. It would be great to hear you guys do the same! Please share! Peace!
 
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Foxhound

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Interesting topic! Picking precisely those five that were for me the most influential is no easy task but here goes:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Beatles

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Not only was this the most important in many ways album by the most popular classic rock band of them all, it was also the very first LP I ever bought in the late summer of 1967.

High Tide and Green Grass - Rolling Stones

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The first non-Beatle album I bought. I couldn't get enough of the Stones' harder edged sound thereafter and I ended up buying the rest of their albums in the next few months. I've been a lifelong Stones fan ever since.

Doors

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Another album that was a revelation for me and influenced my taste in music for years - if not forever. A buddy of mine told me a couple of years later that it sounded so dark and Satanic when I first played it for him that he couldn't imagine ever getting into their music. He bought his own copy within a month and remains a big Doors fan to this very day.

Wheels of Fire - Cream

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I'd read a review of this new prosaically named band in Time magazine. The reviewer said their music brought with it a taste of Chicago (or something like that) but I was unimpressed by their only radio single "Anyone for Tennis?". Then came "Sunshine of Your Love" and when I first saw "Wheels of Fire" at the record shop, I bought it on sight. I was very much impressed by "White Room" and "Spoonful" - but my seven year older sister was not. She commented only that our musical tastes had clearly diverged. They've never come even close again.

Tommy -Who

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I'd heard and enjoyed "Happy Jack" and "Magic Bus" on the radio. Then came the article in Time highly praising this innovative new rock opera "Tommy". And boy, did this album ever rock! I loved it!

:heheh:
 
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Mr. Shadow

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I heard this at a friend's house. When I found out it was only avalable on disc it lead me to buy my first CD player.

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Next would be "Dark Side of the Moon." You all know that cover.
It stands on its own, but I also play it while watching The Wizard of Oz.
To be honest, it took a while to really like it.
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This is special because I was looking for music from the "Smile" sessions.
It includes alternate versions of "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villians."

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The last groups to play at the Fillmore, and includes Bill Graham's farewell speech.

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For me this is the best by Bowie. It flows well and is a work of art.
 

troggy

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This has to be one of mine. Heard it sometime in the late 1980's, after finding a copy at Goodwill. Hadn't heard much punk or really anything like it, up to that point. Immediately liked it.

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Oblivion

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First I'd have to start with the first CD I ever had.
To be honest, it wasn't my first cd... but it was the first time I actually bought a cd because it seemed cool instead of to be cool... You have to place yourself in the skin of a 14 year old. Also imagine a bunch of friends who all loved the latest techno songs and the vast amount of peer pressure at that age to fit in...

Anyway: I rebelled, kicked off the peer pressure stigma and bought this:
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This box contains 2 albums: The red and the blue one..

The red one:
1. Blind Artist: Korn
2. The Kids Aren't AlrightArtist: The Offspring
3. Four Artist: Lit
4. Lit Up Artist: Buckcherry
5. Bawitdaba Artist: Kid Rock
6. Show Me What You Got Artist: Limp Bizkit
7. Bulls On Parade Artist: Rage Against the Machine
8. Creeping Death Artist: Metallica
9. Roadhouse Blues Artist: Creed
10. ***** Artist: Sevendust
11. Stop Being Greedy Artist: DMX
12. Keep Away Artist: Godsmack
13. A Secret Place Artist: Megadeth
14. Everything Zen Artist: Bush
15. I Alone Artist: Live
16: Interlude
17. Fire Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers

The blue one:
1. Tripping Billies Artist: Dave Matthews Band
2. Rock This Town Artist: Brian Setzer
3. Down So Long Artist: Jewel
4. Ends Artist: Everlast
5. Santa Monica (Watch The World Die) Artist: Everclear
6. If It Makes You Happy Artist: Sheryl Crow
7. Alison Artist: Elvis Costello
8. So Pure Artist: Alanis Morrissette
9. Black Capricorn Day Artist: Jamiroquai
10. Cold Beverage Artist: G. Love and Special Sauce
11. Block Rockin' Beats Artist: The Chemical Brothers
12. Adrenaline Artist: The Roots
13. Airport Song Artist: Guster
14. Superman's Dead Artist: Our Lady Peace
15. Ecstasy Artist: Rusted Root
16. Resting Place Artist: Bruce Hornsby

:Man, I still love both of these albums... I know the songs by heart and I can always tell you which song is gonna be next and all...
I have to thank my nephew for introducing me to The offspring, who were the reason why I bought this album. It doesn't need guessing that I came to love the blue album a few years later and mainly loved the red at first..

Next in line would be:
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No comment though ! it just represents the big punk period I went trough.. And Bad Religion always had great lyrics..

Then came Metal:
Children Of Bodom-Something Wild
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and afterwords the more symphonic metal, with more singing and less heavy guitars...
Savatage-Dead Winter Dead
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If you haven't heard about savatage, then you should check on LG's great thread about them...
In between these albums you'd find Blind Guardian, rhapsody, Iron Maiden, iced earth, a lot of death and doom metal and ozzy.


And then came Apocalyptica, my stairway to classic music.
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Because of Apocalyptica I think I made a jump forwards in the music I listen to. What used to be dark and heavy metal became symphonic metal and what used to be death metal became classic music such as schubert and Bach...


And the dire straits, my stairway to the classics of this world.
Dire Straits-Money For Nothing
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Without them I wouldn't be listening to the other great rockers of this world such as bruce springsteen, belle and sebastian, creedence cr, Clapton and many others... And the countless other artists I'm getting to know on here..


I'd love to list other bands and albums but the ones I mentionned actually made me look upon music in an other way, thus welding me into who I am now. Ofcourse there have been albums aside from these who hit me like a brick wall, but they didn't introcuce me to a new musicculture, instead they were just great albums in their genre, a genre I was already browsing. That's why "The wall" isn't on here and no led zeppelin albums...
 

Alocer

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Remember I was born in 1983 so my view is slightly different than others here as it seems I'm a youngin'(26). But anyway, here's my list. And remember, just because something's not here doesn't mean that i don't view it as a good album.

1. Nirvana-Nevermind- First Tape my dad ever gave me. My mother threw a fit about it till he reminded her that like 80% of Beatles songs were drug related....

2.Mighty Mighty Bosstones- Lets Face it- First CD I ever "Copied" for myself. There's just something about "Royal Oil" that I still love to this day....Probably its lyrical structure.

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3.Blind Melon-Soup-Great CD! Arguably one of their best IMHO. Taught me that not all rock had to be so loud your parents yelled at you.... "Turn That Racket Down!" If I had saved a nickel for everytime I was told that...Bling-Bling!!

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4. Porno for Pyros-Good God's Urge- Ok I was never a big "Jane's Addiction" Fan so when I bought this I was a bit worried (as it contains the lead singer and guitarist?(not sure)) but it is an amazing album. One of the few I can still put on and listen the whole way through. Plus "Tahitian Moon" is ROCKIN!!

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5. The Doors-The Best of the Doors and The In Concert Double Albums-Man, Not sure anything I can say anything that hasn't already been said about them here I'm sure. The Live gives you a feeling for Jim Morison's insanity and the Greatest Hits shows some of their best studio work.
 
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CP/M User

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I couldn't really say cause I listen to a great deal of things. To put simply if I like a song, I must know it exists therefore I must have heard it somewhere and it most likely gonna be from the Radio which plays heaps of stuff - and it's just a matter of sorting between the good songs and the stuff I don't prefer!

But I have the odd stuff here and there which I never heard on the radio cause it's either really old or they just don't play it on the radio. For example I brought:

Love : Forever Changes - because it was an album everyone else was ranting and raving about and saw a live Concert DVD of a Revised Love band with Arthur Lee performing it - and because it was done in 1967 it's kinda like everything done in 1967 has turned to gold for me! :)

Pete Seeger - I didn't know the performer until I got some CDs from him, but the Byrds did some great songs which he wrote and cowrite (e.g. The Bells of Rhymney & Turn, Turn, Turn) and thought they were great songs and knew he wrote If I Had a Hammer and also knew Where Have all the Flowers Gone which are great songs too.

The Almanac Singers - Because Pete Seeger was a part of that group! :)

Woody Guthrie - Because Woody was in The Almanac Singers! :)

Burl Ives - Because he was a folk singer before becomming a successful Country/Folk Singer.

That is perhaps the only music I have which I got without knowing what it was going to be like. I got some other stuff like albums from David Hemmings & The Rose Garden, which I got because I heard their music on the Byrd Parts I & II CDs. I sure hope they make a Vol III cause it's always fascinating to know what had some Byrd influence. :)
 

LG

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I am doing my 5 one at a time, first would be an album that is legendary. My older brother bought a copy when it was released and I fell in love with it all those decades ago. I am now on my 5th copy. Of course I am talking about Pink Floyd's stunning album "Dark Side Of The Moon". Hard to classify this one, simply took me to a place that I had never been to before, I used to listen to it on the headphones and trip out using nothing more than my imagination and the soundscape the band created. I only listen to this CD in the sequence the songs were recorded and all the way through, anything less is unacceptable.:D

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