What other genres do people listen to?

Kold

Over the last year or so I've bought about 2 hiphop albums, ripped a couple more but I'd say hip hop is becoming the minority in my collection. Now I know that with maturity comes wider tastes but to be honest, when I'm in the studio (have an iPod on me for around 9 hours a day) I only ever really listen to stuff on shuffle. I can appreciate it but I don't neccesarily crave it.

I'm listening to a lot of alternative and indie stuff lately, a little bit of rock or metal (prob more hiphop than metal). I'd say about 50% of the music I listen to in total is Radiohead. I have a bit of jazz but I haven't really taken to it. Soul I find quite boring though Chapman and Simone are the ****. I like quite a bit of electronica but I feel it has quite little personality. I'll bump a whole lot of Beethoven, Yann Tiersen and other instrumental stuff.

I think I've just gotten fed up with hip hop lately. I look at my old collection which I thought was class when I was a kid and see s*** like Ja Rule and DMX. It's embarassing. I see kids listening to the Black Eyed Peas and Dipset and feel horrified that they subject themselves to this corporate exploitation of an artform. I can't actually sit through hip hop and be bothered to decide whether this is some idiot trying to sell me a lifestyle or whether it's an intelligent guy putting out real messages. The market is just that saturated that I honestly can't be bothered. The only way I hear about decent stuff is word of mouth like this forum.

Does anyone else feel like this here? If so, what have you been turning to?

Backtoblack

Listening & watching NIN online at the moment... it depends on my mood and what I'm doing.. I think I like a bit of all sorts of music but generally I'm listening to the bands listed below (copied & pasted from somewhere else)
The Cure, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Stina Nordenstam, Ray Lamontagne, Deepdish, Pavorotti, Belly, Jeff Buckley, John Martin, Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, Mazzy Star, Sigur Ros, The Sundays, Sting, U2, Heather Nova, Starsailor, Pixies, Fleetwood mac, Damien Rice, Bjork, Nick Drake, Aaliyah, Jill Scott, Muse, Eyrkah Badu, Sneaker Pimps, Amy whinehouse, Leonard Cohen, kate bush, Johnny Cash &; June Carter, yeah yeah yeahs, Cake, Divine Comedy, kristen hersh, madder rose, Radiohead, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Bic Runga, Joss stone, Violent Femmes, Fiona Apple, Beverly Knight, Smashing pumkins, Pearl Jam, Juliana Hatfield, The Afghan Whigs, Dead can Dance, Mark Geary, Zero7, Massive Attack, Depeche Mode.. & so on.
Might be true that you get older you become more open minded about what you listen to..

Orizio

I've moved this since it deals with the whole of the musical spectrum rather then just Hip-Hop.

Firstly, there has been more then a handful of excellent Hip-Hop releases last year - Cunninlynguists(criminal if you didn't get this), Lupe Fiasco, Spank Rock, Yungun & Mr.Thing, The Roots, Bronze Nazareth, Oh No, The Coup, Subtle, The Clipse, Nas, Ghostface etc.I could go on for a while.Even if you dislike the new stuff, then are more then two decades of Hip-Hop releases to thrawl through, so there should be little excuse for an actual Hip-Hop fan to go on unsatisfied.

My own iPod is mainly either Hip-Hop or Electronica(Bjork, Amon Tobin, Royksopp) or a mixture of both(Tricky, Daedelus, Flying Lotus), but most genres are represented(Smashing Pumpkins, PJ Harvey, Emilie Simon, Joanna Newsom, Sly Stone, Regina Spektor etc). Its not what I turn to when I'm sick of Hip-Hop - I seek out good music period.To that end there are plenty of music magazines out there if your clever enough to ignore the trash like NME, Q, Rolling Stone etc.Mags like Foggy Notions, Hip-Hop Connection, Wire, iDJ etc and websites like MetaCritic and AllMusicGuide.

And that should be enough to keep you entertained.;)

EDIT=BackToBlack's suggestions are excellent as well.Just to make it easier, no music fans collection is complete, imo,without the following artists whole back catalogue...

A Tribe Called Quest.
Bob Marley.
Jimi Hendrix.
Massive Attack.
Tricky.
Portishead.
Smashing Pumpkins.
Outkast.
The Pixies.
Jill Scott.
Bjork.
Sly And The Family Stone.
PJ Harvey.
The Roots.

cornbb

I know what you mean about your favourite genre becoming stagnant Kold. I listened to very little apart from alt. rock for years. Then I realised that practically none of the new rock music being made had anything new to offer. So I started listening to post rock. Then acoustic/electronic stuff, like Four Tet. That all mushroomed out, and now I'll listen to absolutely anything. I've been listening to electronic music/IDM pretty intensely for years and I still hear some new jaw-dropping amazing stuff very regularly. Recently I've been listening to quite a bit of classical music, old gypsy jazz, drum'n'bass*, Ninjatunes compilations, trad, 20th century experimental, you name it. There is amazing music to be found in absolutely every genre and subgenre, when I realised that then genre didn't really matter any more and therefore finding great new music became much easier and much more fulfilling. The only real "genre" to be wary of is chart music. I don't wanna sound like a snobby old fart or anything, but the fact that most of the music in the charts is essentially tailored to sell means that its way less likely to be exploratory or progressive and therefore tends to just sound boring or annoying. There are exceptions though, of course.

*While I'm on the subject, anyone care to recommend some good d'n'b? I like it old fashioned Squarepusher/Aphex twin style

Makaveli

Too much of any one genre will eventually become boring. You don't have to be completely eclectic but variety helps a lot. I have music from almost all genres (bar Country and Trad can't stand either) and I'll mix and match. I often just go through phases where it's one genre only though.

Mainly though it's Hip-Hop I listen to. There's just so much that I can go months without listening to certain artists while not getting bored with any of the stuff in between. I listened to MF Doom for the first time in ages the other day. Recently I've been listening to a lot more funk and gotten back into soul a lot more.

I do usually stick to a few genres only though and when I step outside them it's only briefly. I was listening to metal for a while recently, it just doesn't really do anything for me and when I'm listening to it I spend most of the time thinking I could be listening to something else.

I tend to stick to Electronic/Hip-Hop/Soul/Funk music. Then throw in some alt/indie stuff and that's about it. Mainly Hip-Hop and Electronic though.

P.S. I hate the word electronica. It's not called electronica. Stop calling it electronica.

JC 2K3

Backtoblack wrote:

Might be true that you get older you become more open minded about what you listen to..

I just turned 18 and would consider myself to have a pretty open minded taste, yet looking through bebo, and from experience with a couple of people I know, there are many people in their mid-late 20s with a more closed minded taste than when I was 15. I reckon open-mindedness is just something that happens at some stage to anyone who gets into heavily into music.

In the past two years or so I've branched out my music taste from Nirvana and popular modern rock, to late 80s/ early 90s Alt Rock, to Classic Rock, to GNR, to Prog Rock, to Metal and Prog Metal.... etc. basically all the genres of guitar/drums/bass/occasional piano or organ music.

Then, seeking to expand my horizons I tried listening to Rap/Hip-Hop and got into a small amount of it. I should try and get into it more, but the sheer amount of shíte which you have to overstep makes it quite hard to find anything good. I find personally that even artists which are recommended to me as being good or even "essential Rap/Hip-Hop listening" turn out to be pretty crap. I guess I'm more into the "music" side of music than the lyrics side and I can't stand excessive repetition. I imagine some kind of syncopated, progressive, non-gangsta orientated rap would be class, but I've yet to find somthing like that....

I've gotten into Electronic Music in recent times and I'm really loving it. Aphex Twin, Squarepusher and Venetian Snares would all be favourites. Glitchy/Experimental stuff rocks too. I really like 94 Diskont by Oval, which I got recently. And Minimalism. I love my Minimalism. Tubular Bells comes to mind. I need to get more though.

In general my music taste has taken a "weird" or "different" direction. Basically if something is totally off the wall or simply different to anything else out there I'll love it. I have to mention that I'm loving anything by Buckethead, Primus or anything involving Buckethead, Les Claypool or both right now.

Makaveli wrote:

I was listening to metal for a while recently, it just doesn't really do anything for me and when I'm listening to it I spend most of the time thinking I could be listening to something else.

Thing is, it can be quite rewarding to force yourself to listen to a certain song/album/band/genre for a while. It's hard when a new song isn't instantly satisfying and you wish you were listening to somethign else. But I find if you put time into listening to different stuff you get into it and you find you've opened a new world of music to yourself. I made myself listen to Aphex Twin, just a couple of songs in my usual playlist of rock/metal. At the time I was completely alien to the concept of electronic music being in any way good. But after a while it grew on me and I love the genre now.

Makaveli wrote:

P.S. I hate the word electronica. It's not called electronica. Stop calling it electronica.

QFT.

Orizio

I just turned 18 and would consider myself to have a pretty open minded taste, yet looking through bebo, and from experience with a couple of people I know, there are many people in their mid-late 20s with a more closed minded taste than when I was 15. I reckon open-mindedness is just something that happens at some stage to anyone who gets into heavily into music.

True, age doesn't matter.A few years back I only used to listen to Rock/Metal and assumed everything else was heavily commercalized and best avoided.It was when I started listening to Hip-Hop at about 16 that my horizons expanded into electronica(fantastic word that), soul and anything else.

Then, seeking to expand my horizons I tried listening to Rap/Hip-Hop and got into a small amount of it. I should try and get into it more, but the sheer amount of shíte which you have to overstep makes it quite hard to find anything good. I find personally that even artists which are recommended to me as being good or even "essential Rap/Hip-Hop listening" turn out to be pretty crap. I guess I'm more into the "music" side of music than the lyrics side and I can't stand excessive repetition. I imagine some kind of syncopated, progressive, non-gangsta orientated rap would be class, but I've yet to find somthing like that....

Check The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, Cunninlynguists, KRS-One, Common etc.

Backtoblack

Bought a The Roots album "things fall apart" following the recommendations from this thread (the the sneak previews on Myspace). Sounds good.. I'm still on NIN mood though "Pretty Hate Machine".. so will listen to it properly later on.

Tar.Aldarion

I listen to most genres, metal and classical being the ones I listen to most.
Thrown in with bands like Belle & Sebastian, Royksopp, dj shadow, The Eels etc etc.
What I think is good music, rather than just a genre. Don't get so hung up on a genres name, or even a bands. I prefer to listen to each song on it's own.

JC 2K3

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I listen to most genres, metal and classical being the ones I listen to most.
Thrown in with bands like Belle & Sebastian, Royksopp, dj shadow, The Eels etc etc.
What I think is good music, rather than just a genre. Don't get so hung up on a genres name, or even a bands. I prefer to listen to each song on it's own.

Well genres just make it easier to find more of something you like. And I prefer to listen to albums at a time rather than single songs....

Tar.Aldarion

Yes, just use a genre to find a cd in a shop, music that falls under a genre is so diverse that the genre becomes not so important...
Listen to albums, I'm saying judge music song by song.

carpothepunk

Bands that i reccomend to anyone looking to broaden their horizons:
Brand New
Blur
Smashing Pumpkins
Can
Neutral Milk Hotel
Modest Mouse
Aphex Twin
DJ Shadow

melekalikimaka

genre wise i listen mostly to ska (sublime and what not), pyschobilly (horrorpops, necromantix), punk (ramones, the donnas) , Grrl Riot ( Bratmobile, Bikini Kill), Grunge (L7 , Babes in Toyland) , J-Rock ( shonen Knife, 5.6.7.8.'s), Digital hardcore ( Atari Teenage Riot, Lolita Storm)

its a random mix but theres something for every mood there. just find a band you like, lash it into pandora (www.pandora.com) and see what spews out

Backtoblack

I got another The Roots album today.. "Phrenology".. really really like them. Erykah Badu (of whom I'm a big fan) features on a song on "things fall apart" (album) called "You got me"... what an absolutely amazing song.. (I think I had it on repeat for about 3 hours today ). Must check out the hip hop section in here!

Makaveli

That's their worst album imo (ironically it has one of my favourite songs though, The Seed 2.0). You have their best in Things Fall Apart though. Now go buy them all because they're worth it. Don't ignore Come Alive either because it's a live album, it rocks. It also has What You Want, which is a great track and doesn't feature on any other albums (bar Home Grown Vol. 1).

Backtoblack

Makaveli wrote:

That's their worst album imo (ironically it has one of my favourite songs though, The Seed 2.0). You have their best in Things Fall Apart though. Now go buy them all because they're worth it. Don't ignore Come Alive either because it's a live album, it rocks. It also has What You Want, which is a great track and doesn't feature on any other albums (bar Home Grown Vol. 1).

I will probably too.. :rolleyes: How many do they have?
Could you recommend any female lead vocals of the same genre?
I love Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, (a bit of )Beverly Knight, Alicia Keys, etc..

Orizio

Organix and Phrenology are for completists only imo.Game Theory, Do You Want More??!??? and Things Fall Apart are their three classic albums.

If you only like that Erykah Badu track, then check out the track 'Liberation' she did with Outkast on their incredible album Aquamini.She has worked with plenty of MC's, Common for example.

Goapele's Change It All and Res' How I Do are probably the two best post 2000 soul/R'n'B albums I own.I have a feeling you'd like both.;)

Makaveli

Backtoblack wrote:

How many do they have?

Organix
Do You Want More?!!!??!
Illadelph Halflife
The Roots Come Alive
Things Fall Apart
Phrenology
The Tipping Point
Game Theory
Home Grown! The Beginner's Guide To Understanding The Roots, Volume One
Home Grown! The Beginner's Guide To Understanding The Roots, Volume Two

The two Home Grown albums are compilations. There's a few EPs aswell but most of those tracks are on the albums.

Backtoblack wrote:

Could you recommend any female lead vocals of the same genre?

Lauryn Hill's album is great. Try Angie Stone maybe too.

Backtoblack

Makaveli wrote:

Lauryn Hill's album is great. Try Angie Stone maybe too.

Yep I like L. Hill & Angie Stone too, forgot to mention them!

Orizio wrote:

Organix and Phrenology are for completists only imo.Game Theory, Do You Want More??!??? and Things Fall Apart are their three classic albums.

If you only like that Erykah Badu track, then check out the track 'Liberation' she did with Outkast on their incredible album Aquamini.She has worked with plenty of MC's, Common for example.

Goapele's Change It All and Res' How I Do are probably the two best post 2000 soul/R'n'B albums I own.I have a feeling you'd like both.;)

Yeah I have that Res single too, its great I love it! Must check out her album actually. Thanks for the reminder!
No no, I love both "The Roots" album that I got, all of it not just the Erykah tracks! "The return to innocence lost" is an amazing tune, I know its erykah again.. but I've been listening to both albums all night and am really enjoying them.. really chilled out.