What are 10 albums that define your musical tastes?

[whiplash1972]

If you were trying to explain your musical tastes to a new friend and they asked you to recommend 10 albums to them that would define those tastes, what would you tell them? Not your 10 favorite albums of all time (although some are sure to be favorites), but 10 albums that illustrate your overall musical preferences. I've given it some thought, and came up with the following...

*I've seen some people try to do this with just 5 picks, and that just seemed damn near impossible to me... 

The Beatles – Help! (1967)
Classic pop rock. Along with bands like The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys,
The Who, The Monkees, etc, the Beatles define the sound so many immediately associate
with the 60s. I've always enjoyed listening to a lot of the music that emerged in the
decade prior to my birth.

The Eagles – Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (1976)
Early Eagles was a combination of country rock and soft rock and was probably a 
precursor to my enjoyment of various country artists and lite rockers over the years

Journey - Escape (1981)
AOR/arena rock perfection. This one goes right along with my love for other groups like Boston,
Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, etc... 

Billy Joel - An Innocent Man (1983)
The sound that, in my opinion, defines 80s pop rock. Growing up in the 80s, Billy was everywhere,
and I love his music, along with most of his contemporaries.

Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)
When this one came out, I had mainly been listening to bands like
Def Leppard, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, etc... MoP steered me into speed/thrash
for the first time and opened up a new world of metal for me!

Dokken - Back For the Attack (1987)
My favorite album of all time, and for me, the definition of what hard rock should be.
The majority of my music collection, in one form or another, has a sound that could be considered
similar to this album/band. 

Guns n' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987)
Sleazy, dirty, grimy hard rock that changed the game. Love the sound of GnR,
along with contemporaries like LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, etc...

Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime (1988)
A melodic metal masterpiece. My love for some of the heavier groups like
Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept, etc, aligns with my love of this disc!

Alice In Chains – Dirt (1992)
Grunge. Not all of it was bad, and I thoroughly enjoyed a lot of the early stuff
that came out of the Seattle area. 

Brother Firetribe - False Metal (2006)
The most recent release in my list, Brother Firetribe encompasses that big, powerful
anthemic sound that I tend to gravitate towards these days. I place bands like Striker, 
Kissin' Dynamite, Wig Wam, etc alongside BF.

 

There you have it. I think those 10 pretty well illustrate my musical tastes. What would your 10 be?

 

 

 

 

[Captain Howdy]

I will have to think on this as my musical tastes are eclectic. While yes, hard rock n metal are my main taste, I grew up exposed to very different music so my influences and tastes are incredibly varied. On top of the stuff I post about here, I like pretty much every style of music going except a lot of the more modern styles and "club" oriented music.

I can listen to country, swing, soul, old rock n roll, pop, rap, classical, new wave, new romantic, indy, reggae and pretty much all points in between.

Hell even within the rock and metal scene I am all over the place. My most popluar rock bands at the moment are varied, and a lot of it would not be the sort of stuff that gets spoken about here.

 

[Eric3]

Rush - Power Windows (favorite album by my favorite band)

Survivor - Vital Signs (IMO the greatest AOR album ever)

Hammock - Chasing After Shadows...Living With The Ghosts (ambient post-rock, absolutely massive and very emotional)

Yellowcard - When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes (pop punk will always have a place in my heart)

Anathema - Distant Satellites (atmospheric, proggy, also very emotional)

Steve Roach - Structures From Silence (what ambient music should be, I've fallen asleep to it hundreds of times)

Sigur Ros - Valtari (overwhelmingly beautiful slush)

Oceansize - Effloresce (life-changing atmospheric prog)

Mercenary - Architect of Lies (I'm not much of a metalhead anymore but I'll always come back to this one)

Tycho - Dive (got me into the whole downtempo electronic genre)

[lettard]

Ok I'm gonna try this and stay with different genres so to speak because like most I am mainly a rock/metal fan but for the purposes of explaining my tastes to someone new i'll go differing genres...they can learn all my favourites if they stay my friend

Adam and the Ants - Kings Of The Wild Frontier (1980)

The first album that I actually bought with my own money, still love quite a bit of this and what is not to love about that tribal drumming especially on that title track & Antmusic.

Jamiroquai - Travelling Without Moving (1996)

Repeatitive listens to this in Magaluf in the summer of '96 on my first lads holiday earwormed this to me and I still love it and whats not to love about Cosmic Girl & Virtual Reality,funky and full of character...still love it today.

Galantis - Pharmacy (2015)

My go to for a bit of Dance/Trance since it was released , just fell in love with that sound , tracks like U & I and Peanut Butter Jelly are perfect before headin out to the bar on a Friday/Saturday night

Royal Republic - Lovecop (2024)

The brand new album from these guys has brought to fruition all of what they have been growing into over the last decade or so , this album just puts a BIG smile on my face and its total leave your brain at the door and enjoy Rock Pop sound.

Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears (1991)

Was always a fan but never huge until this monster was released , heavy yet melodic all the way through and Zakk Wyldes sound on this is killer...even my wife likes this one

Night Flight Orchestra - Sometimes The World Ain't Enough (2018)

Fantastic album,so many different styles and class songs,not for everyone,hell even my 18 year old self would have been embarrassed for me liking this along with quite a few I've already listed here, but I don't care,just think that on this they hit everything perfect,another that brings smile to my face,even when at work and soaked to the balls in the weather on a daily basis.

Metallica - s/t(the black album) (1991)

Perfect,even for someone who may not like heavier music I don't think they could argue that this is a beast,with its massive production,great songs and musicianship,its a no brainer for me.

LeBrock - Fuse (2021)

Another summery good time album,these guys built up for a while with singles & E.Ps before going full length,and I was glad that they did,a perfect combination of 80's pop/rock/dance/culture/synth a real throwback to the days of my teens (although I listened to W.A.S.P etc back then)

Dare - Out Of The Silence (1988)

Remember when I read about this in Kerrang magazine,it was one morning before my parents took me on a train to Portrush (seaside) which at the time had a music shop there(Grahams), the review gave it 5 K's I think? and it sounded like my thing so I was well pleased to find it in that seaside record shop,took it home that evening and stuck it on, pure AOR/melodic bliss to my ears and its still played at least once a week by me now...classic

Def Leppard - Hysteria (1987)

My favourite album of all time...been since release day...nuff said  
 

Edited August 31 by lettard

[Crazysam]

·         Boston - S/T (1976) – The earliest influence on my musical tastes was my father.  He had a large vinyl record collection and one of the records he often played was the debut album from Boston.   The guitars, vocal harmonies, and great melodies started me down the path of my love for melodic rock

·         The Cars – S/T (1978) –  I enjoyed a lot of new wave/synth artists in the early 80’s and the Cars were one of my favorite acts from that genre, I still listen to this album regularly

·         Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance (1982) – melodic metal makes up a large part of my collection and Iron Maiden & Judas Priest have been favorites since the early 80’s

·         Def Leppard – Pyromania (1983)  it perfectly combined pop and hard rock and has remained my favorite album of all time to this day

·         Van Halen – 1984 – Eddie Van Halen was my hero growing up, a soft spoken larger than life guitar icon whose riffs, solos and songs became a big part of the soundtrack of my youth.  With 1984 it all came together from the hit songs to the unforgettable videos.  Although I never had the pleasure of meeting him his passing felt like I had lost a longtime friend

·         Bryan Adams – Reckless (1984) – for me, no album epitomizes 80’s pop/rock like this album with big hooks, great production and radio ready songs; listening to it always brings me back to fun, carefree, summertime days

·         Guns n' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (1987) – what a year for hard rock with Hysteria, Whitesnake S/T and this album to list just a few; when I think of sleaze metal these guys set the standard for others to follow

·         Queensrÿche – Operation: Mindcrime (1988) – while I had never really gotten into progressive rock/metal up to that point in my musical adventure, my enjoyment of this album opened me up to exploring more from the genre

·         Savatage – Gutter Ballet (1989) – the band started their journey into more epic style arrangements with Hall of the Mountain King but for me they reached their peak with this release.  The title track remains one of my favorite songs with that great piano intro and started my interest into symphonic and power metal for years to come

·         Dan Reed Network  – Slam (1989) – I enjoyed several songs by Prince during the 80’s and could have easily placed one of his albums on this list, so when funk metal had its moment in the late 80’s/early 90’s I was all in.   Slam has been one of my go-to albums ever since