Your biggest or most important musical influences?

Trollheart · 01-08-2016, 12:06 PM

I'm talking about the one artist you saw, heard, met even, who changed what was at the time your view of music and set you on a different path. The one who made you realise maybe that music was not just a pastime or something to form the background noise, and could be something deep and interesting and rewarding and powerful.

For me personally it would first be Genesis (yeah yeah) whose live album Seconds Out impressed me so much at 17 years old and turned me onto progressive rock. Second would be Iron Maiden, who two years later got me into heavy metal, something I had assumed was loud, noisy and dirty. I was right of course, but there was something there I had not expected: well crafted and well played songs.

And thus began my descent into the maelstrom that is music.

How about yourself?

**Frownland** · 01-08-2016, 12:09 PM

Not an initial influencer but rather one that came in later on, but Cage influenced my perspective on music (and life in general) massively.

Chula Vista · 01-08-2016, 12:13 PM

See my avatar. Hearing Zep I for the first time in 1970 changed everything. Honestly, gave me a reason to want to live at the time.

blackdragon123 · 01-08-2016, 03:51 PM

I used to play Sgt. Pepper on repeat incessantly as a kid. There was a theatrical, story-telling vibe running through every track that made the music feel as much like an adventure as simply a collection of songs. I'd call it my first musical "experience", as it wasn't just enjoyable melodies and lyrics that I found in other music I knew at the time (Queen, Robbie Williams, Ian Dury, The Who).

I wasn't old enough to appreciate what the specific drug/dark references were in the lyrics or the sound of the album, but I was turned on to the idea of music affecting mood and creating a jovial or unsettling ambience. I don't think any other album I ever listened to had the same effect on me. The Beatles' voices were so confident, youthful and melodious that I would almost call it hypnotising. 'Within You Without You' is probably the most powerful example of a worldly-wise, psychedelic art-form invading the mind of someone who had so little experience of the world, art and politics.

The album's artwork was enough to fascinate me, as that colour and character saturated image looked to invite you in to an impossible, ambiguously frightening world where you could meet all the strange characters from the songs and maybe become a Beatle yourself.

I hadn't thought about it for a long time, but I was practically obsessed with that album. I wouldn't even place it in my top 10 these days, but all of the mystery, untapped potential and unfinished stories got me hooked on the medium, and it's safe to say it made me want to spend the rest of my life collecting music.

Norg · 01-08-2016, 04:15 PM

I was,like 9,years old

Hearing

Selena
West coast rap
Prodigy
Korn

The rest was history

Pet_Sounds · 01-08-2016, 04:54 PM

I picked up my Beach Boys love through my dad. Through them I discovered the Beatles (as everyone does). They expanded my rather limited musical horizons. Then I found David Bowie thanks to Urban and LiL and everything took off.

Mondo Bungle · 01-08-2016, 06:18 PM

my largest influence

The Batlord · 01-08-2016, 06:23 PM

Metallica. At the time I thought their 90's material was the catchiest music that could still be badass, and their 80's stuff was the most brutal thing I'd heard. Led me to thrash and Iron Maiden, and I've been riding that train ever since.

Arzy_ · 01-09-2016, 02:47 AM

I was an average pop-comercial-listener until Internet came to my life and then through the net i was able to find out new world of tunes, sounds and lyrics (from other countries, different languages, older years) that literally changed my framework. So I'd say that the net was my great influence.

Plainview · 01-09-2016, 04:35 AM

Main ones off the top of my head:

Talk Talk
Can
Miles Davis
Alice Coltrane
King Crimson
David Bowie
Brian Eno
Sun Ra
Scott Walker
The Beatles
The Beach Boys
The Velvet Underground
Steve Roach
Arthur Russell
Robert Fripp
Faust
John Fahey
Chopin
Debussy
Talking Heads
Terje Rypdal
Bennie Maupin
Robert Wyatt
Björk

01-08-2016, 12:06 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	Your biggest or most important musical influences? I'm talking about the one artist you saw, heard, met even, who changed what was at the time your view of music and set you on a different path. The one who made you realise maybe that music was not just a pastime or something to form the background noise, and could be something deep and interesting and rewarding and powerful. For me personally it would first be Genesis (yeah yeah) whose live album Seconds Out impressed me so much at 17 years old and turned me onto progressive rock. Second would be Iron Maiden, who two years later got me into heavy metal, something I had assumed was loud, noisy and dirty. I was right of course, but there was something there I had not expected: well crafted and well played songs. And thus began my descent into the maelstrom that is music. How about yourself? __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

01-08-2016, 12:09 PM	#2 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	Not an initial influencer but rather one that came in later on, but Cage influenced my perspective on music (and life in general) massively. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

01-08-2016, 12:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
Chula Vista Toasted Poster Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: SoCal by way of Boston Posts: 11,332	See my avatar. Hearing Zep I for the first time in 1970 changed everything. Honestly, gave me a reason to want to live at the time. __________________ “The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

01-08-2016, 03:51 PM	#4 (permalink)
blackdragon123 don't be no bojangles Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Wales Posts: 496	I used to play Sgt. Pepper on repeat incessantly as a kid. There was a theatrical, story-telling vibe running through every track that made the music feel as much like an adventure as simply a collection of songs. I'd call it my first musical "experience", as it wasn't just enjoyable melodies and lyrics that I found in other music I knew at the time (Queen, Robbie Williams, Ian Dury, The Who). I wasn't old enough to appreciate what the specific drug/dark references were in the lyrics or the sound of the album, but I was turned on to the idea of music affecting mood and creating a jovial or unsettling ambience. I don't think any other album I ever listened to had the same effect on me. The Beatles' voices were so confident, youthful and melodious that I would almost call it hypnotising. 'Within You Without You' is probably the most powerful example of a worldly-wise, psychedelic art-form invading the mind of someone who had so little experience of the world, art and politics. The album's artwork was enough to fascinate me, as that colour and character saturated image looked to invite you in to an impossible, ambiguously frightening world where you could meet all the strange characters from the songs and maybe become a Beatle yourself. I hadn't thought about it for a long time, but I was practically obsessed with that album. I wouldn't even place it in my top 10 these days, but all of the mystery, untapped potential and unfinished stories got me hooked on the medium, and it's safe to say it made me want to spend the rest of my life collecting music. __________________ 'Well, I'm a common working man, With a half of bitter, bread and jam, And if it pleases me, I'll put one on ya man, When the copper fades away!' - Jethro Tull

01-08-2016, 04:54 PM	#6 (permalink)
Pet_Sounds Remember the underscore Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: The other side Posts: 2,488	I picked up my Beach Boys love through my dad. Through them I discovered the Beatles (as everyone does). They expanded my rather limited musical horizons. Then I found David Bowie thanks to Urban and LiL and everything took off. __________________ Everybody's dying just to get the disease

01-08-2016, 04:15 PM	#5 (permalink)
Norg Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 2,358	I was,like 9,years old Hearing Selena West coast rap Prodigy Korn The rest was history

01-09-2016, 02:47 AM	#9 (permalink)
Arzy_ Groupie Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Mallorca, Spain. Posts: 9	I was an average pop-comercial-listener until Internet came to my life and then through the net i was able to find out new world of tunes, sounds and lyrics (from other countries, different languages, older years) that literally changed my framework. So I'd say that the net was my great influence.