Engine

1. What is your favorite genre of music?
I honestly can't choose a favorite genre. Not even an "at the moment" one.

2. Who are your favorite artists (at least at the moment).
If by favorite you mean what I've been listening to the most lately:
Chapterhouse, Home Brew, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, M83, The Misfits, and the new Mountain Goats and GY!BE albums have been getting a lot of play. I tend to latch on to certain albums for short periods of time and listen to them incessantly until I get tired of them.

3. How important is music in your life? How often do you listen to it?
Pretty important. Probably 3 hours per day on average.

4. Why are you a member of Music Banter?
I tried talking about music on another forum that wasn't dedicated to music and that got boring pretty quickly so I searched and found MB.

5. What does this community mean to you?
I haven't thought of it as having a meaning. I've met some good people here though.

6. Does your opinion of someone get better if you find that they enjoy the same music that you do?
Yes

7. Do you find yourself drawn to music that is less well known? Why or why not?
Yes but not because it's less well known. I'm also drawn to a lot of music that's very well known.

8. Do you enjoy searching for new music/music you have never heard before? Is the act of searching for music as enjoyable as the music itself?
No, in fact, I kind of hate searching for new music. That's a big reason why I like MB. When I want something new, I check out the "what are you listening to now" or the recommendation types of threads because I know I'll find a bunch of youtube videos that have already been hand-picked by others.

9. Do your friends outside this community listen to similar music that you do?
Yes. Probably none of them like everything I like (and vice-versa) but I have some musical interest in common with all of them.

10. Would you consider yourself a music snob, an elitist, or even, dare I say, a hipster?
No

11. What does music mean to you?
It doesn't mean anything other than entertainment to me. That said, music that I consider to be great is my favorite type of entertainment.

__________________

Like an arrow,
I was only passing through.

Zer0

1. What is your favorite genre of music?
I guess indie rock has been my genre of choice over the past few years. But I listen to plenty of electronic music, metal and other stuff as well.

2. Who are your favorite artists (at least at the moment).
At the moment (because it changes every few months) would be Slowdive, Smashing Pumpkins, Yo La Tengo, Pixies, The Cure, The Smiths, Camera Obscura, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, M83

3. How important is music in your life? How often do you listen to it?
Music is my escape and my link to certain memories. I listen to music a lot of the time in work and when I get home, so quite a lot of hours.

4. Why are you a member of Music Banter?
Because I was bored in college one day and I decided to find a forum where I could have discussions about my favourite music with people. I'm still here because this place is still the only forum I can find where I can really do that.

5. What does this community mean to you?
I come here nearly every day or at least when I'm not bogged down with things to do. It's definitely one of my most used sites on the net.

6. Does your opinion of someone get better if you find that they enjoy the same music that you do?
Not really, I always try to see the best in people no matter what their tastes are. If a person does have similar taste in music as me it all depends on who the person is and whether I like them personality-wise or not. If it's a person I dislike then I'm still going to dislike them.

7. Do you find yourself drawn to music that is less well known? Why or why not?
Not necessarily. I'm drawn to music that I like the sound of, it doesn't matter whether only two people have heard it or everyone on the planet have heard it.

8. Do you enjoy searching for new music/music you have never heard before? Is the act of searching for music as enjoyable as the music itself?
Yes I love searching for sounds I haven't heard before, that's what keeps music interesting for me. I could spend hours looking through blogs, Last.fm or Rate Your Music for something that might appeal to me and a lot of the time I do find something really great.

9. Do your friends outside this community listen to similar music that you do?
I wouldn't say similar but we do share a lot of artists in common. Some of my friends are big into folk-rock, another one of my friends is a stereotypical Pitchfork-worshiping hipster. Then I have some friends that only listen to mainstream hard rock and metal. But the person with the most similar taste to me is my little sister, she likes a lot of the stuff I listen to.

10. Would you consider yourself a music snob, an elitist, or even, dare I say, a hipster?
I don't consider myself one but to the average music listener I probably do seem like one.

11. What does music mean to you?
Without music life would suck.

__________________

Face

1. What is your favorite genre of music?
Post-rock I guess. But I wouldn't say I had one.

2. Who are your favorite artists (at least at the moment).
Kaki King, maybeshewill, gramatik

3. How important is music in your life? How often do you listen to it?
I listen to it every day. But I generally don't know/care at all about the artists.

4. Why are you a member of Music Banter?
Originally to ask a specific question.

5. What does this community mean to you?
Recently joined, so not too much.

6. Does your opinion of someone get better if you find that they enjoy the same music that you do?
No, but my opinion may be tinged if they adore music I strongly dislike.

7. Do you find yourself drawn to music that is less well known? Why or why not?
Yes, mostly because I find pop music boring even if it is catchy.

8. Do you enjoy searching for new music/music you have never heard before? Is the act of searching for music as enjoyable as the music itself?
I enjoy searching for music, but the point is to find music more enjoyable than searching through songs you may or may not like. I listen to some music I was years ago.

9. Do your friends outside this community listen to similar music that you do?
I'd say about 50% of it overlaps.

10. Would you consider yourself a music snob, an elitist, or even, dare I say, a hipster?
Nope.

11. What does music mean to you?
Mood changer and enhancer.

anticipation

1. What is your favorite genre of music?
At this point in my life: hip hop. Had you have asked me this in the past the answers would've been blues, skramz/hardcore, jazz, punk.

2. Who are your favorite artists (at least at the moment).
All time: Dilla, Madlib, Dawn Treader, Jerome's Dream, Wu-Tang Clan, etc.
Now: Bassnectar, Ta-Ku, Knxwledge, Deadmau5, Master P.

3. How important is music in your life? How often do you listen to it?
Like most members here I listen to music pretty much every waking second. Luckily I work in an industry that allows us to play music all day long too, so from the time I wake up to the time I come home from work I've got something playing.

4. Why are you a member of Music Banter?
Force of habit.

5. What does this community mean to you?
An outlet for creative people to share and grow their musical inclinations collectively.

6. Does your opinion of someone get better if you find that they enjoy the same music that you do?
Yes, tremendously so.

7. Do you find yourself drawn to music that is less well known? Why or why not?
I did find myself searching for more and more obscure albums or bands, things very few people had heard much less owned copies of. Nowadays it is less of a priority, if only for the fact that I've got less time on my hands to seek it out. I do appreciate the underground more than the mainstream, be it MB mainstream or popular mainstream.

8. Do you enjoy searching for new music/music you have never heard before? Is the act of searching for music as enjoyable as the music itself?
The act is both cathartic and at times agonizing. Hearing something new is always rewarding but when you hit a slow patch and can't find anything to excite you it can be frustrating.

9. Do your friends outside this community listen to similar music that you do?
Yes and no. Imo it's more of I listen to stuff they listen to sometimes and keep my tastes pretty much to myself. I suspect this is the case for a lot of members.

10. Would you consider yourself a music snob, an elitist, or even, dare I say, a hipster?
Nope, listen to what you like.

11. What does music mean to you?
Communication, expression, a means to form kindred bonds with people you don't know or haven't met yet.

jackhammer

1. What is your favorite genre of music?
Has to be Rock music but that encompasses everything from Prog to extreme metal.

2. Who are your favorite artists (at least at the moment).
Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, John Martyn, Underworld, The Cure

3. How important is music in your life? How often do you listen to it?
Every day without fail. Music is my cathartic alter ego and I need it.

4. Why are you a member of Music Banter?
I like to share new music I have heard. Egotism. I revel in the enjoyment of members listening to something I have recommended. I find peoples music tastes an initial barometer of who and what they are.

5. What does this community mean to you?
not as much as it used to be but I return time and time again to find like minded people. It's a comfort blanket.

6. Does your opinion of someone get better if you find that they enjoy the same music that you do?
Of course it does. It's ego stroking even if it's an indirect relationship.

7. Do you find yourself drawn to music that is less well known? Why or why not?
I become frustrated if music that is very similar to music that has widespread appeal but is unknown for whatever reason but I try not to differentiate between what is popular or not. Good music is made on many levels.

8. Do you enjoy searching for new music/music you have never heard before? Is the act of searching for music as enjoyable as the music itself?
Finding new music is extremely cathartic and it let's you into a little world that for a while may only belong to you but I don't exclusively look for new music. I just love being constantly surprised by what the music has to offer if you dare to delve beneath commercialism.

9. Do your friends outside this community listen to similar music that you do?
Not exclusively what I listen to but they are all passionate and knowledgeable about what they listen to and whilst I don't use music as a barometer of friendship (compared to initial meetings), I consider people passionate about whatever hobbies they pursue far more interesting than those spoonfed by the general media.

10. Would you consider yourself a music snob, an elitist, or even, dare I say, a hipster?
Yes but age brings that whether it's intentional or not. I don't want to be a music snob but outsiders can perceive your knowledge as elitism unfortunately.

11. What does music mean to you?
It meant everything to me when my parents split and it means even more to me now I am a widow. Music expresses everything that I don't have the skills or expertise to expand on. It's emotion by proxy.

I may have some follow up questions later. Thanks again (if anyone cares enough to answer a few, anyway).[/QUOTE]

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Electrophonic Tonic

1. What is your favorite genre of music?
In the past I would have said prog or garage rock. But my tastes are really leaning towards alternative hip hop right now.

2. Who are your favorite artists (at least at the moment).
I have a huge crush on Death Grips right now and you never forget your first (Led Zeppelin). But King Crimson is my soul-mate.

3. How important is music in your life? How often do you listen to it?
Incredibly. Even if I'm gonna take a 5 minute drive, I'll spend 3 minutes setting up my ipod and choosing the song I want to play in my car. It's on if I'm studying, relaxing and even sleeping.

4. Why are you a member of Music Banter?
I was a member of the official Led Zeppelin forum. I began to notice that I was sending at least 80% of my posts to the 'Other Music' sub-forum. It also got nauseating to have the two prominent factions on there be the 'I was alive when they around and I saw them live 11 times in 1971. You kids can't understand that!' and the other being 'OMG!!! i cant stand modern music lol!! beiber sux and LZ is the best band ever. And im only 13!!'. I had to get away and I joined this forum and another similar multiple music genre forum. I made roughly the same few posts and decided this was the place to be.

5. What does this community mean to you?
It really is a place to learn. I love the fact that I'm the so-called music guy amongst my friends but I can go on MB and realize how my taste in music represents a fraction of a fraction of everything out there. Along with being in college, the reason I don't post as frequently as I could is because I would have nothing to contribute beyond "I've never heard that before." I love exploring music, but it takes awhile for me to be confident enough in my opinion of it to actually say something out loud. Basically, I come here to learn, to be humbled and to contribute where and when I can.

6. Does your opinion of someone get better if you find that they enjoy the same music that you do?
I think there is a certain connection that can be made. I worked with a new lab partner in mineralogy today. He asked me to play a "Halloween" album on my laptop. I went with Dr. Octagonecologyst said I was the first person at Geneseo he's met in 2 years whose heard of it and enjoys it. We're not BFFs or broskis by any means, but Dr. Octagon broke down some initial barriers for us to discuss music and begin identifying the first 35 of 112 minerals.

7. Do you find yourself drawn to music that is less well known? Why or why not?
If by 'less known' in the mainstream sense, more often than not yes. I like music that is interesting to me in some/any way. Most mainstream music does not offer that to me.

8. Do you enjoy searching for new music/music you have never heard before? Is the act of searching for music as enjoyable as the music itself?
Pandora makes it much more fun by taking the work out of it But the satisfaction of finding something you like is pretty great. Sure, sometimes you're sifting thought turds looking for a gold nugget and it sucks. But what you usually find is a worthwhile. I do prefer the accidents though, such as when I was looking up Dalek on some music blog and I made a typo in their custom google search. It asked me if I meant Death Grips. I'm sure I would have heard about them eventually on here, but it was nice finding them on accident right after Exmilitary dropped.

9. Do your friends outside this community listen to similar music that you do?
I notice my friends who listen to as much music as I do have one thing in common and that is that we all enjoy music that interests us. There are some overlap artists but when we play stuff for each other, there is usually a lot of explaining why we like it and it's a great way to get into some totally new stuff.

10. Would you consider yourself a music snob, an elitist, or even, dare I say, a hipster?
Snob... yeah. Elitist would depend on my company. As for the last one... I regularly watch Needledrop reviews and have been known to read Pitchfork. At the same time, I don't care for 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea' and I don't ironically like bands. I'm gonna say no.

11. What does music mean to you?
Experiences. Mental, physical, emotional, spiritual...

Chrysalis

1. What is your favorite genre of music?
At the moment, my favorite genre is indie rock.

2. Who are your favorite artists (at least at the moment).
My favorite band for the past two years has been Yo La Tengo. My other favorite artists include My Bloody Valentine, Modest Mouse, Devin Townsend, maudlin of the Well and John Coltrane.

3. How important is music in your life? How often do you listen to it?
I'd consider music to be pretty damn important in my life. Unfortunately, I don't have as much time to listen to music as I used to, but I try to listen to it as often as I can.

4. Why are you a member of Music Banter?
I was bored one evening and decided to Google "music forum". This was the first result, so I decided to occasionally lurk for a few months before joining.

5. What does this community mean to you?
I'll admit it: I don't post here as often as I want to. I really want to try to get to know the members here more than I already do, but I just don't have the time due to school and a few other online communities, so all that I've done in the past few months is post in "MB's Most Wanted" if there's an album that I wanted (thanks to everyone who put up with me in that thread. I'll stop posting in there now). However, I always check the threads "Last album you bought, downloaded, or listened to" and "Albums You're Digging" because there's some really great stuff posted in there.

6. Does your opinion of someone get better if you find that they enjoy the same music that you do?
Yes, but I wouldn't start to dislike someone if their taste in music is complete garbage.

7. Do you find yourself drawn to music that is less well known? Why or why not?
It doesn't matter to me if an artist is well-known or not. All that matters is if their music is good.

8. Do you enjoy searching for new music/music you have never heard before? Is the act of searching for music as enjoyable as the music itself?
I enjoy searching for new music when I'm bored, as I occasionally find some great albums. I need to slow down, however, since this led to a backlog that's really ****ing large.

9. Do your friends outside this community listen to similar music that you do?
Unless you count other online communities, nobody that I know likes anything similar to what I like. Everyone that I know likes either pop country or Lil Wayne.

10. Would you consider yourself a music snob, an elitist, or even, dare I say, a hipster?
I don't consider myself to be any of those.

11. What does music mean to you?
I'll just agree with Frownland about the fact that life would really suck if I wasn't able to listen to music.

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RateYourMusic
A dead Last.fm account

mr dave

1. What is your favorite genre of music?

Atmospheric / Instrumental

2. Who are your favorite artists (at least at the moment).

Clutch, Tortoise, Mastodon, Boards of Canada, Squarepusher, Soundgarden

3. How important is music in your life? How often do you listen to it?

I listen to music daily but it's not really something that I feel is an absolute necessity. Even in silence I can't really stop myself from being able to remember the sounds of music I've heard in the past so it's never not really there.

4. Why are you a member of Music Banter?

It was more active than the last forum I was on. Then after my old jam room flooded it became a replacement expressive outlet.

5. What does this community mean to you?

Not really sure anymore. I've been on a few hiatuses and I've noticed a decline in how often I check the site and post. Like the previous answer it was mainly an attraction to the level of activity. Or something.

6. Does your opinion of someone get better if you find that they enjoy the same music that you do?

Yes and no. If they happen to like the same stuff because they happen to like it then great. If they happen to hear me talk about a band then the next week they're all about trying to shoehorn comments about that band towards me it gets annoying.

7. Do you find yourself drawn to music that is less well known? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I think it has more to do with my personal preference on enjoying music that is capable of providing more substance with repeated listens than typical pop fare that has no depth below the initial surface.

8. Do you enjoy searching for new music/music you have never heard before? Is the act of searching for music as enjoyable as the music itself?

It definitely used to be back in the day. Whether or not that was because the internet was still new and the whole concept was fresh or because it was a time in my life where I was discovering a lot of new material is hard to say. At this point I definitely don't feel like I have the time or inclination to pore over dozens of new bands in hopes I find one that clicks.

9. Do your friends outside this community listen to similar music that you do?

To an extent. More often than not it's partial overlapping of certain artists that tie all the musical styles of my circle of friends together. Come to think of it, it's the Beastie Boys - that's the one common artist with everyone I know.

10. Would you consider yourself a music snob, an elitist, or even, dare I say, a hipster?

I most definitely used to be an elitist snob, I've tried to develop some level of humility towards my tastes over the last few years though.

11. What does music mean to you?

Music is the sound of the reflection of the universal light of life as refracted through the soul of the individual.

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i am the universe