The Wood Beyond The World Forum What do you listen to?

I thought since we have a TV/Movie thread, we should we have a music thread. Like a friend of mine says, "Music is what emotions would say if they could talk".



I believe it is quite clear what my tastes are after viewing this. :)

These are the artists who make up the 576-song play list I write to:

A-ha, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Alan Parsons Project, America, Animals, Argent,

Bad Company, Beatles, Bo Bice, Black Sabbath, Blondie, Blue �yster Cult, Bryan Bowers, Bow Wow Wow, Brian Setzer Orchestra,

Cher, George Carlin, Kim Carnes, Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Coven, Coyote Zen, Creed, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jim Croce,

Dead or Alive, Dio, Dire Straits, Donovan, Dr. Hook,

The Eagles, Electric Light Orchestra, Yvonne Elliman, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Emerald City Jug Band, Escape Club, Eurogliders, Eurythmics,

Fixx, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, Fleetwood Mac, Foghat,

Genesis, Golden Earring, Grateful Dead, Edvard Grieg, Guess Who,

Murray Head, Heart, Homer & Jethro, Huey Lewis & The News,

Billy Idol, Iron Butterfly, Iron Maiden,

Janis Jolin, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Spike Jones & His City Slickers, Judas Priest, Juxtapose,

Katrina & The Waves, King Harvest, The Kinks,

Leftover Salmon, Tom Lehrer, John Lennon, Annie Lennox, Gordon Lightfoot, Little Feat,

Manfred Mann, John Mayall, Don McLean, Men at Work, Metallica, Missing Persons, Molly Hatchet, Eddie Money, Monkees, Moody Blues, Mountain,

Napoleon XIV, Nena, Stevie Nicks, Harry Nilsson, Leonard Nimoy, Nirvana, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, NSA,

Mike Oldfield, Joan Osborne, Ozzy Osbourne, Outlaws, Ozark Mountain Daredevils,

Tom Petty, Playmates, Presidents of the United States of America, Procol Harum, Pure Prairie League,

Queen,

Rainbow, Ram Jam, Rare Earth, Jerry Reed, Royal Guardsmen, Rush, Leon Russell,

Santana, Scorpions, Seals & Croft, Shocking Blue, Patti Smith, Soggy Bottom Boys, Tom T-Bone Stankus, Steppenwolf, Styx, The Sundays, The Sweet,

They Might Be Giants, Three Dog Night, 3 Doors Down, 'Til Tuesday, Tokens, Tina Turner, Traveling Wilburys,

Ulali, Uriah Heep,

The Vapors,

Louden Wainright III, Joe Walsh, Billy Edd Wheeler, Robin Williams, Edgar Winter,

Weird Al Yankovic, Yes, Youngbloods,

Frank Zappa, Zombies, and ZZ-Top.

Lisa,

Well, we certainly came of age with the same music.  I owned the only headshop (and record store) in Butte, Montana in 1973.  You just listed what was for sale in the shop.

Not only that, we were both reading Poul Anderson.  Now there is an author who requires his readers to think.

I could make a list but it would be so long. For me, when I write, I use music to set a mood. My listening varies from the Beatles to AD/DC, Alan Parsons to Bjork, Laurie Anderson to Collective Soul. Of course, there is classical stuff like Beethoven to Bach to Holst. The one style I am just now getting into is jazz.

OR you could do as I did and take a screenshot of your My Music folder. :)

Just do Print-Screen, then CTRL-V into Paint, or Photopshop or Paintshop Pro, and there ya go!

Matt, I wish I could do that, but I recently lost all my data due to mis-communication between Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.  I didn't have a whole lot on my machine anyway.

I listen to the radio, public/community, where I hear all manner of things, in every genre, from every era.  And I love it all, as long as it isn't mostly just noisy.  I hate harpsichord, but love accordian.  I was raised on opera (Wagner especially), big band, Tin Pan Alley tunes from the beginning of the last century, classic country (Jimmy Reeves, Hank Williams (sr.)), the British invasion of the sixties and everything that grew out of that, including British blues and the origins of Heavy Metal. I love Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Paul Simon.  Billie Holiday gives me the chills (especially the early stuff with Teddy Williams and Count Basie.) My guilty pleasure is T. Rex. I like Led Zepplein and ZZTop when I'm driving. I love Steve Earle. My internal soundtrack is firmly in the late '60s and early '70s, though I also have some stuff from the '80s buzzing around in there, like Men at Work, Talking Heads, Eurythmics, Laurie Anderson. I like Natalie Merchant too. I love jazz if it's at least somewhat melodic. I'm most interested in world music nowadays, and listen to folk-pop from Finland/Scandinavia, Central Europe, and the Middle East and Africa quite a lot. I love songs from the middle ages and Reniassance. Nothing in contemporary Western rock has impressed me -- I haven't heard anything I find particularly original, though Bob Dylan's little boy, Jakob, has done a few things I enjoyed. Kurt Weill is one of my favorite song-writers.

I play classical piano for my own amusement.

 

 

Like Leah and Loekie, I listen to anything that I am in the mood for.  Classics to heavy metal, and everything in between.   Loekie, you are going to love Jazz, and from there go into the blues. 

 

Once, while writing a temple scene, I was having trouble getting into the mood of the temple.    I put my Chant CD in, by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Silos.   Problem solved. 

 

Mostly, I write in silence, the TV or CD player on in the background, very-very low.  This way I am not distrubed.

 

Nick.

Bill,

The first album I bought with my own money was Steppenwolf's "Monster", still with me after all these years.  The older I get, the more I appreciate John Kay and Co.'s lyrics.

My Great Aunt Georgie gave me "Beyond the Beyond" when I was about 12.  My copy of "Earthman's Burden," co-authored with Gordon R. Dickson, is quite battered but much loved.  But, yeah, that is something I enjoy about Anderson's writing, having to think.

Leah,

I haven't thought about T-Rex in a while. Got a couple T-Rex LPs.  Need to get the right cables and tables to move the turntable into the room with the computer so I can put my vinyl on CD.  Right now, all 200 pounds of my vinyl collection is in a cool dark closet.

The only music I don't deal well with is certain Rap, certain Disco, certain Country, and opera singers who aren't dead on pitch.  Mind you, my introduction to opera was by way of the maestro Spike Jones and his very talented City Slickers.

When I had two hands to work with, I played piano and guitar.  Still have the guitar and pick it up now and again so I can remember the basic chords.  I do, however, play a mean stereo.

Nick - Quote:


Who are you trying to fool here, Nick? We all know you are disturbed :-)

And, I could do a screen dump, Matt. I do it for a living, setting up documents, etc. etc. But unlike you, I have quite a hierarchy, categorizing things by style, artist, etc. etc. For many groups, like Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, U2, I have their complete discography so a screen dump would not suffice. To show my collection would take multiple dumps and to be honest, bore people. Currently, I only have 40G of music and counting.

And right now, I am listening to Chess, from Tim Rice.

Loekie,

 

You are going to give the virgins here a bad impression of me. 

 

Nick.

Okay, I'm gonna hear it for this...

I wrote "Dragonmark" while listening to Evanescence. I even had a soundtrack for certain scenes so that as the song played, I would run through the scene in my head. I know...kind of cheesy but it got me through the whole book, so I am not complaining.

Now that I'm off on a different genre, I am listening to the Twin Peaks Soundtrack, The 7th Guest Soundtrack and "Booth and the Bad Angel" by Angelo Badalamenti and Tim Booth.

Other things currently loaded into my iTunes: Devo (Nearly the complete discography), Nine Inch Nails, Blue Man Group (The Complex), Black Snake Moan soundtrack, Choo Choo Soul (I have a 2 year old...I don't listen to it myself...much...), Jihad Jerry & The Evildoers (Jerry Casale from Devo) and Styx - Kilroy Was Here.

I feel like a horrible old dinosaur, because I don't bother to download music onto my computer, never touched an ipod, etc. You'd think I'd enjoy putting together my own playlists, as I used to do eclectic radio, but in reality I'm terribly lazy, and prefer to just set the dial to my favorite non-commercial station (the one I used to work/play at) and let the current DJs do all the work for me.

Tonight I was reminded of one of the few things I'll miss about Louisiana, WWOZ in New Orleans.  Tiny little all-volunteer non-commercial station, only broadcasts in the greater NO area -- every time we drove down there I knew to turn the dial when we got in the vicinity of La Place, where we could start picking it up. Mostly blues and jazz, though with other kinds of what they nowadays call "roots" music mixed in.  After Katrina they got back on the air pretty quick, but didn't get back to the 'net.  I have to check to see if they've returned. Bob Dylan's called it the best radio station in the country.

I also play different music for different scenes. Whenever I hear a particular Pet Shop Boys song I'm reminded of a scene in Servant of the Phrenet when my two main characters sleep together  (completely innocently) and start to fall in love. I first wrote that scene about ten years ago.
My writing music has a bit of everything in it. A lot of Sting, and The Police, but also REM, Nivana, John Denver, Robbie Williams, My Friend the Chocolate Cake, Rod Stewart, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Bryan Adams, Dire Straits. Mainly Rock/ Pop with a bit of Easy listening.

Not much after 2003 though.
Gayna

Like some of you guys, I have 'scene music'. Pretty much, whenever I envision a scene, there is usually a song(s) that goes with it. For 'demon' or 'horde' songs, I go with either Train Wreck - Locust Theme from "Gears of War", or Grove, from "Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust" (an excellent example of animated vampire film, if there ever was one). I tend to use tracks from "Final Fantasy VIII" for love scenes. And for pure epic fight scenes, nothing beats Riders of Doom from "Conan the Barbarian".

I sometimes go so far as to arrange my own soudtrack for my projects.

I find my various world music works as soundtrack for scenes I'm writing. Of course the Nordic stuff is first up right now, while I'm in Vaaseli.  When I'm working on stuff that takes place at court, it's the Renaissance and medieval song.

Leah,

When first working out the particulars for SWOtRC, I wore out wo copies of Jethro Tull's Heavy Horses.

"Iron-clad feather-feet pounding the dust..."

Mind you the Team is iron-clad, but it is where I got Featherfoot's name.

Hmmm... I've never really been influenced or inspired by music in my writing. But I think that is because when I listen to or hear really nice atmospheric music, I usually interpret it physically rather than via words and its just automatic. I've never even thought that music could influence my writing But its eye-opening that others find it does. I tend to do like Nick and have something low on in the background such a TV or a little brother playing 'vroom vroom' in the next room.

 

Because I work within Dance, commercial and alternative music are a big part of music collection, though I quite like to include a wide variety when teaching to keep the kids on their toes! So my playlist will include anything from pop, classical, ole school funk, funky house, rock, hip hop, UK garage, country, blues, reggae, electronic, r'n'b and acoustic soul. I can't stand trance.