Songs/Albums/Artists that got you into Genres

Exactly What It Says on the Tin, what did you hear that said to you "hmm, I might want to look into this"?

For me, Kanye West's "The Good Life" as far removed as it is from the hip-hop I tend to listen to now, was the first hip-hop song I ever liked. Yes, I even enjoyed T-Pain's chorus, and still do, actually, it fits the song it is a part of. I can no longer listen to it ad infinitum on repeat like I used to, but I still like the song.

Underground Hip-Hop was introduced to me by way of—huge shocker, here—Aesop Rock's "Daylight". I immediately acquired every Aesop Rock and Def Jux album I could get my hands on.

On another note, it was Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" that convinced me that not all Country sucked.

My relationship with indie music started the exact second I listened to 'Welcome Home'.

That's what made me look for more of the stuff, but I didn't know for sure I loved it until I heard 'Inertiatic ESP'.

edited 9th Jun '11 4:23:29 PM by Wicked223

Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" is the song that single-handedly catapulted me into metal back in 7th grade. More recently, Reel Big Fish turned me on to the world of Ska. Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" takes the cake, having the honor of being the song that really, REALLY got me into music.

"Numb/Encore'' informed me that I would love rock and hip-hop for the rest of my life. For further elaboration, "The Running Free" introduced me to progressive rock, "Kick, Push" got me into alternative rap, "Advent" encouraged me to listen to more heavier forms of metal, and "Keep Hope Alive" was what made me check out different forms of electronic music.

edited 9th Jun '11 4:37:21 PM by KitsuneInferno

"Through the Fire and Flames" got me into metal. I've actually never played Guitar Hero in my life, but I'd heard the song because of one of those "FIVE YEAR OLD PLAYS THROUGHT HE FIRE SAND FLAMES OFN EXPERT" videos. I didn't care about it at the time, but at one point I just felt the urge to listen to that song and then I decided to try some other DragonForce songs, and from there into other power metal bands, and then other types of metal.

edited 9th Jun '11 4:57:47 PM by Nyktos

The soundtrack to The Matrix was my introduction to music, pretty much - the Rob Zombie track Dragula that featured (it was a remix if I recall correctly) was my initial gateway to both metal and electronica.

Dream Theater's A Change Of Seasons kickstarted my actual active interest in music, but unfortunately I wouldn't properly explore the rest of what is now my favourite genre (progressive metal) for a long time, choosing first to explore death metal (which I got into through Morbid Angel's Domination) and metalcore (Trivium's Ascendancy for this one).

Recent gateways include Helios's Caesura getting me into ambient music, the Explosions In The Sky album The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place doing the same with post-rock, and Andy Blueman's Lego Remix causing me to embrace trance.

I got into heavier stuff through Mudvayne. I heard their song "Not Falling" on Ghost Ship and I thought to myself "Wow. This song is so incredible, it has almost made watching this awful, awful film worthwhile!" That's what I thought to myself.

Overall rock started growing on me with Aerosmith ("Jaded" was the main motive). Then, Linkin Park got me into alternative metal, and with lots of sub-gateways bands pushing me onto the harder side, Disarmonia Mundi consolidated that transition. Finally, Opeth and Scar Symmetry were responsible for my tolerance/taste for most death metal and its vertents.

Funny, Johnny Cash was my gateway to country music as well.

The Genesis Sonic The Hedgehog titles and Overclocked Remix were my gateway to electronic music.

I think the seeds of my interest in jazz were sown when my mom borrowed a Louis Armstrong album from the library, but the real launching point was when I acquired the soundtrack of Ken Burn's Jazz documentary.

Interestingly enough, Kanye West and his sampling ways introduced me to older progrock (King Crimson [Power]), electronica (Daft Punk [Stronger]), and acoustic folk (Bon Iver [Lost in the World]).

Rush's 2112 was my gateway into progressive rock.

Metallica's Master of Puppets was my intro to thrash metal.

Kyuss' Blues For the Red Sun introduced me to stoner metal.

That's about all I got.

"Teen Age Riot" by Sonic Youth was what got me into indie and alternative rock, which is basically all I listen to now. Listening to their first few albums also gave me a gateway into no-wave music (which, of course, I love).

What caused me to get into hip-hop music was Nas's song "NY State of Mind". It seemed kind of off-putting at first, but when someone mentioned to pay attention to the bassline, I was just hypnotized. And I never looked back.

Atheist's album Unquestionable Presence was my first death metal album, and now it's probably my favorite metal subgenre.

The Clash and the Ramones were the first punk bands I got into. London Calling was one of my early favorites, and it still is, really. Brilliant album. As for hardcore punk, the first one I ever listened to was Minor Threat's Complete Discography, and I couldn't have asked for a more definitive introduction.

I have an affinity for noisy, clattering nonsense too. I suppose the precursors to that were Dinosaur Jr. and Guided by Voices, but what really got me into that was listening to Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven was the first post-rock album I heard, after all the descriptions heralded it as some life-affirming masterpiece of emotion. It was.

I got into Industrial due to KMFDM's Xtort.

I used to think Metal was all satanism and screaming until I heard "Guerilla Radio" by Rage Against The Machine which taught me about the Complex riffs and solo's of Metal, the use of rapping helped to.

Speaking of rapping Eminem, Public Enemy and The Beastie Boys really showed me the lyrical side of Hip-Hop that changed my opinon of the genre from a mild like to a love.

I really got into metal thanks to Metallica's Ride the Lightning. While I'd heard stuff like some Ozzy before and thinking "eh, it's okay, I guess", nothing will compare to me pretty much buying the RTL CD on a whim one day, popping it into my CD player and just being floored by how heavy it was.

I managed to get into quite a bit of rock through Beavis And Butthead, starting with 90s Alternative Rock and Grunge with Alice In Chains and Nirvana. Eventually, it was through this show that I got into heavier stuff like Slayer, Death and Cannibal Corpse. Through this Death Metal, I heard of Opeth, who had a 20-minute song called "Black Rose Immortal". It was this and my brother who likes Dream Theater that inspired me get into proggier stuff, and instrumental stuff like Liquid Tension Experiment. What inspired my liking for progressive rock today, is through Transatlantic, which Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater is a part of. It was through this band that I found The Flower Kings and Spocks Beard, leading me to other stuff like The Tangent and Yes. Not much to say after that.

edited 26th Feb '12 6:41:57 PM by x86x2

Coil's "Blood from the Air" and Current 93's "I Have a Special Plan for This World" seduced me into an abiding love of industrial music through scaring the bejeezus out of me; John Coltrane dragged me into free jazz; I owe my obsession with the post-punk era to Joy Division's "Disorder" and, in a roundabout way, The Cure's "A Short-Term Effect"; my fondness for ambient music of the sinister kind was fostered by Brian Eno's Music for Films; and, finally, my preoccupation with indie guitar music (vague as that is) ultimately boils down to listening to R.E.M.'s "Radio Free Europe" endlessly in my childhood, sealed with my introduction to The Decemberists' "The Infanta".

DJ Shadow's Entroducing got me into instrumental hip-hop.

And also, Ween's The Mollusk got me into psychedelic pop.

Gorillaz' Demon Days album got me into music.(Before that album, I liked a couple of random songs from Encarta '95 and David Bryne's Like Human's Do, of all things.) From there, Blur's self-titled album got me into rock.

When I listened to Nirvana's Smell's Like Teen Spirit for the first time, I really appreciated the quiet parts of the song and got the album, kickstarting my love of grunge and early-mid 90's music. (I remember Saddam Hussein dying a little less than a week after I got Nevermind, so it was probably late 2006. Would've loved Seether had I found out about em back then.) From there, Alice In Chains & Soundgarden got me into metal. (Oddly, I never really acquired a taste for Pearl Jam.)

It was only recently (little over a year ago) that I got into Tool and prog metal. Heard Schism on the radio, thought "Hmm, this sounds pretty deep, wonder what else they got?"

Tool's now my favorite band.

edited 9th Mar '12 6:37:18 PM by GrungeSaladin09

The Velvet Underground were the band that really got me into music. Venus in Furs was a pretty mindblowing experience back when I was fifteen and musically retarded, and they are still one of my favorite bands ever.

The first genre I explored was post-punk, beginning with Joy Division. Then I came across The Jesus and Mary Chain and my obsession with noisy guitars and glorious walls of sound was born.

I got into the what is this I don't even kind of music through Einstürzende Neubauten's Halber Mensch, which also made me realize that industrial music, which I used to hate for no good reason, deserves a chance.

The things that showed me that long instrumental songs can actually be impressive pieces of music and not the physical manifestation of sheer boredom were The Ascension by Glenn Branca and Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The latter was also my gateway to post-rock.

I got into hip-hop thanks to Cannibal Ox and Dälek, who also helped me with getting over that stupid "rap? moar liek (c)rap trololololololol" mindset.

And the list goes on and on...

Goldie got me into D'n'B.

Oh, Lupe Fiasco and Substantial got me into hip-hop. Before then I was generally ignorant/indifferent regarding the genre.

Interestingly, a lot of my gateway artists (especially DT, Helios, Blueman and Subsantial) remain among my favourite musicians.

edited 6th Mar '12 11:29:25 AM by AsTheAnointed

Eminem, DMX, and Jay-Z were big gateway artists for me for rap. I started listening to more rap in 5th-6th grade, and I loved The Eminem Show, "X Gon' Give It To You", and The Blueprint, particularly. I also remember liking Get Rich Or Die Tryin' and Cypress Hill, but listening to Nas' Illmatic as a 13-year-old back in 2005 showed me that my love with hip-hop would be for life.

I got more into metal/hard rock from my dad's Rage Against the Machine C Ds and Linkin Park. I can't listen to LP like I did back in middle school, but Hybrid Theory, Meteora, and Reanimation still go hard.

Also, Utada Hikaru's "Simple and Clean" in Kingdom Hearts got me more interested in Japanese music in general.

Bullet point incoming:

• Progressive (in general): tool, Lateralus
  • Progressive Rock: Rush, Moving Pictures
  • Progressive Metal: Dream Theater, Octavarium
• Symphonic Metal: Nightwish, Once
• Heavy Metal (in general): Ozzy Osbourne, The Ozzman Cometh*
  I don't listen to compilation albums anymore, okay?
• Synthrock: The Birthday Massacre, Violet
• Electronic Music (in general): Daft Punk (No album in particular)
• Rap: Kid Cudi, Man on the Moon: The End of Day
• Metalcore: Killswitch Engage, As Daylight Dies
• Power Metal: Dragonland, Holy War

edited 28th Mar '12 6:19:46 AM by mcb01932

Music in general: Creedence Clearwater Revival and ZZ Top

• Blues: Livin' Blues
• Soul: Sam & Dave
• Folk / Singer-Songwriter: Jim Croce
• Ska: Madness
• Reggae: UB40
• Hard Rock: Led Zeppelin
• Metal: Ensiferum and Korpiklaani
• Classical: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

edited 27th Mar '12 8:37:51 PM by MidnightRambler