This seems a fairly safe place to begin.
I’m not sure of the genre but at my house we listen to:
Johnny Cash
Willie Nelson
Lyle Lovette
Nina Simone
Marianne Faithful
Tom Waits
Leonard Cohen
Steve Earle
Robert Earl Keen
Bob Dylan
Bob Marley
Bruce Springsteen
And due to the late hour, my brain refuses to give up anymore names and I’m too lazy to walk over and look.
Music is an emotional mirror which reflects an expression of how I feel. I have music for everything.
Mostly Classical and orchestral for me. I have semi-inherited my dad’s massive Classical collection, and I have umpteen Classical albums myself. Favorite composers are Sibelius, Beethoven, Copland, Vaugahn-Williams, to name a few.
I also love film scores (which is usually orchestral, but the styles can vary greatly, from very Classical-sounding to bad-60s pop to jazz and so on). Favorite composers are Jerry Goldsmith (always!), Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann, John Williams, Thomas Newman, and so on.
I like some popular music, but it’s very sparse in my collection. I guess that’s because popular music was force-fed to me when I was a kid (I’m serious about that—I got a lot of crap from schoolmates and friends because I was “weird” and like Classical). Their treatment and attitudes kind of turned me off most forms of popular music throughout my formative years. However, I know that there are many popular artists that are very good. For instance, Peter Gabriel, for whatever reason, “slipped through the cracks”—I like him very much. But I can go for half a year without hearing his CDs without minding a bit. But I do like him. And there are plenty of others who have slipped through the cracks. I just can’t think of all their names. Oh yeah, I just remembered—Robby Robertson. I like him. Got one of his CDs.
I like and listen to:
**Rock: **Led Zepplin, The Tragically Hip, Bob Seger, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Blue Oyster Cult, Sloan, Ben Folds Five, The Presidents of the United States of America.
**Alternative: ***Beck, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Blind Melon, Sonic Youth, The Hives, The Vines, Portishead, Elliot Smith, Garbage. *
**Heavy: **Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Limp Bizket, Metallica, deftones.
**Jazz: **Miles Davis, Dave Brubek, Charlie Biddle, Louis Armstrong.
**Punk: ***Sex Pistols, Nirvana, The Ramones, Sum 41, The White Stripes, GOB, Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies. *
**Dance: **Jackson 5, Jamiroquoi, T.A.T.U.
**Techno: **Aphex Twin, The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Moby, The Orb, Orbital, The Dust Brothers, KMFDM, God Lives Underwater.
**Rap: **Dr. Dre, Method Man, Eminem, Busta Rhymes, The Fugees, Wyclef, Swollen Members.
80’s stuff: A-Ha, Midnight Oil, Flock of Seagulls, Cyndi Lauper.
Lotsof other bands too, this was just off the top of my head.
I’d say, I like musical works rather than artistes or genres. That said, here’s a sampling from my current playlist, subject to change, every other week.
Classical : Vivaldi, Bach, Dvorak, Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini, J Strauss, Pachelbel, Petzold, Tchaikovsky…
Movie/TV Themes : Bladerunner, Jurassic Park, Brazil, Bangkok Hilton, Pink Panther, Requiem for a Dream, Star Wars, Crimson Tide…
Other languages : Tons of Hindi songs (sung by Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Lata, Asha…), Some French (Zazie, Mylene Farmer, Khaled…)
The Rest:
Simon & Garfunkel
U2
Eric Clapton
Garbage
Coldplay
David Gray
Cranberries
Engima
Sa Trincha
Radiohead
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rolling Stones
Bob Dylan
Secret Garden
Sting
Texas
Weezer
Duran Duran
Darude
Cardigans
Dave Matthews Band
Billy Joel
Bruce Springsteen
Yanni
Aphex Twin
Muse
Chemical Brothers
Robert Miles
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
Madonna
Dream Theater
and lots of other artists with just one (or 2) songs on the list.
Samplings from the following genres: country, folk, folk-rock, classical, comedy, new age, rock (both hard and soft), alternative, ska, a capella (not quite sure what you’d put this in), lots of movie soundtracks and theater, jazz, and world music. No rap, no hip-hop and no heavy metal.
In particular, I like albums that twist or combine genres.
For some reason I feel compelled to post. Here goes
When people ask me I usually reply:
U2
Radiohead
Pearl Jam
silverchair
Live
I also listen to:
Moby
The Corrs
Crowded House
And I used to listen to a lot of:
Metallica
Nirvana
Creed
Music seems to be getting worse nowadays. The music I buy is usually released years ago. So to answer the OP’s question, I don’t know. Everyone is different.
I can go from Shirley Ellis to Furniture, from The Streets to early Bowie, from Man Or Astro-Man? to Marlena Shaw, from Delibes to Shimmon & Woolfson. Varied, yes, but incredibly pretentious too.
I would say that ours is pretty varied, too. We don’t have that much opera, and He Who Keeps Track says we don’t have any baroque, but we have over 4,000 CDs, which includes everything you like, and some of what you don’t. (I think we’re low on hiphop, too, but since I don’t much care for it, I can’t be sure.)
And I’m all for the putting five disks in and setting the CD changer to “shuffle,” and seeing what comes up next. Expands the mind.
Let me correct myself, and say “includes every category you like, and some that you don’t.” There are weird gaps in the collection – including those that come from splitting our collections with partners from previous relationships (which leads to the inevitable, “I really want to hear that album – oh, damn! I let Ex have custody of it. Wonder if I can get visitation rights?”).
My CDS are divided into the following sections:
Jazz and standards (lots of “classic” jazz – Ellington, etc., but also Coltrane, etc.)
World Music (mostly African and Caribbean)
Classical (not a huge section – I’ve got much more on vinyl than what I’ve “replaced” on CD)
Everything else is in the "regular music, " which is mostly rock and pop from the '50s to present. I keep it alphabetically, so it’s literally everyone from the Allman Brothers and Laurie Anderson to Stevie Winwood, Stevie Wonder, and the Yardbirds.
:eek: Crikey. And I thought I was living easy with my 25-CD changer stereo…
Thanks guys, keep it coming! It’s interesting to see all this variety. Most of the people I know only tend to play a few types of music (or even just a few different bands) and it gets dull. The others expose me to more great music.
Welcome to the boards, catnoe!
Damn right! Mike Muir is a great writer, and even though the rest of the band is different on almost every album (though Mike Clark is still around, since the Rocky George days), the music is always great and grabs you by the emotions and shakes you.
Mine is pretty varied. I have CDs from KMFDM, Skinny Puppy, and Front 242, the Exploited, Corrosion of Conformity, Metallica & Megadeth, the Muffs, George Thorogood, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Larry McCray, BB King, Sblime, Squirrel Nut Zippers, ZZ Top, the soundtrack from American Graffitti, Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Anthrax, America, Bon Jovi, and the Gin Blossoms, LA Style, Eazy-E, Too Short, C+C Music Factory, etc.
Just a random sample.
I guess you could say I’m prepared for almost any listening urge. 
Well, yes, we cover a wide swath of musical genres at our house:
[ul]
[li]1950s Rock - Elvis, Ricky Nelson[/li][li]1950s pop - Four Freshmen, Johnny Mathis[/li][li]1960s Rock - Beatles, Guess Who[/li][li]Motown - Temptations, Supremes[/li][li]Psychedelic Rock - Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service[/li][li]Classic Rock - Led Zeppelin, Quarterflash[/li][li]Folk Rock - Byrds, Spanky & Our Gang[/li][li]Techno - Chemical Brothers, Moby[/li][li]Blues - Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang[/li][li]Blues Rock - Cream, Kenny Wayne Shepard[/li][li]Standard Country - Trisha Yearwood, Alan Jackson[/li][li]Alternative Country - Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett[/li][li]Bluegrass - New Grass Revival, Allison Krauss & Union Station [/li][li]Western - Riders in the Sky, Sons of San Joaquin[/li][li]Light Jazz - Kenny Burrell, Gabor Szabo[/li][li]Bossa Nova - Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz with Joao Gilberto[/li][li]Classic Folk - Limelighters, Kingston Trio[/li][li]Contemporary a capella - Trenchcoats, Rockapella[/li][li]Jazz a capella - The Real Group, Jezebelle[/li][li]Collegiate a capella - The B.O.C.A. (Best of College A Cappella collections) for last six years[/li][li]Comedy a capella - The Bobs, Throat Culture[/li][li]Classical a capella - The Swingle Singers, Chanticleer[/li][li]Medieval - Chant, Ladymass[/li][li]Classical - Beethoven, Berlioz[/li][li]Baroque - Bach, Mozart[/li][li]Romantic - Mussorgsky, Ravel[/li][li]Filk music - (as featured at science fiction and fantasy conventions) Tom Smith, Heather Alexander [/li][li]Middle Eastern - Brothers of the Baladi[/li][li]Hungarian - Muzsikas, Marta Sebestyen [/li][li]Celtic - Milladoro, Clannad[/li][li]Reggae - Jimmy cliff, Desmond Dekker [/li][li]Mixed - collaborations by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Collor Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey[/li][li]Avant Garde - Phillip Glass, Arvo Part[/li][li]World - Tuva:voices of Central Asia, The Moon and the Banana Tree (music of Madagascar)[/li][li]Comedy - Firesign Theater, Monty Python[/li][/ul]
The above are all categories in which we have multiple CDs, tapes or vinyl.
But we also have some one-offs, such as
[ul]
[li]Operetta - Gilbert & Sullivan[/li][li]Jug band - Spider John Koerner[/li][li]Qawwali - Ali Khan[/li][li]Honky-tonk - Hank Williams, Sr.[/li][li]Texas Swing - Asleep at the Wheel[/li][/ul]
The Hometownwife is responsible for the high class stuff - opera, classical, world, avant garde, and mine is all the rock and country variants. We split the folks stuff. Makes for some eclectic listening, that’s for sure.
About 2000 classical CDs, covering most styles and composers. Heavy focus on Bach, Mahler and Brahms.
About 1000 pop/rock CDs, ranging from ABBA and the Carpenters to acts like Metallica and Nirvana. Emphasis on the Genesis of the seventies, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Tori Ammos, David Sylvian.
About 200 jazz CDs, mainly mainstream and smooth.
About 200 New Age Cds, from artists like George Winston, Enya, and Tingstad and Rumbel.
About 500 mandarin pop CDs.
A reasonable mixture.
Dead Can Dance…3 Medieval Babes albums…Pizzicao Five…Shostakovich…Led Zepplin’s greatest hits, as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra…Soundtrack to “A Shoggoth on the Roof”…Crazy Town’s “Butterfly” single…all of Garbages albums (that was hard)…“Songs in the Key of X”…Sarah Brightman…Sheryl Crow…soundtrack to “The Lion King”…soundtrack to “Conan: The Barbarian”…“Blondie: No Exit”…“Modern A Cappella”…the “Priss Asagiri Vocal Collection”…Holst’s “The Planets”…the soundtracks to two of the “Star Trek” movies, and I think I have an MP3 of “Horst Wessel Lied” recorded in 1936.
…How’d I do?
well, I don’t have nearly the diversity as many of you folks, but I have a reasonably bizarro collection of 80s punk/alternative (Killing Joke, Bauhaus, Stranglers. etc…), 70s rock (Blue Oyster Cult, Grateful Dead, Bowie, Allman Bros, Stones), some more recent stuff (mostly bluegrass/country-ish, sorta) such as Bela Fleck, Bering Strait, Southern Culture on the Skids. Also bagpipes, Hindu chants and Gregorian chant as well. Just for when I’m in “that” mood.
I have a big collection, about 2000 albums, which I meticulously organize. I have friends in the record industry who kick a lot of discs and vinyl back to me. I have something from almost every genre except the various types of country.
Electronic
–Downtempo/ Triphop –Kruder and Dorfmeister, Kid Loco
–IDM/ House- Avalanches, Gus Gus
–Acid Jazz/ Fusion- Cinematic Orchestra, Bobby Hughes Experience
–Drum n Bass- LTJ Bukem, 4 Hero
–Experimental- Autechre, Prefuse 73
–Ambient- Brian Eno, KLF
–Progressive- Jeff Mills, Sasha and Digweed
Hip Hop
–Underground- Blackalicious, The Coup
–Gangsta- 2Pac, Dre
–Turntablism (DJ)- Qbert, DJ Shadow
–Old School- Eric B and Rakim, Grandmaster Flash
–Dirty South/ Latin- Outkast, Ozomotli
–R & B- Maxwell, Jill Scott
Rock
–Classic/ Folk- Beatles, CSNY
–Experimental/ Post- Tortoise, Neutral Milk Hotel
–Indie- Yo La Tengo, Spoon
–Modern/ Alternative- Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers
–Hard / Metal- Black Sabbath, Metallica
–Punk- The Ataris, The Clash
–Blues- Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Lee Hooker
–Glam- Bowie, T Rex
–Jam Band- Greyboy Allstars, Steve Kimock
Roots
–Jazz- Miles, Coltrane
–Funk/ Soul- James Brown, Bootsy Collins
–Reggae/ Dub- Augustus Pablo, Black Uhuru
–World- Fela Kuti, Lafayette Afro Rock Band
–Latin- Antonio Carlos Jobim, Arturo Sandoval
Classical- Mozart, Beethoven
Pop- Michael Jackson, Elton John
Basically, I only have rock, and those few nonrock artists that rock people listen to (Robert Johnson, Miles Davis, Billie Holliday). What I do have is a nice variety of different genres of rock:
Punk - Buzzcocks, The Clash, X-Ray Spex, The Raincoats, Patti Smith, Television, Husker Du
Proto-Punk The Velvet Underground, The Modern Lovers
Post-Punk Sonic Youth, Pixies, Throwing Muses, Violent Femmes, The Cure, The Soft Boys, REM, Joy Division, Mission of Burma
Alt-Country Jim White, Wilco
Indie Pop Belle and Sebastian, The Television Personalities, The Apples (in Stereo), Beat Happening
90s Singer-Songwriter Kristin Hersh, Songs:Ohia, Luna, Elliott Smith, Robyn Hitchcock (although most of his best stuff is from the 80s), Bright Eyes
Folk Rock Nick Drake, Syd Barrett
Blues Rock The White Stripes
Blues Robert Johnson
Avant-Garde Yoko Ono
Jazz Billie Holliday, Miles Davis
Indie That Won’t Fit Into Other Categories The Shins, Neutral Milk Hotel, Desaparecidos
Good Ol’ Rock The Beatles, Elvis Costello
Soul Shuggie Otis
I thought my musical tastes were diverse enough that I could provide an interesting reply here. Then I saw Hometownboy’s list. Yipes.
So I’ll just say that in the past week or so I’ve listened to Alanis Morissette, Elton John, Kiri Te Kanawa, a few Broadway shows (Sondheim, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe), Tony Bennett, Holly Cole, Mozart, Holly Near, Ella Fitzgerald, Counting Crows, Lena Horne, The Cranberries, Jefferson Airplane, Rosemary Clooney, Leonard Cohen, Linda Eder, Trisha Yearwood, Petula Clark, 10,000 Maniacs, Albinoni, Betty Buckley, The Bangles, Puccini, Madonna, and quite a few others that I can’t think of at the moment.
I guess that’s what comes from trying (almost) anything at least once. I’ve found that there’s a lot more music that I really like than there is stuff I can’t stand.