Weekend Open Forum: Your favorite music and streaming sources

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Music is among the most primitive forms of entertainment and self-expression, with the oldest confirmed musical instrument -- a bone flute -- dating back at least 35,000 years, and it's believed the human voice, hand clapping and other bodily-derived noises were used to produce rhythmic melodies long before then. Fast forward to the present day and we have instant access to millions of songs spanning thousands of genres and sub-genres containing everything from blue dudes wailing on PVC pipes to CGI pop stars (for better or for worse).

With the advent of smartphones and streaming services like Spotify and YouTube it's never been easier to drown out a boring conference with your preferred tunes. With that, we want to ask: what's your favorite music and how do you access it? Feel free to share your favorite genres, artists and songs (links must be legal). I can't say I have a particularly favorite genre, though I tend to favor music without vocals -- anything from classical to electronic. That said, I've probably listened to Pink Floyd's "Animals" album more than anything else in my collection.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/44880-weekend-open-forum-your-favorite-music-and-streaming-sources.html

 

[ghasmanjr]

I'm a huge fan of Bullet for my Valentine and Metallica. I'll usually use Pandora if I'm at work and I am not frequently checking my computer. If I am doing work, I'll use Grooveshark because it has fantastic features like creating full playlists and it does a similar radio feature like Pandora but it sucks compared to Pandora.

 

[bchen88c]

I am fairly open in music, so I don't have a specific favorite genre as well. Most of this openness is particularly boosted by the fact that I got a spotify invite by Enrique Iglesias earlier this week, so I'm practically listening to new music all the time now. It's pretty awesome

 

[mario]

I love all kinds of music from rock to salsa. Although I do love alternative rock and electronic music. Last year I discovered a band called The XX and I totally recommend their whole album.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

I enjoy everything but country and western and I still buy CDs.

 

[Route44]

I am very eclectic but I do not enjoy Country & Western and especially do not like RAP, Hip Hop, etc.

 

[Guest]

tuneIn Radio App for my ipod, local FM radio

 

[Chazz]

I use zune and youtube. Zune while I'm on my phone and youtube while at the comp.

 

[veLa]

I like pretty much all rock.

Hate pretty much all black music (c)rap or hip hop for example.

I attend a lot of raves and LOVE electronic music. Whether it's Progressive House, Electro House, Dubstep, Drum and Bass, Progressive Trance, anything EDM I pretty much love.

 

[Superpeter]

Pandora or buy cd's usually now from amazon. I read reviews, ';pandora' the song or artist, then buy cd's of what i like. Haven't heard a radio commercial in a long time and probably wont unless im riding with other people. This system keeps me more than busy and I'm a club and bar DJ. I read crowds and spin all types. Whatever fits, no music if off limits to me if it gets people feeling good.

 

[TrekExpert]

I mainly enjoy listening to rock, death metal and classical music. Some of my favorite bands include Pink Floyd, Avenged Sevenfold, and As I Lay Dying. I normally stream music from the radio section of itunes.

 

[Guest]

I like rock and metal mostly and I use Subsonic to stream my own music over the internet to wherever I am. http://www.subsonic.org/pages/index.jsp

 

[R3DP3NGUIN]

Amon Amarth, Opeth, Dream theater. is what I most frequently listen to.

 

[Wendig0]

I use Pandora, Google's Music Beta (Very nice), and my ipod touch to stream music all over my house and shop.

 

[captaincranky]

Gosh, why is everybody so averse to country music? After all, Eagles, Jachson Browne, The Byrds, Poco, Flying Burrito Brothers, and many more are actually country acts, rocked up a tad. The Eagles are especially committed to Americana in their early work. Remember "Desperado". Chris Hillman from the Byrds went on to form, "The Desert Rose Band", a very country extension of the Byrds 12 string sound. Just add pedal steel.

Anyway, I like female vocalists also, such as Mary-Chapin Carperter, Sugaland's Jennifer Nettles, Carrie Underwood, some girls you've probably never heard of, but most of all, Loreena McKennitt, a Canadian "world music" type af act. (A Celtic and middle eastern mix). Pure vocal glory, she is, and without the annoyance and pretense of "Celtic Woman".

Oh, I'm supposed to say how I get it, right? In my own provincial way, by buying the CDs. Sometimes if I don't want the album I'll buy MP3s from Amazon.

I keep meaning to convert some of my elderly LPs to CD. Bought the Shure phono cartridge, bought a phono preamp, have the Turntable, just haven't gotten around to it. Oh well, maybe someday.

Speaking of phono preamps, boy was I floored when I bought a new AV Receiver last year and discovered it didn't have a phono input. Time marches on, I suppose....

 

[Guest]

I myself like Power Metal and Symphonic Metal, with bands like Dragonforce, Stratovarius, HammerFall.. and Nightwish, Leaves' Eyes, Within Temptation. And sometimes (I say this because during Summer my mood changes a bit) Alternative Rock such as Sum41's and Red Hot Chili peppers.
At first I used to buy their CD's but later, after YouTube's boom, I listened through it.
But recently I discovered Last.fm and that one I currently use to access my music. Of course, not forgetting my "physical" collection.

 

[Guest]

I noticed someone said they don't like "black" music like rap. Okay, not liking rap is a completely valid opinion. Although, I hate to burst your bubble but music does not have a color or race. There is no such thing as "black people" music or "white people" music. Music is music.

Anyway, I can listen to and like just about any type of music. I grew up listening to rock and hard rock sort of music. I had friends who were into metal, my brother introduced me into rap/hiphop. My sister was into pop music and my parents were into country and with my time on the internet I stumbled upon electronic/techno/dubstep etc. So I got a taste of a wide variety of music. Although with that said, I listen to rap/hiphop most of the time. Although I only listen to about 3-4 artist, because I find most rappers don't have very meaningful songs. I don't disregard the whole genre just because of that though. I love the genre and how it's performed.

For rappers/albums I would recommend:
Chamillionaire - Ultimate Victory
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
2Pac - Greatest Hits or Me Against the World
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP

 

[captaincranky]

I noticed someone said they don't like "black" music like rap. Okay, not liking rap is a completely valid opinion. Although, I hate to burst your bubble but music does not have a color or race. There is no such thing as "black people" music or "white people" music. Music is music.

Well, it's way too long for a complete explanation, but yes, there is "black music", and there is also white music.

The Who, and other hard rock acts, can trace much of their influence to British martial, ceremonial and folk music. You know, the Celts, Angles, Saxons, Picts, Scots, most to all of whom were well, white. Except when they painted themselves blue for battle. (Surely you've seen, "Braveheart").

Whereas, most of hip hop can trace its roots to a pack of foul mouthed dime bag inner city drug dealers, most of whom are predominately, "African American". Since it's mostly just a non stop spew of violent, sexist, racist, profanity, spoken, (or shouted, as it were), without a discernible melody, it could be argued it's not music at all. So, since white people aren't allowed to use the "N" word, and every other word in rap seems to be just that, I have a very strong case when I say that it's made for blacks by blacks.

So, don't credit yourself with the ability to burst anybody's bubble. You should probably take aim at the bubble you seem to be living in.

 

[Julio Franco]

I like a little bit of everything, alternative, latin, and punk rock, salsa, merengue, classical music, certainly electronic and even pop. These days I mostly listen to music that I already have in my iPod or search for songs in YouTube and take it from there. Shazam on the iPhone is also a godsend for picking up song names on the go.

 

[Guest]

i use grooveshark to listen to music online. i'll listen to anything but rock. rock died in the 80's. all good rock would fit on one CD, so it's nothing to brag about.

 

[acerace]

electronic music FTW!

 

[captaincranky]

i use grooveshark to listen to music online. i'll listen to anything but rock. rock died in the 80's. all good rock would fit on one CD, so it's nothing to brag about.

No, rock died in the 70's. But I assume that being wrong about that, was merely a prelude to everything else you're wrong about.

 

[bugejakurt]

How about soundtracks. I like the epicness of Two Steps from Hell or Audio Machine.

 

[gwailo247]

I usually use Pandora.

If I want to listen to specific stuff I'll load music onto my phone, or onto my lil' Zen Stone if I'm doing something athletic.

 

[Guest]

sky.fm

i pay for premium cuz of the better quality and no ads