Hmmm...where do I start? Music is a huge passion of mine (right after motorsports) & has been for as long as I can remember.
I voted for the 80's, but the answer isn't that simple for me. Most of what I listen to, now, was inspired, in some way, by the music I listened to in the 80's (hence, where my vote went). There are two main genres I listen to: techno/electronic music & britpop/alternative.
I'm a an enormous fan of music that's come out of Manchester for the last 30 years, or so. It's pretty much the centre of my music universe. If you get a chance, watch a movie called
24 Hour Party People...it'll give you a pretty good idea of what I like & Manchester's role in music history. It's a well made movie that shows the progression of music in Manchester from the late 70's to the beginnings of rave culture.
Some bands from the Madchester era (late 80's to the early 90's):
808 State
Happy Mondays
The Charlatans
Stone Roses
Inspiral Carpets
Soup Dragons
Northside
James
The Farm
More info on Madchester:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madchester
Other bands from the 80's I listened to:
- Depeche Mode (still love 'em...Martinbo, I saw them live twice in the last year. Once in Toronto, which was a stadium show at the Air Canada Centre; & once in Atlantic City, where the show was in a small ballroom, that only held 3500 people, at the Borgata casino
)
- Joy Division/New Order
- Yello
- Art of Noise
- Yellow Magic Orchestra
- OMD (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)
- The Cult
- Pet Shop Boys
The above continued for me, but changed a bit when the 90's hit. While I was already listening to electronic music, more & more of it was being made & DJ's were becoming superstars (Carl Cox, Sasha, Billy Nasty, Dave Seaman, et al). The 90's was probably, in my view, the best time for electronic dance music. The rave culture, which started in the late 80's, had now hit its peak...those parties were a lot of fun.
So, through the 90's I listened to a lot of techno (while keeping up on BritPop). Acts like:
Hardfloor
Orbital
The Orb
Moby
Junkie XL
Paul van Dyk
Altern8
BT
Underworld
Chemical Brothers (I'm on their DVD)
Prodigy
Sven Vath
Oliver Lieb (or any of his many aliases like LSG, Spicelab, etc.)
In the current millenium, I like:
The Rapture
Kasabian
The Doves
The Klaxons
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Travis
Belle & Sebastian
Telepopmusik
Royksopp
I know I'm leaving out all sorts of bands that I listen to, but this was the best I could do off the top of my head.
