A to Z Music Challenge

Inspired by this post, I wanted to see if I can come up with a list of bands / artists I like - I  get self-conscious about listening to the same things over and over, where most of what I like to listen to has been preprogrammed over the past 5 decades. 

It's pretty clear where I stand as far as dating myself, but for the most part these are probably my 'ride or die' music artists / bands with a few exceptions - where I've listed artist / band with a random 'ride or die' song I come back to even though I won't dig for any other songs by the same artists / bands.  

A - AC/DC, Aerosmith - AC/DC was all about the hard hitting arena rock that gets the blood flowing, that teased all sort of trouble and mayhem, while the Aerosmith I followed through the early 1990s starred in a run of great music videos that really made think long and hard.   

B - Bon Jovi, Beastie Boys - no one has to know I still seek out Bon Jovi songs and rock out to the  classics like Wanted Dead or Alive or Livin' on a Prayer, Blaze of Glory. 

C - Coldplay - I have never really embraced them, but through the course of the 2000s, these guys set the tone as far as what I listened to.  

D - Daft Punk, Darude - I was into Daft Punk because the electronic music beats kept me on my feet as something a little different. Darude = Sandstorm.

E - Eminem - I never really embraced him as an artist, but Higher and Till I Collapse are on list of pump me up songs. 

F - Foo Fighters, Fleetwood Mac, Fun - through the course of the late 1990s onward, Foo Fighters set the tone as far as what I listened to as far as mainstream rock band.

I like to imagine myself back in the late 1970s, listening to some Fleetwood Mac but in the here and now want to be like that guy on a skateboard - who got his 15 minutes of fame in 2020 chilling to Dreams with his cranberry drink.   

G - Goo Goo Dolls, Green Day, Guns N'Roses, Genesis - I've thought about at least a couple of crushes in my life listening to Goo Goo Dolls; I swear Green Day's 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours was all about my high school crush. 

Guns N' Roses was the mainstream super rock band of the early 1990s and hard to ignore at their peak. 

I think when referring to Genesis, I think mostly about Phil Collins.  

"Take the lyrics to 'Land of Confusion", in this song Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority .. "In Too Deep", is the most moving pop song of the 1980s about monogamy and commitment .. the song is extremely uplifting, the lyrics are as positive and affirmative as, uh, anything I've heard in rock .. "

H - Hall & Oates - I grew up on listening pop, soft rock stations playing mid 1980s songs.  

I - Ice Cube - for the most part I fit into the stereotype of someone from suburbia trying to latch onto a little hip hop as some kind of edgy thing. 

J - John Mayer - there might have been a time, where I turned into mush listening to some of his songs.  

K - Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache - I only know of this one song, because it was the entrance music of one time Angels reliever Brian Fuentes during the 2009 season.

L - Linkin Park - through the course of 2000s through 2010s, didn't realize these guys would set the tone as far as what I listened to, for better or for worse. I once found them loud and abrasive but I find them inspirational now, even with the passing of the lead vocalist Chester Bennington in 2017.   

M - Michael Jackson - my childhood GOAT. 

N - Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana - with the music I listened to, there might have an been an edgy phase that revolved being a wannabe, angsty teen where I wanted to listen to loud, unconventional industrial music or at times depressing themes that Kurt Cobain [R.I.P.] pushed. 

O - The Offspring, Oasis - The Offspring was a punk band that found mainstream success so I maybe  latched through them through early 1990s as the new, coolest thing where I'd gone from pop music, rock, grunge and then punk. Oasis probably hit my consciousness through the mid 1990s as an import from England and looking past their popular hit songs, Acquiesce still lingers.  

P - Pearl Jam

Q - Queen

R - R.E.M. - a girl I had a crush on in the early 1990s had a R.E.M. t-shirt and as a joke, I remember mimicking the lead singer Michael Stipe in that Losing My Religion video. Maybe a couple of songs I liked was Everybody Hurts and Man on the Moon. 

S - Staind, Sylvester, Social Distortion, Stone Temple Pilots - Staind lead singer Aaron Lewis really had a nice little run of some really heartfelt songs [It's Been Awhile, So Far Away, For You] that just hit a little different back in the early 2000s. 

T - Third Eye Blind, Tears for Fears, Toad the Wet Sprocket - go figure, crushes play a big part of music I listen to and 3EB's first album [titled Third Eye Blind] is always going to be about that certain college crush. 

Tears for Fears, Everybody Wants to Rule the World symbolizes the decade of the 1980s for me. 

Toad the Wet Sprocket might not have ever reached true mainstream success but for me, past all bands that were at their peak commercially - listening to Toad the Wet Sprocket songs [Walk On the Ocean, Fall Down] always gets me nostalgic for the early part of the 1990s. 

U - U2 - through the course of the early 1990s onward, these guys set the tone as far as what I end up listening to through the here and now. They end up probably my No. 1 group of all time, though I keep going back to mostly their older catalog than any of the 'here and now' songs.  

V - The Verve - Lucky Man

W - Weezer

X - X Ambassadors - Renegades

Y - Young the Giant - My Body

Z - Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 - this and Darude's Sandstorm end up probably the most well known 'jock jams' songs played at stadiums during the past 15-20 years.