guitarzan

Over on Facebook, the "Post ten albums that influenced your musical taste - no explanation, just the cover" chain has been going around. I did it, but I also decided to write about my choices. And since I don't post here enough, I thought I'd copy/paste it here.

Once I decided to put together my list of ten albums, naturally I put way too much thought into it. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a list of ten favorites, but a list of albums that truly influenced my taste in music. So rather than thinking “OK, what albums, in 2020, do I love?” I thought back through points in my life and determined what I was listening to at that time. And of course I posted the albums in the order in which they came into my life. So... here’s the reasoning behind all my picks.

#1 & #2: Richard Marx - Rush Street and Bryan Adams - Waking Up the Neighbours These are the two albums, around 1993, that pulled me away from the country music I grew up with and gave me an appreciation for pop/rock (and power ballads).

#3: The Beatles - Abbey Road It was really the Anthology documentary in 1995 that got me into the Beatles, then I bought a bunch of their albums. They’re really a singles band to me, but Abbey Road is the closest thing to a perfect Beatles album, so it represents the band as a whole here.

#4: Pearl Jam - Ten I got into Pearl Jam near the end of high school, shortly before their 2000 tour, when they released every show of the tour on CD. This is one of the best debut albums of all time; and “Black” is still absolutely astonishing.

#5: Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction Speaking of the best debut albums of all time, this is it. I was a huge GNR fan in college. I hosted an ‘80s & ‘90s metal show on our college radio station starting in 2002. GNR isn’t a metal band, but they helped get me into heavier bands, long guitar solos, and huge vocals.

#6: The Killers - Hot Fuss I really got into ‘80s music around 2005; and I considered putting U2’s The Joshua Tree in this slot, or even the Wedding Singer soundtrack, which has some great tracks from The Smiths, Psychedelic Furs, David Bowie, and New Order. But I decided that I really love Hot Fuss, and it’s The Killers that started getting me into 80s-influenced synth-pop.

#7 & #8: Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Cold Roses and Kathleen Edwards - Back To Me These are two albums that really got me into alt-country in 2006-2007. This Kathleen Edwards album is nearly perfect, and it’s exactly what I want alt-country to sound like. I wish more people knew this album.

#9: Bruce Springsteen - Magic This was the album that finally pulled me into the world of The Boss in 2007. I started getting into his music with The Rising; but Magic is a much better album to me, and I saw Springsteen for the first time on this tour.

#10: Taylor Swift - 1989 This was the album that changed the game. Taylor Swift didn’t have to be a “guilty pleasure” after this. If anyone questioned me for being a fan, I didn’t feel the need to shrug and say “She’s got some good songs, they’re just not singles.” If anyone didn’t understand being a fan of the biggest pop star in the world, that was their problem.

...And that’s the list. I’m sure this stuff is really only interesting to me, but I like having a record of all this. I’d encourage others to do the same; but I know most people don’t have the time or the interest to write this much (and aren’t this obsessive, obviously). Aaaaaand we’re done.