Music taste of Atheists

Tell us what your music taste is like, what your favorite bands are and what song in particular you would recommend to us.


I like a little bit of everything, though mostly rock and you won't catch me listening to a style that isn't 'mainstream'.
I really like U2 (yes I know quite some of their music is religiously motivated ) and recently I've been listening to Pink Floyd alot, courtesy of my father who is a big fan. I also like Toto, Supertramp, Foreigner and some more.. In particular the 80s have turned out to be a goldmine of music for me.

If I would have to recommend a song, I'd say Time by Pink Floyd. The lyrics aren't so deep that I'm left wondering what it's all about, but it still puts me thinking in a good way.
In particular this live version is excellent IMO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntm1YfehK7U

I am totally, 100% classical music lover. Okay, there are times I can listen to other music, but those times are rare, and then I'm always glad to welcome classical music back to my ears. BTW, by "classical" music I don't merely mean music in the strictly classical era, but also the Baroque, the romantic, the impressionistic, and even some contemporary eras.

I couldn't begin to name my favorite composers, but I'd have to name Beethoven and Mahler right off the bat, with at least a couple dozen right on their heels. I mainly love choral and symphonic music, but I also love chamber music, some lieder -- oh, I could go on and on.

Sorry, Alphastar18, I guess you and I could never live in one house, eh?

I prefere classical music, especially Mozart, and electronic music, especially Acid House, but i find The Beatles and other more mainstream bands enjoyable, as long as they are pre-2000. My favorite composer is Mozart and one of my favorite bands are Kraftwerk. Here is one of their songs (Autobahn, original from 1974 but this verision is from 1979 (part 1; part 2 is the best one and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co562BXKuMg)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vcO5Agst0M

I don't know how to answer this and have it make much sense, but I'll try. I love good music. By that, I mean I love music that accomplishes what it sets out to do. I like things that are well done. If it's classical, rock, goth, blues (!), or whatever, I just want it to be well done.

My wife's a classical flutist for a couple small orchestras, I love that sort of thing, I'm a BIG blues fan, I'm all about Michael Franti and Spearhead... it just goes on. 

I can sit and listen to Le Miserables one evening and Santana the next morning.

The Weepies are wonderful, Iron and WIne also. Bah! I'm gonna stop. I could do this all night.

My taste in music is pretty broad, eclectic, and don't tend to overlap with the mainstream stuff you hear over the radio much.

I DO like classical music, and opera - I especially enjoy Beethoven, Verdi, Puccini, and I like Erik Satie's minimalistic piano pieces. And I don't think I would qualify as a Finn if I didn't like Sibelius.

But mostly I listen to alternative stuff that doesn't respect genre bounds, and may require a few listens to "get". I like world music too, and there are a few more popular artists I listen to as well (I don't actually RULE OUT stuff on the grounds that it's listened to more than just the odd person here and there). I am strangely drawn to some traditional folk-type songs too, though seem to be allergic to most Country music.

I'm drawn to great lyricists, and so I'm a big fan of Tom Waits, who combines eclesticism with brilliant lyrics, and he pretty much towers over the rest of my music collection. He makes music ranging from the simplest folk songs to Kurt-Weilish strangeness to punk, to tearjerkers, to just about every genre you can think of, and then some. He sounds like the Cookie Monster (and, as someone noted, curiously, the two are never seen in the same place at the same time...)

I like Leonard Cohen. I like Les Claypool, much of P.J. Harvey and Nick Cave, much of Tori Amos (mostly her "Boys for Pele" album and the stuff earlier to that), Fiona Apple, Carla Kihlstedt, the Tin Hat Trio and many more. Apparently I am drawn to cabaret as well, as I can't help but draw some guilty pleasure from Tiger Lillies, with their absurd, hideous, theatrical falcetto blasphemy and debautchery.

I also like some of the Jazz standards - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong doing "Summertime" from Porky and Bess sends the chills down my spine.

Paco De Lucia Sextet - "Live... One Summer Night", is a great album that's been on my playlist for years.

Here's a few examples, if anyone's interested:

A few from Tom Waits:

"Walk Away": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccVC5MjZEfs

"Chocolate Jesus": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wfamPW3Eaw

"Watch Her Dissappear": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXD3StsKCJk

"More Than Rain": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh7JZUpaVPg

Here's Les Claypool with a song "One Better":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqtAaYhhVYQ

Fiona Apple's got some pipes on her, here's her singing "River Stay Away From My Door":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej0jbX4UIgQ

And here's an absolutely killer performance of hers of the Elvis Costello song "I Want You" (with Elvis playing guitar in the background):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiOmhOumh-w

 Tin Hat Trio doing the classic "Willow Weep For Me" with Carla Khilstedt on vocals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFsY3HMTpoQ

And finally something totally different, "War Photographer" by Jason Forrest. Don't know any of his music really, but I like this. (And how could you not like a music video that's got Vikings, robots AND laser-shooting giant electrical guitars?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAFXayH1bpY

Interesting - I don't listen much to electronica, though I do have the clasic album "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" by Brian Eno and David Byrne that I do like. Have you listened to that?

I regard music as merely the 'pretty envelope' that sets the emotional tone for the message. So nowadyas I generally listen to songs with meaningful lyrics rather than say classical which merely plays with more primitive parts of the brain

This is not to say I never listen to instrumentals...many of these make me cry on those rare ocassions when I hear them!

Sleepwalk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_fdnTR8zbI&feature=related

Teslstar [dedicated to the first comms satellite] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAQYxqBxJjQ&feature=related

or songs with corny lyrics...from my childhood there is

sukiyaki http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtXQ31F1A-k

Fireball XL5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3yN6WfpaUQ&feature=related

while I used to love In the year 2525 when I was about 10! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJU_UutAME4&feature=related]

My first album was 'ColdFact' by Jesus Rodrieguez...mostly 'hard' poetry to lullaby music...e.g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJ_yCxpjLw

Meaningful lyrics? Dylan, Beatles, Bowie, U2 and there must be others by I hardly bother anymore. Recently, I found I do like this one which reminds me of a time when I was becoming one of those 'rising star' junior chess players...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bJMxhvVf0o

In the end, you discover you can't please everyone...so you've got to please yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShwSZtDdl3M&feature=related

God (lol)  I listen to so many genres. it just depends what mood im in.  my favorite artist is townes van zandt!  I really like american folk music, townes, earle, croce etc. but then i jump to electro, hip hop, classical.  Anything with a banjo.  think its one of the most beautiful sounds to my ears.  Love rock music but havent heard any rock band thats came out since the 70's that i like.  lovethe whole hendrix/floyd/zeppellin era.

i've uploaded almost 200 songs to my youtube page. its

http://www.chess.com/members/view/pmk78

No I have not listen to that album so I have to get back on this one, could you recommend a song from it?

I like U2, Nickleback, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Tori Amos, and actually quite a bit more.  I listen to classical when I am driving sometimes.  I enjoy it but it is foreign enough to me that it gets my attention and helps to keep me focused or awake.  Back when Shaniah Twain was big I started to take a liking to country music (which I had always hated on general principles) but after the 9/11 attack, the invasion of Iraq and the pycho-patriotism that followed it (of which some country stars were more than willing to cater too) I lost interest in country.

 I think I like the exotic sounding "Regiment" best, a song that features a lebanese mountain singer. Found a bootleg version of the song on YouTube - the suond quality is a bit more muddled, I find, than on the album, but otherwise sounds pretty much the same:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj3M5tdtjeY

"The Jezebel Spirit" is a good one, and it features clips from what is supposedly an actual exorcism, but the bootleg version I found of it online sounds much different from the album version, though it's still recognizable. The album version is better, I think.

Here's a song from the album called "Mea Culpa":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3mcR8hrRXQ

Here's the wikipedia article on the album, it's considered somewhat of a classic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Life_in_the_Bush_of_Ghosts_(album)

Mostly old folk and acoustic, like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Woody Guthrie. The Clash is a big one, and old country like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Townes van Zandt.  I listen to little to no mainstream modern music.

Thanks for your response, it is always fun to expand one's horisons. I found them interesting to listen to, especially Regiment; very meditative. I would be interested to hear what you think of this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceXCsMPqepQ.

 Only spotted your response now - sorry for the delayed response!

It's not the sort of music I would normally listen to, but I'd sure listen to that rather than your mainstream radio stuff.

I'm mostly attracted to lyrical mastery and creativity. And cheerful stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4TwrJQphc 

I like a very broad selection of music, but most of all I love classical. I am a classical composition student (though I have also written some jazz, salsa, pop etc.).

My favourite composer is Schubert, hence the name (the bomb part is a reference to my minesweeper abilities), and other favourites are Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Janacek (not as well known Czech composer). I adore choral music and chamber music most of all, but my favourite piece of music is Tchaikovsky's 6th (pathetique) symphony.