I had always thought that I had fairly wide tastes in music; It certainly seemed that way when I could listen to NIN and then follow it with some Diana Krall. I've come to the realization in the last few months however, that's not the case. The musicians I listen to within the various genres are mostly the more-popular within that group. I've always been very passionate about music and proud of my wide-ranging tastes and to think that they're really not very wide-ranging at all is a little depressing. It's probably a hold over from my high school and college days when all my friends would only listen to one type of music and I would be listening to all kinds of stuff.
I think the realization has come because of several factors of late: Primarily, the disc exchange here has been exposing me to much music that I had never even heard of, yet like very much. (As a quick aside, thank you to those who have sent discs in the last month or so. I haven't been around at home as much so it seems I've listened to them in clumps and many of you didn't list your Avatar names so I don't know who to send a PM "Thank You" to! Rest assured that I have saved the envelopes and I'll return a mix of my own as soon as I can!).
Another factor in discovering new music is that I've been listening to a lot of XM lately. Finally, the "What are you listening to tonight" thread here has listed many musicians/groups that I'm not familiar with.
Am I the only one who is amazed at the wide-ranging tastes of members here?
So… I'd like to expand my musical horizons a bit and thought this would make a fun thread.
What are five discs that you consider essential to the genre of music you primarily listen to? This is not a "favorites" thread; that's been done here before. Rather, I'm looking for recommendations of the five discs that would best exemplify that genre of music even if some of the recommendations may not be personal favorites. Discs that would serve as the "five most important" discs if someone wanted to expand their tastes into that genre of music.
I suspect that I'm not the only one here impressed with the variety of tastes here, and this thread might serve as a good starting point for those who wish to expand their horizons a bit.
