Music Choices

[thekarens]

Love Pink! Generally listen to the top 40 station, but I also enjoy classic country, black gospel and classic rock.

[rebeccaC]

Sara Bareilles


http://youtu.be/eLHQ4H93P2Q

This is the Kit
http://vimeo.com/16163092#

Etta James
http://vimeo.com/34286523#at=0

Joni Mitchell
http://vimeo.com/13148100

Emily White
http://vimeo.com/9104181#

Beth Orton
http://vimeo.com/49401469

Indigo Girls
http://vimeo.com/4202107

http://vimeo.com/69399362

Laura Nyro
http://youtu.be/f6OqXRi8g08

http://vimeo.com/46816930

http://youtu.be/-yjmYfPk4kM

http://youtu.be/6HI0RfvXZhE

[OakLeaf]

It's easier for me to say what I don't really like ... new wave punk, metal, R&B, ambient. Any of those I'll listen to a little bit, and there are particular artists I enjoy, but when I browse for new music I don't tend to go to those genres.

Classical, I prefer to really pay attention than to have it as background noise, so I'm much more likely to go to a concert than listen to recorded classical music; when I do listen to a recording, I'm probably not going to be doing anything else but sitting there in my headphones with my eyes closed. I prefer instrumental music to opera or lieder.

Other than that, the playlist I use most often just grabs any non-classical songs I haven't played in the last six months. I put it on random shuffle ... old-timey country gospel, really angry French hip-hop, bluegrass, newgrass, classic rock, blues, Tex-Mex, current "alternative," jam bands, traditional West African music, American hip-hop, folk rock, pop, Afropop, traditional folk, and yes, a bit of punk, R&B and metal (though my two Gogol Bordello albums are more than I have of any other punk band, and their music really defies genre).

Bands I just discovered recently and really love: Lucius (sweet voices, tight pop), The David Wax Museum ("Mexo-Americana"), Tift Merritt (country/Americana).

I'm very fond of Cloud Cult (alternative rock, ethereal music, sometimes wrenching lyrics) and Nellie McKay (smart, sarcastic and/or ironic pop). Jean Grae (hip-hop) just released a delicious new three-album cycle. Anaïs Mitchell - whose latest project is traditional English ballads - wrote an amazing opera based on the Orpheus legend, entitled "Hadestown." One of the absolute highlights of my year this year was hearing Mitchell with Jeff Hamer at Nelsonville. They performed their second set in a very, very intimate little cabin, room for maybe 30 people inside and many more crowding the windows and doors ... their prepared set was from the Child Ballads album, but someone requested "Why We Build the Wall," and we sang it with Mitchell singing the Hades part and the audience singing the damned souls' responses. It was absolutely electric.

What I gravitate to when I'm really upset: Martha Argerich's performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1, with Abbado conducting the LSO. Turned up loud enough to drown out the sound of the world crumbling outside.