Who influenced your music the most?

[Robert Randolph]

woo saw one mention of portishead, and one of slowdive. lol

[MickGael]

First and foremost among very many influences is the Beatles.

Without them, its very likely that many of us would be doing something very different with our time.

[progfusion74]

just curious, how many people have listed only artists they like? (I did, but also said every artist and every song) I am strongly influenced by artists I dislike as well...

Alternately, what I listen to, and what I am influenced by as a musician is not the same thing. about a 3rd of my music listening is Jazz (mostly bebop and rock-fusion), but no influence on my actual writing .... yet.

[Shane Sanders]

That's a hard question in that it forces you to leave people out. There's really too many to name, but here are a few of the formative ones:

Shakti
Santana band
Stravinsky
Rush
Yes
Led Zeppelin
The Beatles
Al DiMeola

current stuff:
Ivoux
Portishead
Peter Gabriel
Curve
KVR

[Sonicseven]

Wavemeister wrote

Pretty diverse list there Sonicseven.

Would not have it any other way.
I always believed that I gain knowledge through diversity

[wavemeister]

My Ambient New Age influence is Patrick O'Hearn; considered the father and guru of the modern Ambient New Age movement. David Helping is also an excellent and a major influence for me in this genre.


master the wave

[blaster78]

key influences in my musical life:

deep purple, led zep, queen - music my dad listened to when i was growing up

wishbone ash, yes, genesis - music my mum listened to when i was growing up

holst, the planets - first record i ever bought (several pence from a local jumble sale)

aha, take on me - no.1 in the charts when i got my first stereo

now 20 something - listened to this constantly when my family went on a 3 month trip round europe. (can't remember the number but it included soul 2 soul, milli vanilli and george michael i think)

a whole bunch of student indie bands in the early nineties - wonderstuff, levellers, neds atomic dustbin, carter usm

prodigy, experience - never heard music like it, imeadiately wanted to make beats like that

amiga tracker stuff - can't remember any names but there was some amazing stuff out there.

massive attack, blue lines - didn't know what this was when a girlfriend gave it me but made me realise that electronic music could have soul

tallis, spem in allium - one of the most beautiful things i have heard in my life

lots of film soundtrack stuff over the years

the orb, live at glastonbury - i was off my tits at the time but wow!

kvr - got me writing music again

tons of other stuff but it would take ages to list and you'd all be evn more bored than you are already.

cheers,

steve.

[clueless]

holst, the planets - first record i ever bought (several pence from a local jumble sale)

first record I remember listening to!
(closely followed by Barry White!)

tallis, spem in allium - one of the most beautiful things i have heard in my life

YES!

[Sepheritoh]

holst, the planets - first record i ever bought (several pence from a local jumble sale)

first record I remember listening to!
(closely followed by Barry White!)

Mike Batt & the LSO made one of the most awesome recordings of that one.

[no_signal]

Name the most obvious/strongest influences on your music

-Myself
-Vangelis
-Tangerine Dream
-Isao Tomita
-Yanni (belive it or not, i like it a lot)
-Enigma
-Robert Miles
-Paul van Dyk
-Armin van Buuren mixes
Currently : All the garbage music around

edit:
-Sterbinszky

[nuffink]

holst, the planets - first record i ever bought (several pence from a local jumble sale)

first record I remember listening to!
(closely followed by Barry White!)

Mike Batt & the LSO made one of the most awesome recordings of that one.

With or without the wombles?

[aMUSEd]

Charles Ives
Ligeti
Penderecki
Bartok
Shepp
Terry Riley
Robert Wyatt (Rock Bottom era)
This Heat
Henry Cow

[freeztar]

Holst would be a great first album, sadly, mine was "Dirty Laundry" on a vinyl single .

There are too many influences to list them all, but what I'm really interested in knowing is all the artists that have subconsciously influenced my musical style. And I guess we never really know that until someone else points it out (and then we might not even admit it to ourselves).

But, to list a few of my biggest *conscious* influences :
J.J. Cale - He is the king of simplicity and Eric Clapton's idle
Jerry Garcia - He helped me realize that music can become its own entity and does not need to be tied down or constrained
Miles Davis - Miles got me into Jazz...nuff said
Antonio Carlos Jobim - A masterful writer that turned me onto Bossa Nova (which is the most rythmically beautiful music to me)
U2 - Bono's voice turned me onto emotion and poetry in music at an early age
Bob Marley - He should be an inspiration to us all as he's one of the few musician's who has made such a profound political impact.

[blaster78]

Holst would be a great first album

more luck than judgement i think (that 10p was burning a hole in my pocket)

cheers,

steve.

[Sepheritoh]

holst, the planets - first record i ever bought (several pence from a local jumble sale)

first record I remember listening to!
(closely followed by Barry White!)

Mike Batt & the LSO made one of the most awesome recordings of that one.

With or without the wombles?

I am serious

http://www.mikebatt.com/classical.cfm

J.J. Cale - He is the king of simplicity and Eric Clapton's idle

The absolute king of laid back. Love him

Somebody not mentioned enough here is our friend Robert Alan Zimerman aka Bob Dylan. A great influence on me.