Kat's Big Ginormous Amazingly Long Music Poll!

[katallison]

In which you, dear readers, get to advise me extensively and lift me from the crevasse of cultural ignoramushood. The Poll So Big, It Comes In Parts! And On Cutaway!



So, this part of the poll is: Imagine that you have been charged with enlightening someone who has lived in a cave since the mid-70s about the music of the past 30 years.

[Background: The living-in-a-cave part is not much of an exaggeration. I more or less stopped listening to popular music about the time vinyl went out, due to a combination of changing tastes and amazing lack of income. Most of my music collection of the late 70s through the late 90s grew out of a very primitive form of piracy, consisting of:
(1) Go to the library and check out LPs (almost exclusively classical or older jazz);
(2) Dupe them onto cassette tapes;
(3 Return LPs to library, listen to cassette tapes on crappy tape player.

When CDs came to the fore, I looked at them, thought, "Huh. Boy, *those* are pricey," contemplated my amazing lack of income, and passed them by. I also didn't have a car, so the input mode of driving around listening to random shit on the radio wasn't happening. And so, with one thing and another, I basically had no connection with any music that hit the airwaves between, say, 1975 and the present day.]

But now that I have the amazing resources of Our Glorious Intrawebs (in the form of a Rhapsody subscription--Rhapsody rocks!--as well as iTunes et al.), and even some actual income, I am taking on the project of actually trying to listen to current music (for a broad definition of "current") and figure out what I like. So your question is:

What five albums/artists (random number, feel free to contract or expand it) are essential for me to check out, representing music without which Jeezus Keerist, Kat, your life has been a barren wasteland spent in a cave!? (Note: this is just a reply-in-comments kind of poll, devoid of ticky-boxes, because the limitations of LJ's Poll Creator for text boxes frustrates me.)

Part II: So, When/Where/How Do You Listen to Music, Anyway?

[Background: OK, this will sound funny and pathetic to most of you, but one of the things that hinders my plunge back into the realm of music appreciation is that I've simply gotten out of the habit of having music on. Driving around in the car is about it, but I don't drive much, and the rest of my life is basically background-music-free. So really, I'm just curious about how everyone else manages to work this into their lives.]

[Poll #462147]

ETA: Thanks so much for all the great ideas so far!
And although, as noted in the comments, part of my intent was to not restrict your suggestions within the framework of my pre-existing preferences, still I realize a few directional markers might be helpful. So, just a short list of some of the (very few) CDs I have actually purchased and dug:
David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust
Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, Blonde on Blonde
Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville
Cowboy Junkies, Trinity Sessions
Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense
REM, Automatic for the People
Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
The Donnas, Spend the Night
Bonnie Raitt, Luck of the Draw
...to the extent that this provides any help whatsoever. *g*

Comments

I use it for writing to

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to see a vid done to Chris Isaac's song 29 Palms--sorry, dunno which album it was on. I'm not sure what fandom it deserves, or how you'd use it to comment ironically on a particular series (maybe an ep that happens to be set in SoCal, I'm not sure), but it has such an intriguing tone. And yes, that's exactly what it's like out there in that part of the desert, or was 20 years ago.
But all his stuff that I've heard (his earlier mostly) sounds to me like it belongs in a vampire series soundtrack. Or Vampyre, if you prefer. Very reverb pedal, echoing, distant, so cool it has freezerburn.
If anybody's mentioned John Fogarty's latest stuff here, I missed seeing it. I'm rather fond of his whole album Blue Moon Swamp, which won a Grammy as Best Rock Album, but is more country/bluesy sounding to me--gutbucket rock, perhaps. Those songs all sound viddable to me, but I ain't an expert neither. If somebody hasn't used Walking in a Hurricane for a vid already then they ought to. (Told you I wasn't an expert.) I can't help but think Rattlesnake Highway could be turned into something fun and ironic and wierd, though it isn't a fun song.
Second the motion on Tom Waits, too. Behind the Red Barn, In the Colisseum are more one-shots, not daily listening, but impressive impact. Not easy to listen to. Come away with your head changed...
Since I like to listen to music to set the tone in my head when I'm writing, as in, "this is for movin' along briskly" (Forgarty's good for that) and "this is for thinking slowly and clearly" (I tend toward Mozart for that)--the Waits is about dealing straight-on with really tough stuff.
I also rather like most of the soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, parts of which were performed by the cello player Yoyo Ma, and I've been thinking about tracking down more of Tan Dun's compositions. It's a little on the sentimental side sometimes for me, since I tend to listen to that on mp3 player while at work, which isn't a good venue for sentimentality, but it does ground me back into my whole, real life and out of the clouds of paperwork, which is helpful.

Re: I use it for writing to

[rhi]

Did Chris Isaak cover 29 Palms? The only version I ever heard was Robert Plant...? (Man, this has been fun to read.)

Re: I use it for writing to

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for both the recommendations and the commentary -- you really make me want to go listen to these right away (and thanks to Rhapsody, I can do just that!). Vampire series soundtrack...ooooh, cool!