Riverpoet31 said:

Excellent choice again. I'm a huge, huge fan of his, and Pontiac is probably his greatest album, though I actually prefer Joshua Judges Ruth.

And I completely agree with everything you said about country.There's a purity and focus on song craftsmanship present in country music that's pretty much awol in every other genre currently.
[Edited 8/21/09 17:18pm]

Imago said:

.. can still remember the date Ray of Light was purchased: March 13th, 1998. It was not my first piece of owned music; that would be the "Black and White" cassingle. However, this was the album to open my ears to styles of music that were previously unknown. It created the desire to explore new avenues of music and stands as a landmark of my teenagehood.



.. the first time my mind was truly blown. It was here that I fell in love with Prince.. can not describe how Side A affected my post-high schooled brain.



Last year was a very emotional time in life. The passing of a parent, the loss of a job, and the loss of a first love took its toll and left me with probably the saddest time in my life. Boys for Pele/Is This Desire? were the soundtracks to that period. Every spectrum of feeling (from heatbreak, obsession, jealousy, anger and recklessness to resilence and discovery) were touched upon in the music. These two chronicled the cycle of that time, from mourning to rebirth.

Return to Forever - Musicmagic



This album opened my head up to a whole other world of musical possibilities.

Grandmaster Flash The Message. I hounded my mom for this song. First intro to rap!


First intro to female rap (and Lyte, but I did not have Lyte's album)


what's not to love?


I dearly miss her!


before the craziness....

\

PDogz said:

Great album,,,,and a fuckin' brilliant ensemble of musicians

WHITE LIGHT WHITE HEAT

i think if "purple rain" opened my eyes to what the quality of popular music could be like, and if bowie's "stage" opened my eyes to how unconventional and experimental popular music could be, then the residents' "duck stab/buster and glen" album opened my eyes to just how amazing UNpopular music could be...or how it could be possible to turn modern popular music on its ear to create something completely alien and bizarre, yet still entertaining and melodic.

i'd heard a small bit of residents music when i was a kid - my mom sent away for a ralph records 7" vinyl sampler single, and it had a song from the residents' "eskimo" album on it, which as a kid i thought was the weirdest sounding thing in the world. i quickly forgot about it and the residents. then i guess sometime during my high school years, i got bored and decided to research this weird band a little bit. i learned that nobody knew who they were and that they wore eyeball masks on their head. sounded good to me! so i went to the local indie wrecka stow and asked the counter guy to recommend a good residents album to me. he gave me "duck stab" and said if i like that album, i'm gonna love the residents. if i hate it, then i should never bother with them again.

i loved it.

dannyd5050 said:

Growing up in the 1980s and early 90s I was well aware of Prince's hit songs, and even owned The Hits 1, and bought singles like "Letitgo". But still hadn't quite sussed the catalog.

It is one of the first times I said "okay I have to find out what all the fuss is all about" so I grabbed 'the popular album', and it REALLY paid off. It made me more confident to check out the rest of Prince's catalog, and found that I enjoyed it immensely.

This changed my life because I was sure to take more leaps of faith into the unknown catalogs of other artists.

Timmy84 said:

This is my "I don't identify as straight" album, so in a way it changed my life too.

dearmother said:

SavonOsco said:

Anxiety said:

That's a formative experience 99.9% of the population will never have.

damosuzuki said:

i guess you have a point there.

Albums that changed my life...What a great thread! I'll just list 'em and I will post a pic of myself by the weekend. Hope every-1 is well. Glad to be here.

1. Anne Murray "Highly Prized Possession" 1974 Capitol
2. Natalie Cole "Thankful" 1977 Capitol
3. Minnie Riperton "Stay in Love" (A Romantic Fantasy Set to Music) 1977 Epic
4 Prince "Dirty Mind" 1980 Warner Bros.
5. Donna Washington "Going for the Glow" 1981 Capitol
6. The McCrary's "All Night Music" 1982 Capitol
7. Ashford and Simpson "Street Opera" 1982 Capitol
8. Melba Moore "Never Say Never" 1983 Capitol
9. Teena Marie "Robbery" 1983 Epic
10. S.O.S. Band "Sands of Time" 1986 Tabu

Probably "Like a Virgin" by Madonna. I was only 8 years old but somehow just totally understood what she was on about. It was the first inkling that I may be gay (Boys were supposed not to like songs like Material Girl).
Also Boy George and Wham, but I didn't have their albums, just singles then.

Michael Jacksons Thriller (But it wasn't life changing, I just thought it had great songs and he could really dance)

Diamonds and Pearls totally steered me towards a huge Prince obsession though at the age of 15

Has anybody read anyone else's posts yet?

Harlepolis said:

yea me 2 other than TLC with I was ur girlfriend, love her rendition of TBO! Stunning!

Mariah Music Box 4 me was my first MC meeting!

Kate Bush's HOUNDS OF LOVE, though specifically the song cycle (is that right?) "The Ninth Wave" was an eye-opener to me the first time I heard it. I remember checking it out from the Indianapolis Public Library on a whim, and listening to it on beautiful marble colored vinyl (which I'd LOVE to find now).

I just remember hearing this for the first time and thinking how big and epic and conceptual it was, but how intimate and emotional it was at the same time. I'd never heard anything that quite pushed those buttons with me before, and I'm not sure if I've heard anything that's quite this great - in this way - since.

missmad said: