An album that opened your eyes to a new world of music that you didn't know of our an album that helped you discover yourself

Besides Prince's "Purple Rain":

Timmy84 said:

This changed the way I heard keyboards in music. I haven't hear the album in its full, original configuration in ages though.

Terribly cliched answer, but the first time I heard the Velvet Underground was definitely an ear-opener, in the 'well, that's different from anything I've heard before' sense, & it definitely put me on a different path. I believe my first exposure was a cheap 2-lp compilation that had Velvet classics on the first record & a spotty selection of solo Lou on the second.

novabrkr said:

Me either but I remember when I first put it in my stereo, I was in a haze. That whole album is just incredible!

prince emancipation*

arrested development zinglmunduni

gangstarr moment of truth

bizzy bone the gift

prince dirty mind

when i was 16, i checked this out on a whim from my local public library, because - hey, it's free, right? and all i knew of bowie was "let's dance" and the big hits. i had no idea of his experimental/electronic music from the late 70s, and when i heard some of the stuff on 'stage', it blew me away and opened up a whole world of music for me. libraries rock.

I spent the years 1995-1999 almost exclusively in the library.

For me it would be

1. Songs In The Key Of Life. - Stevie Wonder

2. Darkside Of the Moon. - Pink Floyd

3. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Paul Desmond

4. Aja - Steely Dan.

Timmy84 said

Everything about TVR spoke to me. So many different elements and emotions in those songs that affected and changed my perception on soo many things.

Other albums:

Whitney Houston - 'Whitney Houston' : I remember begging my dad to bring this album back to me. He was going out of town and I remember that moment like it was yesterday; me repeating the name of this album over and over again to him so that he wouldn't forget (like it would be hard for him to forget a self-titled album ). He delievered. This album made me fall in love with vocalists.

Heather Headley - 'This Is Who I Am' : excellent album that covers soo many areas of my life beautifully.

Lauryn Hill - 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill : awesome album from beginning to end that showed me that sometimes one member of a group can say it all on his/her own.

Aaliyah - 'One In A Million' : phenomenal album with great lyrics, beats, and a singer with such presence that despite not being a powerhouse vocalist could still convey the message of the songs perfectly.

Monica - 'Monica' : She was still a teenager when her debut album came out and she gave you soo much more than what you were expecting from someone soo young. Still an album that I can listen to from beginning to end and not hit the skip button once.

No Doubt - 'Tragic Kingdom' : They came with something different and totally unexpected for me. That whole album is genius IMO.

Prince - 'The Symbol Album' : Another album that my dad bought for me. Everything about this album (well, excluding 'Sexy MF' because I was soo young) made me truly fall in love with Prince and appreciate all his different sides. This album pushed me from just liking Prince to being a hardcore fan of this man. Outstanding album.

Prince - 'The Gold Experience' : another Prince album that covers an array of emotions and sides to Prince. Showed me that an album can have songs that aren't in the same vain. One moment he's praising 'The Most Beautiful Girl In The World' and the next momemt he's saying, ' Hate U'. Emotions are never a one-sided thing and it's evident in this album.

TLC - 'Oooooh On The TLC Tip' : another diversely-themed album. Nothing one-dimensional about this album or group. After hearing this album, I was addicted to TLC. Strong women who didn't put up with any crap from nobody, professionally or privately...RIP Left-Eye

EnVogue - 'Funky Divas' : such an empowering album for me. Showed me what a strong and independent woman should truly be.

These albums are a huge part of the soundtrack to my life. However, I have always been more of a singles person so I have waay more single songs that have altered my life and perception as apposed to a whole album, but that's just me.

Anxiety said:

Anyone who says they can't find any music worth listening really should go and get a library card because the library has every genre, every decade, and every artist you can imagine and all totally for free. There really is no excuse to be musically naive if you have a library in your hometown IMO.

estelle81 said:

when i was in high school, i discovered TONS of great music at the indianapolis public library, much of it stuff i still listen to regularly today. it wouldn't be far off the mark to say that the library was a big influence on what my musical tastes are now.

[Edited 8/17/09 11:58am]

i also might as well just go ahead and say that PURPLE RAIN was another big life-changer. that was the album that delivered me from pre-adolescent bubblegum pop to the world of music snobbery. after listening to that album for the first time, i cared about the quality of music moreso than just the melody or the spectacle of it (though those are still important aspects to me).

Anxiety said:

Not to mention B-Sides! Just think what our music project would have been without them!

Anxiety said:

Yeah I mentioned PURPLE RAIN too but I didn't wanna make it too obvious.

Well if hits collections are included:


(This helped me to discover more music than I thought I knew on the radio)



...will be the ones.

Hey, sorry, but I'm gonna get all Supa on your thread and tell you my life's story about and through music! Man, don't you hate that?


in order. from birth:



Elton John - Greatest Hits vol 1 & 2 ... was probably my most vivid and continuous introduction to music when I was very young.



Muppet Movie and Xanadu soundtracks. My first loves. And they are still loves.




I was OBSESSED with these bitches in 1987 and 1991, respectively. A general obsession with music itself didn't continue on until the later, though.




I was obsessed with Paula until 1992 when the above 2 took over my life for a summer and I realized there was more to life than Paula Abdul... like the 2 people she was cloned from



It's funny because in 1984, we were ALL about Madonna's first album in my neighborhood. But our mothers made us ditch her quick when Like a Virgin came out. Ironic, because 8 years later, it was Erotica that made me figure out that I was gay. It was awhile before I was okay with it.

As for Prince, I knew his hits of course. We were kinda-sorta allowed to listen to 1999 and Purple Rain at the same time as Madonna until some lyrics were overheard by the neighborkid's mom. We didn't even know what they hell he was saying in anything but the big hits, because that's all we cared about. (We were 7). And, you know, what 12 year old wasn't having his first eargasm over Batdance in 1989, especially since it was tied to the cooooolest movie any of us had ever been allowed to see up to that point. Anyway, it was with the Hits/B-Sides that I delved back into him without looking back. He made me gay too. And he made me like music, too, beyond dance pop bitch divas. Though he's probably the dance-pop-bitch-diva-est one of them all

My mother was not really pleased with my re-discovery of Prince and Madonna at the time. She threatened to throw it all away. And I was threatened with death if my 10 year old brother ever heard any of it.





So, then, I was obsessed with Prince, Madonna, Janet, MJ, George Michael and a couple of others through most of the 90's, until like 1998/1999 when I went all weird at 21 and started listening to a bunch of stuff that wasn't pop for the charts. (Yes, I've always been a late music bloomer.) Had quit school, had my heart broken by a straight best friend, etc. Anyway, I've included above probably the most important and the ones that have stuck with me the most. Yeah, I was super-depressed.




1999/2000 started going completely the other direction and getting around to the classics, starting with the above 2.




Fell in love for the first time with these as the soundtrack. 'Nuff said.


Then, I don't know, I was pretty stagnant for most of the decade. I was broke as hell and content and I was into music, but I'd mostly just get obsessed with one artist I was into by that time already or obsessed with a compilation project to work on. Not even sure if I was really into the music at all. It was more of a crutch/distraction, really.

Then last year, and since, I've totally been absorbing all kinds of stuff, new and old. Anything and everything. Too many to even pick any out, but music is back in my life in a big way and I'm devouring everything I can.



So, anyway, looking back on it all those... jeeze, what a fag I am.

Malice Mizer-Memoir
Christian Death-Only Theatre of Pain
Velvet Eden-Street of alice
[Edited 8/17/09 14:43pm]

life hasn't been the same since

My list!

Side 2 of Abbey Road, SOTT

errant said:

very cool. thorough.

hmmm.
A lot of albums either touched me very deeply or changed my life, depending on how you look at it.



First:
Above all, Micheal Jackson's Thriller got me into music. I played Billy Jean and Beat it over and over again. The first copies I had on song where actually on a tape. I basically listened to Rick Dee's weekly top 40 and held my mon-tape recorder up to the radio and recorded it (hoping and praying my mom or sister wouldn't pop into the room and say something thereby interrupting the music. ).



Then I quickly outgrew MJ as I was 12+ years old, horny as all fuck, and needed someone freakier.... ergo, Prince.


When I heard Computer Blue's bridge and guitar solo for the first time leading into the (at that time) shocking Darlin' Nikki , I about lost my damned pubescent mind.

But it was Purple Rain that lead me toward discoveries of more adult or 'intellectual' artists at the time, and also what obviously lead to a series of events that resulted in my meeting some of the most wonderful orgers in the world, in real life and as friend on the phone (Muse, Carrie, Tron, cborgman, sosgemini, Phil/Val, rushing07, and Fauxie to name just a few).
So in some sense one could argue that the album didn't really change my life as it didn't introduce me to any philosophical concepts, nor did it change my world view--but it did lead me down the path of connecting with other souls.

The same could be said for Nine Inch Nails' Broken which get me plenty laid and introduced me to a more diverse group of friends than what I was used to in Alabama.

If there's any album that can be said to change the way I "thought", it would probably be MTV's 120 minutes compilation with XTC's Dear God on it. I had never firmly believed in religion of the western variety. But the lyrics struck such a profound chord in me that it solidified my devotion to atheism . This was also echoed in a country music song my supervisor played by Mary Chapin Carpenter called, "I take My Chances". She's more folk to me than country, but she's billed as a country act . In the song she talks about flipping through channels at night and landing on a channel with a TV evangelist, "I saw a preacher who spoke of the light but there was brimstone in his throat. He said he'd show me the way according to him in return for my personal check." , she then continues, "I take my chances. Yeah, forgiveness doesn't come with a debt.". I won't say she convinced me of anything, but she did speak words to my feelings at the time and her song has become a personal mantra or clarion call of mine at various points in my life.


I'm rediscovering my love of music lately and it's infectious. So , so powerful.

.
[Edited 8/19/09 13:06pm]

Christina Aguilera - Mi Reflejo.
It made me get over Britney That was a huge achievement in my life

Mariah Carey - Charmbracelet.
The first Mariah album I ever bought Her music is a huge part of my life and this is the one it all started with so <3.

Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor.
When I listened to this album my views on music truly changed. I gained a lot more appreciation for musicians and songwriters.

India.Arie - Acoustic Soul.
I could write a long ass essay on how much this album affected me. Songs like Back to the Middle and Always in My Head were very important when I was 15 years old.

Dixie Chicks - Home, Taking the Long Way.
I don't like country music but the Chicks made me forget about that and showed me a whole different world of songwriting and song-crafting. Home is mind-blowing. I think it was at this point where I started to REALLY care about the music.

Prince and the Revolution - Purple Rain.
This album truly changed my LIFE. I first listened to it when I was 14. It changed so many things in terms of how I listened to music. I think what affected me the most were Prince's simple, yet extremely complex lyrics - I don't really know what the fuck I'm trying to say but this album truly was life-changing .nod:

Lady Gaga - The Fame.
This album is basically just about having fun without taking yourself too much seriously. That's what I love about Gaga. She's just having fun. And, of course, she has a big donkey dick <3.

Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor.
It made me gain a LOT of respect for Madonna as an entertainer. You can't listen to this album and not dance a little <3

I wouldn't say they changed my life but they affected me greatly.




[Edited 8/19/09 20:13pm]

Horses By Patti Smith changed everything for me. it threw me for a spin and fucked everything I thought about music. The lyrics in this album just rip me apart everytime.

I'd have to say....



She was my 1st introduction to Prince.

And Prince opened ALOT of eardoors for me to other different genres and artists.

Now you can understand why I owe Mariah so much.