What do you listen for in music?

[Zyclon]

<3 blastbeat drumming, fast and melodic guitar riffing, growling/screaming vocals :up:

[Evasive]

I like nu-metal. That's right all of you dumbass "old school" metal people. If you want to argue, I'll get you a spoon, and you can eat my ass.

[Pearl Jam]

I like everything. It's pretty digusting how varied and random my musical taste is. For example, my playlist:

Blind Guardian - Thorn
Daft Punk - Alive1997
Daft Punk - Musique
D'Angelo - Cruisin'
The Distillers - Die On A Rope
Dimmu Borgir - Eradication Instincts Defined
Dimmu Borgir - Vredesbyrd
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Jeru The Damaja - The Bullshit
King Gheedorah - Take Me To Your Leader
Das EFX - Dedicated ("if the honies say I'm stuck up, I tell them shut the fuck up")
The Mars Volta - Inertriac ESP
Zebrahead - I Am
The Misfits - Hybrid Moments
Soul Hooligan - Algebra
Amon Tobin - Four Ton Mantis
Self - Trunk Fulla Amps

The list continues, but it remains just as weird throughout. I jump from one extreme to another...I prefer it that way, keeps things fresh (and random). As far as "what I look for"...mostly stuff that stands apart. I tend to be drawn towards really different, original stuff. For those of you that have heard that Self song up there...he recorded his entire album with toy instruments and other various off-the-wall non-traditional electronic instruments.

I won't hesitate to like mainstream popular crap at times. It's just too catchy. That's why it's mainstream.

[Zerzera]

If a song goes: A B A' B

[Troll King]

I like to listen to cover songs, especially ones where the performer of the new version can give an interesting take on the original.

Examples of some I like are Counting Crow's cover of the Joni Mitchell classic Big Yellow Taxi, Matchbox 20's cover of Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time, and U. Penn's Off the Beat with their a capella version of the Black Crowe's She Talks to Angels.

Oh, and anything by the Gimmes.

[Jerome Scuggs]

I'll listen to anything if it's good.

This excludes country automatically.

[colony]

Anything but coughing.

I like classical and rap..

[za gophar]

ANYTHING but screaming

i thought u liked the offspring

anyway as for my preferences, it's hard to say. there is no apparent pattern. i dont like it to be too repetitive though, and that's what rap is basically, so rap is a no go. most rap songs have one little do-dah they repeat through the whole song while the dude raps to it.

[Mr. Peanuts]

green day are the best band ever. undisputed.

[Vykromond]

I'll listen to anything if it's good.

This excludes country automatically.

Wrong.

[Stabwound]

As for growling, I think Zyclon <ZH>'s growling is amazing!

:up:

[Jerome Scuggs]

Wrong.

PROVE IT DSFGJHKJKL!

[Jeansi]

"Kitara on lyömäsoitin ja sitä soitetaan täydellä säröllä" -Timo Rautiainen

would translate to something like: The guitar is a percussion instrument (not sure about the word, but one like drums for example) and it is played with full distortion.

Backing guitar > everything else.
Iron Maiden, Sentenced, you name it. Only thing I dislike is that many new metal bands have made the solos into a competition instead of an enhancement of the song. Speed shreads a la Alexi Laiho from Children of Bodom jsut don't sound good any more.
Punk is great too, something like NOFX, cus it's more happy than metal but still melodic and strong.

The greatest songs musically are by Dire Straits though.

I listen to different things in different genres, taking out one part is something that destroys a song though. The big picture is what I listen to, not the individual instruments.

[Jeansi]

As for growling, I think Zyclon <ZH>'s growling is amazing!

Agreed, that shit is the best new band I've heard of for a while, haven't managed to see a CD anywhere yet though. I wish I knew how to do that without getting a sore throat after a song or two. That's what happens to me when I growl in the shower

[PaulOakenfold]

My playlist goes from Mozart/Faure to Twista to The Egyptians to Ill Nino to Radiohead to Sasha/Paul Oakenfold to G Love and Special Sauce to Dashboard Confessionals to The Flaming Lips.

I love anything that's music, Country is fine as long as it isn't too cliched. If the music is respectable and you can tell an artist spent time creating the song and if it has some depth, then I'll buy the album, and that's that.

The music I'm a SUCKER for is anything that has a cheesy melodic anthem.... most songs that use this are cookie cutter Pop industry labels, but hey, I like some of it.