sunvalleylaw said:
I have my punk leanings definitely, that directly descend from my taste for early 60's (I said early not late) Beatles and Stones, which descended from Chuck Berry and the like, etc. When I developed my own taste for music (mid high school when I went hi-fi) and was really into it, that was one of the main veins I tapped from. . The above of course leads into The Clash, early Elvis Costello, the Ramones, etc., along with a bunch of college rock/alternative that may have been played on Seattle, SF or LA stations back in the 80s and 90s. That vein also has its garage band roots (kinks, etc.) and that broadens things again leading to grunge, ska, reggae, etc.
All of the above is true of me as well. There used to be a great illustration called the "roots of garage rock" or something like that on Little Steven's Underground Garage, but I can't find it any more, that encapsulated of lot of the rock I like.
My main rule or aesthetic is KISS-- "keep it simple, stupid." I like direct stuff. So it can be garage, or Brit Invasion, or some of the less crazy psychedelic stuff, or ska (especially early ska from the 60's), or indie rock or punk rock, old school country (Hank WIlliams, Patsy Cline, etc.), folk, roots or country-rock, so long as the lyrics don't get too pretentious, the songs don't get too long, and the production values don't squeeze the life out of the performance, I'll probably like it.
I can appreciate some jazz, and blues, but in general I wanna be rocked. I will at times listen to classical (mainly baroque and early classical), and world music, and especially like Celtic (even moreso when rocked up a la Pogues, Flogging Molly, etc.).
Things I generally don't like: "dance" music/disco, most rap, anything with "competition guitaring" especially the instrumental stuff (generally totally uninterested in people like Vai, Satriani, Yngwie, EVH, etc.), most modern metal/hard rock/rap rock, hardcore (especially anything with cookie monster vox), most prog, modern pop.