(quote) "What kind of music do you *like*, Taleisn? "

Ahhhhh , there's the clue. I was raised on my parents tastes in the orchestral symphonies of the usual suspects, though I would classify the catalogue of albums I grew up listening to as predominantly "Fantasia"-type pieces ( I still get delightful chills from the 1st mysterious chords of Dukas' "Sorceror's Apprentice"); this is to say image-inducing/storytelling pieces. I've always taken a particular shine to Prokofiev as well. Then throw in my discovery of particularly symphonic movie soundtracks ( Thanks to elementary school exposure to film strips images accompanying the playing and storytelling of Tchaikowshy's "Nutcracker Suite" & Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" I've always asociated artistic imagery to this music.)

Then throw in the rise of the predominantly British wave of virtuoso musicians starting with the likes of Cream who introduced more than a little Jazz-fusion with electrified blues, but I'd found the British so-called progresive-rock bands far more classically influenced. Yeah I'm still listening to YES & ELP and such.I credit Kieth Emerson for getting really igniting my love of Aaron Copland's work. I was already fired up by the "West Side Story" Suite before K.Emerson's interpretions.

Throw in the really wonderful new crop of cinematic soundtrack works that *work* as music on their own: a most listened to sampling of soundtracks include James Horner's "Field of Dreams" , Trevor Jones' "The Dark Crystal", Randy Newman's "The Natural", "Shawshank Redemption" & the new "Road to Perdition". along with sci-fi soundtracks from Bernard Hermann's " Journet to the Center of the Earth" to Jerry Goldsmith's "Alien" . More "contemporary" work includes Stewart Copland ( dummer of "The Police") soundtrack to "Rumblefish" as well as what I've always refered to a "Film Noir Jazz" or "Cop Jazz".

So where does folk fit into all of this? Melody ,melody ,melody and *then* unique character of voice. Those that I still listen to ; Joni Mitchel , James Taylor, dose Mamas & dem Papas, Simon & Garfunkel & Crosby,Stills, Nash then Young constitutes folk-Pop to me that endures. Dylan never caught my ear no matter how much I was *told* I was *supposed* to revere his genius by the older brothers & sisters of my school friends. My favorite is still "Tangled up in Blue" though.

Though I've never been inclined to buy or listen to any of their albums I love the filmed concert of the last live perfromance of The Band ( now DVD ) "The Last Waltz".

That's about as concise a capsule as I can manage. Sorry if I've already overdone it. Aren't you glad you asked? ;-)

(quote) "Your taste in bad music is a bit weak--those tunes aren't tasteless enough to be truly bad-- "

Oh i was juts trying to narow the focus for sanity's sake. But if you really want truly bad taste well: Everything Sonny & Cher

There those names should have had the equivalent effect of fingernails doing an concerto across a blackboard. ;-)