Well, we gotta kill the time somehow, right? So here’s 30 albums, with no boxed sets or main artist repeats that pretty much sums up my musical taste these days. It was damn hard to pick ‘em, too - ya know when Janis Joplin isn’t making my list, it was a hard time killing floor for album picking! I did try not to pick comps or live albums, but made the exception for stuff recorded before 1956 when LPs were becoming prevalent.

I’d love to see your picks. I’m pretty sure mine dates me pretty hard.

Now to try another slice of this nice new recently legal spice cake a friend made me yesterday…

Blues:
Mississippi John Hurt: Avalon Blues (1929 Recordings)
Muddy Waters: His Best 1947-1955
Beth Hart: Immortal
Julian Fauth: Songs of Vice & Sorrow

Classical:
Arthur Rubenstein: Chopin Ballades

Country:
Waylon Jennings: Honky Tonk Heroes
Townes van Zandt: Live at the Old Quarter

Hip Hop:
Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Snoop Dogg: Doggystyle

Jazz:
Billie Holiday: Lady Sings The Blues
Louis Armstrong: Plays WC Handy
John Coltrane: Blue Train

Rock:
Doors: LA Woman
Concrete Blond: Walking in London
Tragically Hip: Up to Here
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Dr. John: Right Place

Rock (alternative):
Tom Waits: Mule Variations
Iggy Pop: Lust for Life
Cure: Disintegration
PJ Harvey: Rid of Me
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Let Love In
Tindersticks: Curtains
Morphine: Cure for Pain
Patti Smith: Gloria

Rock (metal):
Black Sabbath: Paranoid
Motorhead: Ace of Spades

Singer/Songwriter:
Stan Rogers: Fogarty’s Cove
Leonard Cohen: Songs from a Room

~T

EDIT: Turned out I only had 29 up there, so Patti Smith got added.

I will try to use your categories, but I'm not a classical or jazz fan so leaving out them altogether and adding my own Modern Music (post 2010) category. It was very difficult to list only 30.

Blues:
Skip James: Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
Mississippi Fred McDowell: I Do Not Play No Rock and Roll
Mississippi John Hurt: The Immortal
Howlin' Wolf: Moanin' In The Moonlight

Country (also not a big country guy except one artist ):
Johnny Cash: American III Solitary Man
Johnny Cash: American IV The Man Comes Around

Hip Hop:
Public Enemy: Fear of a Black Planet
Beastie Boys: Ill Communication

Modern Music (post 2010):
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour: Out of Frequency
CSS: La Liberacion
The Pack A.D.: Funeral Mixtape
Ladyhawke: Anxiety

Rock:
U2: The Unforgettable Fire
Rolling Stones: Let it Bleed
Dorothy: ROCKISDEAD
The Doors: Waiting for the Sun
Prince: The Dawn (bootleg, but counts!)

Rock (alternative):
The Dead Weather: Horehound
Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Cure: Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
The Smiths: The Queen is Dead
Peter Murphy: Deep
Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!
Sinead O'Connor: The Lion and the Cobra
The Libertines: Libertines
PJ Harvey: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

Rock (metal):
Rammstein: Herzeleid
Ministry: The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste

Singer/Songwriter:
Suzanne Vega: 99.9 F
Peter Doherty: Grace/Wastelands

Jeff, I love all your blues stuff! Bunch of my heroes there.

Country is such a weird genre, but I'm gonna post a couple songs I think you may like from my dudes.





I've got lots of love for your hip hop choices, too. I did get to see the Beasties live once. Fantastic live act.

I don't know any of the modern music bands or DOROTHY. Maybe pick some songs for me to check out? I've been listening to mostly jazz and classical for the last decade or so.

It's hard to pick a PJ Harvey album because they are all so good.

Not bad. I don't mind a little Waylon or Willie here and there. Just not enough to pick a full album. Oh, and I could have listed just 30 pre-war blues artists if I wanted to go there.

Dorothy have two albums out, the first (on my list there) is great.



You're a blues guy...so you really need to check out the Pack A.D. I love almost every song I've heard.



Finally just because I absolutely love them, Asteroids Galaxy Tour. Might not be your thing.

Surprising this didn't take off here. It's the curse of me posting, the threadkiller.

It's a very interesting experiment given the way you worded it, and really freaking hard; since it's representative of your tastes, and not necessarily your 30 favourite albums by your favourite artists. And the number of albums really matter, because i could probably find different representative albums that cover multiple spaces if I needed to. So for example, I could have picked Rainbow's Rising, and subbed it in for both Sabbath and Helloween to free up space, or Neil's Live Rust to pick up both Cohen and Springsteen. But with 30, I could break it down a bit more and be closer to albums I love.

So, using your criteria, here goes:

Classical: N/A (Holst's planets came closest as an "album")

Jazz: N/A (just nothing)

Blues
Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan (considered both Muddy and John Lee, but couldn't find a non-GH album)

Country
Live At San Quentin - Johnny Cash (it's a cheat, but he's a pre-56 artist)

Hip Hop
The Chronic - Dr. Dre (I did consider Nation of Millions, but Rage covers that aspect of Rap for me)

Rock
American Graffiti Original Sound Track (for that 50's sound)
Desolation Blvd - The Sweet (for Glam)
Beauty and the Beat - The Go-Go's (for Surf and Girl Group rock harmony)
Back In Black - AC/DC (for Bar Rock)
IV - Led Zeppelin (for Epic Rock)
First Glance - April Wine (for the bar part of Can Rock and Power Ballads)
Up - Great Big Sea (for Celtic pop rock)
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen (for the BRUUUCCCCCEEEEE!!!)
Delicate Sound of Thunder - Pink Floyd (for Prog, and a cheat, I know; I did consider Rush's Moving Pictures)
Up to Here - The Tragically Hip (for the earnest part of Can Rock; also considered Diamond Mine by Blue Rodeo)

Metal
Ride the Lightning - Metallica (for Thrash)
Live After Death - Iron Maiden (for NWOBHM, and another cheat; Number of the Beast or Piece of Mind also work)
Appetite for Destruction - Guns and Roses (for LA Glam)
Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath (for the beginning)
Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 - Helloween (for Power Metal)
Design Your Universe - Epica (for Symphonic Metal)
Alive - Kiss (for Party Metal)
Welcome to My Nightmare - Alice Cooper (for Goth Metal, and broadway show tunes)
Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood - Volbeat (for Rockabilly Metal)

Alternative / Punk
London Calling - The Clash (for UK Punk and Ska)
Los Angeles - X (for US punk, and female punk vocals)
Out Come the Wolves - Rancid (for 90s SoCal)
Hell Yeah - The Horrorpops (for Psychobilly)
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine (for industrial / agit prop / rap fusion)
Nevermind - Nirvana (for Grunge; also considered L7's Bricks are Heavy)

Singer / Songwriter
Murder Ballads - Nick Cave
The Future - Leonard Cohen (not sure I need both these, but I have room)

Nope, it's just something that need's a couple of days to percolate. And see if the mood changes before posting.

And Dorothy is great; she "struts her breasts" a bit too much, as Chrissie Hynde would say, but i do love me some female bar rock. Caught her a few years back opening for Halestorm and Lita Ford, which was all kinds of a fun night.