What is your favorite genre or style of music that you would not categorize as "rock?" What is the niceness of it? Who are some artists/performers you are liking in this genre or style?

I myself have always enjoyed the bossanova. I am not into bossanova, and I know very few bossanova musicians, but I have always enjoyed the sounds of the bossanova. I have just recently discovered the Joao Gilberto.

I also love the Flamenco.

Please, share.

oh, and Bradley: to you, is it Hip-Hop, or is it Rap?

classical, specifically solo piano, or piano+violin duet... favourites are chopin, bartok, and.... gershwin.

I like me some rap and hip-hop. Heiruspecs (sp?) out of St. Paul are pretty cool. Kind of like The Roots or Outkast in that they actually play instruments and don't fall back on samples.

Outlaw Country

I listen to a lot of ambient music as well as electronic music.

Definitely Jazz, tending towards the hard swinging and avant-garde (Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Eric Dolphy, Henry Threadgill, etc.) ; and if you consider "Soul" something different than Rock (the argument could be made that they're the same shit) then Soul, esp. Motown, Stevie Wonder, Sly & the Family Stone, etc.

Musique Concrete.

Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Henry, Pierre Shaeffer, Edgard Varese...

Some other genres and my favorites-

Afro-cuban Jazz (aka Mambo)
"Kenya" - Machito. Christ it's a great album. And those motherfuckers knew how to record sound well. This album is about the best argument I can think of for the "natural" approach to recording music. Van Halen's 1984 could not sound any more crappy and dated, despite being state of the art at the time. This record was recorded nearly 30 years earlier and it sounds vitally energetic today. Right now.

Glitchy electronica
Systemich - Oval. I like to think that this is music that satellites play for one another in deep and lonely outer space.

Ambient drone
"Heresy" - Lustmord. Spooky. Spooooooooookyyyyyy.

One CD-length long super downtuned creeping death doom metal
(and this is actually almost a genre)
"Paso Inferior" - Corrupted. Hey, does anyone else who's familiar with this record think that they hear trumpets in it? I'm almost certain that I do. Anyway, this thing is like 16 bpm or something stupid like that. So great!

"Heroin" House
Pretty much anything on the Basic Channel record label. Great "dkah-tsss dkah-tsss dkah-tsss dkah-tsss dkah-tsss dkah-tsss dkah-tsss " stuff. Lots of echo and repetition, but still very tasteful.

Extra Harsh Electronic noise stuff.
"Killababylongcutz" - Shitmat. I like abrasive rock stuff, like Daughters and Big Black and Agoraphobic Nosebleed (sorta) and Converge. This record is on par with being as violent as any of that stuff but from a totally different approach. Kind of cool, in that it's about as mind destroying as any dada-ist, nihlist euro-noise band but by no means dark.

Rap
"Temples of Boom" - Cypress Hill
This isn't my favorite, but I think it's really overlooked. Although it's kind of cartoonyat times, it's a pretty bleak record overall. Really great side three.
Actually, my favorite rap record is "Nigga Please" by ODB.

Wait, you asked for one and I just gave you seven, huh? Man, I am some kind of Chatty Kathy today.

= Justin

Classical




-Noah

I don't usually think of rock as my favorite genre.

Ambient and electronic music always get jumbled together, but I like em both.

Also hip hop, like wu tang clan, el-p, dizzee rascal, etc.

oh, and Symphonie Pour Un Homme Seul is one of the best musical recordings on the face of the planet. It's nothing short of auralgasmic.