Musical influences

I pretty much gravitate toward guitar-orientated music, being a player myself. I've been having an ongoing debate with my dad about our respective top 5 lists in the category of guitar players. My list goes:

1 Jimi Hendrix

2 Carlos Santana

3 Jerry Garcia

4 Trey Anastasio

5 Steve Stevens (Billy Idol guitarist)

Let me clarify: This is my greatest SOLOIST list. There are other categories in which these guys might not even appear. I am not one of those hippie myopes that can't see outside their hippy world. I am not engaging in "name dropping" by including Steve Stevens. I almost put David Gilmour in number 5. But Steve has been a huge influence on me, even though it's not apparent, even to me sometimes. One might argue Gilmour is a better soloist, though.

A glaring omission has been brought to my attention: Eddie Van Halen. This is *my* top 5 list , and he's not on it. He is however on my top 15 list.

As far as other music is concerned, I LOVE Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, and Sade. And Kylie Minogue...maybe it's her butt, I'm still not sure. There really isn't much going on in the male music department that is interesting to me. Punk is a waste of time, Rap isn't music, and hip-hop is WAAAAAAY too self indulgent. R&B *CAN* be interesting. Like Anita Baker and the jazzier stuff. Jazz (like Miles, Coltrane, etc.) is like a bunch of geniuses sitting around trying to NOT make sense. There are snippits that come out of it that are worth exploring, and the general idea of musical freedom is admirable, but, what is it from which you want to be free? Melody? Harmony? Repetition? These are among the fundaments of music without which you are left with chaos.

Punk was a defiant movement away from corporate pop and social norms. Ok, I understand. But then they go and write a bunch of formulaic songs using the same general patterns found in pop. All they got away from was the musicianship.

Rap...yeah...see, there is *NOTHING* musical about it. For the most part, it's ripped off music that some self-important ego-maniac is using to tell everyone how up-and-coming he is. The music is just a back-drop for his/her rantings and bitch-mongering. It ought to be illegal to give these rappers millions of dollars. It certainly is dangerous. A poor idiot is relatively harmless. A rich idiot is a menace. That was absurd, about "it ought to be illegal", I know; They earned the money. But they earned it by appealing to the lowest of human desires. What that says about the mindset of these kids (and adults) that buy all those Rap records is paramount. Is this what we have to look forward to? Future leaders that grew up listening to rap? We already have to listen to P-diddy's political wisdom. Then it will be the idiots who listened to him giving their "wisdom". I'm not saying anything should be done about it. I *AM* a Libertarian, after all. Rap wouldn't survive long if people had their heads out of their respective asses. The only good thing about it is it's beneficial to the working class because we build their mansions, sell them their cars, and clothes, and bling, and other forms of trickle-down economics.

I'm gonna quit now, lest this turn into a commentary on the social decay of western civilization as we know it....