Public Enemy

Tribe

Eric B. and Rakim

Metallica

Geto Boys

Run DMC

Beastie Boys

Kool Moe Dee

NWA

EPMD

The D.O.C

Too Short

And all the Great 80s

The Doobie Brothers

Supertramp

Styx

ELO

YES

Just as I'm sure @Colonels_Wear_Blue can identify with, I never exactly ever stopped classifying "my music" as only the music of my teen years and/or my high school days, but there's no doubt that music discovery during those years was truly exciting, and while I continued to explore, those years will always represent a special place in my life, and there's nothing like hearing old favorites that feel like they're apart of my DNA as they take me right back home, hit me square in the heart, and trigger so many fun memories of sharing so much great music with so many good friends.

 

Being the youngest of a large family there was never a time the radio wasn't being played in the house with older siblings constantly introducing me to, and turning me on to the joys of music from as far back as I can remember, so tons of music from the late 60's and early 70's were big for me and still are, but the music that I gravitated too in my teen years, say from 13-20, definitely were more specific to my specific taste, for by this time my older siblings had pretty much gone on to live their adult lives, and began putting to rest any much more in the ways of discovery, and even somewhat to the point of scoffing at my musical choices as being immature and sophomoric.

 

Newer music didn't interest them much as they were already beginning to lock themselves into the music of "their day", and moving on to them represented "growing up".....whatever....

 

To this day I pretty much viewed their assessment as being shallow, limited, and shortsighted... and their loss for missing out...but they were certainly entitled to quit paying attention as in no time for them it was much easier to deem it as unimportant rather than play a game of catch up to the few short years that put them into a different state of mind and priorities, and out of the know.

 

I was completely thankful for their influence on me, but as a music lover I failed to see why I would have to stop paying attention at a certain age. Pretty much have always held onto the "Never Grow Up" mentality and spirit of Peter Pan.

 

While rock radio was the place where I was mostly introduced my favs of the day, I thankfully discovered through my next door neighbor, who was in his late teens at the time, that there was a whole world of underground music out there that was just as tasty and interesting. While it was on the edge of the day, most of those bands ended up becoming household names eventually, but at the time were not considered to be mainstream.

 

As one might imagine, my OCD had me suffering a bit too much to limit my list to just 5-10 bands, so just asking for forgiveness in advance for fudging the initial recommended limit.

 

I sorta tried to separate this list to represent different genres as well as discoveries from my early teens, to stuff from my late teens.

 

Of course no sooner than I post this list I'll begin to think about other bands that I failed to mention.

 

Foreigner

Boston

Heart

ELO

The Cars

Rod Stewart

Billy Joes

The Bee Gees

Styx

Kansas

Aerosmith

Steve Miller Band

Fleetwood Mac

Bad Company

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Eagles

Billy Squier

 

Pink Floyd

Yes

Phil Collins

Genesis

Rush

Queen

The Moody Blues

Supertramp

Triumph

Shooting Star

REO Speedwagon

Journey

 

AC/DC

Krokus

Judas Priest

KISS

Black Sabbath

Iron Maiden

Ratt

Metallica

Ozzy Osbourne

Van Halen

Fates Warning

Dio

Queensryche

Crimson Glory

Def Leppard

 

Led Zeppelin

The Who

The Rolling Stones

David Bowie

Neil Young

Ted Nugent

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Molly Hatchet

 

Blondie

U2

The Knack

Joan Jett

Sex Pistols

The Ramones

Angel City

B-52's

Devo

Cheap Trick

The Police

The Clash

Pat Benetar

The Violent Femmes

General Public

The Pretenders

The Boomtown Rats

Echo and the Bunnymen

Gary Numan

Corey Hart

The Cure

The Smiths

INXS

Culture Club

Depeche Mode

Modern English

Yaz

Erasure

Tears for Fears

Eurythmics

The The

Talk Talk

The Fixx

Duran Duran

The Art of Noise

Bronski Beat

Simply Red

Edited June 26, 20188 yr by B-Ball-fan

AC/DC

Iron Maiden

Def Lepperd

Ozzy

Van Halen

 

I obviously was a bit of a headbanger. My taste in college shifted more towards 70’s-early 80’s classic rock.

Ahhh high school music in the ‘80s.... these immediately come to mind:

 

Journey

Madonna

Michael Jackson

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Prince

The Cars

REO Speedwagon

Bryan Adams

John Cougar Mellencamp

Def Leppard

Queensryche

Guns n Roses

Metallica

Megadeth

Skid Row

Cinderella

Scorpions

Great White

King's X

Winger

Tesla

Rush

Testament

Great White

Pearl Jam

Metallica

Faith No More

Rage Against the Machine

Smashing Pumpkins

From Autumn to Ashes

Aerosmith

 

Earth Wind n Fire

 

Eagles

 

Journey

 

Ted Nugent

 

Kiss

 

Styx

Kiss

Aerosmith

Journey

Rolling Stones

Air Supply

Eagles

Cheap Trick

Loverboy

Grass Roots

Ted Nugent

Bee Gees

Styx

(And many more)

Danzig

Suicidal Tendencies

Fugazi / Minor Threat

The Misfits

The Cramps

This is high school, college was different.

 

Three Dog Night

The Guess Who

CCR

The Grass Roots

Beatles

Rolling Stones

ELO

Grand Funk Railroad

ELO

Pink Floyd

Zeppelin

Aerosmith

Charlie Daniels Band

Doobie Brothers

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Eagles

Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Sweet

Blue Oyster Cult

Marshall Tucker Band

Led Zeppelin

Pink Floyd

Aerosmith

Queen

The Who

Rolling Stones

Beatles

Deep Purple

Styx

Robin Trower

The Guess Who

ELO

Eagles

Joe Walsh

Kiss

Ted Nugent

Yes

AC/DC

Black Sabbath

Ozzy

Steve Miller Band

Kansas

Sly and the Family Stone

Three Dog Night

Grand Funk Railroad

Van Halen

Kiss

Queen

Styx

Kansas

Steve Miller

Alice Cooper

ELO

Pink Floyd

Wings

Meatloaf

Michael Stanley band

Springsteen

In addition to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, whom I had loved since middle school or elementary,

 

Guns N' Roses

Motley Crue

Poison

Whitesnake

Cinderella

Tesla