Favorite musicians

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Who is your favorite musician or band? Why are they your favorite? Have you ever seen them in concert?
My favorite musician is Amy Grant. She has been my favorite since I started paying attention to music. She is my favorite because I adore her voice, her songwriting style really appeals to me, and I can relate to many of her songs. I saw her in concert once, At the Chautauqua institution(an artistic community) last summer. My grandmother and I went(It was my birthday present) and we waited for two hours before the gates opened and we got really wonderful seats!! It was the happiest I have ever been!

I really can't pick one, but I'll share some of my favorites and why I like them. Going through my music collection alphabetically...

Azure Ray - Great melodies and lyrics
The Arcade Fire - I haven't heard a song I didn't like yet
Broken Social Scene - Diverse, cool-sounding tunes
The Chemical Brothers - More substance than most people give them credit for
The Dears - A great new band
Death Cab For Cutie - Awesome lyrics, awesome sounds
The Decemberists - See above
Dreamend - Sounds normal at first listen, but gets more interesting with age
Explosions In The Sky - Not afraid to make a ten-minute instrumental
Godspeed You Black Emperor - See above
Jimmy Eat World - Look past the pop and you'll find some brilliant and original songs
Jump, Little Children - Beautiful sounds and thought-provoking lyrics
Louis XIV - Catchy as hell
Mogwai - For when you've just got to be moody
The Polyphonic Spree - For when you've just got to be happy
The Postal Service - I can't say enough about the Postal Service, they just don't have any bad songs
Slint - See Mogwai
The Talking Heads - So many ridiculously good and original songs

Musicians of note:

Frank Zappa - the greatest musical genius to ever draw breath, no question.

Prince - probably the greatest musical genius still drawing breath.

Paul Weller - the guv'nor.... 'nuff said!

Allan Holdsworth - the most technically baffling and awe-inspiring guitarist I've yet to come across.

Steve Vai - the most consistently inventive, amazing and all-round fabulous guitarist ever.

Jimi Hendrix - utterly inspired in so many ways, and so far ahead of his time.

Robert Plant (pre '77 ish) - probably the best voice ever committed to tape (except for mine, anyway.... )

Lennon & McCartney - I'm not the biggest Beatles fan, but their importance is beyond measure.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - well, not really my tasse de thé to be frank, but I'll include him in my list anyway in an obvious and desperate attempt to look a bit more intellectual..... Great film though!

Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, Mushroomhead, Slipknot, Fear Factory, Godsmack, Incubus, Rammestein, Metallica, Sevendust, Soulfly, 2pac, Method Man, Ice Cube/Westside Connection, Eminem, Dr Dre, Biggie Smalls, Ludacris, KRS-one, DMX, Ja Rule, Gang Starr, Jimi Hendrix, Doors, Lenny Kravitz, Kiss, Aerosmith, Beatles, Rolling Stones

I like progressive rock and progressive metal mostly. I noticed ghotistix likes Godspeed You Black Emperor! and Mogwai who I also like. Overall my favorite band is probably Opeth, but I like so many different bands that I really can't say.

A list (in no particular order) of [some of the] bands I like:
Opeth, Amon Düül 2, Hoelderlin, Lucifer's Friend, Pink Floyd, Renaissance, Jethro Tull, Tuatha De Danann, Moonsorrow, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Comus, Blue Phantom, ...
I also like oldies rock such as the Beatles.

Kurt Mcloeud, Seven Nations.

Orchestras: Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Pittsburgh Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, The London Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic, all of the BBC orchestras, The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (aka Sir Neville and his Marriners), the City of Birmingham orchestra, The Berlin Philharmonic, the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Toscannini, The Columbia Symphony Orchestra under Bruno Walter, the Baltimore Symphony under David Zinman, and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Jazz Bands: Benny Goodman, Woody Herman and his Thundering Herd, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson (before he went disco), Louis Armstrong, Quincy Jones, Artie Shaw, the Dorsey Brothers, Harry James, The U. S. Air Force Airmen of Note, The NBC Tonight Show orchestra under "Doc" Severinson

Jazz soloists--Instrumental: Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, Oscar Peterson

Jazz Soloists--Vocal: Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holliday, Mel Torme, Nat King Cole

Classical soloists--instrumental: James Galway, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Leonard Rose, Artur Rubinstein, sviataslav Richter, Vladimir Horowitz, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Claudio Arrau, Katia and Marielle Labecque, Virgil Fox, Pablo Casals, Igor Kipnis, Thurston Dart, E. Power Biggs, Ton Koopman

Classical Soloists--vocal: Renee Fleming, Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Sir Jon Vickers, Beverly Sills, Dame Joan Sutherland, Jussi Bjoerling, Renata Tebaldi, Maria Callas, Natalie Dessay, Bryn Terfel, John McCormick, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Walter Berry, Robert Merrill, John Darrenkamp, Jose Carreras, Dom Diego Flores, Marian Anderson, Alfred Deller, Lucia Popp

Broadway Vocalists: Elaine Stritch, Angela Lansbury, Ethel Merman, Robert Alda, Alan Alda, Jerry Orbach, Len Cariou, Sarah Brightman, Barbara Streisand, Kristen Chenoweth

Conductors: James Levine, Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Slatkin, Andre Previn, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Herbert Von Karajan, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Otto Klemperer, Riccardo Muti, Leopoldo Stokowski, John Phillip Sousa, Edward and Richard Franko Goldman, Leonard B. Smith, William D. Revelli, Sir Georg Solti, sir Richard Bonynge

I love Country/Folk music artists from the Nashville Sound Era such as: Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn, and many others
Ronnee Blakely, Leon Redbone, Mario Lanza, Bobby Horton, Highway 101, Confederate Railroad, Lucinda Williams, Jonny Corndawg, Meade Skelton, etc. I also enjoy the Blind Slye Twins. I have many musical artists in my record collection.

I like jazz, punk, classic rock, alternative, ska, synth pop, dubstep, house, rock, old school rap/hip hop, thrash metal, hardcore punk, doo wop, blues, bluegrass, and orchestral. My overall favorite composers/songwriters are Tchaikovsky, Morrissey, Bob Dylan, Page/Plant, and Peart/Lee.