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I tend to spend a lot of time with dance music and movie scores, but I do branch out -- sometimes way out. Join me on musical safari...

(Beware -- there's movie soundtrack stuff listed below, and some people might find movies can be spoiled just from the titles on the soundtrack.)

I like jams, where a musical idea is introduced and then played with. You can let jams play in the background of life, just rhythmic motivation, or pay closer attention and appreciate the riffs.

"Two Months Off" by Underworld. (YouTube)
Uplifting dance tune, simple chanting lyrics, 9 minutes long -- good for housecleaning.
You bring light in to a dark place
Walking in light, glowing walking in light
Gold ring around you, the hues of you
The golden sunlight of you
Cool wind following, following after you
Rising for you, your skin beautiful
Everything comes natural, fantastic fan
Rocking, rocking, floating

"Faxing Berlin" by Deadmau5. (YouTube)
Thanks to Black Rose for turning me on to this. Cool progressive house. Is the house clean yet?

Also check out "Brazil" and "Slip" by the same artist. The latter track has a hypnotic syncopation to it. (YouTube) The whole of Random Album Title by Deadmau5 is good dance music, really.

"So What" by Miles Davis. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqNTltOGh5c]YouTube[/url])
Cool is not a new phenomenon. This was recorded in 1959, I think. In a sense, the ancestor of stuff like "Faxing Berlin." If you liked this, check the rest of the Kind of Blue album. Laid-back bebop sweetness.

"Machine Gun" by Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsies. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8azJSrhnJL0]YouTube[/url])
A 12:41 live guitar jam. 1970.

Let's pick up the pace a bit...

"Rising" by Yoshida Brothers. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_CzD0GBD-4]YouTube[/url])
Thanks to Storymaster69 for turning me on to this. Rockin' song, traditional shamisen (Japanese three-stringed guitar). You are not ready.

"When I Grow Up" by The Pussycat Dolls.
([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0K46C82v9o]YouTube[/url])
I picked this up from a Pandora channel I set up to find music for my story Finding Yourself in High School. It's an earworm.

"Tank!" by Seatbelts. aka the Cowboy Bebop opening. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6zDfxZ4NcE]YouTube[/url])
([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X3Kcyv3XLA]Full jam on YouTube[/url])
One of the coolest anime series ever, with one of the coolest soundtracks ever. Can you hear the connection to Miles Davis? Okay, maybe not; I didn't exactly draw the straightest possible line, but believe me, it's there. And this track isn't even the best of it. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8wWa3O9cUo]"Rush"[/url] is. Or maybe [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81m8_5mccgA]"Piano Black"[/url]. Or [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUTMw7rEsDk]"Too Good Too Bad"[/url]. Or-- hell, if you like jazz in the bebop style at all, just listen to the whole soundtrack. And if you don't, well, there's no accounting for taste.

"Genesis" by Justice. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThKNt-GY1ww]YouTube[/url])
I have a thing for dramatic intros to hard-hitting dance music; this is an excellent example. I found this track by way of a cool amateur video short, which alas I can no longer find.
See also [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtHh33_ef4w]"Gotta Have More Cowbell"[/url] by NAPT and [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9paeM6Jf8o]"San Francisco"[/url] by Hustle Athletics/Noisia (a great riff on the theme from "The Streets of San Francisco", which I found by way of this [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDE4bYB6V1o]awesome cowbell clip[/url]) for more badass dance-funk. There's also The Prodigy's "The Way It Is" brilliantly built on the bass hook from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hUFW-krcuc]YouTube[/url]).

"Derezzed" by Daft Punk, from TRON: Legacy. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4cgLL8JaVI]YouTube[/url])
Cool intro to a cinematic dance track. French techno FTW. The video they did for this is cool, and probably truer to the original TRON than the sequel was. In fact, Daft Punk did the whole soundtrack for the sequel....

"Overture" by Daft Punk, from TRON: Legacy. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8OELzmpgZo]YouTube[/url])
Simple and brief, a great dramatic crescendo.
Most of the score to the film (and the soundtrack album) is more like this than like dance music, a fusion of the symphonic and electronic -- right in my wheelhouse. This opening melody is repeated in the track [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7FLCRUI-eQ]"Flynn Lives"[/url] and nicely referenced in the bookend [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7sQ4eWvHl8]"Finale."[/url]

"Freedom Fighters" by Two Steps From Hell. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_BFaiTW9Og]YouTube[/url]) ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0xaCB2nLS0]Star Trek trailer 2[/url])
This is the best movie trailer I've seen in a long time, and it's mostly because it's so well-integrated with the epic music. Still gives me chills. I found the MP3 after a brief search. The Star Trek version is slightly different from the version later released on the album Invincible. The Star Trek version's a little better -- different drums.

"Shooting Star" by Ilan Eshkeri, from Stardust. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AKffYxUxLc]YouTube[/url])
The movie's conceit is set in motion with this track. The best track, appealing to my sense of syncopation and alternate meter, is the villain's theme, [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7IgihAxFTg]"Septimus"[/url] (notice it's in 7/8 time). And then [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37cQBuTEE_8]"The Star Shines."[/url]

"Gabriel" by Lamb. ([url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkdxVBdexws]YouTube[/url])*
Downtempo, uplifting. Touching and moving. Connects with a couple of my older stories.
I can fly but I want his wings
I can shine even in the darkness
But I crave the light that he brings
Revel in the songs that he sings
My angel Gabriel

*This is the only YouTube cut of this song I could find that didn't have distracting images or comments that overloaded or even radically changed the tone of the music. Sorry about the Twilight connection, but at least it's static.

I hope you enjoyed this musical safari.

Last edited by Imagineer (2011-04-14 21:07:00)

There are 2,221 songs on my iPod, and about a hundred more waiting to go on the next time I sync it. There is no genre that I actively dislike, though there are some genres where the number of songs that I like is exceedingly small.

My two favorite groups are The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and ABBA.

The largest portion of songs that I like are some sub-genre of rock, but covering the whole range from soft rock all the way through to death metal. There are quite a few songs from soundtracks, whether traditional musicals such as Guys and Dolls or Wicked, or movie songs like "To Sir With Love". Last, but not least, I am a big fan of both classical and big band.

Here is a list of the very small number of songs that I have awarded 5 stars to (in no particular order):

For Good                             Idina Menzel; Kristin Chenoweth          Wicked
Hands Down                        Dashboard Confessional                    A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar
I Melt With You                    Modern English                                  Pillow Lips
Kiss Me                               Sixpence None the Richer                   Sixpence None the Richer
Ordinary Day                       Vanessa Carlton                                 Be Not Nobody
Right Now                            Van Halen                                          F.U.C.K.
Roses are Red                      Aqua                                                 Aquarium
Snow (Hey Oh)                    Red Hot Chili Peppers                          Stadium Arcadium
Somewhere Only We Know   Keane                                                Hopes and Fears
Symphony #9                      Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra              Beethoven: Symphony #9, "Choral"
Symphony No. 6                   Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra              Beethoven: 9 Symphonien - Symphony No. 5 & No. 6
Tender Is the Night               Jackson Browne                                  Lawyers in Love
That's What Friends Are For   Rod Stewart                                       Encore - The Very Best of Rod Stewart, Vol. 2 (Remastered)
Then He Kissed Me                Crystals
A Thousand Miles                  Vanessa Carlton                                 Be Not Nobody
To Sir, With Love                   Lulu                                                  Movie Music - The Definitive Performances
Where the Wind Blows           The Mick Fleetwood Band                    Something Big
The World I Know                  Collective Soul                                   Collective Soul
The Zephyr Song                   Red Hot Chili Peppers                         By The Way
21st Century                         Red Hot Chili Peppers                         Stadium Arcadium