I like music that transcends genres.
 
If it's good music I can listen with my eyes closed and feel it's power to suggest a mood and vibe.
 
Everything else is extra stuff.

spacey

Rain
The grunge look was welcome, but, imho, but it's like a pendulum swinging back and forth. Just like we needed something to counterbalance the excess of leather and spikes and glitter and hair spray I feel that the opposite excess (which is just as calculated) is getting old.
 
I don't think it depends on the music you like, not strictly. I love all kinds of music. I was a DJ back in the early-mid 90s and I have very fond memories of the grunge scene exploding - bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden - and even Pearl Jam ( there, I said it). It was great to see people on stage that weren't all made up and apparently were there for the music.
 
But THAT became just as fashionable. Anyone wearing a tuque on stage is as big a poseur as any of the guys in Poison, anyway. 
 
 
I don't think I'm being partial to music I like. I mean this below is one of my favorite bands. As much as they influenced me musically, I don't think there's any piece of clothe I've ever owned which was a result of me trying to emulate their sense of fashion. That's as bad as hipsters. Heck, I wouldn't want to be in the same room as them or even touch them with a 10 ft pole.
 

 

I've never noticed ....if you stand, you're shorter in the mirror but if you're sitting down you're the same height.....and maybe a little taller. Maybe it's from being able to spin around so fast.

 Boy....they sure knew how to dress in those days.

Starise
If I sang  "God Bless America" but I had no interest in America the song itself would still convey a meaning to thousands of people.

Maybe, but I think you'll find that the insincerity still comes through.  The best songs are those where the performer really feels it when they sing - that definitely translates to the audience well!  (And is also why those live performances are kept and raved about for years to come.)
 
Heck, in voice-over training they always tell you to smile more!!!

craigb
.  The best songs are those where the performer really feels it when they sing - that definitely translates to the audience well!  (And is also why those live performances are kept and raved about for years to come.)
 

 
Like THE "live" album, Kiss Alive! 

 
Wait...
 
 
What do you mean "not entirely live"?
 

 
Kiss Alive (I) was one of the greatest bubble gum pop records to come out of the 70's.
 
The target audience was 14 year old boys that had an actual interest in girls.

mike_mccue
 
Kiss Alive (I) was one of the greatest bubble gum pop records to come out of the 70's.
 
The target audience was 14 year old boys that had an actual interest in girls.

HEY!  I resemble that remark!
 
(Another iconic live album back then was the aforementioned Ted Nugent Double Live Gonzo.)

The first time I heard Double Live was at a "kegger" at the beach. Something about Great White Buffalo really caught my ear and I stopped to listen.
 
I still have my LP sized Rock n Roll Over decal stored somewhere. ;-)

Rock n Roll Over was the first rock album I ever had.  From there I was always on the search for HEAVIER rock but, being a slave to the few rock stations there were in San Diego, it wasn't until Van Halen I and Accept's Balls to the Wall came out that I really started finding it.
 
NOW I'm finding there was some other good stuff back then, but the radio stations simply weren't playing it - damn them!

South Florida had some great indie radio stations in the late 70's.
 
Our small town had 3 really fantastic record stores where the folks working were in to every and any thing and anxious to share.
 
 

mike_mccue
 
Kiss Alive (I) was one of the greatest bubble gum pop records to come out of the 70's.
 
The target audience was 14 year old boys that had an actual interest in girls.

I don't know, Mike. Same could be said of pretty much all things pop - except that it's usually marketed for girls. The Beatles would be long since forgotten if not for 12 years old girls who made them famous in the first place.
 
Me, I like KISS. If I want to be philosophically enlightened I'll grab a philosophy book, not a record. If I want poetry, I'll read Baudelaire or Victor Hugo or Rimbaud. If I want my soul to be elevated, I'll listen to Mozart of Bach. But when I listen to popular music, that's not what I'm after. And when popular musicians attempt to hit us w/ knowledge, most of the time, the results are embarrassing at best.
 
So, as one of the few wise men said - shut up and play yer guitar.
 
I'd much rather hear Ace singing Shock Me than some self-conscious turd in a leather suit w/ a messiah complex singing about stuff that's oh so serious.