Any band that you like as a sole representative of a genre?

[MirrorMask]

Is there any band that, when it comes to the musical genre or sub-genre they play, they're basically, if not literally the *only* band of that genre you like, still far and away a band that you enjoy way more than the rest of the genre itself?

For me it would have to be none other than Dream Theater. Mind you, I like prog and prog metal, I consider myself a fan of Ayreon and Symphony X, and I don't disdain other bands from the genre, but the complete passion and dedication I have for Dream Theater vastly outweighs all my other appreciation of prog metal combined, kinda like Jupiter is so bigger and massive than basically all the other planets of the solar system combined. I'll never turn down here and there the occasion to listen to some prog / prog metal, but there is no band in the genre that I like as much as Dream Theater.

Anyone else like me, regarding any style or music? a pop artist you follow while you don't enjoy pop at all, a folk metal band you love while usually violins and hurdy gurdies are something you loathe, an extreme metal band that you dig even though you're not into cookie monster vocals...?

[Kotowboy]

Primus.

Also Green Day. Not really "punk" - but I don't like other bands like Rancid, Blink 182, Offspring etc.

[wolfking]

I feel Between the Buried and Me fits here for me.  They are classified progressive metal and whatever, but they have that sort of metalcore, avant-garde type thing that seperates them from pretty much everything else I listen to.  I love melodic death metal, but I feel they are completely different from that style.

[Anguyen92]

Zac Brown Band.

Pretty much the only country band that I like.  There's like 8 guys in the band and they all fill their roles nicely and I really love their vocal harmonies and their lyrical content is not as generic or cliche as what people think country is nowadays.

[Stadler]

Primus.

Also Green Day. Not really "punk" - but I don't like other bands like Rancid, Blink 182, Offspring etc.

If I knew what genre Primus was in, I could probably include them; I don't really like "joke-y" music at all, but there's really no one like them, so...

Green Day is a good call here.   Most of that "sk8tr punk" (my term) is useless to me (though since I love Tom DeLonge's voice, and LOVE Angels and Airwaves, I'm sort of tolerant of Blink 182) and Green Day - and America Idiot especially - is really all there is for me (though I really like some of the U.K. punk, and the New York punk).

Eminem probably belongs here.

Great White from the really poofy hair metal bands from LA.   I like a fair amount that came out of that scene - Jane's, Concrete Blonde - but of the Warrants/Ratts/Poisons/Dokkens, I only really like Great White (I'm not putting Van Halen, Crue or Guns and Roses in that group; they were something different to me.  Guns is still probably the most "dangerous" band I've ever seen). 

[Train of Naught]

Kendrick Lamar for hip-hop

Thought of BTBAM for progmetal but there are too many other progmetal bands I like a lot, even though not as much. But I guess wolfkong makes a good point, if you classify them as metalcore with prog/experimental on the side, I would pick them for metalcore

Also to a lesser extent, GIAA for post rock, its one of my fave genres and I like a lot of bands in the genre, but none nearly as much as them.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Eminem is the first one that comes to mind. I like some hip hop here and there but Eminem is really the only rapper who I would call myself a fan of.

Also, Alice in Chains. I'm not big on grunge aside from a couple of songs by a few artists, but I absolutely love Alice in Chains.

[Tomislav95]

Also, Alice in Chains. I'm not big on grunge aside from a couple of songs by a few artists, but I absolutely love Alice in Chains.

Same. Friend tried to get me into Nirvana, for example. I like a song here and there but overall, I don't feel it at all.

[PixelDream]

Ozric Tentacles, UK instrumental space rock / electronica jam band legends. They have their influences but they're totally unique and basically the only band I like in that genre.

Edit: I saw Dimmu Borgir getting a mention. That's also the only symphonic black metal band I'm into.

[Crow]

whatever genre oceansize is, since they're basically impossible to classify and also really good

[Kotowboy]

I love Metallica but I don't like any other band *like* Metallica. Don't like Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, etc...

I love Mastodon but really don't like bands such as Fu Manchu / Kyuss / sludge bands...

I tend to like bands not genres.

[Prog Snob]

I can't think of a genre that I like only one band from. Even with black metal I like others besides Cradle of Filth - like Dimmu Borgir and Emperor and Darkthrone. In country I like others besides Sara Evans - like Gretchen Wilson and Martina McBride. I'm stumped.

[home]

Kendrick Lamar for hip-hop

Same, I'm a very big fan of his music but I find it hard to really get into any other hip-hop artist


Blind Guardian are the only power metal band I really love. I guess partly because of the prog metal influences but probably mostly because I listened a lot to them in high school 

[Stadler]

I love Metallica but I don't like any other band *like* Metallica. Don't like Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, etc...

I'm with Kotowboy on this one.

I tend to like bands not genres.

This one too.

[SoundscapeMN]

Ozric Tentacles, UK instrumental space rock / electronica jam band legends. They have their influences but they're totally unique and basically the only band I like in that genre.

you're pretty accurate in how there aren't really many if any bands like them, although some say the band Hidria Spacefolk goes into similar territory at times.

[Elite]

hip-hip artist

[Evermind]

hip-hip artist

[home]

 

Oops 

[Kotowboy]

I love Metallica but I don't like any other band *like* Metallica. Don't like Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, etc...

I'm with Kotowboy on this one.

I tend to like bands not genres.

This one too.

[BlobVanDam]

For me it would have to be none other than Dream Theater.

Ditto. Dream Theater are my one anomaly in a genre that I otherwise consider total AIDS.

Can't think of any others. Usually if I like one thing from a genre, chances are I'll manage to find at least something else.

[Adami]

Probably Lady Gaga. Big big fan, but I don't think I listen to anyone else in the pop genre, at least not current pop.

[rumborak]

DT for sure if you look at the prog metal genre. The rest is just terrible for the most part.

[Train of Naught]

I know this is a DT fansite, but I strongly disagree with that. Especially if you look at where the genre is at right this moment. So many amazing progmetal bands, both new ones and longer-existing ones putting out strong new material. I could name at least 20 prog (metal) bands from the ones I occasionally listen to that have outdone DT's more recent output (saying that as a huge ADTOE fan).

[MirrorMask]

I have another anomaly, so to speak, with Emilie Autumn.

There are some songs I really like of her - and I REALLY, REALLY like them.

Those I don't like... I UTTERLY dislike them. Can't even listen in full to them.

She's probably the only situation in which I like a lot some of the songs, but absolutely can't digest the others. There's no other band / singer where such a big liking of some songs does not correnspond at least to a tolerance of the lesser material.

[Stadler]

I know this is a DT fansite, but I strongly disagree with that. Especially if you look at where the genre is at right this moment. So many amazing progmetal bands, both new ones and longer-existing ones putting out strong new material. I could name at least 20 prog (metal) bands from the ones I occasionally listen to that have outdone DT's more recent output (saying that as a huge ADTOE fan).

I'm more with Rumborak on this one, and it almost always has to do with the vocals.   I remember being BLOWN AWAY when I heard Images and Words ("... dark to light, light to dark, dark to light...") and thinking "This is what I've been waiting for:   Steve Perry singing for Rush, circa Hemispheres.".  I come to not be totally enamored by James as a person (we've talked about it already) but his voice is still the top draw for me in DT now that Mike Portnoy is pursuing other options.

[cramx3]

I know this is a DT fansite, but I strongly disagree with that. Especially if you look at where the genre is at right this moment. So many amazing progmetal bands, both new ones and longer-existing ones putting out strong new material. I could name at least 20 prog (metal) bands from the ones I occasionally listen to that have outdone DT's more recent output (saying that as a huge ADTOE fan).

I'm more with Rumborak on this one, and it almost always has to do with the vocals.   I remember being BLOWN AWAY when I heard Images and Words ("... dark to light, light to dark, dark to light...") and thinking "This is what I've been waiting for:   Steve Perry singing for Rush, circa Hemispheres.".  I come to not be totally enamored by James as a person (we've talked about it already) but his voice is still the top draw for me in DT now that Mike Portnoy is pursuing other options.

I would have said DT maybe 10 years ago.  They were the only prog band I really liked.  However, over time I found more modern prog metal bands that I really do enjoy, like Haken, Devin Townsend, Circus Maximus, or more metal bands that over time have included more prog such as Iron Maiden.  It's hard for me, today, to say DT is really that much above the rest out there that I could put them in this catagory.

Maybe Black Eyed Peas, I always kind of liked them yet I really don't care for hip hop or rap.

[rumborak]

The problem with most prog metal is that the band members have spent all their time perfecting their skill on the instrument, but then can't write themselves out of a paper bag. That's what always separated DT from the fray; it was technically excellent AND good songwriting.

[home]

But there are a lot of great musicians in prog who are good songwriters rather than super skilled players, like Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree and Casey Crescenzo/The Dear Hunter

[rumborak]

General prog has some good stuff, yes. My criticism is specifically towards prog metal.

[Elite]

General prog has some good stuff, yes. My criticism is specifically towards prog metal.

 Leprous, Devin Townsend, Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Haken, Seventh Wonder, Symphony X, Ayreon, Redemption, Shadow Gallery, Myrath, Threshold, Soen, Voyager, Tesseract, Meshuggah, Opeth, Cynic, Persefone, Darkwater, Katatonia, Zero Hour, Wolverine, Votum, Textures, Orphaned Land, Obsidian Kingdom etc. etc.

[rumborak]

Quod erat demonstrandum.

[gazinwales]

Katatonia - they don't sound like anyone else, whatever genre they belong too, their the kings.
Moonsorrow - often called heathen metal, a glorious mix of black/death/prog and folk, with Finnish lyrics and a huge epic sound.

[Prog Snob]

General prog has some good stuff, yes. My criticism is specifically towards prog metal.

 Leprous, Devin Townsend, Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Haken, Seventh Wonder, Symphony X, Ayreon, Redemption, Shadow Gallery, Myrath, Threshold, Soen, Voyager, Tesseract, Meshuggah, Opeth, Cynic, Persefone, Darkwater, Katatonia, Zero Hour, Wolverine, Votum, Textures, Orphaned Land, Obsidian Kingdom etc. etc.

Yeah, those bands are just horrible songwriters.    Not to mention so many of them have a unique sound and are not all Dream Theater wannabees.

[Stadler]

General prog has some good stuff, yes. My criticism is specifically towards prog metal.

 Leprous, Devin Townsend, Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Haken, Seventh Wonder, Symphony X, Ayreon, Redemption, Shadow Gallery, Myrath, Threshold, Soen, Voyager, Tesseract, Meshuggah, Opeth, Cynic, Persefone, Darkwater, Katatonia, Zero Hour, Wolverine, Votum, Textures, Orphaned Land, Obsidian Kingdom etc. etc.

As one who sort of seconded the "Dream Theater and prog metal" thing, so what?   I don't actually like any - literally ANY - of those bands.   I respect some of them - Devin, Haken - but the vocals in most are a deal breaker, and some are just weird for the sake of weird.    Dream Theater had a way of walking the line that I really REALLY liked.   I mean, for me, there are very few bands that could have "I Walk Beside You" on the same album as "Octavarium" and not have it sound like a compilation album or a pandering mess.

[SoundscapeMN]

Katatonia - they don't sound like anyone else, whatever genre they belong too, their the kings.

for some reason, people compare Klimt 1918 to them, but I don't follow that comparison all that much. Even Klimt 1918's early/darker period.

I also see the band Novembre compared to Katatonia.