I appreciate that you don't mind the diversion, Astro! Such detours can sometimes lead us through interesting territory. That's been the case for me in this thread! I've enjoyed all your comments.
Your wide array of musical interest is fantastic. I like a few genres, too. I'm mostly into the pop, jazz, and swing bands and singers from the 1930s thru the 1950s. It might slide a bit into the late '20s or maybe the early '60s, but not much. So, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, etc. Plus, the popular singers like Sinatra, Bennett, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, Jo Stafford, Bing Crosby, etc.
My first musical hero was Elvis Presley. I still remember his death on August 16, 1977. That date has remained seared in my brain. Though I was still a kid, I cried and was quite upset when Elvis passed. Me and millions more, I'd later realize. I watched his movies when they would come on TV and I had a portable tape recorder to record the songs and save the tapes. I even had a
velvet Elvis. Two of them, actually, plus a poster of the same image, along with the posters of Farrah, Lynda Carter, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, etc. Very '70s.
Aside from listening to Elvis when growing up, I'd also hear some occasional classical music and a whole lot of what I'd call classic country -- the old school stuff you mentioned, like George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Charlie Pride, Hank Williams, Charlie Rich, Conway Twitty, etc. That's mostly what I grew up listening to in the '70s and into the early '80s -- a lot of Elvis and classic country..
By the mid-'80s, I was mostly listening to Top 40 stuff -- Prince, Phil Collins, Van Halen, Lionel Richie, George Michael, Madonna, Foreigner, Hall & Oates, Dire Straits, Billy Idol, Mr. Mister, Whitney Houston, Robert Palmer, The Bangles, Heart, Starship, Richard Marx, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, INXS, Rick Astley, Guns N' Roses, the Go-Go's, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant (saw in concert), the B-52s, etc. To me, that was a great decade for music.
During my time in the military, also in the '80s, friends introduced me to the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Satriani, Al Di Meola, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, and Jean-Luc Ponty.
In the early '90s, I got into some of the "Smooth Jazz" artists -- The Rippingtons, Dave Grusin, Spyro Gyra, Grover Washington, Jr., David Sanborn, Kenny G (it's okay, you can laugh), Sade, Candy Dulfer, Dave Koz, Bob James, Earl Klugh, David Lanz, Chris Botti, Yellowjackets, Fourplay, etc.
Around this time, I had some brief exposure to some jazz standards. I had a sampler CD that we played at a home/car audio store where I'd briefly worked and it had Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald performing
Summertime and it blew me away. Both Ella and Louis' voices, Louis' trumpet, and the intimate and delicate strings. I love lush orchestrations with lots of strings. But, it'd be another decade before my love of the standards of the Great American Songbook would take root.
On the "Smooth Jazz" channel, I first heard the weekly syndicated program "Musical Starstreams" that would air on Sunday nights. That lead me into ambient/space/new age/electronica genre. My first (and still one of my favorite) artist I recall hearing was Jonn Serrie. Between the radio programs "Musical Starstreams" and "Hearts of Space," I found Jean-Michel Jarre, Steve Roach, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Michael Stearns, Enya, Yanni, Enigma, Andreas Vollenweider, Suzanne Ciani, Kitarō, and others.
In college, I worked nights in a part-time job that allowed me time to study. I found an office with a small AM/FM radio and I start listening to the local classical station while doing my homework. Over that next year or two, I began appreciating the many different types of classical music -- except organs. I'm also not a big fan of Bach or Beethoven, but I really like Strauss and his waltzes; violinists like Itzhak Perlman and Jascha Heifetz; and the music of Chopin. Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is also great. That's my limited knowledge of classical.
In the early 2000s, I finally got into the classic big bands and crooners, as well a newer artist that was following in their footsteps -- Diana Krall. I picked up several of her albums, over the years, but I mostly stuck with the old school artists. In 2002, I saw Tony Bennett in concert and it was hypnotic. I was spellbound. In 2017, I'd get to see him for my second and final time. I then expanded into a bit of opera and love Pavarotti, though I can't speak a word of Italian. I ended up with a couple of Pavarotti albums that I still play and enjoy.
Over the next few years, I moved into Dixieland/New Orleans jazz -- Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Acker Bilk, Bob Scobey, Jack Teagarden, Jelly Roll Morton, and the wild Louis Prima. I tried to get into newer bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Squirrel Nut Zippers, but I always go back to the originals. One notable exception was The Jim Cullum Jazz Band. Otherwise, I stopped seeking out modern Dixieland/New Orleans jazz bands.
In the last 15 years, I've broadened and deepened my interest in music from '40s and '50s, while adding artists like Michael Bublé, jazz pianist Beegie Adair, Eva Cassidy, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and finding the "mood music" albums by Jackie Gleason and His Orchestra (yep,
that Jackie Gleason) which I find I like a lot. I'm also a big fan of composers Billy May, Neal Hefti, and Nelson Riddle.
Some other genres I kinda like are called by various terms like Space Pop, Lounge, Exotica, and Tiki -- artists like Esquivel, Sid Bass, Russ Garcia, Ron Goodwin, Bobby Christian & His Orchestra, Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Lex Baxter, and others. Artists and music in those genres are hit-and-miss.
To round out this long post, I'm also a fan of other Blues, Jazz, Gypsy, Country, and Rock guitarists like B.B. King (saw in concert), Albert King (my favorite), and Freddie King -- "the three kings of the blues." Plus Eric Clapton, Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt (amazing), Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Les Paul, Tommy Emmanuel, Pink Floyd, and others. And, finally, orchestral scores from films (e.g. Blade Runner, 1492, etc.) and musicals (e.g. The Sound of Music, South Pacific, etc.)
There's likely more, but I'm probably over my word count al
location for the next several months!