for Hop Hop i’d add, ‘Gasoline - A Journey into Abstract Hip Hop’ which was a big part of my becoming interested in hip hop music in the early 2000’s…
The band Thievery Corporation (Eric Hilton and Rob Graza and their many and multifaceted collaborators). were just unbelievably influential for me as a jumping off point into all kinds of things from 60’s bossa Jazz to dancehall and afrobeat. I’d still count them as one of my key influences, not just musically but artistically in general. Always just perfectly curated and put together albums that really revel in the scene they are drawing from. I’ve discovered about 50% of all the music I currently listen to going down T corp rabbit holes…
Hard to pick a starting point. but the albums Saudade and the temple of I and I probably bookend their style pretty well…
I certainly feel that way about some of my favorite works of art and/or performances. However, the when I was first introduced to VCRs, the question I asked myself is what movie would I like to “own.” My immediate answer was The Magic Flute. Since then I have owned it on videotape, laserdisc, DVD and now, Blu-Ray.
The film was made for television in the 1970s, so we’re not talking state of the art video or audio. What you do get is a great film director using all his skills to bring Mozart to life.
It may be worth checking this recent thread, though it is perhaps coming from a different angle, considering genre prejudice whereas gateway suggests a desire to enter ir at keast try to enter…
As for ‘gateway’ album, I guess it depends on the genres someone is coming from - e.g. best entry to prog rock might depend on whether hitherto a classical music person, or a heavy rock person, or not into either.
There is of course no reason why you should like any of these genres! I find jazz si awful generally that nothing makes me want to explore. That is not saying there can’t be some jazz I might like, just I don’t see the point in trying to find something, and in so doing trying music that just makes me cringe, as there is already more music I do like than I have time in my life to hear enough of.
That said, I can’g help with rap or country, but for opera di you like classical? If yes, dramatic orchestral, and/or melodic but less dramatic orchestral? Do you like live theatre? If yes, tragedy or comedy of both?
Having sampled some of the above suggestions, I think one person’s gateway album may be another’s slammed door! So, here are some albums that I remember as my gateway albums:
Equinoxe by Jean-Michel Jarre got me into early synth instrumental music for a few years
Karajan’s 1963 Eroica on the vinyl copy my father bought as an undergraduate many years earlier started my love of classical music which persists to this day
Run DMC’s Raising Hell showed me rap music could be interesting, intelligent, fun and political. Unfortunately, not many of its successors built convincingly on this (a bit like Mozart’s late operas?)
Star Wars and Superman by John Williams (the whole scores, not just the main themes) showed me how interesting, involving and valuable film music could be, even when divorced from the films they were written for
Kind of Blue was me jazz gateway, perhaps predictably!
Definitely Le Nozze di Figaro for opera. The Solti recording on Decca with Te Kanawa, Popp, Ramey, Allen, Von Stade, etc.
And also the Pavarotti/Freni La Boheme on Decca.
And the Domingo/Cotrubas La Traviata on DG.
It’s hard to pick just a few, but with apologies to Wagner, that might be like jumping into the deep end too soon!! But if I had to pick, I would pick Die Walkure. 1955 Keilberth or Solti.
So much depends on our respective ages I guess. But my jazz gateway was the Ramsey Lewis Trio album “The In Crowd”. It was played variously on the Pop, Jazz and RbB stations. Similarly, I grew up hearing a lot of country music and hated it. Then came Outlaw Country with Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. They in turn influenced music variously called Alt Country or Americana and suddenly I was liking country music.
My gateway to Opera was via film soundtracks, particularly “Viens, Mallika, les liane en fleurs” (from Lakmé, Delibes) from the film “I Heard the Mermaids Singing”. Probably further back I was influenced by the Three Stooges “A Night at the Opera”
Gate way for more music exploration opened up after a separation and divorce from my first wife in the early 90’s. More time on my hands to listen and explore. Went outside the normal rock music that I grew up with in the 60’s and 70’s
Jazz for me was:
Joe Henderson: So Near, So Far and Lush Life
Cassandra Wilson: New Moon Daughter and Blue Light 'Till Dawn
For Country Western:
Alan Jackson: Who I Am and A Lot About Livin’ (And A Little About Love)
Trisha Yearwood: The Song Remembered When and Thinking’ About You
In the last six years or so with streaming and more accessibility to world music different flavors of music from the ECM Catalogue, Internet Radio and of course suggestions from this forum has had me enjoying music from around the globe.
That was like watching Celtic beat Rangers 4-0. Not a complete write-off in the sense I can now take full advantage of the 500 setup at 7am to message the late night partiers at next door’s air bnb. Nor would I be worried about the condition of any vinyl copy I might score as pops, crackles and scratches would be indistinguishable. Thanks for the intro though, not to mention the laugh from using Ms. Cyrus and the DKs in the same sentence.
Thanks for the suggestion. I listened twice, once as background and then again paying attention pre-dinner. I like it and will check out some of his other work. Agree with you that there are many sub-genres of country music, with Chris Stapleton edging more to the pop side of things
You just got me in trouble, was about 7 minutes into the first track when Mary jumped out of the bath and raced downstairs thinking I had a heart attack or stroke and wasn’t responsive to the needle skipping. Will listen on headphones later.
Stanley Clarke
School Days 1974
Used to watch OGWT every Friday night and one night this guy came on and blew me away with his bass playing and that was it hooked on Jazz ever since.
