DJ Luna-C, Kevin Shields (of My Bloody Valentine) and Brian Eno for pursuing exactly the sound they had in their heads, without caring what their audience might think.

Love, specifically their lead singer Arthur Lee, for pouring his heart and soul completely into their music and for creating beautiful string arrangements without having any training as a composer. Also, once again, for following his heart and making the music he wanted to make, rather than what was popular.

R.E.M., because they basically innovated an entire genre in 1983 by pursuing the music they loved and nobody realized it. Plus, the atmosphere is one of the most complex I've heard.

LTJ Bukem, Larry Levan and Masters At Work by being exemplary DJs and by creating some of my favorite music/mixes in their specific genres. Bukem especially was a large stylistic influence on me.

At 5/9/12 09:04 AM, BlazingDragon wrote: John Williams- Sweeping orchestrations, unforgettable melodies, he's a given when it comes to film scoring.

Great choice. I like his scores for Valley of the Dolls, ET, Schindler's List and Star Wars series. Also I think score for Saving Private Ryan is another big beauty exception of simplicity. His music is always flowing well together and I especially love his uses of chord progression (which reminds me of Wagner's music all the time!). There is a part in Schindler's List, WIlliams scored in Tristan chord; so special. Just like Wagner's music, John Williams' music always has designated lead motifs in his scores (I know that JW isn't the only composer uses leitmotiv; but they are very special.)

At 5/11/12 12:01 PM, NorskeDrittsekk wrote:

At 5/9/12 09:04 AM, BlazingDragon wrote: John Williams- Sweeping orchestrations, unforgettable melodies, he's a given when it comes to film scoring.

Great choice. I like his scores for Valley of the Dolls, ET, Schindler's List and Star Wars series. Also I think score for Saving Private Ryan is another big beauty exception of simplicity. His music is always flowing well together and I especially love his uses of chord progression (which reminds me of Wagner's music all the time!). There is a part in Schindler's List, WIlliams scored in Tristan chord; so special. Just like Wagner's music, John Williams' music always has designated lead motifs in his scores (I know that JW isn't the only composer uses leitmotiv; but they are very special.)

Those are all amazing scores. :) While other film composers use leitmotivs, those created by Williams may be the most recognizable. Just about anyone in the United States (and elsewhere even) can hum Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter and the shark music from Jaws. Just as many could at least recognize the themes from Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

One thing that impresses me about Williams is his ability to emulate other composers. Star Wars music often sounds very similar to Gustav Holst and Richard Strauss, for example. Stravinsky, even. At the same time though, JW has a certain signature style of his own with a distinctive way of orchestrating compositions. Inspiring stuff.

Nobuo Uematsu (the high prophet of game music), Goblin, and artists CorpseMonger and Dennis Dread.

At 5/15/12 10:43 AM, Daimoth wrote: Nobuo Uematsu (the high prophet of game music), Goblin, and artists CorpseMonger and Dennis Dread.

Also, Bruno Coulais and Danny Elfman for film stuff.

Gobblemeister

At 4/30/12 10:50 PM, pieandeggs wrote: Doesn't matter the genre. Rock, Hip Hop, EDM, anything. Tell us, NG.

A guy called Blake Robinson

Matt Devine,Chris Owens and My hubby;Can't forget him.
There's other people who inspire me too.
I guess like pauly shore and kristen bell sorta do.
Not sure what goes under inspiration.
Usually it's just images that do it for me.

Definitely Milk Dud. I hope that someday I'll be as good as him.

At 5/11/12 06:16 PM, BlazingDragon wrote:

One thing that impresses me about Williams is his ability to emulate other composers. Star Wars music often sounds very similar to Gustav Holst and Richard Strauss, for example. Stravinsky, even. At the same time though, JW has a certain signature style of his own with a distinctive way of orchestrating compositions. Inspiring stuff.

Actually star wars was originally going to have just a re-recording of Holsts' the Planets instead of an original score. John was just hired to arrange it for the film, but he convinced Lucas to let him write something similar just to see if he liked it, and WAM--star wars music.

I believe he mentions trying to emulate Dvorak most commonly too.

ANYWAYS

How has nobody mentioned Debussy, Schoenberg, or Bartok yet!

I also take some inspiration from Eighth Blackbird. They are a contemporary chamber music ensemble that only plays music by composers that are alive rather then old classics. They do a lot of extended techniques on their instruments and atonality and what not. Sounds weird I know but shit they won 3 grammy's as a chamber ensemble which is pretty impressive. Also each of them individually do clinics, some of which I've gotten to be a part of.

At 5/15/12 05:37 PM, Adam-Beilgard wrote: Gobblemeister

Definitely, this.

Andy Mckee and all off CandyRat Inspire me
And Evil-Dog

El-P.
Paul Thomas Anderson.
Anyone who drops out of school and succeeds later on is an inspiration in my book. If I were in that position, I'd be fucked.

Old skool rave music, pictures, situations, conversations, white noise, shapes, anything bass, food, sex, sleep, love and the sky at night...

Things that don't inspire me are arguments, failure, my country, cats (as much as I love em), shit and gardening!

coldplay, the beatles, daft punk, pink floyd, glenn beck, kanye west

Nightkilla He makes the best techno music.

Krzysztof Komeda, Koji Kondo, Jeff Mills (pretty much anyone part of UR), Ritchie Hawtin, Dubmood, 2 Bad Mice, and of course, Aphex Twin.

Royksopp, Amon Tobin, Squarepusher, Philter aaaaand Ronald Jenkins.

My inspirations, that's hard so I'm going to go in list form like LaForge did.

Psychostick - They taught me I can write a funny song and make it popular so I'll be sitting with friends and just start singing random lyrics along to any song. Like instead of Rock The Casbah I could make Fuck The Hot Chick and have lyrics like "Her boyfriend don't like it, Fucking the hot, fucking the hot chick. You see what I mean?

System Of A Down - Just the way Serj Tankian sings is amazing how he can be singing so high up and then just boom lower his voice down and how they mix Serj and Daron together in songs like B.Y.O.B and Hypnotize is beautiful.

Digital Underground - They had funny songs like Humpty Dance and DoWatchaYouLike that were catchy, a bit inappropriate, and were amazing. I mean the Humpty Dance had great lyrics and that bass in the background. I mean doo er doo er. It was truly amazing.

Sum 41/Blink-182 - I have Blink-182 and Sum 41 on the same because they are both the founders of Pop/Punk I'd say I meant songs like Dammit and Into Deep were catchy with great guitar playing but most importantly it defined the late 90's and early 2000's by catering to Punk and Pop enthusiasts.

NOFX - Their just great how the lyrics reach out and make you want to do something about the world with songs like The Separation Of Church and State and Franc Un-American. But they also showed you can have fun with Cokie the Clown. I'd say one of the best punk bands out there.

I draw a lot of inspiration from old-school video games, especially lyrically. Beyond that, I prefer to record the "less-is-more" style, so artists like Rob Zombie, Samael, Nightwish, etc play in big there. I don't care much for solos incorporating 900 notes in ten seconds - me it's all about the lyrical content. The more metaphor used the better.

However, Les Claypool is what started me on playing bass, and I've been at it for 12 years now. Marco Hietala is also a big inspiration - he's got probably the best bass sound I've ever heard. I don't really have any guitar inspiration, but Emppu (Nightwish), Thomas Youngblood (Kamelot), and John 5 are some guys I'd cite if I had to.

Vocally, I've been likened quite a bit to Jonathan Davis (Korn), Vorph (Samael), and Randy Blythe (Lamb of God), which is just awesome.

So, uh... yeah.

Everybody! Who makes good music. I hear their song and them im like "OMG I WANNA BE LEIK DEM!" And then I do! Later.

9th Wonder.

At 6/6/12 02:33 AM, houzatosis wrote: Dubmood

Finally someone on here has similar favourite as mine! His chiptune is kickass.

At 5/10/12 09:10 PM, MrKittie wrote: For Orchestral Music : Grant Kirkhope (Banjo Kazooie, DOnkey Kong 64, Kingdoms of Amular)
MELODY MELODY FREAKING CATCHY MELODIES!!! I love him soo much!

For electronic music: Renard (Lapfox Trax): Over 1000 songs and they are all great :p He has a great personality too!

Grant Kirkhope? I'd have never thought to look him up! Totally agree with you!

Who inspires me:
Grant Kirkhope (of course)
Beck
Aesthetic Perfection
LMFAO
Skrillex (yeah yeah, whatever)
Tim Haywood (Shadow Man)
David Bergeaud (R&C)
Kärtsy Hatakka (Max Payne)
Norihiko Hibino (MGS Series)
Yasuhiro Kawasaki (Illusion of Gaia for those that remember the good ol' snes days)
Toru Minegishi (Majora's Mask and Wind Waker)
Rob Prince (Doom)

...

And many more I can't seem to recall.

So many talented artists. =]

In my electronic music: Basshunter, DimRain47, Clayface, F-777, and a bunch of other NG artists of the same or similar genre.
In general, my biggest inspirations are Muse and Rush. Rush is actually the band that got me started on playing an instrument other than my voice.

It depends on the what genre of music I'm writing in. I play guitar/write all material for a Prog/groove/thrash band, old thrash metal and violent movies or books are good inspiration for that.

I also write a lot of ambient music, for that video games set in space, and just nature in general inspires that. Also, Burzum's ambient songs help me to get in that state of mind.