With apologies to those who have seen this before -
I have a pretty broad palate for music, MMA even. "Mixed Musical Arts".
I'll tick off a few names for a couple categories, but the full list would be too huge to write.
Rock/pop - Bands that can play their own instruments. Generally not dance stuff, punk or rap, although there are exceptions. More often, I like particular songs as opposed to bands as a whole.
Alternative/Grunge - More my taste in rock as a rule. I like the musically challenging bands like Soundgarden and System of a Down, Chevelle, Rage against the Machine.
Bluegrass, but not country pop - Charlie Daniels and Nickel Creek rule. Brooks and Dunn can kiss my ass, and they better not meet me in a dark alley singing "My Maria".
Raggae - Pretty much Bob Marley is all I know. Good stuff.
Jazz - Buddy Rich rules. So does John Coltrane, early Miles Davis (not the later crap), Charlie Parker, Dave Brubeck, etc. Smooth Jazz can equally kiss my ass. KennyG is the [censored] Anti-Christ.
Fusion Jazz - Some good stuff there. Bela Fleck is great. Chick Corea, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jean Luc Ponty, Brand X (Phil Collins, mega awesome drummer)....I know, dating myself bad here.
Metal - Metallica, of course. Also Sepultura and Pantera, although their overall repetoires not as good, but a few standout albums.
Classic rock - All the majors: Stones, Who, Zeppelin, ELP, Yes, Traffic, Cream, Hendrix, Genesis, VH (Diamond Dave, not Screamin' Sammy)......so many. REO speedwagon can kiss my ass.
R&B/Soul/Funk - Marvin Gaye rules. "Mercy mercy me" one of my all time favorites. Ray Charles and James Brown, of course. Earth Wind and Fire, Chic and Parliment Funkadelic, although P/F to lesser degree to me personally. Barry White for pure mojo, baby.
World Music - Not so much, but there are exceptions.
Latin - Getz/Gilberto. Awesome stuff.
Classical - Beethoven rules. Piano in general rocks, although Spanish guitar rocks as well. Opera blows for the most part. What the hell are they talking about?! Carmina Burana (sp?) one of the exceptions.
Show tunes - Don't make me slap the [censored] out of you.
All I can think of right now. BTW, John Bonham (Zeppelin) and Phil Collins (Genesis, Brand X) were the drummers who made me start playing.