I find these things nearly impossible. Maybe because I'm older than the average stripcreator, but also because my musical tastes change so frequently, my CD collection is a mess of genres and bands. I'm like a musical sponge--once I decide I like an artist, I soak up every CD until I wring it out to soak up another artist.
Middle School/High School Years:
The Who/Pete Townshend (especially Quadrophenia)
Eric Clapton/Cream/Derek & the Dominos
U2
Yes
Peter Gabriel
Violent Femmes
First Half of College:
Talking Heads
Oingo Boingo
R.E.M.
The Cure
The Smiths
Frank Zappa, especially early Mothers of Invention
fIREHOSE
Second Half of College:
Nirvana
Smashing Pumpkins
Pearl Jam
Beat Farmers (what the hell is country-rock doing here?)
David Byrne
John Coltrane
Post College, 93-97
All of the college years' music plus,
Soul Coughing
Green Day
Beastie Boys
Velvet Underground/Lou Reed
Lemonheads
Miles Davis
Early Thirties, 98-01
All of the post-high school music plus,
Jonathan Richman/Modern Lovers
Greyboy Allstars/Karl Denson
Dave Brubeck
Chet Baker
Mike Watt solo
Maceo Parker
Parliament Funkadelic
Stan Getz
Now, 02-04
FC/Kahuna
Chemical Brothers
Dirty Vegas
Underworld
Kinky
Looper
Belle & Sebastian
Boards of Canada
Daft Punk
The Strokes
Beta Band
Amon Tobin
Various Breezeblocks from BBC1 I've found on the net.
...plus most of the post-college music.
So it's been a couple years that I've focused on house/electronic/techno music. I'm anxious to move on again, but don't know what's next.