Music I follow [religiously] (Bolded are the bands that are most significant to me):

From Chicago:

Fall Out Boy
Patrick Stump
Spitalfield
I Fight Dragons
The Academy Is…
The Break
5o4plan
I Could be Your Jack Dawson
Lupe Fiasco
Kanye West
Tom Morello (of RATM)
Cheap Trick
Wax on Radio
Chevelle
Flowers for Dorian
Kill Hannah
Knockout
The Hush Sound
June

…and a host of up-and-coming, faux-pop punk, wannabe-type angsty suburban bands who play in local battles and festivals.

Favorite bands/artists from everywhere (the bolded are, obviously, most important to me):

The Cure
Elvis Costello
Panic! at the Disco
Descendants
Green Day
The Maine
+44
of Montreal
Jimmy Eat World
Rage Against the Machine
Nirvana
The Killers
Queen
Foster the People
The Audition
MGMT
Radiohead
Rush
Sublime
Sublime with Rome
My Chemical Romance
Rammstein
Funeral Party
Fugazi
Iron Maiden
Gorillaz
Dead Kennedys
Misfits
Crunk Witch
Foxy Shazam
They Might be Giants
Muse
Fun.
Cancer Bats
Pennywise
The White Stripes
All that Remains
Manchester Orchestra
The Brobecks
Evanescence
The Pretty Reckless
All Time Low
Freelance Whales
The Wonder Years
MIA
Ian Crawford
Rancid
Disturbed
Operation Ivy
John Lennon
You Say Party
Die Antwoord
Hole
Courtney Love
Red Hot Chili Peppers
New Medicine
We the Kings
Papa Roach
Primus
The Strokes
Pencey Prep
A Rocket to the Moon
This Providence
The Swellers
Jacks Mannequin
Daft Punk
Of Mice and Men
I Set My Friends on Fire
The Sex Pistols
Tenacious D
Morningwood
Weezer
Leathermouth
Finger 11
Destroy Rebulid Until God Shows
Gym Class Heroes
Travie McCoy
Cobra Starship
David Bowie
Cage the Elephant
Judas Priest
Ween
NOFX
System of a Down
The Left Rights
Mindless Self Indulgence
Cash Cash
AC/DC
Zack de la Rocha
Rivers Cuomo
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Say Anything
The Smashing Pumpkins
Brandon Flowers
Violent Soho
All the Day Holiday
Three Days Grace
Boys Like Girls
Innocent Bystanders
Augustana
Katy Perry
Angels and Airwaves
The Doors
Four Year Strong
Foo Fighters
Hedley
Bad Religion
Hinder
3OH!3
The All-American Rejects
Good Charlotte
Illscarlet
Billy Talent
Jawbreaker
Kalan Porter
The Used
Cute is What We Aim For
John Mayer
Jay-Z
The Monroes
Dashboard Confessional
Butch Walker
The Cab
The Ramones
This is Ivy League
Peaches
Black Cards
Michael Jackson
Barely Blind
Blink-182
Paramore

…And I’m forgetting a bunch, so you can presume this is a tentative list.