So how do you describe your music taste? I've always had problems with that, and with saying what my favourite band is. It depends on things like my mood, but not in a defined "if I'm grumpy it must be x" way. On Orkut I listed several bands as favourites (Marillion, Porcupine Tree, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, Linkin Park, Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan) which probably covers most of the individual bands I like best, but leaves out a couple of genres of music that I like because I don't have a particular band that I'm into - there's nothing Indie there, and there's no 80s either (of the stereotypical Wham/Duran Duran sort of 80s) and no soft rock either (though I do try to keep my Bon Jovi habit to myself ;) ).

In some ways you could say that what I like is "not weird shit" - I like some jazz, but not really the Miles Davis stuff that J buys; I like rock/prog/indie, but not really The Mars Volta; I like female singer-songwriter stuff, but not really Björk; I like classical music, but not really anything modern. But then I'd hesitate to say that what I like is 'mainstream', because, well, there's all that pappy, manufactured-band shit that is the current definition of 'mainstream' and I like music. I used to say I liked stuff I could sing - which catches quite a lot, as to be able to sing along it must have a tune that makes sense (I sing along with non-voice stuff too - quite a lot of Bach and Handel falls into my definition of singable). But I don't think that necessarily conveys the proper image to other people, even though it's mostly true, and anyway it still includes things that I don't really like.