Tell me about the song, you know… THE song.
The one that changed your life. The one song, more than any other song before it or since, that opened your eyes.
The question of who wrote it is half as important as the question of why it was so transformative for you.
What made that song so seminal? It probably had as much to do with the song as it had to do with where you were and what you were doing at that point of your life.
So what’s the story?
I was in grade school in Brooklyn, NY, bowling with our school’s weekly bowling club. Suddenly I heard sounds that literally stopped me in my tracks. I asked my friend Sean if he knew its name: it was Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force - Planet Rock.
For me it was certainly not the lyrics, but the electro synths and beat that rocked my world. It was instant and unforgettable, and led me directly to learn more about how those crazy noises were made.
Foo Fighters - Best of You.
It was closing day at Mt. Baker and the report said they had a couple inches of new but it turned out to be deep from top to bottom and bluebird!
I’m coming down the Austin cat track and this song comes on from the shuffle and I swear it was like, everything’s sooooo perfect right now!!!
There was no one but locals on the hill and it was so surreal as I’m looking up at the Chute and Hairy Scarey - I can still feel it today.
I haven’t listened to the song since as I doubt I’ll ever experience that again.
There were other songs that had an impact on my life like Donald Glaude playing some classic Junior Boys Own record or John Warwick playing a track I made at the WMC, but there was all kinds of other weird things going on at those times. Plus, my rave days are long over. I imagine those types of experiences are pretty common.
But there’s nothing like snowboarding and listening to music - from the drive to and from the hill, sledding with your friends - those days and those songs stick with you. Changes you if you will, almost.
Wumpscut - Embryodead
Back in the 90s as a teenager with rampaging hormones, I was right into grunge and metal - so much so that I didn’t really consider anything not grunge or metal related to be worth my time. And then I got talking to a girl on the internet that was right into the LA goth/industrial scene (I’m from QLD) who introduced me to her style of music, sent me cassette tapes and whatnot.
The first song on the first cassette was Embryodead. As soon as I heard it, I had a revelation that synth music can easily be just as aggressive as the guitar based music I had been obsessed with. And you didn’t even need to be in a band to make it!
So yeah, that was the crowbar that first expanded my musical horizons and inspired me to start writing my own music.
…fad gadget…collapsing new people…
i was on sicily…13 years…the last holiday i spent with my parents…the summer i started smoking…and all this mainstream yappa dappa dooo music alienated me since quite a while…
and then…THAT track came up…this strange stompin groove, made out of noises…this weird voice, not really singing, not really talking…this hook that did’nt give a shit to be a real chorus…this electronic industrial vibe…
it changed my life…and my whole perception of music…in that moment i became that dark musician that never wrote a happy song until today…
No life revelations from any given song (although I did pass through Manchester in the 1980s), and I’m sure that thousands of other people had the same experience, but this song infected my teenage brain and collected a lot of different musical strands for me.
New Order: “Blue Monday”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftJZomwDhxQ
“How cool is coldness?”
Early 20’s, one of my first rave in an hangar. A night of full energy, delicious techno and groove. Here comes the morning. The early lightjoining us trough the roof windows. Everyone is dancing with a big smile. The dj slow down the music that phase out slowly and suddendly…he plays http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGDOyKPjK1s&feature=youtube_gdata_player.
He took me forever to discover what it was after that 
It represent the emotion trough electronic instruments. The magic.
What about you AdamJay?
There were a few:
First hearing God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols, when I was a prog-rock kid.
Blue Monday playing in clubs in the 80’s
And final transformation, hearing this on the beaches of Goa in 90 at a full moon rave, that one kind of did it!
I was into blues and old jazz stuff until I heard Nine Inch Nails with Burn: (from the Natural Born Killers Soundtrack)
I had never heard NIN, industrial music or anything even remotely similar to this before, but I got completely obsessed with the sound of this track and how to recreate it. I never picked up my harmonica again.
Great Gig in The Sky, Pink Floyd.
Sexy music 
My humblest suggestion is to do that (picking up the harmonica). It might be or become a feeling of things/musical life coming full circle, either instantly or gradually.
That´s like it has been for me. Musically I´ve listened to various genres (in no particular order: hardrock, grunge, rock/pop, big beat, electronica, industrial, even small bits of rap etc). Was teenager in the 90´s, played guitar since then too. When looking in hindsight, I probably wouldn´t have listened to all these genres if they hadn´t come in the order they came. Sort of a natural progression, from multiple angles/paths from different years. Some music genre/bands that I´ve ‘lost’ on the way or even never really got into in the first place. Has been, when re-visiting them and listening again, revealing moments of my progression in my musical taste. Where I realized WHY I liked them or dismissed them.
Pearl Jam has been such an experience. Same with NIN (hated Downward Spiral first time I listened to it, today I love it). De La Soul, which I enjoyed as a young boy/teenager, I lost all interest in rap quite fast. But listening to ‘De La Soul is Dead’ today, I enjoy the beats/sounds so much more than I ever did back then. Chemical Brothers ‘Exit Planet Dust’ has been such an great music to play guitar to (the freedom to improvise over it), but today I realize that I find sounds on the album magnificent that I didn´t care as much of back then.
oh that’s a hard task…
I am not quite sure if this track is THE song which got my attention to electronic music, but i am quite sure it was around that year.
The band is called Yello, i am sure all of you have heard about these two guys.
I met recently one of them (Boris Blank) when i was on dealer visits.
I talked a little bit with him and he was very friendly.
So they are my heros:
Great thread. Not just one, but quite a few (in no particular order):
My first northern soul allnighter
Nightmares on Wax - Stars
The Jam - That’s Entertainment
The Style Council - Headstart for Happiness
Inner City - Big Fun
Curtis Mayfield - Move on up
Daft Punk - Da Funk
Laurent Garnier - The man with the red face
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Dark Star
America - Tin Man
Slam - Painless
The Skatalites - Cuban Blockade
Palm Skin Productions - Getting out of hell
Manuel Göttsching - E2E4
Augustus Pablo - King Tubby meets the rockers uptown
St. Germain - Sure Thing
Hopa & Bones - So sweet
Etienne de Crecy - Relax
Lemon D - I can’t stop
Young-Holt Unlimited - Soulful Strut
Gang Starr - Love sick (upbeat remix)
Main Source - Fakin’ the funk
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth - They reminisce over you
De La Soul - A Rollerskating Jam named Saturdays
Carl Craig - At Les
Move D - Tribute to Mr. Fingers
Roy Ayers - Everybody loves the sunshine
Joy Division - Love will tear us apart
Black Sabbath - War Pigs.
In that weird post school, post teatime snoozy/trancey state.
Put it on My shitty old record player, lay on My bed and levitated upwards then turned round to see Myself grinning from ear to ear.
That changed things.
Slayer - Angel of Death
1st time I was sincerely disconnected from Mainstream Media. Was about 11 at that time and everything after that was baby steps, be it Aphex, Stockhausen, Merzbow or whatever.
Wow it’s a fucking hard question.
I know one thing. I’m in Electronic Music more Techno than Deep or House… probably and this track inspiring me a lot on the process of building a track.
This one change something in my Life because i dedicated it to Electronic Music :
BUT i’m listening a lot of music style, not so much extreme/hard in every style
Tubeway Army - Are Friends Electric?
Then the whole of the Replicas album…I still have my original vinyl copy…I know every single crackle on that record…changed my life completely!
The thing that instantly transported me from SubPop to Acid House
Biggest life-changer for me was getting in to Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On in my late teens, couldn’t pick just one track. Everything about it, structure, rhythm, melody, textures, relevant lyrics, James Jameson’s bass style, and raw soul.
From there, DJ Shadow was key to realising the possibilities of technology/sample based music, suppose I’d pick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcxsheROd3E as the track that hit hard. Although I’m not sure that Endtroducing really stacks up that well these days.
After DJ Shadow got me into sample and technology-based music, it took Moodymann’s Silent Introduction to show a true genius at work, taking samples and making them in to something entirely his own. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik9cExHOazw.
Honourable mentions to Orbital - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXU5Rxc3vBQ from my raving days.
Last up, I don’t think I really understood house music until I spent a couple of weeks obsessing on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFuujExs03A. So simple in certain ways, but complex in others. Genius.