Difficult, but probably...

Led Zeppelin
Radiohead
Steely Dan

Genesis (*might easily have gone for Twelfth Night as the prog option, but thats a bit too obscure)
Cowboy Junkies
Lush

Working on the basis that The Beatles are always the mothership from which all things flow, and so are taken as read. In other words, cheating in order to get 4 in.

Beach Boys
Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Led Zep

The Velvet Underground
[70s] David Bowie
Marvin Gaye

10cc [Godley & Creme era] / Godley & Creme
XTC
Squeeze

indelibly imprinted at an early age

Who can resist this kind of thread? Here's mine, for what they are worth:

Miles Davis - variety, cool, perfect timing, understated, leads to obsessive collection of vast quantities of output
Beach Boys - harmony, melody and California sun
Curtis Mayfield - killer voice, underrated guitarist and arranger, soul

as the goo that holds the DNA together? [I've no idea if there is such a goo, but hey]
then I'll have -
1. Bowie
2. Van Morrison
3. Joni Mitchell

[and I realise that this is totally out of order, but 4. Kate Bush]

..so, in that context I give you...

1. The Smiths. As I was at Manchester Uni around the time of the early gladioli phase of thier career, they were "our" band, and damn fine they were too....

2. Radiohead - Indie guitar band morph into quirky indie band morph into unlistenable indie-jazz as my musical taste matured with them. Lost them for a while around Kid A, but got them back...

3. Yello - gorgeous elctronic samples, fantastic atmospheric music, You've Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess....

but here goes...

David Bowie - mainly upto Ziggy era
Stackridge - obvious innit
Genesis - just edging out ELP in the prog charts

Just missing the cut - Spirogyra and their follow-up projects

Bonzos
Sparks
Ian McNabb/Icicle Works

At the risk of inviting ridicule from others, I'll say:

The Beatles (I'm going to abide by the rules properly and put them at #1)
Belle and Sebastian
Tindersticks

Maybe not the most obvious choices, but they're who I listen to the most and if I could only ever listen to three artists, that'd be it.

The Who - saw a live show on TV one Sunday afternoon; probably only ten minutes, but I remember it as hours. I was eleven, and I still haven't gotten over it.

Pink Floyd - discovered as an adolescent - the best time to do so methinks.

Dylan - Took me a while to get past the 'voice of a generation' thing, but once I realised what was he was doing, it seeped into my system and stayed there.

Only three? Bugger.

If you say by this that the artist's oevre takes one's taste across a variety of places, it's got to be:

Frank Zappa - from which my tastes in psych, prog, jazz, modern classical and electronic music derive

Andre Williams - the real soul of dirty r'n b feeding through all the best black popular music and occasional moments of genuine abandonment in Iggy, The Cramps, Jon Spencer, etc.

Todd Rundgren - could be something or anything. You want ZZ Top blues, you got it in his 'Johnson'; you want accapella soul, he's done it too.

...but my - predictable for a 60's child - choices are:

1. The Stones - for all that they introduced me to through their early covers of Chuck Berry and some of the great bluesmen

2. Dylan - he provided the soundtrack of my teenage years and keeps doing it, even today

3. Van Morrison - so many nuggets of pure gold, although too many lumps of s**t. On balance the gold gives him the vote.

Elvis Costello
Alabama 3
Richard Thompson

But then I feel bad about leaving out Ron Sexsmith, Nils Lofgren, Martin Stephenson, Ian McNabb, Jackie Leven, Joni Mitchell, John Martyn,Steely Dan, 10,000 maniacs (and Natalie solo) and many others that could have filled one of these places if I had been asked the question on any other given day.

I'll try to keep it to three assuming The Beatles are taken as read.

Dylan - Especially Bringing it all Back Home,Highway 61 Revisited and Blood on the Tracks.

Led Zeppelin.

Ray Charles - Blues,Soul,R&B,Jazz,Country,Pop,Gospel.Genius.

Steely Dan
Jackson Browne
R.E.M.

AC/DC
Pink Floyd
Radiohead

The Jam
REM
and Cathal Coughlan (solo, Fatima Mansions and/or Microdisney)

The Ramones
Miles Davis
Alice Coltrane

(there is no fourth place, it's just a snapshot idea, I'll walk away from the keyboard now)

My easy two would be:

The Smiths. First band I *really* loved. It was like they wrote the songs just for me.

Sigur Ros. Nothing comes close - beauty, depth and tunes. They bear repeated listening and will always improve my mood.

The last one is probably The Beatles. I just think they are in everyone's musical DNA such is their influence.

70s birth and late 80s/early 90s musical formative years.

Felt: my first obsession, and still love them.
Lloyd Cole: more now than ever
Teenage Fanclub: the best pop group in the history of the world ever. IMHO of course.

Steve Earle
Tom Waits
Lyle Lovett

My record collection is indeed like DNA, containing as it does large areas of junk, often repetitive, that will forever be silent.

However, if we are looking at coding regions and particularly those regions currently being expressed, it would be:

Dylan
Richard Thompson
Michael Marra

As aside where did this business of 'X is in my/our DNA' arise from? It has begun to be vaguely irritating.

but I'll play anyway

The Jam
The Smiths
Del Amitri

Dylan
Beatles

Although I'm loath to exclude Fleetwood Mac, Leonard Cohen and The Byrds.

Prince
Pixies
Eels

...asking for only 8 records for the old desert island, but if pushed :

The Beatles
XTC
Todd Rundgren

...to know the top 3 when the thread runs out of steam, just to see the "typical" massive DNA.

Can't be arsed doing that, of course, but if anyone else fancies it...

I confess I had trouble approaching this one. Which artists "sum me up" largely depends on which mood I'm in.

Happy & Cheerful: The Beatles, Jethro Tull, Wishbone Ash (Argus)

Thoughtful: Beethoven, Miles Davis, Yes

Rebellious: The Rolling Stones, Shostakovich, The Who

Chilling out: Bill Evans, Simon & Garfunkel, Nick Drake

For Pure Pleasure: Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd

Pissed (beer): The Who, Deep Purple, Rory Gallagher

Pissed (Scotch): Yes, Richard Strauss (Four Last Songs), Sarah Vaughan

Hangover: Bach, Nick Drake, The Moody Blues

a little but can see why.

1. Stevie Ray Vaughan
2. Mark Knopfler
3. Prince

Circling all of these in a virtual game of musical chairs to jump in and claim a valid place in that 3 would be:

Richard Thompson
JJ Cale
Marvin Gaye
Squeeze
Nick Lowe
Dr Feelgood
ZZ Top
Crowded House

Costello
Beatles
They Might be Giants

Oh God.

Pink Floyd
Jean Michel Jarre
Half Man Half Biscuit

Reserves:
ELO
The HJH's

Three's just impossible - there's loads else in there too.

Beatles
Pistols
Jam / Paul Weller

Other possibilities for number 3:
The Who
The Clash
Iron Maiden
AC/DC
Status Quo
Slade
Marc Bolan / T.Rex

(The)John Martyn
(Pink)Todd Rundgren
(Floyd)Steely Dan

But here goes

The Beatles
David Bowie
Pink Floyd

But here goes

The Beatles
David Bowie
Pink Floyd

But I would say (for today at least)

Dr Feelgood
Eels
The Decemberists

dylan
led zep
neil young

with steve earle on the subs bench

Matthew Sweet
Teenage Fanclub
Steely Dan

Until I change my mind later on tonight.

it would be

Neil Young
REM
Icicle Works

All wrapped up in a New Jersey Pie

Tomorrow it'll be a different three, maybe.

I'm with Lenny's three....

1. the beatles
2. david sylvian
3. kraftwerk

1.Kevin Coyne
2.Yes - or more specifically Jon Anderson's voice when it's soaring.
3.Liverpool Bands - never really got The Beatles but so many great other ones - especially Wah with the Story Of The Blues but the place just keeps churning out great bands - The Coral's new track is a classic.

...in terms of shaping my taste most decisively, and in no particular order:

1. Guns N' Roses. Cemented my visceral need for very, very loud guitars.
2. A-Ha. The appreciation of perfect pop and electronic sounds came from here.
3. Elgar. Turned me into a musician at the age of 7 by making me obsessed with the cello.

There are so many more, though. It was really hard to get this down to three.

my DNA will mostly contain

The HJHs
The Dame
His Royal Badness

Those that immediately spring to mind are:

AC/DC
Kate Bush
10cc

Creedence,Tha Beatles,Beethoven.Will that do for now?

The Beatles
Iron Maiden
Wilmer X

... totally divorcing myself from what 'I think' is cool and looking deep ...deeeep into my inner being ... to the core of self, the artists that will always be there ...

1.Genesis (early ... Trick of the Tail and earlier)
2. Brian Eno
3. Eels

This week it would be:

Bowie (or Bowie and Eno to strech the rules)
Byrne
Belle and Sebastian.

The Dead
King Crimson (specifically the 72-74 line-up)
Led Zeppelin

Rufus Wainwright

The Magnetic Fields

Pet Shop Boys

HJHs
Dylan
Bowie

Martin Carthy - representing vast swathes of traditional music
Peter Gabriel - for his emotional literacy and wonderful magpie tendencies
Kylie Minogue - 'Cos sometimes you just want to be cool and sexy

Chris

Joni Mitchell
Todd Rundgren
Beach Boys (Surf's Up & Holland)

Nearly made it:
Maria Muldaur
Kate & Anna McGarrigle

Van der Graaf Generator

National Health

Man

Bugger, it's not so easy - I want to include Hatfield & The North, Gong, Pink Floyd, King Crimson....but I'll stick with the Big Three.

All very hip this thread, but I tend to go with the music that was imprinted on my head during the period 10-15 which probably means Slade, Queen and Thin Lizzy - the actual DNA as opposed to the 'in retrospect wish list'

;-)

but don't believe a word ...

Looking at my iTunes, it has to be:
The Clash
Public Enemy
The Go-Betweens
Having said that The Hold Steady, Dylan, Van, John Coltrane, Curtis Mayfield, Miles Davis, Springsteen and Billy Bragg are very close.

The Replacements
Lowell George era Little Feat
NRBQ

DNA comes from my Dad, and what we listened to in the car when he was driving.

Dire Straits - specifically Making Movies
Big Country - dad's from round Dunfermline too.
Bruuuuuuce - Born to Run.

Not sure if it what I turn to the most right now, but they're the first ones that I can remember distinctly.

...but since you asked, and in order...

Bowie
Pink Floyd
Decemberists.

all the usual suspects are just bubbling under...

1. Morrissey (solo stuff and The Smiths)
2. Radiohead
3. The Cure

Ludwig van Beethoven
Frank Zappa
Neil Young

As, for me I'm afraid it's.....
Beatles
Bowie
Abba
(Sorry Smiths and Stone Roses, but I have to be honest for it to count)

... anybody else's top three

John Coltrane
King Tubby
The Kinks

The Beatles
XTC
ELO

I always tend to think that back at home with my Beatles and my Stones most of what's great with pop and rock is covered, predictable and obvious though it may be, it's the truth. I'll add Radiohead as a more recent old faithful. It could have been Neil Young but he's faded in my affections a bit of late, though he may return.

So, to sum up, and in no particular order....

Beatles
Stones
Radiohead

Mike Oldfield
Pink Floyd
Burt Bacharach

To someone famous among friends and family for her Top 50-lists, this is torture...so I might cheat slightly, OK ?

XTC
Bob Dylan
Sly & the Family Stone

And as this is a friendly game, coming in from the bench for the second half of the game are:

Julian Cope
Grace Jones
Bob Marley

The only reason I haven't mentioned Taj Mahal until just now is that I mention him everywhere else around here...I can feel eyes rolling and sighs of "oh not again" coming from the Massive...so I won't say anything about the brilliance of mr Mahal here!

Even though I'm not listening much to any of these at the moment, I'd say that historically my top 3 are, in no particular order -

Richard Thompson
Steeley Dan
Bob Marley

One of those 3 has just been announced for a cruise that I was already booked for. Bonus! www.cayamo.com

I'll give you a clue; it's not Bob Marley

Got to change mine.

1. R.E.M.
2. Guns N' Roses
3. Pixies

I can't believe I didn't include R.E.M. first time round. I stand by the Elgar and the A-Ha in the first attempt, but are they really more imprinted on my soul than this three? Nah.

The Beatles – I’ve loved them since I was about 8 years old and they mean more to me than the rest of music put together….

David Bowie – For me, discovering the Dame’s 70s output coincided with the turn of adulthood, so he’s kind of like the ‘older brother’ version of the Beatles. Life on Mars connected with me in the same way that Strawberry Fields did many years earlier.

OMD – The first album I bought was Architecture and Morality and, while I stopped listening during my cool student years, they’re now firmly part of my DNA and the reason why I ended up falling on the side of bright glamorous modern pop rather than delta blues inspired rock…. Doubters should go and listen to Statues from 1980’s Organisation…

Little Richard
Brian Jones era Stones
Tintern Abbey

Vince, by coincidence I saw the feature on the Camayo cruise this am and it looks fantastic - other musicians appear to include Loudon Wainwright, John Prine and Steve Earle. You must provide a review of it as it seems an annual thing. Unfortunately have already committed to SXSW 2011 with my son but will seriously look at it for the future.

Jerry Garcia
Robyn Hitchcock
Peter Gabriel

Bands
The Grateful Dead
The Soft Boys
Genesis

but if I'm really pushed it will have to be:

T. Rex
The Rolling Stones
The Clash

if was allowed a fourth and fifth choice I would add in;

Wilco
Nada Surf

REM
Belle & Sebastian
The Stone Roses

1. Johnny Hodges
2. Bill Evans
3. Erroll Garner

Mmm... nice.

...automatically your 3 favourite artists but the ones who have shaped your musical tastes.

So under that premise, I would say:-

Paul Weller / The Jam / TSC
New Order
Stevie Wonder or Sly & Family Stone (I've sat here for 5 mins and can't decide and my teas ready!)

dylan
robert johnson
miles davis

Neil Young
Simon Nicol
John Wood

If we're talking TV it would, of course, be Ken Morse.

Sir Bob of Dylan - started with 'Blood on the Tracks' the like of which I had never heard before in terms of its depth and complexity of emotion and expression, and worked back (and forwards) from there

Van the Man - a hero from my city of birth who as others have said can be mediocre in the extreme, but when he's good no-one can touch him - kind of like Wordsworth who also became a rather dull old man but wrote some of the most sublime poetry in the language

Emmylou - many of my favourite artists are singers (unsually female) in the area of country/'Americana', and she was the first and greatest for me

I'm not reknowned for my brevity, but here goes:

Bowie - art rockery

Human League - disco/synth/englishness

Smoky Robinson - motown/soul/singersongwriter

The Clash
David Bowie
The Beatles

and
The Jam
The Smiths

sorry, it's been these 5 since 83, i can't leave any of em out

Has to be

Dylan
The Beatles
Radiohead

Miles Davis
Jimi Hendrix
Igor Stravinski*

*Sorry if this one sounds wanky

The Byrds
Blur
Liz Phair

Van Morrison

Kraftwerk
Serge Gainsbourg

The Beatles.
The Decemberists
Manic Street Preachers.

but whenever in my fantasies I rehearse my Desert Island Discs (just waiting for the call from Kirsty) I must have something in by each of:
The Beatles
Beethoven
Sibelius

Everyone & everything else is up for heated internal debate.

HJH first obviously, no one else comes close.
The Band second, don't think I've seen their name yet, shame on you all..
Third place is where it gets tricky. In my teens my favourites were Led Zeppelin, in my twenties, REM. My thirties were spent obsessing over my own group's music and in the first few years of my forties, Elbow have become my new favourite band.
..so I'll go for The Who, because they were the best live act I've ever seen.

Springsteen

Neil Young

Crowded House

as thse are the only 3 artists I can be arsed to check out their latest recordings in the vain hope they might release something remotely as good as previous recordings. Sadly, the answer is usually in the negative. Still, we live in hope.

Bobby Bland
Stones '68-'73
Joni Mitchell

Wot no Steely D? Wot no Aretha? Wot no LKJ? Wot no Zep? Wot no McAloon? Wot no Massive Attack? Wot no Coltrane(s)? Wot no Bacharach/David? Wot no Stevie Wonder? Wot no Laura Nyro? Wot no Jackson Browne?

Wot no As Usual?

Go figure.

The Jam

David Bowie

Prefab Sprout

Elliott Smith
REM
Radiohead

with nods to Joy Division and The National

All of a type admittedly but if I'm being honest, it has to be:

David Sylvian. Always does well re. mentions on the Word website, but always ignored in the magazine! Does pop get any more gorgeous than this?:

The Blue Nile
Talk Talk

with honorable mentions for Smokey Robinson, Curtis, Joni Mitchell, It's Immaterial, Hall & Oates and anything sung by Tracey Thorn.

Three who sustain me, through thick and thin.

U2
James
Fairport Convention

Pat Metheny (by miles)
Steely Dan
Todd Rundgren

Probably

1) Manuel Göttsching - Kosmische god
2) Lambchop - my doorway to Americana
3) Nick Cave - the darker stuff

The Beatles
David Bowie
Miles Davis

But Dylan is fast closing in since I started getting into him last year!

The Residents
REM
Kraftwerk

Fountains of Wayne covers powerpop
Journey - covers my AOR /Melodic rock bases
Steve Earle for country rock
Marillion covers the prog / anything different section

What, that's four.... oh sorry.........

Beatles
Bowie
Depeche Mode

Three to most accurately sum up the sort of stuff I like most?

Cabaret Voltaire
Kitchens of Distinction
Big Black

Genesis
Steely Dan
XTC

On the principle that your DNA has been passed to you by your parents, and lets mess with it a bit further and add background and nurture, blah blah, into the chemical soup then I have

1. Elvis Presley (my mum's gloriously thick-vinyled copy of Golden Records Volume Two)
2. The Beach Boys (I spent so much time at the local fleapit, which had but one soundtrack for about seven years)
3. Rod Stewart. (being the eldest I did not have the Older Brother Mentor, but I did have a pal who had his own Dansette, and loved Rod, and Elton too, this being the early 70s. When he started with the Eagles though then I knew something was wrong...)

I also have an enduring aversion to The Sound Of Music, which is definitely hard-wired into my musical responses.

I know : the deprivation ! These days the social services would be called.

As for now though, hmm.....

The Beatles
Tamla Motown,

Then one that shaped my environment

David Bowie

(If I'm not allowed Tamla Motown, how about The Funk Brothers?)

Good thread !!

I think mine would have to be

Beatles

The Specials (am I allowed 2 Tone?? )

Led zep.

Bob Dylan
Pink Floyd
and John Coltrane just about gets the nod as jazzman of choice over Charles Mingus/Eric Dolphy/Cannonball Adderley/Miles Davis and oh the armies of others
Which leaves me without a classical musician :(
or an English folkie

tis a cruel game this

Rodney Crowell
Robben Ford
Tim Buckley

Costello
Cohen
Tweedy (sneakily manages to include Wilco & Uncle Tupelo along with solo work)

But there has to be mention of;
Squeeze - to also include Chris Difford's solo work
Billy Bragg
Alabama 3
David Ford
Dylan
Kate Rusby
Richard Thompson
Teenage Fanclub
Kristin Hersh

David Bowie
John Lydon(for turning it upside down)
Grace Jones/Talking heads (for the groove).

Carly Simon
The Beatles
Motown

Will someone please put a simple, uneducated man out of his misery & tell him who is // are HJH

Surely I am not the only one ??

The shame, the shame.

we are taking the DNA to be in the teenage years, then

Tangerine Dream
Kraftwerk
Jean-Michel Jarre

Costello - disgust and amusement - off to get my fix in Birmingham tonight, Oxford on Wednesday and Liverpool next week.

Dylan - all those skipping reels of rhyme

The Hillbilly Shakespeare - Hank Williams - simple language, the soundtrack of heartbreak.

The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison...

Zepp

Floyd

Van

and it's goodnight from me.....!