On musical tastes

I think it is conventional wisdom that most folks' favorite music is what they listened to during their college years -- regardless of whether they actually attended college during those years. I think that probably is largely correct. When I was in college, I worked for the college radio station, which was a New Wave format, and New Wave remains my favorite music. But I think I may have escaped the buttonhole -- I don't listen to New Wave or punk that much anymore, and I think I have kept more current on music than most people my age. My preferred listening these days is country music, but, at least in part because of Cpl. Wolves, I also listen to a lot of current alternative music. Not all of it is his fault, of course -- I liked OK, Go!, Fallout Boy, The Killers, Muse and My Chemical Romance, The Strokes, The Hives and others before he did, at least in part because I was in a cover band until the early 2000's that had to play current stuff  -- but he did introduce me to stuff like the Arctic Monkeys, The Fratellis, The Black Keys, Adele and others that I otherwise likely would not have heard.

Regardless of how I stayed reasonably current, I think I am a little unusual in doing so. Having said that, I still love New Wave and punk. I was thinking about this as I walked Jeb the Wonder Dog tonight, and a particular song came to mind. Talking over the intro music until the vocals start used to be called "smacking" a song -- I think it is now called something else. Nonetheless, back when I was still in radio, I got challenged by a younger DJ to "smack" a song with a long intro before the lyrics started. The song was "Rock Against Romance" by Holly and the Italians. To this day, it remains among my favorite songs, but it is hard to smack because the intro is 59 seconds long -- yeah, I still remember 30-some years later.

Nonetheless, I still remember that night in the studio when this peckerhead was challenging me to smack "Rock Against Romance" and I did so flawlessly. Fuck, I did the news, the weather and God knows what else in those 59 seconds, but it shut his ass up. And it remains a great song:

Probably the best bass line since "Psycho Killer," and one of the best melody lines -- listen to that lead guitar -- ever. So maybe thy're right about when most people find their favorite music.