April 24, 2004 by A.S. Van Dorston

I developed it over years and years of subverting the tastes of friends and mates. The key is to take a positive spin on an old favorite of theirs and create a gateway to an expanded musical palate. Aerosmith are a good example. Their first few albums were actually pretty decent — often better than, say, The Stones’ Goats Head Soup, even though the Stones are by far the superior band in general. From there you can go either way. One path leads to MOR radio and Sammy Hagar and Limp Bizkit. The other leads to, um, enlightenment.

So compliment your partner on his/her fine taste in rockin’ Aerosmith classics (be sure to emphasize their better tunes, and what you like about ’em). Then tell some intriguing stories about how they used to gig with Kiss and the New York Dolls, and at one point, they all seemed to have a lot in common. The Dolls’ story was particularly interesting and dramatic (see Please Kill Me and From the Velvets to Voidoids for the dirty details). From the Dolls, you branch concurrently to Bowie, a mutual two-way influence, T. Rex and Roxy Music. You’ve got the McLaren connection to the Sex Pistols (who covered their songs) and punk. You’ve got Johnny Thunders forming the Heartbreakers with Richard Hell of Television, and the gateway into the Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Blondie, Dictators, Dead Boys, Pere Ubu, etc.

All this information and music has to be introduced gradually and insidiously, so as to not overwhelm the non-music geek. People who don’t listen to as much music may not be used to something new. They need a little background and context first, to be warmed up to it. If they aren’t primed for an emotional connection or intellectual curiosity, they’ll just reject it. It’s kind of like introducing finicky cats to new food. Sometimes people who don’t know much music can be more open-minded than someone who’s ‘2-kool-4-skool’ and think they know everything and look down on your tastes who are less flexible. If the person is naturally bright and curious as a cat, they’ll get sucked in to the extent they’re comfortable with it, and at least grow to appreciate much more music, and on their own, decide some of their other CDs are crap and they should no longer damage your pysche/delicate music geek sensibilities by playing them on that twenty hour roadtrip….

Posted in: Rants