Don't miss:

Originally I was just going to post a link to this list, but the more I looked at it, the more I wondered just how I got so far out of touch with the music tastes of the rest of the country. Or, put more succinctly, why does everyone else hate music?

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) released their Definitive 200, a list of 'some of history’s most influencial [sic] and popular albums.' Moving past the fact that the entire list is in CAPS, I tried to count how many of the listed albums I either owned or took an interest in. I lost track, not because it was a high number, but because I was overwhelmed by how horrified I was that these were considered influential (popular I got).

I decided to print it out and go through it once and for all. I found that I own exactly FOUR of the albums on the list (34, 36, 78 and 111). Of those, two are jazz albums, which inhabit something of a grey area of my music collection. So that leaves two that are albums I legitimately listen to (Def Leppard's Hysteria and Radiohead's OK Computer).

Following up on an earlier post, I've recently pared my physical CD collection way, way down (more on this in a future post). On this list of 200, I counted six albums that I used to own, but since have removed from my shelves (4, 41, 55, 72, 166 and 173). All but two of them (Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Forrest Gump Soundtrack) are albums I'm not embarrassed to admit to having owned.

There was one album, No. 106 (Beck's Odelay) that I marked as 'would own,' meaning, 'I don't own it now, nor have I, but that doesn't mean I don't like it.' But that's also not to say that I'll own it in the future. None of the albums that I don't already own on this list are CDs that I can't live without.

If I count the all four CDs I own, and add to that the four I just got rid of but will continue to listen to in digital format, that puts me at associating with four percent of this list. But when I think about it, having musical taste that is 96 percent different than the rest of the country does sound about right.

In fact, this list is more of an amalgamation of every email I've ever received from TicketMaster ('Don't miss: Nickelback'), which literally continues to bat .000 in bringing my attention to shows in my area I'd go see even if paid a handsome sum.