I am a PC fan and I am beginning to feel as I did when I was a University of Michigan fan living in Ohio. PCs (and their users) are ridiculed on commercials, in news stories, by random people on the internet, in some tech blogs, and even from the pulpit.
As a caveat, I have never purchased a Mac product but I was given an iPad by my work and I like it, but it is not without its flaws not the least of which is that its screen is glass and broke this past weekend for unknown reasons leaving shards of glass in my bed.
Anyway, there is a quote, attributed to Mohandas Ghandi, that I am going to paraphrase:
Apple: I like your Products, I do not like your Users. Your Users are so unlike your Products.
What I mean by this is that the products are elegant, graceful, blend into the scenery, make life easier, and are generally unobtrusive and well designed. Mac users are, in my general view, very proud of the fact they own an Apple product and view it not so much as an addendum to their life but as an extension of their personality. This is a gross generalization and I am aware of this but this is what Apple marketing has sold and what their users have, to a certain extent, bought into.
With that said, I have a very good friend who works at the Apple store and he is, bar none, the best ambassador for Apple on the face of the planet. He has never attacked my usage of PCs, he knows that I like a product because it does what I want it to do. He likes Apple for the same reason. What he wants to do, he can do with an Apple product. When I had frustrations with Apple products, he showed me ways to work around the limitations (and yes, there are limitations). I bashed his use of Apple a few times but his grace and love extended to me changed the way I viewed Apple products. He called me out and I respect him for it.
What I'm trying to say is this: If you like Apple, by all means, let people know how awesome the technology is. However, technological awesomeness is not a zero sum game. Technology is about making life easier, taking tasks that used to take months and finishing them in hours. The next time you hear someone bashing something, be it a piece of technology, political stances, sexual proclivities, taste in music, or etc remember: by invalidating the thing that they care about you are, in effect, invalidating a part of them. You will lose their respect and possibly their friendship.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Developer VORP
There's a CIO in the Valley who is making waves around the internet with his article entitiled "Why we don’t hire .NET programmers" The community of software developers is split over this trolling. I see his logic, and here's why.
There is an excellent TED talk about the question of work life balance. In it the presenter makes what I believe to be a valid point: Even the best companies want us to work as much as possible for as little money as possible. A person is an investment, if you invest in someone, you're assuming the equation:
value of work produced > cost of keeping the person
Playing fantasy baseball, this was the only equation I looked at. Is their immediate value, or supposed value to me, worth what I'm "paying" for them with this roster spot. There's even an equation to help teams or fantasy players figure this out.
Now we get to the question at hand: Why is .NET on a resume an indicator that VC firms should not hire this person? Unlike most companies, VC firms need to produce results, fast. They can't rely on grooming developers, training and teaching them how to write good code or solve problems. They need these results as cheap as possible. Where can you get these results? From people who would, and do, write software for free. Basically from people who are just looking for a cool challenge and not a job, per se. VCs looking for people who's VORP is as high as possible. People who will do challenging work for much less than they are worth or for many more hours than they are paid for because it is challenging.
The .NET framework is a market value skill much like strikeouts or home runs are market value skills in baseball. There are enough .NET developers that the bad ones are easy to find and the good ones know what they're worth so they demand a higher salary. People without a market value skill cannot. The price value of a Ruby developer is not defined by the market...yet.
To prove my point, let's look at a very mature technology vs a relatively new one
C# Dev: Average $76,000
http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-c%23+developer
Rails Dev: Average $70,000
http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-rails+developer
One would assume that a Rails developer is worth more than a C# developer; however, this is not the case and the reason why is fairly self explanatory but I'll jump to football for this one. The Patriots have a receiver named Wes Welker. He's fast, pretty solid, but not what you'd call a stereotypical receiver. However, the Patriots went out and got him, figured out his talents and won with him. Now every time you watch a football game they talk about this guy being "like Wes Welker" meaning he fills a role much like Welker did for the Patriots. All of the sudden guys like Welker are demanding much more than they did a few years ago because the industry has recognized their value. The same is true of .NET developers.
So one reason VCs look for non-.NET developers because their skills are unvalued in the larger marketplace. The other reason is that non-.NET developers are more likely to be good.
There are a lot of really crappy .NET developers out there (and I think we can all agree on this). People who have faked their way into a technology scraping by on the skin of their teeth and the skill of their coworkers. Eliminating .NET developers eliminates these developers from the fray. Anything to get you closer to the ideal candidate for a VC: cheap and smart. So I can't fault the guy for wanting to eliminate candidates as fast as possible. If .NET is a culling mechanism, then by all means use it.
On the other side of that coin, there are developers who are willing to work long hours for low(ish) pay simply because they are working on cool stuff. They have no idea what their skills are actually worth. If they did, they would demand $200,000 or more. No VC in their right mind would pay two hundred grand for a developer. Maybe I'm wrong about this. Maybe Expensify pays their developers $150 an hour with time and a half for overtime. But I doubt it, it's a good way to lose money. And why do that when you can find people who don't know how much they should be paid and just want to do cool stuff?
There is an excellent TED talk about the question of work life balance. In it the presenter makes what I believe to be a valid point: Even the best companies want us to work as much as possible for as little money as possible. A person is an investment, if you invest in someone, you're assuming the equation:
value of work produced > cost of keeping the person
Playing fantasy baseball, this was the only equation I looked at. Is their immediate value, or supposed value to me, worth what I'm "paying" for them with this roster spot. There's even an equation to help teams or fantasy players figure this out.
Now we get to the question at hand: Why is .NET on a resume an indicator that VC firms should not hire this person? Unlike most companies, VC firms need to produce results, fast. They can't rely on grooming developers, training and teaching them how to write good code or solve problems. They need these results as cheap as possible. Where can you get these results? From people who would, and do, write software for free. Basically from people who are just looking for a cool challenge and not a job, per se. VCs looking for people who's VORP is as high as possible. People who will do challenging work for much less than they are worth or for many more hours than they are paid for because it is challenging.
The .NET framework is a market value skill much like strikeouts or home runs are market value skills in baseball. There are enough .NET developers that the bad ones are easy to find and the good ones know what they're worth so they demand a higher salary. People without a market value skill cannot. The price value of a Ruby developer is not defined by the market...yet.
To prove my point, let's look at a very mature technology vs a relatively new one
C# Dev: Average $76,000
http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-c%23+developer
Rails Dev: Average $70,000
http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-rails+developer
One would assume that a Rails developer is worth more than a C# developer; however, this is not the case and the reason why is fairly self explanatory but I'll jump to football for this one. The Patriots have a receiver named Wes Welker. He's fast, pretty solid, but not what you'd call a stereotypical receiver. However, the Patriots went out and got him, figured out his talents and won with him. Now every time you watch a football game they talk about this guy being "like Wes Welker" meaning he fills a role much like Welker did for the Patriots. All of the sudden guys like Welker are demanding much more than they did a few years ago because the industry has recognized their value. The same is true of .NET developers.
So one reason VCs look for non-.NET developers because their skills are unvalued in the larger marketplace. The other reason is that non-.NET developers are more likely to be good.
There are a lot of really crappy .NET developers out there (and I think we can all agree on this). People who have faked their way into a technology scraping by on the skin of their teeth and the skill of their coworkers. Eliminating .NET developers eliminates these developers from the fray. Anything to get you closer to the ideal candidate for a VC: cheap and smart. So I can't fault the guy for wanting to eliminate candidates as fast as possible. If .NET is a culling mechanism, then by all means use it.
On the other side of that coin, there are developers who are willing to work long hours for low(ish) pay simply because they are working on cool stuff. They have no idea what their skills are actually worth. If they did, they would demand $200,000 or more. No VC in their right mind would pay two hundred grand for a developer. Maybe I'm wrong about this. Maybe Expensify pays their developers $150 an hour with time and a half for overtime. But I doubt it, it's a good way to lose money. And why do that when you can find people who don't know how much they should be paid and just want to do cool stuff?
Sunday, August 29, 2010
For Raeschell, Who Helped
I was raised by English
My mother tongue was not so much
The language of my culture as it was
The aroma of the kitchen
My mom was not a chef
But she threw Wordsworth and WC Williams in a pot
And boiled them until only ee was left
My dad could not cook
But he layered Kant and ML King in a bowl
And mixed until Bonhoeffer emerged
I had Zora Neale for breakfast and Merton for lunch
Dinner was a solemn affair, Thomas and Kafka
But if I finished, I was allowed some Lewis from the fridge
With a sprinkle of Tolkien for good measure
It has been many years since then
Now my parents are old and tell me to be sure and get my Dostoevskies
But it is I who now feed them
And make sure they put down Roberts and take their Cornell before bed
Someday my children's children will ask what my parents were like
And I will read them Seuss
But the Lorax will never taste as good
As when my mom made it
My mother tongue was not so much
The language of my culture as it was
The aroma of the kitchen
My mom was not a chef
But she threw Wordsworth and WC Williams in a pot
And boiled them until only ee was left
My dad could not cook
But he layered Kant and ML King in a bowl
And mixed until Bonhoeffer emerged
I had Zora Neale for breakfast and Merton for lunch
Dinner was a solemn affair, Thomas and Kafka
But if I finished, I was allowed some Lewis from the fridge
With a sprinkle of Tolkien for good measure
It has been many years since then
Now my parents are old and tell me to be sure and get my Dostoevskies
But it is I who now feed them
And make sure they put down Roberts and take their Cornell before bed
Someday my children's children will ask what my parents were like
And I will read them Seuss
But the Lorax will never taste as good
As when my mom made it
Thursday, June 10, 2010
From Wayne Watson To Wu-Tang Clan
Music is a central part of my life and here is my history with music:
0-6 years old: I mostly listened to what my parents played with few exceptions. I knew of the Beach Boys and a few other bands of the 1960s but mostly listened to crappy Christian music. My favorite song was “One Day Jesus” by Wayne Watson which I believe started (or awoke) the part of me that still loves repetition building into a crescendo and simplicity flowing into complexity and vice versa.
Favorite song: One Day Jesus – Wayne Watson
6-8 years old: This is when I discovered (or was shown) classic rock. Listening to the radio with my dad, I used to play “name that tune” and do fairly well on late 60’s to late 70’s rock. This is the last phase when I mainly listened to what my parents listened to, with few exceptions. I got my first CD around this time (Credence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicle).
Favorite Song: Down On The Corner – Credence Clearwater Revival
9-11 years old: This was my introduction to pop music and hip hop by my friends. I still loved classic rock, but I began to listen to the radio a lot more. I don’t remember my favorite stations in New York, but I know I listened to the hip-hop station, the classic rock one, and the pop music one almost equally. This reliance on radio would be my downfall when we left NYC.
Favorite Song: Slam – Onyx
12-13 years old: I call these the dark ages. I moved to Mount Vernon which had no hip-hop station and my friends only liked pop music. I don’t even like to admit what I listened to, but it made me who I am today. I think all of us around 7th grade listen to just plain crappy music. Or at least that’s what I like to tell myself.
Favorite Song: We’re Havin’ A Party – Rod Stewart
14 years old: This is when I started to listen to awesome music. I began to listen to my cool friends as to what radio station to listen to. Cool friends meaning friends who I still consider cool today, not the kids who considered themselves cool. One friend in particular, Nick Savoia, gave me a CD that was to be the crux of my reading and would influence my life in profound ways and make me the man I am today: Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled album. It was like flipping a switch. I had gradually been exposed to more hard rock but I consider the day in industrial tech when Jimmy Epley and I created a radio station and played Rage Against the Machine for the first time, a turning point in my life. I was fully on my own and listening to some of the best music I had ever gotten my hands on. Whereas NYC had exposed me to hip-hop and rap on a surface level, I was now listening to the most socially conscious lyrics I had ever heard. I devoured Rage, NWA, Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan, and The Beastie Boys. These were all groups I had listened to before, but now I was listening to what they were saying. My musical horizons were expanded by alternative rock which had eluded me up until now. I became a communist and attempted to read every book that was on the RATM recommended reading list (which, I’m pretty sure, put me on the watch list with the Public Library).
Favorite Song: Know Your Enemy – Rage Against The Machine
15 years old: Rage Against The Machine’s new album (Evil Empire) came into my possession and I was further inundated with communism. I had effectively abandoned Christianity in most of its forms due to its apparent lack of social consciousness. Wrestling in high school was a new challenge as some of the seniors liked to listen to Garth Brooks at practice. This would start a brief, and yet torrid, love affair with country music a few years later. For now, I was beginning to listen to music in two realms: to pump myself up and to think. Rage was still at the thinking forefront, and would remain so for a few more years; however, I discovered what I like to call “work out rock” even though my dad hated it which was necessary to get through wrestling practice.
Favorite Song: Thunderstruck – AC/DC
16 years old: I had discussed my faith with my girlfriend and started going back to church with more intentionality. The result of this was listening to DC Talk’s Jesus Freak over and over and also going back through my other music looking for Christian themes in order to see if Christianity was actually socially conscious. This led to a few logical leaps, including believing that Metallica’s “The God That Failed” was a Christian song. Needless to say I was at a crossroads yet again. I had realized that my faith was integral to my existence yet I could not reconcile it with my beliefs in social justice. Rage Against The Machine put out a new album and I got my hands on it. After Evil Empire, I was pretty much sure it couldn’t get better. I was wrong. The Battle of Los Angeles took work out rock to the nth degree and was responsible for my constructive anger during wrestling season.
Favorite Song: War Within A Breath - Rage Against The Machine
17 years old: My girlfriend and I broke up and my faith was there to back me up. It was not a pretty breakup and a song that I had always loved gained new meaning as I attempted to get over my first real heartbreak. “Amazing Grace” was a beautiful reminder of all that was good. There was much sadness and much joy in this time. I discovered Christian hip-hop including John Reuben and the Ill Harmonics, two white groups that talked about the difficulties of being a punk kid from the suburbs (country in my case) who care about cities and the issues of social justice while being seen as an outsider. As I continued to delve deeper into Christian hip-hop I found that the same things I had heard in Grandmaster Flash and Rage Against The Machine were being talked about in a redemptive manner as opposed to a defeatist or angry. This was counter intuitive to me and would take me a few years to fully reconcile (about 7 years, actually) Christianity and social justice.
Favorite Song: Amazing Grace – Mahalia Jackson (the best rendition ever)
18 years old: After the musical rollercoaster that was my 17th year, my 18th year was all about fun. I fully embraced my status as a hick and listened to country for the first time without cringing. The year was all about hope, hope for college, hope in the new relationship I had, and a burgeoning friendship with a kid that I would walk with down the path of Christianity. I also to a lot of Country oldies (Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller, Johnny Cash, etc) and this was just a happy year in general.
Favorite Song: It’s A Great Day To Be Alive – Travis Tritt
19 years old: My freshman year of college started off isolated and listening to some DMX and german folk music (the latter not by choice.) One day, I was walking down the hall and I heard an awesome song. I asked the kid what it was and he replied “O.A.R.” a band that I loved then and still brings me happy feelings. After the first quarter, life got a bit better and I started talking to a friend (now my wife) and sending lyrics back and forth. OAR featured prominently in these lyrics as did some of the old classic rock standards. I also had full access to file sharing and started a music collection that would continue to grow until I left college. My neighbor introduced me to some of the more current hip hop including UGK, Styles, Big Tymers, and Jurassic 5. This was also the year of the Travis’s: Randy Travis and Travis Tritt. This was to be the last year of country.
Favorite Song: Ran Away To The Top Of The World Today – O.A.R.
20 years old: I was officially dating my wife and the sappiness of my favorite song this year is a direct indicator of how our relationship was going. I didn’t discover much new music as most of my time was spent with my girlfriend or driving back and forth between school and home to see her. I joined a Christian service fraternity and they introduced me to Christian hard rock like Pillar and TFK which, for Christian music, wasn’t half bad. But my girlfriend and expanding my collection of music kept me listening to older music as opposed to discovering new bands on my own.
Favorite Song: Heaven - DJ Sammy
21 years old: This was a year of what I like to call “back fill.” There were a lot of bands that I liked who were classic rock artists, but it was mostly limited to Zeppelin, The Who, Rolling Stones, and the other giants of classic rock. This was the year that I discovered the roots and the fringes of rock: The Kinks, The Clash, MC5, The Ramones, Captain Beefheart, and The Velvet Underground come to mind. There were a lot of “oh, so that’s who sings that song” moments. I also started getting into jazz with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and, my personal favorite, Thelonious Monk. My friends were also exposing me to more indie music with Guster, The Clarks, Jeff Buckley, Sonic Youth, Sufjan Stevens, and the Pixies.
Favorite Song: Oh Sweet Nuthin - The Velvet Underground
22 years old: This was a year of expanding artists and genres I was already very familiar with (Talib Kweli, Grits, KJ-52, Silverchair, and Blues Traveller) and learning the 1950’s-60’s pop rock and 1980’s pop. These two areas were the strong suit of my girlfriend and the weakest section of my knowledge. I despised, and still despise, most 80’s pop; however, bubble gum rock was perfect for my senior year especially as I drove back and forth to and from my girlfriend.
Favorite Song: 25 Miles - Edwin Starr
23 years old: We moved to Chicago and most of my musical genres had been filled in. I got a phone that could play music and was my MP3 player. From that point until now, I have just filled in some fringe bands (Buckethead, Flobots, etc) as people let me know about them. Here are the favorite songs by year for me:
23: What Angry Blue? - Seven Mary Three
24: Add It Up - Violent Femmes
25: What I’ve Done – Linkin Park
26: Sound the Horns - Wu Tang Clan and Lateralus – Tool
Favorite Songs Recap:
One Day Jesus – Wayne Watson
Down On The Corner – Credence Clearwater Revival
Slam – Onyx
We’re Havin’ A Party – Rod Stewart
Know Your Enemy – Rage Against The Machine
Thunderstruck – AC/DC
War Within A Breath - Rage Against The Machine
Amazing Grace – Mahalia Jackson (the best rendition ever)
It’s A Great Day To Be Alive – Travis Tritt
Ran Away To The Top Of The World Today – O.A.R.
Heaven - DJ Sammy
Oh Sweet Nuthin - The Velvet Underground
25 Miles - Edwin Starr
What Angry Blue? - Seven Mary Three
Add It Up - Violent Femmes
What I’ve Done – Linkin Park
Sound the Horns - Wu Tang Clan
Lateralus – Tool
0-6 years old: I mostly listened to what my parents played with few exceptions. I knew of the Beach Boys and a few other bands of the 1960s but mostly listened to crappy Christian music. My favorite song was “One Day Jesus” by Wayne Watson which I believe started (or awoke) the part of me that still loves repetition building into a crescendo and simplicity flowing into complexity and vice versa.
Favorite song: One Day Jesus – Wayne Watson
6-8 years old: This is when I discovered (or was shown) classic rock. Listening to the radio with my dad, I used to play “name that tune” and do fairly well on late 60’s to late 70’s rock. This is the last phase when I mainly listened to what my parents listened to, with few exceptions. I got my first CD around this time (Credence Clearwater Revival’s Chronicle).
Favorite Song: Down On The Corner – Credence Clearwater Revival
9-11 years old: This was my introduction to pop music and hip hop by my friends. I still loved classic rock, but I began to listen to the radio a lot more. I don’t remember my favorite stations in New York, but I know I listened to the hip-hop station, the classic rock one, and the pop music one almost equally. This reliance on radio would be my downfall when we left NYC.
Favorite Song: Slam – Onyx
12-13 years old: I call these the dark ages. I moved to Mount Vernon which had no hip-hop station and my friends only liked pop music. I don’t even like to admit what I listened to, but it made me who I am today. I think all of us around 7th grade listen to just plain crappy music. Or at least that’s what I like to tell myself.
Favorite Song: We’re Havin’ A Party – Rod Stewart
14 years old: This is when I started to listen to awesome music. I began to listen to my cool friends as to what radio station to listen to. Cool friends meaning friends who I still consider cool today, not the kids who considered themselves cool. One friend in particular, Nick Savoia, gave me a CD that was to be the crux of my reading and would influence my life in profound ways and make me the man I am today: Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled album. It was like flipping a switch. I had gradually been exposed to more hard rock but I consider the day in industrial tech when Jimmy Epley and I created a radio station and played Rage Against the Machine for the first time, a turning point in my life. I was fully on my own and listening to some of the best music I had ever gotten my hands on. Whereas NYC had exposed me to hip-hop and rap on a surface level, I was now listening to the most socially conscious lyrics I had ever heard. I devoured Rage, NWA, Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan, and The Beastie Boys. These were all groups I had listened to before, but now I was listening to what they were saying. My musical horizons were expanded by alternative rock which had eluded me up until now. I became a communist and attempted to read every book that was on the RATM recommended reading list (which, I’m pretty sure, put me on the watch list with the Public Library).
Favorite Song: Know Your Enemy – Rage Against The Machine
15 years old: Rage Against The Machine’s new album (Evil Empire) came into my possession and I was further inundated with communism. I had effectively abandoned Christianity in most of its forms due to its apparent lack of social consciousness. Wrestling in high school was a new challenge as some of the seniors liked to listen to Garth Brooks at practice. This would start a brief, and yet torrid, love affair with country music a few years later. For now, I was beginning to listen to music in two realms: to pump myself up and to think. Rage was still at the thinking forefront, and would remain so for a few more years; however, I discovered what I like to call “work out rock” even though my dad hated it which was necessary to get through wrestling practice.
Favorite Song: Thunderstruck – AC/DC
16 years old: I had discussed my faith with my girlfriend and started going back to church with more intentionality. The result of this was listening to DC Talk’s Jesus Freak over and over and also going back through my other music looking for Christian themes in order to see if Christianity was actually socially conscious. This led to a few logical leaps, including believing that Metallica’s “The God That Failed” was a Christian song. Needless to say I was at a crossroads yet again. I had realized that my faith was integral to my existence yet I could not reconcile it with my beliefs in social justice. Rage Against The Machine put out a new album and I got my hands on it. After Evil Empire, I was pretty much sure it couldn’t get better. I was wrong. The Battle of Los Angeles took work out rock to the nth degree and was responsible for my constructive anger during wrestling season.
Favorite Song: War Within A Breath - Rage Against The Machine
17 years old: My girlfriend and I broke up and my faith was there to back me up. It was not a pretty breakup and a song that I had always loved gained new meaning as I attempted to get over my first real heartbreak. “Amazing Grace” was a beautiful reminder of all that was good. There was much sadness and much joy in this time. I discovered Christian hip-hop including John Reuben and the Ill Harmonics, two white groups that talked about the difficulties of being a punk kid from the suburbs (country in my case) who care about cities and the issues of social justice while being seen as an outsider. As I continued to delve deeper into Christian hip-hop I found that the same things I had heard in Grandmaster Flash and Rage Against The Machine were being talked about in a redemptive manner as opposed to a defeatist or angry. This was counter intuitive to me and would take me a few years to fully reconcile (about 7 years, actually) Christianity and social justice.
Favorite Song: Amazing Grace – Mahalia Jackson (the best rendition ever)
18 years old: After the musical rollercoaster that was my 17th year, my 18th year was all about fun. I fully embraced my status as a hick and listened to country for the first time without cringing. The year was all about hope, hope for college, hope in the new relationship I had, and a burgeoning friendship with a kid that I would walk with down the path of Christianity. I also to a lot of Country oldies (Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller, Johnny Cash, etc) and this was just a happy year in general.
Favorite Song: It’s A Great Day To Be Alive – Travis Tritt
19 years old: My freshman year of college started off isolated and listening to some DMX and german folk music (the latter not by choice.) One day, I was walking down the hall and I heard an awesome song. I asked the kid what it was and he replied “O.A.R.” a band that I loved then and still brings me happy feelings. After the first quarter, life got a bit better and I started talking to a friend (now my wife) and sending lyrics back and forth. OAR featured prominently in these lyrics as did some of the old classic rock standards. I also had full access to file sharing and started a music collection that would continue to grow until I left college. My neighbor introduced me to some of the more current hip hop including UGK, Styles, Big Tymers, and Jurassic 5. This was also the year of the Travis’s: Randy Travis and Travis Tritt. This was to be the last year of country.
Favorite Song: Ran Away To The Top Of The World Today – O.A.R.
20 years old: I was officially dating my wife and the sappiness of my favorite song this year is a direct indicator of how our relationship was going. I didn’t discover much new music as most of my time was spent with my girlfriend or driving back and forth between school and home to see her. I joined a Christian service fraternity and they introduced me to Christian hard rock like Pillar and TFK which, for Christian music, wasn’t half bad. But my girlfriend and expanding my collection of music kept me listening to older music as opposed to discovering new bands on my own.
Favorite Song: Heaven - DJ Sammy
21 years old: This was a year of what I like to call “back fill.” There were a lot of bands that I liked who were classic rock artists, but it was mostly limited to Zeppelin, The Who, Rolling Stones, and the other giants of classic rock. This was the year that I discovered the roots and the fringes of rock: The Kinks, The Clash, MC5, The Ramones, Captain Beefheart, and The Velvet Underground come to mind. There were a lot of “oh, so that’s who sings that song” moments. I also started getting into jazz with Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and, my personal favorite, Thelonious Monk. My friends were also exposing me to more indie music with Guster, The Clarks, Jeff Buckley, Sonic Youth, Sufjan Stevens, and the Pixies.
Favorite Song: Oh Sweet Nuthin - The Velvet Underground
22 years old: This was a year of expanding artists and genres I was already very familiar with (Talib Kweli, Grits, KJ-52, Silverchair, and Blues Traveller) and learning the 1950’s-60’s pop rock and 1980’s pop. These two areas were the strong suit of my girlfriend and the weakest section of my knowledge. I despised, and still despise, most 80’s pop; however, bubble gum rock was perfect for my senior year especially as I drove back and forth to and from my girlfriend.
Favorite Song: 25 Miles - Edwin Starr
23 years old: We moved to Chicago and most of my musical genres had been filled in. I got a phone that could play music and was my MP3 player. From that point until now, I have just filled in some fringe bands (Buckethead, Flobots, etc) as people let me know about them. Here are the favorite songs by year for me:
23: What Angry Blue? - Seven Mary Three
24: Add It Up - Violent Femmes
25: What I’ve Done – Linkin Park
26: Sound the Horns - Wu Tang Clan and Lateralus – Tool
Favorite Songs Recap:
One Day Jesus – Wayne Watson
Down On The Corner – Credence Clearwater Revival
Slam – Onyx
We’re Havin’ A Party – Rod Stewart
Know Your Enemy – Rage Against The Machine
Thunderstruck – AC/DC
War Within A Breath - Rage Against The Machine
Amazing Grace – Mahalia Jackson (the best rendition ever)
It’s A Great Day To Be Alive – Travis Tritt
Ran Away To The Top Of The World Today – O.A.R.
Heaven - DJ Sammy
Oh Sweet Nuthin - The Velvet Underground
25 Miles - Edwin Starr
What Angry Blue? - Seven Mary Three
Add It Up - Violent Femmes
What I’ve Done – Linkin Park
Sound the Horns - Wu Tang Clan
Lateralus – Tool
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