One-Question Personality/Compatibility Test
I was inspired by a friend-of-a-friend’s response to a question on his Friendster profile about what music he likes. He was clever in listing bands “A to Z,” twenty-six bands enumerated alphabetically that formed a comprehensive-enough picture of a stranger. “Q” was Queen, but I forget what “X” was.
Anyway, his “R” band was Rush, one of the talented bands from that glorious era where the best groups started from the drums on up. I’ll say this, generally: Otherwise-shit bands with lame singers are made possible by and passable with good drummers. There are no great bands without great drummers (Ringo wasn’t flashy but worked out OK).
I thought about his list a bit, and focused on the fact that my “R” band would be different: Radiohead. I then got to thinking of the many bands with R-starting names. Of course this works with almost every letter, but the R’s have an interesting and telling array: Rush, Radiohead, Rolling Stones, Ramones, to name four big ones. I even heard a “Ronettes” the other day — sweet.
In each of those cases, a preference for a particular musical/social movement is revealed, the seed-crystal around which, in the eyes of a stranger, the rest of your personality forms. As John Cusack says in High Fidelity, “…what really matters is what you like, not what you are like.”
(By the way, I quoted the actor and the movie and not the book to prove that I’m not elitist. No sir, I’m neither elitist nor humble about not being so.)
So, faithful readers — or as I call you, my “Fantastic Four” — I’d like to know a lot more about you in very little time:
What’s your favorite “R” band?
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