Well, Turn It Up, Man!

I got an interesting phone call today. It was from a local company that conducts surveys for radio stations that help them put together their playlists for that week. This was a pretty exciting thing for me; I complain often and loudly about how radio stations play the same crap over and over (but do I put my money where my mouth is and invest in satellite radio? Heck to the no.) (I gave up cursing for lent. After Easter I'll change that back to what I really meant to say.)

My surveyer asked me to rate 30+ clips of songs using the following terms: Not Familiar, Never Liked, Tired Of, No Opinion, Like, and Favorite. The songs were from all different genres and ranged from mid-90s to current stuff I haven't even heard before. I have a pretty broad taste in music; on any given day, I might listen to both the Dixie Chicks and Green Day with a little Norah Jones thrown in. So there wasn't too much in the "Never Liked" category. I gave favorable ratings to Kanye West, Beyonce, and Carrie Underwood. I had to throw down my "Tired Of" to quite a few selections, and reserved my "Never Liked" for some John Mayer clips (sorry; "Your Body is a Wonderland" makes me want to hurl.) To my surprise, there was an awful lot of stuff I had to say was "Not Familiar" to me. As I get older, it just takes a little longer for new music to trickle down the airwaves. I'm musically set in my ways, I suppose. There's only so much new music you're going to get exposed to by watching VH1's video countdowns at the gym.

This survey got me thinking. The questioner told me the "Never Liked" should be reserved for songs that would make me change the channel immediately if I heard them; the "Favorite" rating, she said, was for those songs that would make me turn up the radio and sing along. What songs do I hate so badly that I change the station (besides the aformentioned John Mayer song)? What gets me boogying along?

Holla back, readers. What makes you hit those buttons for good or for ill?

I'll start:
If ANYTHING by Nickelback comes on, I am hitting the next station in my presets with spider-like quickness. And if it's that Nickelback song featuring the classic line, "And what the hell is on Joey's head?", I'm probably breaking some kind of world record.

But on the other hand, if something by Beyonce (solo or Destiny's Child) comes on, I am cranking it up and unleashing my inner diva. (You know what they say about librarians when we let our hair out of the bun and take those glasses off.) But I'll be doing it kinda quiet-like 'cause deep-down, I'm a little embarrassed that Ms. Knowles can get me to sing along while she "checks up on it."

What say you? What's a "Favorite" and what's a "Never Liked"?