By Ross Hsu, Staff Writer

The way I see it, everyone gets their music taste from his or her parents. I’ve liked a ton of different bands in my time, and most of them have lost my attention as I’ve found new loves. The ones that stay around, though, are the ones that remind me of being a kid — of leaning against the bookcase that held my mom’s old stereo, feeling the voices of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Mike Love and Paul Simon reverberate in my skull.

Raised on the weirdest selection of new wave, early punk, classic rock and folk, I grew up appreciating songs that either defied their genre or lampooned it. This playlist, made in honor of our music issue, is a testament to that. Traversing my tastes from childhood to now, it contains as many of my dirty new wave guilty pleasures as it does my modern electro trash guilty pleasures. I think most of my favorite songs are guilty pleasures.

Listen to this playlist of my favorite songs! It’s an eclectic mix of blues, electronic, new wave, early R&B, modern indie rock, and whatever M.I.A. is. If ever you’ve found yourself wondering what The FreeP’s music subhead listens to in his free time, now is your chance!

Hint: never trust any group of music that calls itself “eclectic.” Unless of course, you’re been given this information by an astute and informed scholar of the popular arts such as myself.

straightens tasteful tie and understated monocle.

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