A rule I devised (yeah, I’m real smart…) that I continue to apply every day is the “Three CD Rule”. Simply put, (like there is anything hard to understand here) you must listen to a CD 3 times before you can really render an opinion. This is not to invalidate you if you hate an album right away, but you wouldn’t believe the change in your thinking if you give it more time.

I put in this rule back in my early twenties when I noticed that the Heavy Metal/Hard Rock albums I grew up loving were being left behind and I didn’t know any of the songs on the radio anymore. I was tired of telling people to change radio stations, and tired of being pissy because the music being played “sucked”. It seemed crazy for me to believe that all these new artists actually sucked, but that I was one of the only few that had figured it out. So one day, I think it was a Tuesday, I vowed to give some of these new artists a chance.

When I would try to listen to a new album, if the artist was distinctly different than the taste I liked, I wouldn’t like it, regardless of how good it was in that genre. I found that to listen to an album just once didn’t allow me to get accustomed to their new style. And the farther that style was from the one I liked, the more times I had to give it.

So when I hear that so and so has the best Rap album of this year, I give a 3 CD listen. Usually if the album is decent in its genre, by the first listen I am not cringing. The 2nd will leave me starting to like it, and the third I will be wondering how I never liked it. And If I still don’t like it, so be it.

I think this is why you see people being so narrow in their tastes. They like their type of music, and never stray far. I know that I was (and still am) a big metal head (Metallica, Megadeth, G’N’R, Iron Maiden), but now I love so much more. I still can’t pallete Mariah Carey and some of that Emo crap, but I surprise myself with artists like Josh Groban, Primus, Black Eyed Peas and Justin Timberlake. And if you don’t like those albums, then you REALLY need the 3 CD rule! (Joking…well kinda).