I am definitely boomer, and I did recognize almost half the names in the millennial list, I've heard some of them, but if you put a song on by them I wouldn't be able to tell you who did it.

But then I do a lot of research for writing styles for Band-in-a-Box and I read Billboard every once in a while.

And my parents were in the "Big Band" era, I listened to their recordings of Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, etc., and enjoyed them very much.

As a working musician, I try to listen to a lot of genres of music that I may or may not have an opportunity to play. I find I can subconsciously borrow something from newer music, older music, foreign music, ethnic music or whatever that improves my playing as a musician. A little Jazz, Klezmer, Salsa, Country, Cape Verdean, Reggae, or whatever my find it's way into an improvised sax solo on a rock song giving the listener a little surprise.

And improvising a solo is about prediction and surprise. If the listener can predict where you are going most of the time, the listener will get bored and stop listening. If he or she cannot predict where you are going most of the time, the same thing happens. So you have to play the crowd, letting them predict what you are going to play next most of the time, but surprise them enough to keep their interest.

But I get that is getting a little off-topic.

From the boomer list, many of the references were from my parents; Art Linkletter, Minnie Pearl, and Jack Benny, and others I recognize the names like the millennial list but can't identify like Larry Hagman, Barney Miller and Hill Street Blues. Probably because I don't watch Television.

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