An OLD MAN and a WISE MAN are sitting on a bench.
WISE MAN: Tell me, Old Man, if you had one piece of advice to give young students, what would it be?
OLD MAN: I would tell them to be neither too proud or too ashamed of their music taste. The music you hear when you are young will expand to fill the space you provide for it, regardless of how good or bad it is. Perhaps you will be lucky, and you will find that the music you hear at 18 remains excellent. Perhaps you will be unlucky, and your bloom of youth will be wasted on awful novelty indie records that if you screw up your ears sound a tiny bit like a Wedding Present B-Side. But do not congratulate or blame yourself – it is not your choice.
WISE MAN: Hmmm.
OLD MAN: You disagree?
WISE MAN: I would say that the music you use to accompany good times becomes good through them. Don’t be so quick to discount or belittle pleasure. The time you spend alone, weighing and measuring music with the benefit of hindsight, is surely worth less than the time you spent belting its nonsensical lyrics out on walks back from the pub.
OLD MAN: Preposterous! Next you’ll be telling me not to be ashamed of remembering all those lyrics word for word.
WISE MAN: What lyrics?
OLD MAN: (takes deep breath) “My! Brother! Knows Karl Mark! Met him eating mushrooms in the People’s Park! He said what do you think about my manifesto? I like your manifesto, put it to the testo…”
(exit pursued by an angry dog)