Top Ten List of Punk Songs

With Some Very Narrow Restrictions Attached

Top ten lists tend to annoy most people more than enlighten. I've personally never encountered a top ten list of anything with which I completely agreed. In fact, the fun usually comes from wondering what in the heck the list compiler was thinking in putting one or two particular entries onto the list. Still, I can't resist checking out a top ten list. I don't think many people can. There's something about a list of the best or worst or most amazing things that makes us comfortable. Humans love to categorize things. Some people might argue that it's hardwired into our psyche, but I strongly resist thinking humans are instinctually programmed to do anything. After all, a baby will crawl right off the roof of a building it you let him; he has to learn fear.

Loving lists is a conditioned response, too, I think. After all, we are bombarded with lists all the time. Come the end of the month millions of people will be glued to their television watching famous people read variously populated lists of five people (or five lists of people!) who will then be narrowed down the best. When you think about it, The Academy Awards is just one long litany of top five lists narrowed to a list of final winners.

Then, of course, there's the reigning king of lists, David Letterman. (Who, by the by, I think presided over the most entertaining Oscar telecast of all time and I can't understand why his shot was considered a dud and he's never been invited back when Whoopee Goldberg consistently bombs and yet gets invited back just about every time Billy Crystal turns it down. But I digress.)