I don't know what the shock is for though... I'm a big fan of the sound of the electric guitar. That pretty much rules out anything made before the 1950s. Then you need to give them a few years to get going with the new technology - I mean, I don't own any DVDs with films from the first forty years of cinema... (Casablanca is the oldest movie I have). And the earliest I'd consider going back for TV would be early Doctor Whos from the 1960s, some thirty years after TV first started.

There's plenty of stuff around at the moment that's worth listening to (eg Kaiser Chiefs, The Bravery, Muse, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, The Music, British Sea Power, Mogwai, Hope of the States, Secret Machines) and going back to 1970 gives some 30 years of music to choose from. Going further seems pointless and there's not much there that interests me.

It's not that I hate, for example, the Beatles. I just don't see the point in spending my money on a band who split up before I was born, who's members are either dead, richer than creosote or both and who sold off the publishing rights to their songs anyway. If I was going to be nasty, I'd point out that the Beatles gave up live performances because their fans were unable to actually hear the music over the sound of their own screams and that Paul McCartney was responsible for the Frog Chorus. The latter alone should have caused him to be shunned by society, but no... and he bought the publishing right's to Buddy Holly's music, so he's got no real claim to bitch about Jackson owning his. If he still does.

The Frog Chorus... I mean, Plastic Ono Band was one thing, but sheesh...

Anyway, so... the Beatles: indirectly responsible for the modern music industry and the succession of indistinguishable boy bands that litter the place. They don't deserve the money.