I love listening to the radio when I’m driving in my car.

It wasn’t always this way. For years I listened to mix tapes, and nothing else, in my car. I didn’t know what was on the radio. I didn’t care. I assumed that the songs that received frequent airplay were terrible. But in recent years, my attitude has changed. The Capital Region is actually blessed with a couple of decent radio stations, but even if it wasn’t, I would still enjoy listening to the radio. I mean, I can’t think of any circumstances under which I’d purchase “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake, or “Bad Medicine” by Bon Jovi, but I take pleasure in hearing them, every now and again, and where am I ever going to hear them, if not on the radio? And if you’re good at sifting through all the crap, occasionally you’ll hear songs that are actually good, like “Superstition,” by Stevie Wonder, or “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell.

I credit my college roommate with educating me on the wonders of the radio and pop music in general. Like me, she mainly listens to indie-rock punk alternative stuff. But she’s not afraid to embrace catchy, mainstream songs, which explains my familiarity with the Spice Girls song “Wannabe” and my love of the song “Tubthumping,” by the one-hit wonder Chumbawamba. We listened to so much schlock during our senior year (Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth, Bette Midler’s “The Rose”) that at one point my roommate said, “You know, I think I like bad music better than good music.”

I thought of that declaration this week, while driving around in my car, listening to the radio. I have six radio stations programmed into my car, and although I tend to spend more time listening to the area’s independent stations, which tend to play music I like, I bounce around the other stations: an oldies station, a classic rock station, a pop/rock station. I turn to those stations when the allegedly good stations disappoint me, and this week, when they were playing stuff like “Interstate Love Song” by the Stone Temple Pilots and the latest insignificant tune from the latest insignificant alt-rock band, I was delighted to stumble across “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC.

I hesitate to call “Thunderstruck” a bad song, because how can you call a song that sounds so good bad? Still, I felt slightly ashamed. Instead of supporting the radio stations that play local music and up and coming bands, there I was, listening to AC/DC on some Clear Channel-owned station. Clearly, I was part of the problem. But what can I say? “Thunderstruck” was by far and away the most fun song I heard on my commute. In fact, I came up with a whole list of songs (I won’t call them bad, although I’m sure some of them are) that I love so much it makes me wonder if I like bad music better than good music.

1. “Right Now” by Van Halen
2. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard
3. “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey (OK, I’m on the post-Sopranos bandwagon. But sometimes it takes a great TV show to make you appreciate a song like this.)
4. “Can’t Fight This Feeling” by REO Speedwagon
5. “Come Sail Away” by Styx (OK, I can’t listen to this song in its entirety, but I love hearing the beginning. And, yes, this is most definitely a bad song.)
I almost put “Sweet Child o’ Mine” on this list, but then I remembered that I actually own “Appetite for Destruction,” the Guns N’ Roses album it’s on. So never mind.

Got your own list? Let me know. Comment below, or email me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.