'Country Life'

I purchased this album about 10 minutes after hearing the opening track ("The Thrill of it All") on one of NPR's music shows, in which the panel were discussing the greatest opening tracks of all time.

Someone, clearly, nominated this one. And it's a good one. Good enough for me to go on iTunes almost immediately and purchase it.

Later, as I was listening to and enjoying the album, I tried to remember how I discovered bands in the past. Obviously, Roxy Music had done great albums years before I was born and disbanded when I was toddler. And they weren't exactly hit machines, so their music wasn't played over and over on classic rock radio like Boston or Fleetwood Mac.

Some bands gain new listeners just out of sheer influence, like the Sex Pistols or The Ramones. Others -- by sheer luck -- get popular based on new music taking influence from others (think how many people bought Television albums when The Strokes hit in the early 2000s).

But it's easy to get into a band with the Internet and iTunes that can give you instant samples and even illegal downloads. The truth is, the Internet is pretty fantastic, especially for music fans. There's little risk on illegally downloading a Roxy Music album, hating it and never listening to it again. Whereas 15 years ago, you had to have guts to spend $12 on a cassette tape, listen to it and still hate it. And chances are, you didn't have buddies listening to Roxy Music when you were 14 living in a small Texas town.

God bless the Internet and God bless Roxy Music.