Most Loved and Hated Music to Listen to While Driving

I'm not a big music guy. Yes, I like music; but it's more of a background sort of thing for me. I do go to the occasional concert – usually country – but otherwise it's just something to drown out the road noise when I'm in the car, or whatever crappy music might be blaring at the gym. I rarely have music on at home.

Thirty or forty years ago, I used to haul ass across the country on a regular basis. I love to drive and the thought of flying the distance from Louisville, KY to Las Cruces, NM where my sister and her family lived never crossed my mind. Nope. I'd leave Louisville mid afternoon and basically drive the 1,500 miles straight through. I'd cat nap a couple of times for 20 minutes or so at different spots in Texas, but it was pretty much straight through. 

In 20 or so trips through Dallas in five or six years, I only saw it at night.

 You don't know driving until you haul butt across Texas. The entire Louisville to Las Cruces run would take me roughly 23 hours. More than half of that would be driving across Texas. It was years before I saw Dallas in the daylight. Driving east or west, I always hit Dallas at night.

My fraternity brothers called me the “nocturnal traveler.”

Despite my ambivalence toward music in general, I do care about what's playing in the car. I can't listen to just anything. Today, it's much easier to listen to what you want than it was during my marathon Texas runs in the mid 1970s.

On a longer trip today, I might even plug in my iPod. I've got a playlist of about 10 hours of country and another with 10 hours of rock and roll. I can listen to one on the drive down to South Florida and the other on the way back. Perfect.

Ninety percent of the time, though, whichever test car I happen to be in has satellite radio. I'll listen to “80s on 8,” “Outlaw Country” or “Classic Vinyl” as I run errands or simply tool around locally.

As I was surfing around the Web site Insurance.com doing some research for an AutoTrader.com assignment, I ran across a recent survey of 2,000 motorists age 18 and older the site conducted to determine the most and least popular driving songs. 

Ah, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

 Here's what they learned:

Journey's “Don't Stop Believin'” was ranked No. 1. Rounding out the top five were Queen's “Bohemian Rhapsody,” AC/DC's “You Shook Me All Night Long,” Journey again with “Any Way You Want It,” and finally Tom Cochran's “Life Is a Highway.”

Respondents were encouraged to write in any favorites not appearing on the survey. Topping the write-in list were AC/DC's “Highway to Hell,” Golden Earring's “Radar Love” and Sammy Hagar's “I Can't Drive 55.”

Charlie Daniels Band's "Texas" is what's playing  as John Travolta's character drives to Pasadena, Texas in the opening of "Urban Cowboy." One of the great driving songs of all time!

 I would have added Golden Earring's “Twilight Zone,” Charlie Daniels Band's “Texas” and Willie Nelson's “On the Road Again.”

Among the songs that would make the survey respondents switch stations: “Who Let the Dogs Out?” by The Baha Men, Taylor Swift's “We Are Never, Ever Getting Together Again,” Cher's “Believe,” Morris Alpert's “Feelings” and “Papa Don't Preach” by Madonna.

Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga were the three top artists among those that respondents admitted to secretly listening to in the car.

No clue what any of this means, but it might win you a beer the next time you're in a bar.

“What's the most hated song to hear in your car?”

“Why, 'Who Let the Dogs Out?' of course.”