Many (most?) Boomers started driving when we were 16, an experience that many (most?) of today’s 16-year olds do not share.

And that’s a crying shame, because if today’s teens aren’t driving around listening to rock n’ roll on the radio, in real time (IRT), than they are missing out on what was one of our generation’s most fun experiences.  Our very  own real-life version of “American Graffiti.”

From the get-go, it was an affaire de coeur:  cars, the radio, and rock n’ roll.  Classics:  “Maybelline”/Chuck Berry, “Hot Rod Lincoln”/Johnny Bond (covered by Commander Cody in the early 70s), “409”/The Beach Boys.

Well respected Jacobs Media Strategies’ dug deep and found that researchers Digital Third Coast studied 100,00 song’s lyrics and music and concluded that 13,000 artists and 72,000 songs mention a car.  Mercedes and Cadillac led the pack with Hip-Hop and Rap songs topping the list (by a wide margin).  Second and third were Rock and Pop.

Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 rocker “Pink Cadillac” perfectly recalls that unique moment in American history, now outmoded and bathed in nostalgia, that was an influential and remembered shared generational experience.