I grudgingly posted an album cover to Facebook in compliance with a high school teammate’s nomination for a “10 Influential Albums in 10 Days” exercise, but I’m up to six now and thinking seriously about my remaining four choices.
I’m agonizing over each selection, like “I really like this album, but can I call it ‘influential?'” I feel like I have to justify each selection with an illustration of the where and why of its influence. Meredith thinks I’m overthinking it.
She’s doing it , too, this albums exercise, and she pointed out that we think about influence differently. For her, the influence of music is on her life; she is sharing albums that she says defined seasons of her experience. I’m thinking of influence more in terms of a footpath–stones laid down in a winding line that lead a traveler along. Each stone influences the next step.
For me, influence is about the next step on the path–and the step after that. For Meredith, influence isn’t about the steps at all, but rather about how the stone you’re standing on shapes your experience of the surrounding trees and brush.
YoRocko! 
These are each influential ways of thinking of influence. I find myself somewhere between them, thinking of music I loved at particular times (and how it brings those times back) and thinking of learning things to particular music.