My final featured artist in the musical genome is the trickiest of the bunch.

The Rolling Stones don’t fit neatly into any of my categories. While they have tried their hand at the country genre a few times (with both good and bad results), I can’t see placing them in ‘Country Plus.’ They aren’t really a pop or folk band, tracing their origins more to the blues tradition. Neither do they fit in the ‘Piano’ or ‘Melancholy’ groups.

Now, certainly they have touched on all of those segments. Over a 50 year career, they have produced their share of pop and folk songs (not to mention disco). But there is a distinctive Rolling Stones sound that just doesn’t jive with the rest of my genome.

I discovered The Rolling Stones later than most of the other artists on this list. I’ve obviously been aware of them for as long as I’ve followed music, but I never went out of my way to listen to their albums.

The way I see it, you can trace most modern pop/rock music back to three starting points in the 60s — The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. I’ve already detailed how my own obsession with Dylan and The Beatles helped shape my musical tastes.

I wonder what my music collection would look like today if I’d also gotten into The Stones back in high school. Would I have multiple albums by Aerosmith, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses and The Black Crowes?

But discovered later in life, do they lose the power to influence my tastes? They muscled through due to the quality of their songwriting and the weight of their historic importance, but there won’t be a coattail effect. It’s too late for that.