This week I’ll feature songs by some of the artists I was steered toward by my genome project research.

If the genome theory is solid, all of these artists should appeal to me on an instinctive level. Whether they’ll have the added mystery ingredient that leads me to fully embrace them remains to be seen.

First up is a band whose influence far outweighed its popularity. Big Star formed in 1971 and broke up just three years later, releasing only three albums by the original lineup (surviving members of the band reformed two decades later to release another record).

I have long heard Big Star named as an influence by some of my favorite bands, including R.E.M., Counting Crows, Belle and Sebastian and Ben Folds Five. And listening to their music (thank you, Spotify), I now know why.

Lead singer-songwriters Alex Chilton and Chris Bell penned beautifully melodic, hook-laden and (yes) melancholy songs that fit nicely alongside the best work of my favorite artists.

After one listen to the first side of Big Star’s debut, #1 Record, I felt I’d known songs such as ‘Feel,’ ‘The Ballad of El Goodo,’ ‘In the Street’ and ‘Thirteen’ all my life. I look forward to hearing the rest, as well as their second and third albums, Radio City and Third.

The good news is that the original band released only those three albums, so leaping into the Big Star catalog isn’t exactly heavy lifting.

I can’t imagine discovering somebody like, say, Elvis Costello at this point in his career. On the one hand, what a treasure trove of material you’d have to dive into, but on the other hand… who has that much time?