The path to good music a long one for my sister

I knew they would get her at some point. It was just a matter of how and at what age. For a while I thought she would overcome it and see through her misdirected affliction. But alas, it's too late. My little sister loves O-Town.\nThe more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Here we have my 16-year-old sister, Amy: Newly elected president of her junior class for next year (nice going Amy), owner of a 3.7 GPA, and one hell of a decent right leg when it comes to soccer. And sadly, she's a child of pop culture's ever-growing fanatic family -- a family parented, at least in her case, by the good folks at ABC and Disney.\nSee where I'm going with this? \nAs you might or might not know, O-Town got its start on the ABC program, "Making the Band," a captivating tale of five young men and their journey through the corporate entertainment world on their way to teeny-pop glory. I don't know whether it's their sassy good looks or those oh-so-rad hair styles, but girls (like my sister) really dig these guys. \n"They're way better than N'Sync," she once boasted. \nUh oh. \nAfter the show's first season and their first album (both of which my sister was deeply engrossed in), O-Town made its way onto to MTV. It was really all downhill for Amy at that point. \nLucky for her, I was never around to hear O-Town in the morning while getting ready for school. I was getting up at Wright Quad by that time, and I'll be damned if I ever heard O-Town blaring at 7 a.m. on my floor (not unless you wanted your robe stolen off the wall the next time you took a shower). Anyway, when I did first come to the realization she was an O-Town fan I did what any other concerned older brother would do. I freaked out. \n"They're all that is evil in music!" I desperately pleaded with her.\n"I don't care Andy. It's good music," she would always reply.\nEvery time she stubbornly uttered those words, my hope for her dwindled. I thought she knew better. One would think that growing up in a house where your older brother was listening to albums like Dookie and Evil Empire at 16, that there would be a natural progression of intelligent musical taste passed down to the sister. But when she's listening to processed, poppy albums like O-Town's at this stage in her listening career, she's on a crash course toward becoming either a stewardess or the next girl to stand outside TRL studios in nothing but a towel for a chance to meet O-Town. I'm sorry if I've offended any O-Town-loving stewardesses, by the way.\nDon't get me wrong, I've jammed to my fair share of ugly pop as a kid. Before every soccer game my senior year in high school, I would listen to Creed's My Own Prison to get my testosterone pumping before the whistle blew. What was I thinking?! And don't tell anyone, but I once even owned a Blackstreet album.\nThe important thing is that I have matured (musically) through the years. Bands like Creed -- and certainly not O-Town -- never grace my stereo or CD player, and they never will. I was one of the lucky ones. I escaped pop drudgery to a musical realm void of clichés and reality television programming-turned popular boy band.\nAs for Amy, I'm not sure her escape from what she loves is so definite. Maybe one day she'll stumble across OK Computer and think, "Gee, O-Town really sucks compared to this." \nBut if not, I'll live. Just know this, Amy, I'm never letting you touch the CD player at family reunions and parties, okay?