When it comes to my ethnic heritage, I tend to pay little attention to it. My disinterest stems partially from having a vanilla background; I’ve got a healthy dose of German in me, with traces of Scottish and French-Canadian (some people wonder if that even counts as a heritage) mixed in.

Let’s face it, being primarily German is not very exciting to most people; and bragging about being German tends to bring in all sorts of negative social connotations I’d rather avoid.

Most of the time, because of a peculiar family situation, I avoid identifying with my Scottish heritage. Usually, I only bring up my ethnicity to take the piss out of people who use their racial background as an excuse of personal behavior. Nothing infuriates me more than “I’m (insert racial/ethnic identity here), we always (drink heavily/never get hungover/enjoy streaking).”

I am proud of one aspect of my Scottish heritage -Scottish music- which for my money is some of the best music in the world. I’m not talking traditional or folk Scottish music; I have very little interest in world music of any persuasion, whether it’s from Swaziland, Siberia or Scotland. I’m talking popular (although popularity is a relative term for many of these artists) rock ‘n roll music. Stuff that’s (sometimes) played on the radio, listened to and criticized by scores of Lester Bangs wanna-bes and magazines aching for cultural acceptance. To paraphrase from a t-shirt I saw in high school (which undoubtedly ripped its slogan off from somewhere else), if it’s not Scottish music, it’s crap.

My proof? A somewhat unscientific, yet deeply fascinating feature article from earlier this year in The List, a Scottish entertainment magazine. They held a three month public vote, after running their own list, to determine the 50 best Scottish bands of all time, and were apparently overwhelmed by the public response to it (insert joke about 12,000 responses being overwhelming here). About the same time I read this, Spin magazine did a feature on Franz Ferdinand with a sidebar on their choices for top Scottish bands and ones that were still under the radar in America.

Sure, the list was essentially a “which Scottish band is most popular at the moment” list, even as it strove for all-time greatness. Emblematic of this dichotomy was the survey’s choice for top Scottish band, Belle and Sebastian. While Belle and Sebastian are a very good band within their genre of twee-pop (and even outside of that), they’ve only been releasing records since 1996, which is a small portion of the history of rock and roll and pop music. It also contained some real stinkers (Travis? Nazareth? Dogs Die in Hot Cars?) and there’s also the occasional problem with defining what constitutes a Scottish band; Snow Patrol, 14th on the list, was founded in Scotland but is primarily comprised of Northern Irish musicians.

The influence of Scottish musicians on experimental, indie and alternative music is hard to deny, although many of these bands escaped commercial success during their careers. Allmusic.com cites Teenage Fanclub as one of the main influences on grunge, the Jesus and Mary Chain as one of the innovators in using noisy feedback in pop. It also cites Primal Scream (whose founder was originally a Jesus and Mary Chain member) as one of the first bands to mix dance and rock (with the British critically acclaimed but virtually American ignored techno/pop masterpiece “Screamadelica”). Although these bands are in no way as important as the Beatles or Elvis Presley, within their respective genres they serve as paragons. And there are plenty more where they came from.

Although I don’t like to be the guy who needles his friends endlessly to get them to listen to incredibly crappy bands, I am willing to take whatever abuse may be thrown my way to spread the gospel of Scottish music. There are plenty of bands on this list that are under the radar in America that shouldn’t be, and I would be remiss in my columnist duties (or as honorary “cool big brother”) in not keying readers in on a couple of choice selections.

Idlewild (third on the list) – Started out their career as noisy punk artists, then gradually sheared those elements off to reveal their more tuneful side. They get compared to Nirvana and R.E.M. a lot; I don’t quite see that, but it’s worth checking out “Hope is Important”, if you like punk, and “The Remote Part” if you don’t.

Mull Historical Society (12th) – Although I think Mull isn’t technically part of Scotland, (it’s an island off the west coast of Scotland, a la the Isle of Man,) it’s close enough to Scotland that I can overlook that. Mull Historical Society writes some of the best pure pop songs, indie or not, that have ever been ignored by radio.

Mogwai (20th) – While the musical path Mogwai treads has been done by many other bands (Tortoise, Slint, Godspeed You Black Emperor!), few have done it better. Their self-proclaimed nickname of “Scottish Guitar Army” is a fairly accurate description, even as their music began to incorporate more and more synthesizers. Their use of atmosphere and dynamics makes the fact that their songs are mostly instrumental moot. Even without words, these songs pack some serious emotional heft.

Trashcan Sinatras (22nd) – I have no idea what they sound like, but it’s a great band name, isn’t it?

Vaselines (35th) – Kurt Cobain admitted they influenced his music. That’s all you need to know.

Hopefully, that’s a good start to your own personal journey into the heart of Scottish music. One more thing before I go. Skip the bagpipes, they sound like crap.

Ben Nanamaker is a senior in English and journalism who is extremely annoyed by Irish punk bands. Comments or requests for The List’s article can be sent to [email protected].