We bought our son a sound system for his car. A real “duf duf” system that you could hear several streets away if you played it at boy-racer levels. Both of my sons are audiophiles, which I guess comes from how hard they work at their passion for music.

So I’m taking Dom to school in his car – he has yet to navigate the absurdity that is the new licensing regime – and of course he’s chosen for me the song with the most preposterous bass line (a song by Ratatat). And when it comes on, he just laughs with the sheer pleasure of it. In fact he laughs pretty much all the way to school, which I suppose is a nice way to start the day. At least I think he’s laughing. I can’t hear anything because my eardrums are bleeding.

So I get to choose the music on the way home. I’d like to say I chose something contemporary and sophisticated so I could fully appreciate the layers of sound. But I didn’t. I chose Jump by van Halen because it was the song that leapt to my mind when I thought “what would sound great really loud?” It was and it did.

Some things are meant to be done with subtlety and finesse, and some are best played really loud. They sound okay if we constrain them for fear of what others might think, but they only sound truly awesome when you pump the volume up past 11 (as they say on Spinal Tap).

Let me get loud on this: you should play your brand in the streets at maximum volume.