What the #%$! is 'the Jersey Shore sound'?

What the #%$! is 'the Jersey Shore sound'?

"The Jersey Shore sound" -- it's a term that has been thrown around by musicians, fans, authors, politicians and critics for decades, but most people have a hard time explaining what it means when pressed for a definition of the music made along the Garden State's sandy coast and its adjacent regions.

Does it refer to the stadium-shaking rock 'n' roll of Bruce Springsteen? The blue-eyed bar band soul of Southside Johnny Lyon and the Asbury Jukes? How about the New Brunswick-influenced punk of the Bouncing Souls and The Gaslight Anthem? Is it all of these things, or none of them?

With these heavy questions in mind -- and Lyon's 60th birthday taking place Thursday (Dec. 4) -- Metromix Jersey Shore spent the past few months talking to folks from different corners of the Jersey Shore music scene, asking them the same question: How would you define the "Jersey Shore sound"?

Click through this photo gallery to read what each participant had to say.