[net.music] Opinions

jackson@curium.DEC (SETH JACKSON 297-4751) (11/06/85)

[Me] 
>> or even Madonna.

[Doug] 
>Oh, yes I can.  Because Madonna is just plain bad!  The word was defined
>for cases like this.

Oh, really? There are a lot of people out there who think that Madonna
is good. What gives you the divine right to judge them all wrong?
 
[Me]
>> More precisely, you *can* say it if you want, but all you do is make a
>> fool of yourself with that kind of statement. Your opinions are *your*
>> opinions, but you have a very annoying habit of presenting them as
>> though they were facts.
 
[Doug]
>Didn't we already have this argument six months ago? 

Yes, we did, but somehow you still seem to think that your opinion
is more valid than other peoples'.
--
"One man gathers what another man spills"

			Seth Jackson

Posted:	Tue 5-Nov-1985 15:52 
To:	RHEA::DECWRL::"net.music"

nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (11/07/85)

> From: Seth Jackson

> Oh, really? There are a lot of people out there who think that Madonna
> is good. What gives you the divine right to judge them all wrong?

What gives me the divine right to say that murderers are wrong and
should be locked away?  What gives me the divine right to say that
Reagan is in insane bastard who isn't competent enough stuff envelopes,
much less be President?  What gives me the divine right to to say one
plus one equals two?  Whatever right it is that allows me to say these
things is the same right that allows me to say that Madonna's music is
bad.

As I've said repeatedly before, the image she conveys is despicable, and
is harmful to the people for whom she is a role model, and is harmful to
all the people who these people affect.  She glorifies manipulation and
thus her message is harmful for society if any one believes it, and all
the evidence says many people do.  Her "music" is a corporate product
designed merely to make money (and it *sounds* like that) and has no
artistic merit and therefore is harming all the people who are trying to
make a living as real artists.  Harming people is not a good thing,
which is what Madonna's music does.  Thus Madonna's music is bad!

If you disagree that harming people is not a good thing, or that
manipulation is not harmful, or that Madonna's image is not
manipulative, or that Madonna is a sincere artist who would be a
musician even if it wasn't a path to being big and famous (if you think
that you must be pretty dense, because she's *said* that this is the
reason she is a "musician" -- and so has Lionel Richie), or that she
really cares about anyone but herself, then we have little grounds for
communication.
 
		"But in the night a little boy is dreaming mysteries
		 and looking after laughter with his sister climbing trees
		 and somewhere there's a button and a silent satelite
		 and a bastard who would push it and an everlasting night"

		 Doug Alan
		  nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)