merchant@dartvax.UUCP (06/08/84)
Am I so insecure about my musical taste that I have to invent some excuse for people who don't share it? Probably I am. Personal tastes, as is always said over and over, are personal. The bit I said was a piece of personal conviction: I enjoy top 40 music because, in many ways, I can relate to it. Yes, I too have had a marvelous time dealing with broken hearts, romances, etc., etc., etc. Your analogy with MacDonald's, though, hits me from a poor angle. I know quite a number of people who have tasted marvelous french cooked meals and still go crazy over your garden variety hamburg. Maybe not a MacDonald's or a fast food one, but a hamburger none the less. Their taste buds have been given, in theory, marvelous food for so long that they are bored with it. It's something new and different and not bad. I'll admit, Top 40 can be a pretty boring staple. But I can get bored with just about any form of music, if I hear too much of it. I have a friend who really enjoys Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, as do I. Yet, if I listen to ELP for too long, I get bored and sick of it, just like if I listen to Journey or Asia or whoever too long. Yet, there are those snobs who got sick of it once and say "I'm never going to listen to that again." All I say is that you should vary your musical listening tastes. See each piece of music for what it is trying to do. For example, the new Bruce Springsteen song. (Hey, we've come around a full circle.) It has a kind of upbeat feel to it, it seems like it would be a good song to dance to. It's a pop song. And a very good one, at that. Is it true art? No. Is it trying to be? No. What's the problem? The true music snobs are those who don't look at songs and try to figure out what they are trying to do. They do not appreciate whether it succeeds or fails. Instead, they try to make it fit their view of what music "should be" and, if it fails, it's rubbish and should be banished from the face of the earth. But wait! There's more! Now, with a wave of my arm, I spin around and say "That's not bad, though." You look at your screen and say "What is Merchant babbling about?" Well, hold on to your hats, gang, because this is a doozy. Music snobs aren't really bad! They aren't! They know what they like and they appreciate what they like. My only complaint is when they try to tell me what I should like. It's like religion. If you want to believe one God made the whole universe, marvelous. You try to make me believe it, I'll walk out on you. We all have our preferences as to what we would like to listen to. We all look for different things in our music. The only bad thing about a music snob is that he tries to push his concept of musical taste on everyone else. If he would just understand that not everyone thinks like he does and that is what makes the world so beautiful, he and the rest of us would probably be much happier people. There. See? No? Let me give an example: Michael Jackson. Boo, hiss, boo, you say. His music is boring, you say. He should be taken out and flogged, you say. Why would anyone listen to him, you ask. People who listen to Michael Jackson are real idiots, you say. But there you go again! He's not trying to be another (insert your favourite non-pop artist here). He's producing Top 40 music. You don't like it? Fine. You can say why you don't like it. Fine. You start calling me names because I like it, and I start getting offended. Who died and made your musical taste king, I say. Well, I think I've ranted and raved long enough. -- "You've got a hell of a lot to learn about Rock And Roll!" -- Jim Steinman Peter Merchant