katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris Williams) (04/26/91)
Vickie here. I've missed out on lots of great discussions, but I'd like to at least get my thoughts in on this one. Jeffrey writes: >> Brian writes: >> Look, I like Kate too, but she's not the only game in town. >> I was hoping I'd get turned on to something new, or at least >> discussions on a *variety* of artists. >> Here's an honest suggestion: expand your horizons. > b) I've been turned onto more music by more varied artists than from all > the other music newsgroups I've read combined. This includes artists like > Happy Rhodes, Jane Siberry, Concrete Blonde, and a bunch of others I > can't think of off hand, but that I would never have known existed if it > weren't for r.m.g and the people who populate it (thanks, Vickie!). You're welcome...my pleasure!! Brian, really, you just need to keep reading and expand your own horizons. Everyone here is into a wide variety of artists and many of them get mentioned at one time or another. Certain ones, like Happy Rhodes and Jane Siberry tend to get emphasized more (by me, certainly) because a lot of Katefans (like Jeffrey) are looking for music and lyrics that comes close to reaching the same level of intelligence, emotion, beauty and wisdom as Kate's music. Your turn of phrase is interesting. "...not the only game in town." One of the nicest things about rec.music.gaffa is that most people who hang out here don't see music as a game. We're very serious about music. Some readers are musicians but most of us just know that life is too short to waste on listening to bad or mediocre music. Music is not a mindless entity to us. It's a very important part of our environment. We're not humorless sourpusses either. We like fun music and we like to have fun while listening to music. If sometimes we sound a bit "over-the-top" it's because we can't always contain our enthusiasm. And why should we? We're in a newsgroup/mailing list where it's fairly assured that a large majority of the readers feel the same way we do. There's a LOT to be enthusiastic about, why not shout it out? In my job I'm around music cynics all day long. They're all nice people, but most have no or bad taste in music. Some think good music is so impossible to find that they don't recognize it when they hear it. One fellow, whose job it is to buy alternative music, actually said that Dead Can Dance was "decent, not great" when I asked him his opinion. It's really kind of depressing. I work around (not "in") the music business and yet I've found very few people who actually really love music. It's a business, it's a product, it's a unit, it's a tool on the way to market shares, it's a game. It's anything other than something to make you laugh, cry, feel pain, anger, love, hope. That music can actually mean something important in their lives is alien to most of the people I meet. It's always so refreshing to read gaffa and "come home" to people who really know and understand that emotions and intelligence are important and appreciated. Brian, if you've opened a door and entered a world that's too emotionally complex for you to understand, don't close that door. Just leave it open a crack and let some of it seep out. Maybe, when you're ready, you can join us again with a better appreciation of what we're all about. We're not kooks who mindlessly worship the Goddess incarnate (though of course, she really Is :-) and shut out everything else. We're people who have figured out that music can touch our hearts and speak to our minds and keep us endlessly occupied with details and puzzles, opens doors to literature, art, history, politics, sooths us when we're in sorrow or unhappy, makes us laugh when a laugh is needed, makes us cry when tears can be theraputic. That's just for starters. Kate's music can do all of those things for us. Few other artists are capable of inspiring so much. There are others (see Jane & Happy posts) but as Kate herself says: "It is this that brings us together" and for us it's Kate Bush's music and rec.music.gaffa. It's all really very simple. Have a GOOD music filled day!! Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris) "My ears are lucky to hear these glorious songs of inspiration.... There is a road straight to my heart, traveled by those with fire... I thank you for your expressions, your music has set me free..." Happy Rhodes