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From: jackson@curium.DEC (Seth Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Good and Bad Music
Message-ID: <2331@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 28-May-85 10:37:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.2331
Posted: Tue May 28 10:37:50 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 31-May-85 00:40:52 EDT
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>Seth Jackson sez:
>If you say that music is bad, you are saying that it has no value.
>If something has no value, than nobody would give something of value
>to obtain it. Funny thing, though...an awful lot of people are 
>exchanging something of value, namely money, to buy records that
>you would call bad. In fact, more people place value on 'bad' 
>music than music that is 'good' by your standards. There must be
>something in that music that all these people find valuable, eh?
>----
>
>
>This assumes that people always do whats best for  them on a rational basis.  But we all know
>how people frequently do things for IRRATIONAL reasons.  Lemmings
>are like that too :-).  
>
>For instance, if you hear a song enough times on the radio; there may be mechanisms
>in your brain which makes you "lock onto" it, simply because it is familiar,
>regardless of how uninteresting it is,
>thus causing you to want to hear it again.
>
>
>People also may buy music because they think it is "cool" to do so.
>So the music may have "value" to them, but it is not valuable "as music",
>rather as status enhancer.
>-- 
>larry kolodney (The Devil's Advocate)

Yes, it's possible that people do any or all of the above, but do really
believe that that's the case for all or most people who like pop music?
Are you willing to concede that some people buy that music because they
actually like it? 

All these arguments that attempt to prove that X is bad music are simply
absurd. You can create all the theories and hypotheses you want, but
they still will have no bearing on reality. The fact of the matter 
remains - if there is an audience who appreciates music X, then music
X is good music - TO THEM! It may not be good by *your* standards, but
your standards only matter to you.

Once again, I state that pop music and other kinds as well have something
to offer. If you don't like the music, it's not because the music is bad,
it's because you have not learned to appreciate what's good about it. But,
as one wise prophet once said, "You ain't gonna learn what you don't want
to know."

__

"Once in a while you get shown the light 
 In the strangest of places if you look at it right"

				Seth Jackson
				dec-curium!jackson