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From: nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Musical asparagus vs. musical twinkies
Message-ID: <273@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Nov-85 06:58:44 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.273
Posted: Fri Nov  1 06:58:44 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 3-Nov-85 12:30:16 EST
References: <1179@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 48

> From: blickstein@tle.DEC (Dave Blickstein)

> Of course this does have a slight indication of authenticity: The
> person seems to be saying that it's only wrong to imply that music is
> "bad" when the music really is "good" (according to Dougs definition I
> suppose) but you just can't appreciate it.

Exactly!  Like Joni Mitchel makes good music.  I just don't like her
music much.  I would never call her music bad.  Joni Mitchel is a true
artist.  I just don't appreciate her art.  But maybe that's just my
problem.  If some one else loves her music, that's perfectly fine with
me, and I wouldn't try to convince them that there is anything wrong
with liking it.  Diversity is a good thing.

Lionel Richie, on the other hand, makes bad music.  He is not an artist.
He is an opportunist and is in it for the money.  If he could make it
rich some other way, that's what he would be doing instead.  His "music"
is worthless and very probably brain-damaging and people who buy his
albums are helping to starve real artists and wasting their time and
minds.

An analogy with food seems reasonable.  I don't like asparagus.  But
is asparagus bad food?  Of course not.  Would I ever try to convince
someone that they shouldn't be eating asparagus.  Of course not.  On the
other hand, if I see someone living on a diet of Cool Aid, Coco
Crispies, and Twinkies, and who smokes three packs of cigarettes a day,
I might try to convince them that this is not a healthy lifestyle.  This
would atrophy the body.  And Lionel Richie atrophies the mind.

I've said all this before.  I guess it needed to be said again.

> P.S.  I thought it worth mentioning that I'm writing this while listening
>      to "Never For Ever" for about the 12th time trying as best as I can to
>      learn to "appreciate" it, the result of having received recommendations 
>      for Bush from more objective sources.

Well, that's the only KB album that has songs on it that I don't like
(like "Babooshka" -- blech.  (Didn't expect me to say that, now did
you?)), but it also has a couple of my favorites (like "Breathing"!
Ooooh, what a song!).  It is also her weakest album lyrically (but you
don't care about lyrics, right?)  You really don't have to try so hard,
though, if you don't like her.  It doesn't bother me if you don't.  Just
don't say she isn't good, and I don't care.

			"Chips of plutonium, twinkling in every lung"

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