Tuesday 4th December

I have had this mantra, which I constantly have to remind myself of, that all music is good music.  The corollary being that there is some I am simply less familiar with.  And of course it isn’t true, as any parent listening to their child attempting to knock out a tune on a recorder will agree with.  But the point I am trying to make is that the vey attempt to make music is good, almost regardless of the outcome, and almost without exception all recorded music is good music.  I am not a fan of the wilder regions of thrash metal, and do not understand much of hip-hop; dissonant choral pieces leave me cold, as does much ‘modern’ classical music, and I hate what used to be called MOR (middle of the road) and I particularly loathe supermarket and lift muzak.  But that is possibly because I haven’t really listened to it, not because it is bad in itself.

I subscribe to a music magazine called ‘Uncut’, and every month they issue a free CD; sometimes it is the latest Americana, or  new releases, but often goes off at weird tangents into the less usually heard realms of recorded music.  And the strange thing is that the more you listen to this unfamiliar music the more you begin to like it, or if not exactly like, appreciate and not loathe it.  So familiarity can breed not contempt but acceptance, and even enjoyment – I have ‘discovered’ quite a few artists I went on to love with these free CDs

I occasionally catch Desert Island Discs, and it has struck me that actually whatever 12 records you were shipwrecked with, you would come to love them eventually – because All Music Is Good Music in the end.  Except possibly Celine Dion – Hahaha