There’s no such thing as bad music

LETTERS

I love music. Some of my fondest memories are of listening to records on an old Electrohome record player, custom penny weight on the tone arm. Dad loved Count Bassie and Louis Armstrong. Mom preferred Neil Diamond and Tom Jones. One sister mooned over Roy Orbison and another danced to Led Zeppelin. I listened to it all and loved it.

Over the years my musical tastes have evolved, but I’ve never stopped listening. I’ve come to realize there is no such thing as bad music, only music that moves you and music that doesn’t. I’m a child of the ’70s, so my personal tastes revolve around rock’n’roll, but I’ve been known to tap my toe to a country tune, some pickin’ and grinnin’, or bluegrass. Music moves me on an emotional level other mediums have a hard time duplicating. To me music is the true Lingua Franca; it speaks to me on a basic level that bars miscommunication.

It’s said the one true constant in life is change. I remember seeing The Beatles for the first time on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The whole family was gathered in the living room to watch on an RCA black and white television — on one of the three channels we could get. Over the years music delivery systems evolved. The internet brought freedom to both artist and consumer, and a backlash from the music industry, but in the end new delivery systems emerged: iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp and others.

Digital technology has also allowed creativity to blossom. There are more virtuosos in the world than ever before. What once took a complex industry can now be done by a single person in their home. As a result I see a surfeit of material, so much so that I can’t keep up, and wonder if any of it will be remembered a hundred years from now. I’m sad that I might miss a wonderful performance simply because I was never made aware of it. I wonder about the commoditization of music, that music can be consumed and discarded, and that the goal of music should be fame and fortune, as represented by some popular television programs. I feel it trivializes something I’ve valued for a lifetime.

To me, the aim of music should be the love of music; if fame comes, so be it; if not, the performer has lost nothing.

Lewis Lee

Raymond