Tastes

I've always thought it to be strange how people develop such varied tastes in music.

If you subscribe to the Nature argument, then we are all born with brains that respond differently to various strains of music, giving rise to natural preferences of one kind of music over another.

The Nurture argument, in contrast, states that if one continually associated pleasurable experiences with a certain kind of music, or endured continual exposure to that brand of music, a taste for that music would soon develop.

Both arguments, however, do not provide for how some of my friends can like the music that they like. In my opinion, no creature in God's own land can ever be meant to naturally enjoy unholy abominations like Trance - it simply goes against the order of nature.

And as for people slowly acclimatizing to unorthodox forms of music... well, I do agree that people in different cultures have managed to perform amazing physical feats like fire-walking or self-branding, but surely no one relishes self-infliction of pain?

This whole train of thought had its roots in witnessing my friend pay a good $20 for a celebrated Alternative Rock album the other day. Curious as to why he wasn't being more discerning with his money and buying a Mariah Carey album instead, I had a quick listen.

3 random tracks later, I was sure I had uncovered one of the greatest scams in the music industry.

Somebody out there, someone very smart, I grant you that, has been recording the sounds of cars exploding, milk souring, couples screaming and giraffes in heat, then marketing the product as music. And as long as there as people like my friend around, the scam will go on.

Curious to see how extensive this spiderweb of deceit had been spun, I began exploring other friends' MP3 playlists, and the results are shocking. Over and over again, I've uncovered samples of Heavy Metal, Trance, RnB, Dance etc, that serve to do nothing but reduce the average human brain to pulp.

I may be ranting, but I demand to know why the free world has not responded to such a severe assault on the human spirit. If I had my way I would round up the artistes who record such atrocities, dump them on a remote island in the Pacific, and begin testing of new atomic weapons.

Those that survive, should be electronically tagged with a microchip. Every time forthwith that they attempt to compose another 'song', the chip would issue a deterring electric shock.

Forgive me. It's been a bad weekend. I aplogize.

Maybe things would be better if people developed more backbone and resisted peer pressure more. All it takes is for one guy to stand up in the middle of a Metallica concert, shout "Wake up you mad toads! Don't you see you're bleeding from your eardrums?" for the diabolical spell to be broken.

Maybe it's all just a matter of fads and trends. My dad loathes comtemporary music more than I do, and my gut feeling is that grandpa felt the same way about music during my dad's time. I guess I'm just getting old and out of touch with the stuff they play nowadays.

Maybe it simply boils down to personal taste. Or personal injury. After all, there are probably lots of kids out there who have fallen off a swing or bike before and suffered permanent head damage.

In any case, reread this post while listening to Missy Elliot's new song, Lose Control. You'll see what I mean.