I’ve always been a music lover, but I’ve decided the world is now polluted with music, or perhaps I should use a different term or phrase: It seems to me that the world is polluted with noises and sounds purporting to be music. There’s no escape from it.
GUILTY!
At this point I have to admit to being one of the polluters in past times, and I’m still making music with my son. I confess to my guilt: will you? At least I’ve learned not to subject other people to my tastes unless they’re open to them.
MUSAK
It’s impossible to shop, drive, work or be entertained without a steady stream (pun intended) of uninvited sounds. Everywhere you go, there they are – songs written by people with no depth of soul; with no beneficial or uplifting message or sentiment; with no originality, beauty of lyric, unique musical composition or giftedness, and always with one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter backing and production. Like it or lump it: you can’t refuse it.
FROM THE STREET OR DOWN ITS THROAT?
Worse still, these noises are listened to and enjoyed by millions. Is this a good thing? Does this speak of music being available to the average soul on the street rather than just the highbrow connoisseur, or is it, as Andy Partridge once expressed in his own song “Funk Pop-a-Roll”, music by the yard or meter; a generic product mass produced for dumbed-down masses to provide easy money for the industry?
FIFTH RATE?
I recently felt inclined to agree with one talk-show host on Christian radio, who sarcastically labelled some church services as “fifth-rate rock concerts”. Christians should be leading the world in creativity and style, but instead we’re following, and following badly. We went from wobbly voices to obligatory heavy breathing and crooning in just one or two generations. The organ was replaced by a bunch of third-rate musicians firmly under the thumb of the sound-man’s compression and personal bias: not any sort of gain in my opinion.
Perhaps a large portion of the flock is expressing satisfaction with the new status quo, but I assure you, there are many others among the sheep quietly cringing at what they have to smile at and go along with – unless they decide to stop attending in order to avoid it. Some of us just don’t want to sing, sway or swoon like pop stars. For me one of the many benefits of the return of Jesus Christ is that the musical world, and the sound and style of worship will be totally reset.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 