Laurence Sherwood replies to Dave Lampson:

>>There is no objective truth about the quality of music because it's all
>>based on subjective perception.
>
>I don't believe that, and I think if I did, I would be so attracted to
>this genre we call CM and which some blue ribbon panel called one of the
>200 great inventions of mankind.  I'm curious what others on this list
>think.

You mean you couldn't like it if you didn't believe it was objectively
worthwhile? Sounds very strange to me and very much counter to my
experience.  I've seen people fall in love for all sorts of reasons with
all sorts of people and things I wouldn't myself touch.  But it's not
*my* business to criticise them (or most of them), just as it isn't their
business to shake their fingers at me because I happen to like Mussorgsky
and Brahms.  I tend to simply accept the fact that nobody likes everything.

>Take the proverbial visitor- Mr. K- from the planet Klatu in a galaxy
>far far away.  He- "he" by default, not biological role- might be puzzled
>by Earthling music.  Suppose he tried comparing the music central to this
>list with that of, oh Madonna or the latest rap star, or even Brian Wilson.
>Irrespective of Mr. K's hearing and audial processing, I think he would
>recognize a certain banality in the rap genre as compared with, say, the
>music of Bach, Lizst, or Simpson.

Well, as long as we're hypothesizing, he might not.  He might not even
detect auditory stimula.  He might look at a performance of the Bach St.
Matthew Passion and laugh whatever might be his ass off.

Steve Schwartz