Pablo Massa wrote, in response to me:

>(Sorry for the delay.  I spent a vacation week at the beach, diving in a
>tank full of sharks (I'm not joking).  This has little to do with music,
>but I don't think I'll have the guts to do it again in my whole life, so
>I won't let go the opportunity to tell it everyone...:-)

Now this sounds terribly interesting.  Can't you send the whole story
together with the music you thought of in this moment so that it would
be totally on-topic.  (Would I like to listen to Beethoven or Dvorak when
diving in a tank full of sharks? Or Ricky Martin?)

>>Well, classical music companies will do everything legal (or even illegal,
>>who knows) in order to make us buy records by Cecilia Bartoli (who I love)
>>or Neville Marriner.  So what? They want to earn money, that's their job.
>
>They may do it, but not in the same scale as pop music companies do it.

This doesn't change their business tactics.  The big companies sell
classical music like Microsoft sells programms.

>Besides, there's an additional problem: millions of people likes Ricky
>Martin.  Yes, this is a problem, because they will *force* you to hear RM
>at every time (at the bus, at a party, at the streets, etc) no matter if
>you like or not, if you are in the mood or not.  You may call this "musical
>pollution", and there should be laws against it.

Now this sounds too North Corean for my Western ear.  A musical
dictatorship - Pablo, you must be joking.

>Perhaps those *laws* are unnecessary at Europe, USA, Canada or Australia,
>but here in Argentina, bus drivers are allowed to play their favourite
>music at loud volumes, and the passengers simply must shut up and absorb
>the music as a part of the "natural" sound landscape of the city.  In our
>wonderful argentinian way of life, It's considered almost a show of bad
>taste to ask the bus driver to stop the music or even to turn down the
>volume.  I forgot to tell you this in my former message, and I think that
>it can explain somehow my mania about "reactions".

What about buying a discman and listening to classical music instead? Or
using a car to come from A to B?

>>To complain about this is like complaining about rain: it is a waste a
>>time and energy.
>
>Perhaps. But I think it's worth.

Well, if complaining brings about change, it is certainly worth the
effort. But I can't see that your ranting against poor crooning Ricky
Martin changes anything.

>> I think it is a fruitless
>>thing to complain about Ricky Martin's music being so dominant.  Would you
>>like to live in a world where there is Bach playing all the time: in TV
>>commercials, in the radio, at the Internet, on parties, in elevators? A
>>nightmare.
>
>Agree.  Even Bach can be a nightmare under that condition.  My point is
>precisely that *no* music would be dominant at the point that you can't
>refuse to hear it.  Some day I will catch a fan of RM (a bus driver, for
>example), I'll tie him in a chair and I'll force him to hear the entire
>work of Anton Webern.

Now this is cruel, Pablo.  If you really want to torture a bus driver with
classical music, take Wagner.  It is a tough punishment, too, but the guy
has a chance to recover (slowly).

>After that, I'll ask to the poor guy: "got my
>point, partner?".  Some people will say that I'm a sort of monster, but
>I'll just be giving back what I receive everyday.

Now I understand the state Argentina is in...  ;-) What about asking the
bus driver to play Piazzolla? After all Argentina is the country of tango.

Robert