Richard Pennycuick writes: >Larry also used the phrase "popular American culture." If it's relevant >to the discussion, a braver person than I might care to suggest what this >is - or isn't.' I will be brave enough to venture a definition. Popular American culture, music division, is a manufactured artifact, put together by committees which include sound engineers, A & R hacks, marketeers, agents, and also, almost incidentally, the musicians. Anyone familiar with the Pop music recording industry can, I believe, confirm this assessment, at least for a large fraction of what is released. In contrast, classical culture, music division, while not wholly insensitive to market considerations, is rarely cooked up with anything like this much predetermination. [Perhaps I should make an exception for certain kinds of CM described by the first syllable Min.] Someone else ventured the constitutional idea that "all music is born equal". My suggestion is that different kinds of music are, in point of fact, born by distinct mechanisms. Cheers... Jon Gallant and Dr. Phage [[log in to unmask]]