Like what you like and don't apologize

While everyone from a critical standpoint loves to tell you why the musical artists of today lack talent and why the music industry is in the toilet, let me urge two things to music listeners disgruntled by what people like me have to say:\n1) Like what you like.\n2) Don't apologize for it.\nMany like to focus on what's wrong with music, but those who focus on what's right have a lot to enjoy. While some critics complained that no artist or band came up with a definitive, transcendent post-Sept. 11 record, they failed to note that great music across times is rooted not in grandiosity but in the notion that anybody can do it. Meanwhile, those who continue to set the bar range from the eclectic to the weird to the sexy don't care about profundity, but rather simplicity and enjoyment, and the great thing is that nobody has time to listen to all the good stuff.\nThe recent release of The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop Poll (the closest thing to a definitive year-end list of 2002's best records from the nation's rock critics) said more by what was not on it than what was. Nobody had anything really to say about the potential war in Iraq. Sure, songs here and there popped up, but none caught fire, and Bruce Springsteen's The Rising was more about the reformation of the E Street Band in the studio than poignant world examination.\nPart of it is economic. Anybody who puts oneself on the line risks alienating part or all of their audience. Or as Michael Jordan once said to a reporter when asked why he didn't support Jesse Helms' opponent: "Republicans buy shoes too."\nPart of it is that music is diversionary. People listen to get away from the world problems, just as they go to see "Old School" or watch "Joe Millionaire."\nInstead, postmodernism in music today is grounded in slow, squiggly lines. The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot move beyond any boundaries by emphasizing deliberate beauty. Wilco focused their record on independence and evoking innovative sounds to acoustic-based pop songs. The Flaming Lips focused their record around whatever the heck The Flaming Lips focus their records \nThose two albums, along with Beck's fairly traditional singer-songwriterly Sea Change, universally dominate discussion over what was the best record of 2002.\nOn the other hand, Nelly's "Hot in Herre" was a tune that was not of this time but of all time. Its universality in theme made it universal on radio and MTV. Listen to it a couple of times and it was either a guilty pleasure or a pleasure, period. The same goes for Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott's "Work It," so postmodern it's traditional. "Work It" will be the first song the radio station that plays the "Hits of the Aughts" will spin. It's filled with hilarious gibberish that won't make sense until 3002 at the earliest.\nFor today we embrace the comfort aspect in our music more than ever before. From Justin Timberlake's beefy abs to Sean Paul's beefy accent, we never need to work hard to dissuade us from listening to Sigur Rós, even if a little Icelandic prettiness makes for a balanced musical diet.\nThat's because pop music isn't about traditionalism versus postmodernism; it's about hedonism versus propriety. And I vote for hedonism.\nJust listen to the first Nuggets box set and note how fresh and rocking "Louie Louie" still sounds, a song allegedly about a lot of bad things but really nothing more than a good time. People seek comfort in The Rolling Stones today not for its innocence but for its flagrant exploiting of its and our past days. \nHow ironic is it that Sept. 11 has made us reminisce over not a more innocent time but a more bacchanalian time, when not so much in the political world got in the way of our personal politics?\nThe time and place of the rock era's most raging age of purpose might have been the underground/alternative scene of the '80s, virtually ignored in the pantheon but setting the stakes for an environment that allows for college radio stations, cool horn-rimmed glasses, hyperdramatic commitment issues, feedback and a greater musical vocabulary. Compared to many of these bands, The Ramones were huge. Meanwhile, flannel shirts sort of came and sort of went.\nThese bands turned turning inward into an art form still practiced today. Often hugely talented performers took wisely modest statements and made them grandiose with their presence. \nMeanwhile, anti-hedonistic U2 decided they wanted to save the world and sold more records than all those others combined. U2 isn't without its charms, but they aren't without their pretensions either. God might make room for them someday, but the rock gods don't figure. Cool wraparound shades do not equal cool horn-rimmed glasses.\nSo listen to it all, and get a big punch bowl. From the nihilism of Nine Inch Nails to the pretty strummings of Nickel Creek to the postmodern country blues of the North Mississippi All-Stars to the old-school punk of the Hives, enjoy.\nIf music sucks, then you're not looking hard enough.