It Can't All Be Good...Not All Of It
Honesty...the brutal kind

This topic's gonna seem kinda redundant compared with some of my other posts, but then again, it's all part of a greater whole.

I recently picked up a collection of tunes by Desmond Dekker and the Aces. Dekker was an early Jamaican ska artist who had a string of hits in the 60's and early 70's. Note: I said Jamaican ska and early, not that frat boy crap from outta Orange County. Anyhow. One of my co-workers borrowed it from me, and we started talking about some friends of hers who were into reggae. Did I say 'into reggae'? No, that's not it. She explained that while riding in their car she went to pick out a CD from a carrying case, and that was all it contained.

Whenever I hear something like that, I inevitably think: As much as I may like (insert music, author, or what-have-you here, in this case reggae), it can't all be good?

Actually, after much exposure living in Florida, I know that it isn't all good. There's the artists. Then there's the crap that sounds like cruise ship material. And that's just in the straight-up vein, without out even considering personal tastes in the variations and sub-genres like dancehall, etc.

I understand that it's what you're familiar or comfortable or obsessed with, but that doesn't mean you can't distinguish between one thing and the next. It's not like it's necessarily all the musicians themselves enjoy or listen to. One of the last music stores I worked was down the streets from the hotel where most of all the arena-sized music acts would stay, and frequently they would drop in. Assuming I was even remotely interested in them, it was always interesting to see what they would buy. For instance, 'Geezer' Butler, the bassist from Black Sabbath, didn't buy anything ressembling a rock 'n roll record much less heavy metal. I can't remember specifically what he picked up, but most of it was blues stuff.

You can break it down even farther. Have you ever dealt with anyone who's fanatical over any one band? Even if it's a band you like, these people still seem way, way off base. The only way it get worst is if you don't like the band.

Keep in mind, I'm talking about real bands and musicians here. Most teens throuth twenties guys don't give a rat's @$ about Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson's music. They could be doing that Tuvan throat singing...well, ok...it'd still have to have some pop appeal, but the reason these guy's tune is because they want to f*ck them. Not because of the music. I've met a few who later convinced themselves they liked the music, but initially, it didn't have a thing to do with it.

Anyhow, musicians. Classic rock really has a lot of ardent defenders. Try telling any Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd fans that everything they did wasn't pure genius.

(Side note: I'm beginning to effing hate Netscape: a) for repeatedly eating my bookmarks, and b) for continuously crashing. However, I sure as hell don't plan on switching over to Internet Explorer.)

So to sum up, what got eaten in the last crash.

David Bowie: Love him. Think he's a genius. Own most of his stuff...but not all of it. Why? Because it isn't all good. The song 'Kooks' from Hunky Dory is enough to prove that the man can do wrong.

Then I talked about how it applied to most everything. I like some science fiction, but 90% of it is crap. TV shows are often the worst offenders, and they can't all be good. A friend of mine loved a show so much she would watch a bad episode over and over again to convince herself it was good or that it had redeemable qualities. To me, if it's bad, it's bad. Most importantly, it's not up to you to defend someone else's output.

Stuff can be bad. Hell I love Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a classic movie example of badness. The odd thing is that even good bad stuff has rules to distinguish it from things that are just bad. Or even worse...mediocre.

Cheers.