Reason To Rock-It's All About The Music
the way of a person appreciating a specific song, or an artist, or even a whole style of music. There is no such thing as "pure" art -- it all springs out of a particular culture, specific individuals, a given time and place, a certain way of looking at human experience. And all of this is inextricably bound up with the art itself. So there is no such thing as a "pure" critic, one who can become finely attuned to the artistic elements in music without being influenced by all the other associated elements. You can't separate the art from the other stuff -- it's all one piece.
This is why, in "Reason to Rock", I really only talk about the artists and the recordings that mean the most to me. By doing so, I hope to help others develop a deeper appreciation, not only for the music that I love, but to help them listen with fresh ears to all music. I would expect, then, that they would grow bored with some material, and develop a new appreciation for other artists and styles. But the music they love won't necessarily be the music I like the most.
4. Are you planning on writing a punk rock version of Reason To Rock? Punk rock of the late seventies and early 1980s, before new wave, contained some of the strongest political and social statements of the time, probably as much as movies, literature, etc. Have you researched the music of any punk rock groups?
Again, as I suggested above, I don't want to be dismissive of any particular artist or musical style. Every style of music has had good and bad elements. I confess that punk rock never moved me strongly, so I wouldn't want to try to write about it.
If you look at any art form, though, you will see that it goes through phases. Most art forms start with very broad, popular appeal, because that's what sells, naturally. As the form matures, you start to see artists who are more self-aware, more aware of their craft, more aware of the potential of their form. Continue a little further and you will find artists who are still trying to appeal to the masses, and yet are also trying to fashion unique artistic expressions. In the next phase you find artists who feel too constrained by popular taste and want to break free of commercialism, who
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