I Mean Really.....What IS Music?

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The other day I read a quote from Moby who kinda took a dig at music by performers like Britney and Ke$ha, claiming that those types of songs shouldn't be considered music. This is his quote in full as taken from PerezHilton.com:


"It's fun, but I don't think of it as music. It's manufactured. I appreciate it as a pop culture phenomenon and some of the songs I like if I hear them in a shopping mall or something, but it doesn't function as music for me. Music is something that communicates emotion and integrity in a really interesting, direct way, and when I listen to the pop music you're describing, it's hyper-produced corporate product. That isn't really even a criticism, but I just think calling it music is a misnomer."

In a way, I kind of see his point. A lot of pop music is very manufactured and kind of artificial and superficial. But I don't think it's pointless or unnecessary. I think the purpose of that kind of music is not for the artist to express some kind of emotion but more to evoke emotions in the listeners.

However nicely put, I still think Moby's comment is still a little pretentious. Not everybody cares or wants to listen to the kind of music he feels has the most substance (which would no doubt be music like his own). Sometimes we (and yes I include myself) just wanna hear something catchy and fun and enjoy ourselves! Maybe Moby would have us listening to Mozart and Haydn all the time and studying the "interesting" way that the music "expresses emotion and integrity" but I think a lot if not most of us just wanna blast "Break the Ice" and "Tik Tok" on our iPods!
Thanks for reading!