Heh. Or as the teenagers oft-said, in reviewing songs on American Bandstand: "It's got a good beat, and it's easy to dance to!"

I was thinking of this especially, this week, with obituaries and rememberances of James Brown, and how he was credited by "revolutionizing" American (and world) popular music by reemphisizing rhythm, and deemphisizing melody -- breaking away (I've heard a few music historians say in the past few days) from Western Classical music theory.

That reminded me of this exchange, and that got me thinking that maybe "Western Classical music theory" was never quite as deeply entrenched as many assume -- that music pre-Bach might just be closer to post-Brown than we realize (As Sting is demonstrating, in a different way, with his album of Dowland covers).