When we start talking about 'earning the right' and 'respecting "the" tradition', we really are losing the plot. This is music we are talking about, and approaching it in terms of puritanical duty and grim moral purpose strips it of its essential humanity. I don't listen to May Bradley singing 'Leaves of Life' any more than I listen to the Stooges singing 'I Wanna be Your Dog' out of duty or respect or any of those other things. I listen to them because they move me in some elemental way. Frankly, I couldn't give a flying fuck any more about provenance or taxidermy or 'what it says on the tin' - and these things used to matter to me, but in the end just get in the way. Appreciation of music is - has to be - a purely subjective thing: how any of it might be defined is a long way down the list. And really, does anything else matter?

This lengthy thread has led me to conclude there are only two categories of music - music that moves me and music that doesn't. Everything else is bullshit, including categories, definitions and anything that is not about a personal, subjective reaction to a song or piece of music. And I can't help feeling that the hidden agenda of categorisation is to create a pecking order in terms of percieved quality or value - terms like 'earning the right' and 'respecting the tradition/tradition bearers' gives the lie to any other interpretation. It turns me off enough to want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I don't need or want to know 'what it says on the tin' because I want to devour the contents blind and make up my mind experientially, not be guided by someone else's attempts to box in expression.

Rant over.