Chet,

I think it's interesting to talk about. I'm just not sure that you can really define "good" and "bad" music that carefully without specifics. "Good or bad" to whom and for what reason?

I see certain tunes containing lryics that send unhealthy messages to kids but this is true for folk music as well as pop. Songs about grizzly murders from Appalachia are no nicer in content than some of the "Gangsta Rap" that you hear. If we are talking about music that some would deem "puerile", well hell, that's nothing new in any musical genre or era. Growing up in the forties I heard a lot of sappy popular music that had very little edifying content but then there were those great songwriters such as Berlin, Arlen, Carmicheal, Mercer et.al. who made that era look pretty good. It's probably not too much different now. The problem with this discussion is that so far I don't believe it's been discussed. We need specifics and then we have something to talk about. What "good" and "bad" music? And why?

Frank Hamilton