Well, if the goal is to make a list-- any I could post are not songs I myself know, but songs I could search for to try to fulfill a Mudcatter's music-oriented request. I might start such a search at Mudcat itself, thinking as I often do in the paradigm of indexing what we have stored here. It would do little to relate the songs or singers to my own consciousness, though, and I would not find it accurate for anyone else to make assessments of how I have been influenced simply because I was willing to help by doing a search.

I didn't say the thread HAD to have a thesis-- I just agreed that if it has a point, as Azizi seems to suggest, I don't see it and-- therefore-- I can't see how to contribute to that point. It's enough for me to know it's important to a fellow Mudcatter; if I can participate in something I understand I am glad to do so, and if I can't understand then I either post or I don't post, or maybe I just settle in and learn something from others' posts.

It's not about race, BTW, not being able to see a point-- I see someone trying to fan a race fire in a post upthread so let me be clear-- I similarly posted that I could not quite grasp the point of another thread, even though its subject relates to music I am VERY familiar with, and which HAS influenced me. I just think that sometimes people are after something but what they are after doesn't quite come through clearly-- I've certainly had that happen when I've started a thread, too. That doesn't mean that a clarifying question is an attack. Sometimes a question is simply a well-intentioned effort made in good faith to try to respond to what is asked.

~Susan