[Assunkkensatt]

I think to answer well I have to start of by saying that music can have different functions, in fact most of the music we hear is serving a functional, rather than a purely aesthetic purpose.

I think back on the Congressional elections here in the U.S. and I remember the kitch they had playing behind monolouges praising (or more often attacking) this man or that woman--I hated that music. Music as propaganda, I do not like.

Consider the "Dirty-South" hip-hop with it's notorious degradations against women, some of the thrashcore metal bands that espouse violence and murder wherever they go. Music as a means to incite evil, I do not like.

Consider the countless anthems that soldiers have sung as they left a field full of dead men, merely because they had sung a different anthem and held a different flag. Music that disguises murder as patriotism, I do not like.

Consider the thinnly disguised bragadocia of the smug performer, wrapped up in him/herself, and convinced of their own genius above all other things; or the syphilitic old men that use their music as a means to get with there young and ignorant fans. Music as self-praise and self-service, I do not like.

Music is a tool that can be used for anything a man wants to use it for. More often than not it's used as a piece of orwellian candy, a trite offering to entertain it's listeners for a fraction of a second until the latest hack offers up their nearly identical piece of drivel.

I think a piece of music that is truly beautiful is rare, and therefore more worth the listening. When we hear a Barber's Adagio, Elgar's Nimrod, Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah...etc...we must stop and listen, and not cheapen the experience.

I like music that is composed by people trying to communicate to the core of another person for a good reason. I like music that has purposeful dissonance and resolution. Whether the music is tragic opera, or light-hearted dance music, I only find myself enjoying it when it is contains musical thought, from a musician with some kind of understanding of the world he/she lives in. I like music that is made to be listened to as art, not as a tool for our alterior motives.