Couden's Culture Corner

It's not really anything to do with anything, but I realized recently that, although I often really enjoy bad movies and books--or movies and books that I'd consider "light" or "easy" (this isn't quite as snobby as it sounds, though it's close [the way I read them (which isn't necessarily the right way), Fathers and Sons was kind of light, while Fruits Basket is actually pretty heavy])--I don't enjoy listening to bad music.

I really can't figure this out.  Because I am very much a proponent of crappy movies.  I love anything with robots, for instance.  I like superheroes.  And I can only rarely be persuaded to see something with Helen Mirren in it--much as I admire her as an actress, she's always in things that just sound way too highbrow for me.  And I often like crappy fiction (I have a well-stocked shelf of '70's through '80's Harlequin Presents novelettes), but can only rarely be prevailed upon to read anything that looks modern and thoughtful, like Angela's Ashes.

So why am I not willing to give myself a chance to enjoy crappy music?  The immediate response is that life's too short, but then by extension life would be too short for the novel Death Takes Up a Collection, one of a series of mysteries in which a San Francisco nun solves church-related murders--and life clearly wasn't.  I want to say that it's because my commitment to music is one of the most serious things in my life, and I can't tolerate the idea of hearing the bad stuff...

But I actually think it's a matter of price point.  The lowest you can get a used CD for is around $5.50.  If you don't like the CD, that's $5.50 you could have spent toward books--and $5.50 plus about $2 can get you a cool used copy of Fleurs du mal, a wall calendar (between the months of May and September), an August Wilson play and a cup of coffee, or about sixteen Harlequins at your local library booksale.

So I try to make real sure that I purchase music I'm going to like, because it's all going to be $5.50 or more. 

I think there's a lesson in here somewhere, but danged if I can figure out what it is.