Embarassing Confession Time

Some people seem to believe I have good taste in music. At this I laugh (ha!) I don't even know what qualifies as 'good taste'. I don't listen to commercial radio, because all of the music sounds the same and it's full of advertisements. I don't know much about jazz, classical or country but I wouldn't say that I dislike these types of music. The kinds of things I like tend to be labelled 'alternative' (and as someone who took a cultural studies subject focusing on music and popular culture, the label 'alternative' is a bit of a joke) and played on Triple J and are usually (but not always) pop or rock. In fact I'd say 'alternative pop' would describe my tastes, although the range of music I like is rather broad.

There are reasons why I will not be criticising anyone else's tastes here (apart from Sandi Thom- punk rockers did NOT wear flowers, nor did they exist during the time when hippies were around. Also the Cold War was going on, so it was not such an idealistic age). The main reason is that I own many CDs by an artist with absolutely no credibility whatsoever, that artist being Enya.

Just as I can't really explain why I like The Shins (well, I can try), I can't really explain Enya at all. Like so many other people I'm easily manipulated by her multi-layered vocals, use of Gaelic, French and Latin, orchestral arrangements and whatever mind altering messages she secretly hides in her songs underneath the foreign language stuff. Although she passes herself off as a solo artist, her songs are jointly written and composed by her producer and his wife, Nicky and Roma Ryan. In many ways this kind of concealment is worse than liking artists who openly cover songs by other artists, but she does at least compose the music for these songs (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enya).

I don't really know what makes Enya have such a tarnished reputation. She is certainly very successful (although so is Shannon Noll) and manages to make a considerable fortune from her music (as does Britney Spears). Maybe it's just that her music is typically enjoyed by middle aged people with no clue about 'cool'. But what do I know about 'cool'? I can't stand the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

All of this is supposed to demonstrate that I have no authority when it comes to telling you what music is good or what you should be listening to in order to claim you are on the 'cutting edge' of societal tastes. I can only describe what I like to hear.