I’ve been bothered recently that a couple of folk I know have told me they’re not interested in listening to a new band or album they haven’t heard, because it’s “not the sort of thing” they like, or “so-and-so” is the best band ever, therefore “what’d be the point?”

Please think for a minute about the best artist, band or musician you’ve ever heard. Only you can answer this - that’s how personal the driving force of music is. But for this article, let’s think of sixteen possibilities.

Is it The Beatles? Rolling Stones? Pink Floyd? Radiohead? With me so far?

Maybe it’s the Foo Fighters? Kaiser Chiefs? XTC? Explosions in the Sky? There’s a sense of moving from the well-known to the less well-known in each paragraph here, isn’t there?

What about The Dead 60s? Calvin Harris? The Fratellis? New Young Pony Club? Heard them?

What about Wisp? Yuppster? Lackluster? Eva Garcia? What about them?

What do all of these sixteen artists have in common? Well, at one point, for sure, no-one had heard of them. As a statement of absolute fact, there was a time before the music of The Beatles just as there was a time before the music of Wisp. Then each of them arrived, separated in time, age and background but wanting to make music, hoping to make people feel in some way different to the way their lives were before. Not necessarily happier, nor sadder, nor more interesting, nor more rewarded, sometimes to make people fall in love, sometimes to reflect on hate or negative emotions, but the intention of making music has always been to get the listener involved in some way. Maybe by dancing, perhaps by tapping their feet in time to the rhythm, sometimes by singing along, and often by simply listening as all of the component parts of the music fall into place intellectually or academically. Very often, music has been about making money (of course, historically that was always the purpose of the “record business”), but sometimes these days artists release their music for free just for the sheer enjoyment and thrill of getting their music out there. After all, not all commercially released albums are good, are they? A signed singer or band is no indicator of talent; it only demonstrates that a) a record company have heard them, and b) as a consequence, the record company is prepared to take a financial gamble (though increasingly less so for the major labels and radio stations in these days of pretty karaoke singers who win so-called “talent contests”).

So, for anyone I know reading this, think: would the world have been a less rich place without any of these artists I mentioned above? If there had been no Rolling Stones, would you have found something else to listen to instead? Was there a space in your head and body, waiting to be filled by music, emotionally and physically?

That’s why I don’t believe anyone can make a judgement about music without listening to it. There may be music out there that is the best music I’ve ever heard - better than your Beatles, her Kaiser Chiefs, his New Young Pony Club. And there’s only one way to find out. There’s never been a bigger choice.

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