Is Pop Music Killing Music ? Music teachers report a vast downturn in the numbers of pupils wanting to learn a musical instrument. The charts are filled with singers, boy bands and ‘groups’ without an instrument between them. The music industry has become the fast food industry. Burgers are easy to make, galantine of chicken rather less so. Singers can be churned out by the dozen, guitarists, violinists and cellists take years to perfect their art. I have always been a huge fan of music. That is to say, I have always been a fan of original music. Cover versions of course have their place, Siouxsie And The Banshees putting a new twist on Helter Skelter, Muse brilliantly changing the pace of the Origin of Symmetry album with Feeling Good, and Metallica’s various homages to the bands that inspired them, these are all good examples of what a cover version can be. Why though do kids go crazy over ‘artists’ that build their entire careers on cover versions ? You don’t eat regurgitated food, why listen to pre-digested pop ? I have a particular problem with the image obsessed, bling bling, money loving, misogynistic world of rap. When rap first came about it was a breath of fresh air. As punk exposed the shortcomings of the behemoths of rock, so rap tore up the rulebooks of pop. Suddenly it was ok to discuss social issues again, poor, disadvantaged, repressed black youth found a new voice. Rap became the new blues, NWA, Run DMC, Cypress Hill and dozens of others stood up and said ‘This is our reality, this is how we are forced to live, this is what is happening to us.” Rap was vital, alive, vibrant and relevant. Fast forward to today and US rap in particular has become a bloated corporate whore, thriving on the very excesses it once deplored and railed against. The vast majority of modern rap has nothing more to say than “Look at me, I’m famous, I’m important.” I have news for you Jay-Z, 50 Cent and a hundred other muppets, politicians are important (for good or bad), so are surgeons and policemen, teachers and nurses, midwives and soldiers. If 50 Cent vanishes up his own arse (and we can only hope!) who would really care ? If my dustbins don’t get emptied for a month, that bother me. Jay-Z though doesn’t know one end of a guitar from the other, Blazing Squad wouldn’t know a viola if it fell on them, and what exactly is the DJ in Slipknot there for ? Original music won’t die out, despite the best efforts of Simon Cowell. It is a shame though, that alongside many aspects of our modern society we always seem to be choosing the quick and easy over the interesting and demanding. PS. Should you fancy making a really special dinner, here is a recipe for Galantine de poulard.