Music I Will Not Play
The motto for my show is "Music from All Corners of the Musical Galaxy." Over the course of the last 12 years we have heard a wide selection of music on the show, and I continue to work to expand the scope and variety of that which I play. However, you don't hear just anything on the show. Part of this is from practical necessity - there is only so much material that I can cover with the resources that I have, and the time available to me. So I try to focus on that which is musically intriguing, exemplary of a great musical beauty, or that which demonstrates great musical promise.
Beyond the issue of practical necessity, I do reserve the right to be selective of the material that I play. This is not because of a sort of "musical snobbishness." There is some material that does not fit in with the goal of artistic and creative advancement that I have continuously pursued over the course of the last decade. I do not play much modern pop music, for instance, because I find such material to be increasingly lacking in creativity and quality. This is also the situation with rap music. I do, however, work hard to find that which is creative and interesting, and when I find it, it finds a place on the show.
There are a few other areas that I do not delve into. I will not play works that require the "bleeping out" of vulgarities. While I detest censorship, I also believe that the artist has a certain responsibility to the community of listeners, and to the kids that listen to their music. Beyond that, I also believe that vulgarities actually take away from the focus of the music. I believe there are better ways that people can express such strong feelings without using such language. After all, words carry great power. I play some genres where various artists feel at liberty to use vulgarities in their lyrics. But there is plenty of excellent music that I can play where this language is not used, and I shall focus on that. Every once in a great while, a stray word will slip through (after all, I am only human), but if I catch it, I won't play it. I support the concept of artists using discipline in their work.
I also find myself not playing a lot of what most people consider "gospel" music. I myself am Christian, and I generally don't play material that conflicts with my Christian beliefs (metal group Lamb of God notwithstanding - I see some merit in their critique of Christians - I'm sometimes critical of them myself). But many of the traditional forms of gospel music I find to have lost their creative drive a number of years ago. The exception to this argument is bluegrass gospel, which I find to often be quite beautiful and heartfelt in the expression of the performer's feelings while at the same time giving no compromise in terms of artistic integrity. So that sort of material you will hear on the show.
I hope that this might shed a little light on the philosophy on which this program is based. If I were to state my musical philsophy in one brief, convenient form, I could probably use a quote from Revelations 3:16:
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.
So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
To put it simply, I do not play lukewarm music, and I really don't play cold music. I play hot music, and lots of it.
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Last Update: March 24, 2008
Email: saxman@siu.edu