Confession of a music freak

Was listening to Jordin Sparks new album, am utterly surprised as the songs are pretty good, in fact every songs in the album have the potential to become individual hit singles. Anyway, you can have a listen and judge it by yourself, download one of my favorites-faith or the album from here

To be truth, she is one of the out of the norm American Idol winners whom i really like, a plus size girl with a bubbly personalities and powerful voice. Usually i am very critical when it comes to American idol winners, cuz for some reason i am not too fond of the music that appeal to the mainstream (or American audience). Most of the time i like the runner ups more than the winner, e.g. Clay Aiken over Reuben Studdard (season 2), Bo Bice over Carrie Underwood (Season 4), Chris Daughtry over Taylor Hicks (season 5), Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert over Kris Allen (season 8).

Anyway, as you can see my music taste does not confined to any particular pattern/genre. I listen to music that's deliberately, wilfully "different"and not too studio manicured. I have tons of albums from some unknown singer in my music folder, some of my favorites are Damien Rice, James Morrison, Corrinne May, Angela Aki, Mayday (ok, they are not fall under 'unknown'), but you get my point.

Of course, music is an inherently subjective matter, one man's crap might be another man's treasure. And i have absolutely no way to define what constitutes good music. its simply personal preference, as the saying goes 'beauty in the eye of the beholder', maybe its true that 'great music in the ear of listener'.

The sad thing about the music industry is that its always moved by the mainstream, as such the market is full of manufactured pop music which are produced from the same cookie cutter and literally sounds alike. I remembered a few years ago, the music industry was suddenly dominated by hip hop music, rappers/singers such as JayZ, Outcast, Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim etc went into fame like mushroom after rains. During that period of time, hip hop music was played 24-7 in the radio and it irritated the hell out of me.

In a way, our music industry was not conducive enough for diversified music as the measuring tape is always whether they are appealing to mainstream a.k.a sells or not. I'm not against the mainstream music (well, i listened to Jordin Spark's!) but i sincerely think that there's a greater level of depth, appreciation, treasure to be found in music that have meanings in it than just some ramblings words and repetitive lyrics.

It would be cool if one day there is a petition/campaign over "supporting good music" where people will not be settled by just listening to music that sounds nice or whatever monotonous songs that are playing in the radio. Frankly, its stupid to let the music production company to decide what our ears should hear.

However, this should be a noble effort with a sincere intention of wanting more good music to be heard and not some action trying to feed to our own snobbishness/selfishness. Its funny that i knew a friend who particularly go for some unknown indie music, but loathe at it once the singer become famous. oh well, maybe he just dont like to equate himself to the mainstream.

Anyway, it really doesn't matter if you don't know much about the mainstream music or you might have a more eclectic taste. In fact be proud of it and dont mock others into listening what you think is good, but seek to appreciate the merits of different kind of music.