Contemporary Jewish Music

Some of the best and nicest Jewish bloggers are the Jewish Music bloggers. Ever since I started following blogs I have seen the JM-bloggers railing against certain musicians who appear to be ruining Jewish music. As a consumer rather than a producer of Jewish music, allow me to respectfully voice a different opinion.

I took one semester of Music in college and, in between Vietnam stories, learned a little about how music works and got to appreciate great music. I can no longer remember anything from that class. I listen to music for two reasons - to inspire me and to entertain me. Inspiring music is of the Carlebach or Regesh variety (maybe even hazzanus) - frequently slow, the tune fits the words, everything comes together and uplifts the soul. Entertaining music is anything that entertains me. Many years ago, it would have been Billy Joel or the Police. Nowadays, it is only Jewish music but really anything that sounds good and does not have filthy or stupid lyrics. If the tune does not fit the lyrics, I don't care. I just want a decent song in my head to relax me. I'd pull out an old Billy Joel tape except his songs are almost all about peritzus or narrishkeit. I listen to this kind of music when I'm driving tired or am simply trying to relax after an exhausting week. I don't care if the melody is simple or anything like that. I would not even notice if the song is slightly off-key.

In the movie Mr. Holland's Opus (which I may have seen or may have just heard about - this is not a confessional blog), there is a scene in which the high school music teacher plays the song Louie Louie to a young student (who later becomes governor). He asks her why the very simple song is so popular. His answer: Because it's fun.

Music that is fun and relaxing - and does not have filthy or idiotic lyrics - is OK in my book. Cultural biases about what kind of music is entirely unacceptable (as a child of the 70s and 80s, I find disco beats and electric guitar solos to be offensively "goyish," particularly at weddings) are just a way of old people like me being old-fuddy-duddies and complaining about kids today and their loud music.