Comfort In Sound - Feeder

Maybe things have changed since I was at school but musical education was woefully poor. It was never taught with any true purpose nor was it given any real importance either by the teaching staff or the pupils; the former because it didn't form part of the core curriculum and the latter because popular music was largely ignored. Only once can I remember it ever being mentioned during a music lesson and this was at an end of term quiz. Under duress. And even then, as far as the school was concerned, popular music appeared to have stopped in 1970. Probably coinciding with the split of The Beatles. Maybe things have changed now and each music lesson takes more from the Jack Black 'School of Rock' template rather than one dreamt up in 1947. But I doubt it.

You see the problem, as I see it anyway, is that the establishment is still fixated on the idea that classical music is the only form really worth studying. And it had to be done with great reverence and awe. Almost as if you're not supposed to enjoy it or fully understand it. The average mortal - and we are all average as far as classical music scholars are concerned - can only hope to understand a mere fraction of the genre. Popular music is best left to the sweating and ill educated masses and is definitely not appropriate to discuss in a classroom, in a concert hall or in the corridors. But why? Surely at the time it was composed classic music was the popular music of the day. Maybe we have to wait another hundred years or so before we can even remotely consider studying any other form of music? In the words of Ian Dury "What a waste".

I played for many years in an orchestra and hours and hours of practicing the same piece really turned me off classical music. Almost permanently. The ironic thing was that the conductor of the orchestra gave the impression that he was a true afficianodo. An expert in the field. He would regularly pick up the tiniest mistake. So tiny that no one else could hear it. But we had to stop and then start over again - playing it identically to the first aborted effort. Mistakes were not tolerated. Hhhmmmmm. We began to suspect that he was blagging it. So some of us (well PW and I) decided to test our theory..... we played an entire section backwards. All the right notes just not necessarily in the right order. This was no mean feat but we managed it and even finished at the same time as everyone else. We turned nervously to our leader. Not a peep from our esteemed conductor. He'd totally missed it. Ha! We knew it! He was a fake!

Thankfully I didn't to have to rely on my tutors at school to give me a proper grounding in music; music that mattered and would ensure that my passage through life was easier than it would've been had I not. In playground politics, music knowledge was the perfect shield for those who weren't particularly sporty. Whether it was intentional or not, my Dad made sure that I was exposed to as much music as I possibly could. It didn't matter what; The Beatles, ELO, Fleetwood Mac, Bonzo Do Dah Dog Band. It was all fair game.

So it was really comforting to hear that the tradition was continuing. A few years ago.... ok a good few years ago now... I was visiting PW's house and they had discovered that their son was developing a music taste beyond nursery rhymes and children's TV songs..... you see their son was a bit of a Feeder fan. Good choice and actually quite impressive for a three year old. So at every opportunity; at home, in the car, on holiday, they played 'proper' music. And he loved it. I'm not sure where they went from there - Metallica perhaps?

So as long as parents are prepared too instill some popular music knowledge, good or bad, in their offspring then the future of music is safe. A future that is hopefully long enough to ensure that the classical music of 2105 is the likes of Elbow, The Charlatans, Nirvana, Badly Drawn Boy, The Arctic Monkeys, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and of course Feeder.......