[Previous entry: "There's a killer on the loose"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Stating the obvious"]

01/06/2004 Entry: "If music be the food of love..."

I heard an interview tonight with Feargal Sharkey, former frontman of The Undertones. He's heading up a "task force" to promote live music following the completion of a survey of the state of British music.

What saddened me was that the discussion was all in terms of the economic impact of the music business - its size, number of employees, that sort of thing. There was nothing about encouraging participation in music-making for nothing other than joy, nothing about the pleasure that can come from singing, playing, taking part. It's such a shame that music has become so professionalised, something to be a passive recipient of rather than a participant in. Of course, not everyone will be able to sing arias or play a faultless solo. But music really is something that is social, and sometimes the quality of the taking part is much more important than the accomplishment of what's produced.