Barry Taylor's class at Fuller has pushed me consider "Why Music Matters" and why we need to really pay attention to the range and depths of expressions coming from popular music. Some of us find a lot of styles of music hard to stomach. The edge maybe even feels toxic. Friends of mine recently have been sharing with me why they like NAS, System of the Down, and Stained. Some of the songs I have come to appreciate and "like" as well as see as insightful by these musicians because they are reflecting on realities that exsist -- Painful realities...

James Garbarino reflects in his book "Raising Children is a Socially Toxic Environment" reflects on how the environments that we have collectively shaped are really toxic for the healthy development of children. I would say that the sounds of emerging global youth cultures are expressing this very truth in terms that the adult world does not like to hear -- and should not ignore. We can not keep ignoring the real needs of developing children... this lack of intergenerational thinking needs to be reversed at the level of design. If some of my more "conservative" Church friends wonder why I am listening to what my friends in the hood are listening to... it is because they are resonnating with meaning from music that expresses their feelings... often their pain... to ignore their music is to in fact ignore them. I think God is listening too... and if we keep tuning out... their cries will have to just get more "loud" and more "desperate".

All Music emerges out of a context... Thank you Barry for pushing me on my thinking about this.