Music

It figures that having been quite lazy to blog as of late (I chalk it up to lack of interesting stuff in my routines and well, plain laziness, duh), it just figures that I have to feel like blogging at 1.24 am on Monday, when I'm supposed to be sleeping. Yeah, I've returned to my normal sleeping patterns. No more sleeping at the stroke of midnight! (Also, no more midnight Milo. Boohoo) No more sleeping before my normal bedtime! (Uh-oh, Mummy won't be too happy to read this... Heh...) Also, no more late-night episodes of The Nanny and MTV Made. I got so addicted to these two shows during the holiday. Now I really miss them. And Psych too. I miss laughing at Shawn and Gus' antics of busting criminals out of the blue, unarmed and without a plan. Psych rocks! (Now if only someone else in my circle watches this too. Boohoo)

A few hours of my night was spent working on my music presentation slides and making another photo collage for one of the slides. Here I have to say: I love Photoscape - it's so user-friendly and it yields satisfying results. Good for the uninitiated in Photoshop like myself! Okay, back to what I wanted to say. While working on my slides, I realized how much I've been influenced by mainstream music. I love pop music and I say that without shame. I know that many people knock manufactured pop music and diss it for being shallow and superficial. But I beg to differ. Not all pop songs are all bubblegum and happiness. Not all are made up of tunes that just anyone can compose. Not all are meaninglessly written to feed the mass audience's tastes.

That does not mean, however, that I do not respect other music genres. In fact, I'm quite big on RnB, rap, (and the occasional dose of modern rock). I'm quite put off by people's dismissiveness when it comes to genres such as rap and hip-hop. Not all such music is infused with negative elements and ought to be ignored. Some songs can show us how talented some songwriters are in rhyming and weaving their words together. How many people can do that? Plus, sometimes we all need some upbeat tempo and rockin' tunes in the music we listen to.

Some consider people like myself uncultured, but I don't think that's the case. Who says that culture is restricted to only "high class" things such as Broadway shows, operas, and ballet performances? Who says that to be cultured, one has to don suits and gowns and attend lavish events? Culture covers such a wide scope of everyday things that make us who we are. That guy breaking his moves on the dancefloor, that girl standing in the corner, strumming her guitar with her eyes closed, that woman singing a self-composed song onstage in a bar, that man playing his harmonica in his old store - who says that they are not cultured?

So what is culture to you?