[dda]

Sometimes, for me, the music is meaningful because the lyrics are meaningful (a number of Paul Simon songs). Sometimes, for me, the music is meaningful because it makes me feel a certain way (when I was young there were a number of instrumental records which made me feel cool just because I was listening to them, Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis, Booker T and the MG's). Sometimes, for me, the record is meaningful because it makes me remember things from another time (Twelfth of Never, Islands in the Stream). Whether or not any of the meanings which I attach to any of the records is that which the artist intended is neither here nor there for me.

What I wonder about contemporary hip hop, etc. records (I have trouble believing they are music, a generational problem that many of you will share in 20-30 years) is whether people, when they reach my age will still be humming/singing/remembering them. My parents thought no one would remember rock and roll songs for very long and in many cases they were right but in many cases they were wrong. It will probably work out the same for me.