Among the things I almost included in my list of 8 choices for God's iPod, but left out for the lack of space and time, was a track that I don't like at all. What could that have been? I like a vast range of music, and even stuff I don't immediately warm to can be interesting if you listen hard enough to what's going on. But of course there is stuff that leaves me cold. A bland, soundalike boy-band cover of a memorable classic always seems like a pointless travesty to me. Bjork, whose creative inventiveness I admire immensely, I dislike for the simple reason that I cannot stand her voice. Or Dido's stuff I find bland and manufactured. Wagner - no thanks. Or some of that bland, West-Coast romantic worship music, complete with airbrushed beauties and Disney voices? eukk. Not for me.
The point of including something on God's iPod that I particularly dislike is this: if God had an iPod, and if he was making his own choices reflecting his own nature, than it would certainly contain music that I do not like at all!! God will, inevitably, find something to redeem in stuff that I hate; he will like the music of people that I do not understand; he will love the people, and the music, who live so far out of my zone that I just don't get it. God's iPod would be like God's Kingdom - it wouldn't be my (or your) favourite playlist, but would include people and styles and tastes that I find out of date, dull, alien, too sophisticated, or even bad taste. Some of what God would download would wind you up and make you wish you'd never heard of Christianity. And that's worth remembering.
I would have loved to listen to your music since you say you play the accoustic guitar. I couldn't find you in iTunes. Have you got some mp3 online?
Posted by: karin | 15/09/2006 at 13:18