all that matters is the end result

There is no wrong way...

    Is accoustic music better than electronic? If someone "plays" a sampler or turntable, is it real music? Is a programmed drum track lower on the musical scale than one played by a "real" drummer? Has all music been on a downward spiral since Bird? Or maybe since Coltrane? Did Miles' later music "suck" because he used the tools of the day? Has technology ruined music?
    I hear these questions asked all the time, and in my "middle" age, I have come to see these questions as laughable. They mean nothing. The answer is so simple, even a member of the Taliban could see it. Well, then again, maybe not. See, I think this question is directly related to the old "they sure don't make 'em like they used to" mentality.
    But before I go on, what are the answers to these questions? The answer, I believe, is in the title to this essay.

all that matters is the end result

    Great music is great music. It doesn't matter how it got made. It doesn't matter whether the person who made it had any education, or even whether they had the foggiest notion of what they were doing. All that matters is the end result. Does it move you in some way? Perhaps it makes you forever look at life from a different perspective. Maybe it inspires you to create something of your own. To express yourself in your own unique way. Maybe it just makes your life better, a little more bearable. This is what art does, and how it got made is of little consequence.
    A moment ago, I mentioned the adage "they sure don't make 'em like they used to". This is a dangerous trap we all risk falling into as we get older. Every time has it's own music. Once a music's time has passed, it doesn't become any less important. It just becomes the music of another time, one that we can visit any time we want to. Learning new music is work, a real challenge - and we don't have to learn it. But just because we choose not to learn it, and to continue to listen to the music of our past, doesn't make it a lesser music. It just becomes music that we can't understand, we just don't get it.

    And it is this resistance to new trends that causes all this questioning. But it all means nothing, it's just academic, a mental exercise.

    I remember, years ago, an unforgettable music experience. I was living in Boston, and it was a freezing winter night. I was taking the subway somewhere, by myself, lost in my thoughts. As I descended the stairs into the station, I heard music. Nothing unusual at the time. But as I stood in the cold, quiet station, waiting for my train, I listened and realized this was somebody really quite good, playing what sounded like an upright bass. When I walked around to get closer, I couldn't believe my eyes - it was what appeared to be a homeless man, playing a broom handle with a string attached to one end, the other end resting on an upside down metal bucket, with the string somehow fixed to the top of the bucket! The guy was playing tunes, changes, melodies - with a broom handle and a mop bucket! And he had a tone! I mean, it was a fat, woody sound!

    I learned an important lesson that night - if you have the desire and vision, you can make great music with anything. How it is made is of little importance, even who made it ultimately is of little consequence. What is the end result?

Is it undeniably great?

This is all that matters.

- David Thomas Peacock