Dew, you speak the truth. What follows is my wordy response (I have been working on my wordiness, and these damn parentheses popping up all over the place aren't helping). Please see the James Baldwin quote below (the last five paragraphs).

There is something unnatural about examining music as opposed to just experiencing it. The teacher who said, “good music is all about melodies,” maybe was a bit too simplistic. Sometimes it is the lyrics that stand out (for me, “It’s Alright Ma” by Bob Dylan), or it is the rhythm that drives the song (what would that teacher have thought about reggae rap chants which are not always so melodic but certainly rhythmic and lyrical?). But we are not exactly examining music; rather, we are examining our reactions to it, the context around it, music culture (gee, I guess this is somewhat obvious given the motto of Blogcritics).

When I was an adolescent, I used to be so deeply connected to—and strongly defensive of—my record collection. As I defined it, it defined me. This is why I was quick to condemn music from certain music and certain genres. A girl I liked listened to The Smiths. I followed suit, but then I found out that they were gay (or I think that they claimed they were asexual at the time, whatever that means). Being a high school male, I swore them off in a typical homophobic reaction. As I got older and found that some of my longtime friends were gay, I realized that it was no big deal. I guess I got more secure in my own sexuality. So now I listen to them without reservation. Similarly, I must have been warped by my limited experiences watching Hee-Haw. I thought that all country music was terrible, kitschy and phony. I felt so strongly about it that I had to testify to the world (my peers at that time) what I thought about it. I guess this was an example of struggling to form identity. Anyway, I now like a lot of country music—especially Willie Nelson. These are examples of how I was quick to stereotype music and build up preconceived notions about it and its listeners.

I teach high school students. Just as I was defensive at their age, so are many of them. When I allow a student to play a piece of music on the CD player while we write in my writing class, invariably there are hems and haws—someone saying how it is lame, gay, stupid, weak, etc. The kid who played the music is usually hurt by these comments. One time I was shocked by how vehement and vicious students could be--this one boy made a girl run out of the room crying (oh yah, he got a detention--I'm the only one who gets to make kids cry in my class). I work to make them more tolerant of other music by playing a wide variety of music: gypsy, country, classical, Arabic, Rock and Roll, R & B, and so on.