Road tunes. How to avoid the rage.

I ocassionaly excerpt work from my bulletin board of blogs called groovyman.com. If you are traveling over the holiday, allow “The Road Rake” to offer his comments on how to end arguments between “family DJs” during long drives.

Because most people lack the time, talent or inclination to actually master a musical instrument, their “music” is actually a vicarious form of self-expression. Express yourself the wrong way (i.e. advocate some totally ungroovy music) and you open yourself to ridicule. The opposite happens when you name a groovy tune.

But what makes a tune groovy?

Like a groovy book, it should be a shining example of its genre. It will be a pure breed. That is why Reggae will always be groovy, and the latest “world beat” house music will not. The same can be said of be-bop versus fusion (although jazz purists would argue this). Even the hip hop of The Roots versus the skitterish grunts of Kanye West.

While the lastest “genre-maker” is always upon us, it’s better to build a music collection with works that have received the baptism of time. The grooviest music is also very frequently an acquired taste, and it certainly has soul (not be confused with Soul music–although that is usually pretty groovy). If it’s exclusivity you are after, this is the fast track to the arcane (provided you develop a taste for the groovy stuff).

And money has little to do with taste in music (just ask John Lyndon). It even has a tendency to squeeze the life out of better artists over time. A musician simply needs to “put knowledge to imaginative use” to make a groovy tune. And DJs should “spin” by the same principle.