The Australian - Knickers in a twist. Again.

Over at The Australian, they are getting more hot under the collar than a viagra-ed up Rex Hunt in a brothel at news that those crazy leftwing lunatics at the Education department in Western Australia have decided to incorporate modern music in their new high school syllabus.

The new co-ordinator for the course has decided to include PCs and turntables into the syllabus in an assumed effort to increase the relevancy of the course for the pupils. Richard Gill, thunders the report, describes the development as 'educational double speak and claptrap...It could just as easily be the curriculum for cooking as music' Eh? Ah yes, it'll be an easy mistake to make. Show the pupils a range of music making devices ranging from Guitairs to Violins to Turntables and whaddya know? The inclusion of those dastardly electronic things will confuse the students so much that they'll start turning up to class with the ingredients to make a Coq Au Vin.

The article bangs on, 'To describe turntables and computers as musical instruments was "totally meaningless" he [Richard Gill] said. " A computer is a computer and a turntable is a turntable. One of the points of education is to make the distinction"'

I mean, how thick does he think kids in Western Australia are? Clearly, if they are told that computers are instruments, they will naturally take this literally and start trying to play the keyboard like a piano. Oh! Just feel the emotion in that # key! Marvel at the sound the @ button makes! It's just like so musical man.

Or do you think, in reality, that the pupils will use a piece of software on their PC (these have been around for a number of years Mr Gill) which will enable them to create music? Just a thought or am I being far too leftwing & post modern for your liking?

The course co-ordinator rightly states that ' if there is a student from India who wants to play the tabla, they can and they wouldn't be able to do that in the old course'. The Australian sneers at this but what's wrong with it? Who is to say that playing the flute is better or worse than playing the tabla? Why is playing the guitar seen as 'better' than creating a tune on a PC?

The headline for the whole article is "Turntable music 'equal' to violins'. Well if I wrote that headline I would remove the quotation marks around equal. It is equal to violin music. Just because the Australian wishes the people of this country be bought up on nothing but Shakespeare and Beethoven doesn't mean that other forms of human creativity should be dismissed by writers who clearly do not know what they are talking about.

Richard Gill states that 'Reaction to music is a personal and subjective thing...' and that is absolutely correct. I'd rather wander around the streets of Baghdad wrapped in an American flag than listen to the flute or violin or fucking trombone for more than 10 mins. I imagine the staff on The Australian would rather french kiss Germaine Greer than listen to any of my doof doof music. That doesn't mean their music is 'better' it simply means that they have different personal taste to me. All opinions on music are subjective. All music has it's place.

Well, apart from Hard House. That's just rubbish.