Good Music is Good Music

Tonight I was watching NBC"s "The Sing-Off" with my mom and felt the need to come editorialize.  "The Sing-Off" is NBC's a cappella competition, featuring groups of all ages and backgrounds who are competing for a Sony recording contract and $100,000.

After The Backbeats performed an incredible cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide," judge Nicole Scherzinger (of The Pussycat Dolls) made some comment to the effect of, "I just wish this wasn't a competition."

...which got me thinking.

Why can't there be a show on television consisting of just quality performances, week after week, by all sorts of different artists, in different genres, with no voting-based aspect to it?  I understand that competition is fun, and reality shows can be exciting, but there's got to be a viable platform for an arts-based show whose sole purpose is to expose people to great music and enrich their lives (or, at the very least, cause them to think critically).

The Denver Post is in the middle of doing an intriguing three-part series on the state of classical music (you can find the first part here and the second here).  In the first part, the music director of Le Poisson Rouge (a NY concert venue that doesn't discriminate against genres), very succinctly wrapped up the venue's programming vision: "There are two kinds of music: good music and the other kind."

"The Ed Sullivan Show," which stopped airing in 1971, ran for 23 years on this type of idea: present great performances to the masses.

If fashion is cyclical, then why can't we also try to re-invent and re-imagine this entertainment concept for the 21st century?  People liked to be entertained then; people like to be entertained now.

And, what's more, there are so many genres with incredibly talented musicians and artists:  classical, R&B, jazz, hip-hop, rap, soul, rock, country...the list goes on and on.  On some basic level, talent is talent and good music is good music.  

Obviously, this is a very subjective notion.  What I think is "good" and what you think is "good" might differ drastically.  So, the producers assemble a panel of respected, open-minded artists and musicians from multiple genres, and have them collectively select each episode's program (which could be chosen from submitted applications).  Subjectivity problem solved...or, rather, relatively mitigated.

Then, on the first episode of my admittedly idealistic show, they can book The Backbeats, and they can sing the song that compelled me to write this post in the first place: