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Music - traditional v. contemporary

One of the greatest mysteries of life to me is how there can be so many different tastes in music.  Leaving secular music out entirely, and just concentrating on religious/sacred/gospel music, I am constantly amazed at the difference in preferences .
Our youth director at church and I go "round and round" about this all the time, in a friendly teasing way.

I can appreciate that the difference can be accounted for probably 50% generationally, maybe 40% by what we listened to in our growing up years, which are highly influenced by the music we listen to, and that leaves 10% to be put in the category of just "taste" or "preference".

I understand all this, I can even wrap my mind around it, but just for listening pleasure, for the life of me I can't imagine anyone taking pleasure from anything except what we call southern gospel.  The instrumentation, the lyrics, the harmony - it just doesn't get any better than southern gospel.

I find contemporary Christian music to be a cacophony of miscellaneous loud sounds and beats, with the music drowning out the words, and with very little, if any, melody or harmony.  I could never worship with that, although I realize many people do.

Which brings us full circle to my original question, why is that kind of music appealing to some?  I don't know.  It cannot be all generational, since I know many young people who sing and play southern gospel professionally, and countless more in that age group who love to attend the concerts, and buy the CDs, etc.

I write this as I listen to Sirius radio on our satellite TV station.  It is the gospel music station and is worth the price of the humongous monthly cost we pay.

Whatever my mood, be it sad, or happy, despondent, grieving, questioning God's work, I can always find an answer in southern gospel music.  It just meets  my needs.  What more can I say?
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