16°C, clearish

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We’ve been invited to play music in school in support of national music week. "Play some music in lessons" the our head of music says, so I have. The response from teenagers have been mixed. It seems the more vocal ones, those who are more willing to express their opinions really want music that they are familiar and comfortable with. The range that covers is very small, heavily populated but none-the-less small. My aim is to resist this, and play stuff that challenges the cosy comfort blanket that music represents to many of them. Radio 3 was greeted with scorn before it even started, and when I changed to radio 6 (Marcone’s The Freak Zone) the class were complaining before the tracks had even started.

This was an interesting reaction. It seems that many teenagers are more stuck in thewir ways than old people are supposed to be. It’s not even clear that these teens are listending to music in the same way. they are looking for something that works like a membership for a sub-culture, they can illustrate their membership with lists of bands on Myspace. Frankly, this strikes me as absurd but then perhaps I expect too much.

So what shall I torture them with tomorrow?

Captain beefheart?