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Nobody could convey alienation and loss like Floyd, though. It all comes down to taste, doesn't it?

I'd amend that to, "It all comes down to one's taste for how to achieve feelings of alienation and loss." This is a delicate subject, but I since I was itty-bitty listening to the lilting joy of Paul Desmond's saxophone, I've believed that music is exceedingly powerful and profound to one's mental state. Certain kinds of music are as self-destructive and hedonistic as drug and alcohol abuse, and PLEASE UNDERSTAND that I am all for the freedom to indulge in self-destructive behavior. It's just that publicly, we recognize that smoking cigarettes (my own particular vice), alcoholism (my own PAST particular vice), doing hard and soft drugs like cocaine or pot (both my particular vices in the past at times to rather heavy degrees), are self-destructive, and everyone is quick to factor them into the equation of a messed-up life.

I firmly believe that indulging in depressing, alienating, angry, violent, whiny, self-pitying music is every bit as potentially self-destructive as drug and alcohol abuse or smoking two packs a day. And as with cigarettes, I abhore laws that presume to RESTRICT my freedom to indulge in tobacco, and my freedom to indluge in/reject alcohol and other drugs. Those are our own personal struggles that the legal system cannot and should not presume to resolve for us. But when I drank too much, or smoked too much, or did too many drugs, I KNEW and ADMITTED even to myself what was going on. The problem with music is that our pop culture pretends negative and adolescent music into adulthood is not significant of anything. Simply put, it is very significant.

Klezmer, most classical (especially baroque, for me), and bluegrass is FANTASTIC music. Have you caught any Dawg music yet -- a kind of blend between bluegrass, swing, and jazz? Ala Dave Grisman? Or the incredible music of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (banjo and harmonica that gives you goose bumps)? Yes, in much of it there's melancholy, reflection, sadness, even tragedy expressed, but it's not self-pitying. Not that Pink Floyd was ... I just sensed evil in Pink Floyd's stuff. I sense goodness and optimism even in sad classics and especially Klezmer.

There is a certain amount of self-pitying in Floyd's music from "The Wall" on, but I don't hear it as such on earlier works. As to your amendment, "It all comes down to one's taste for how to achieve feelings of alienation and loss.", there are two ways to look at it. Those who listen to music in an effort to achieve a certain emotion are, in my mind, a bit, well...unstable. Certainly those whose aim is to BECOME depressed. That's just wrong. I very much doubt that any artist would be happy, or would get any satisfaction, if their music was used as such a catalyst. I'm not saying that doesn't happen, though--I'm certain it does. I don't blame the artist for it, though.

The reason I'm drawn to somber music (and, I suspect, the same is true for a lot of folks) is not to achieve a certain emotion, but rather to be released of a certain emotion, I suppose. I've had "blue bouts" since I was in the single digits, depressive episodes which can not be linked to any specific event, just garden variety, non-life (or sanity) threatening depression. I can listen to certain music--whether it is Bach's violin concerto #1, Floyd's "Great Gig in the Sky," or any other work which could fall under the heading of "somber," and I find myself relieved of the depression. I can't explain why, it just happens. It seems like the reverse should be true, that if I'm feeling down, a little "Ode to Joy" should perk me up, but that's not the effect music has on me. I get much more out of "Ode to Joy" when I'm in a great mood. Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe it is odd. I never gave much thought to the effect that music has on other people, and maybe the reverse of the effect that music has on me is more common to others. I still don't believe that artists set out to make music in an effort to depress listeners. A lot of artists--not just musicians, but poets, painters, sculptors, etc--create their work in an effort to work through their own emotions, without regard to the effect that it has on others. I don't have a problem with that. Think of all the tremendous works of art we'd have missed out on if artists stopped creating works out of fear that it might have a negative effect on someone. There'd be no rap music, I grant you that, but we'd lose out on so much more.

I'll be keeping an ear out for Dawg music, it sounds like something I'd really enjoy. I'm not familiar with Grisman but I used to listen to the Flecktones quite a bit. I managed a Sam Goody for a few years (great job, LOUSY pay) and from 8am until around 11am I could listen to anything I wanted. That's when I first listened to Fleck. It's also when I became acquainted with klezmer music and when I first realized that not all country music is "booze-n-twang." A real ear-opener, that job was.