Geoff Duncan

Talking with English guitarist Adrian Legg after a show maybe a year ago, he lamented how music has so permeated everyday life that many people now consider it annoying noise rather than something special and deserving of active attention. We have music everywhere: portable music players, car stereos, home stereos, music piped into stores and malls—music morning, noon, and night. Rather than increasing interest and appreciation for music, Adrian argued, it's over-use and inescapable nature made listeners take music for granted, develop active skills to tune it out and ignore it, and lump all music - good, bad, loud, soft, exceptional, and humdrum - into a single cognitive category: background noise. Nowadays people aren't as likely to be able to appreciate good music when they hear it, or discern the good from the schlock. Particularly around the holidays.

"Except musicians," I chided. "Our ears are trained so we can't ignore any of it even if we want to!" "Yes," Adrian replied, a resigned expression falling across his features. "And just look what that's done to you."

And lemme tell ya, after having been subjected to a dance beat remix of "Winter Wonderland," a Frank Gambale-esque sweep-picking rock fusion version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," a dub reggae version of "Silent Night," and a bigbeat hip-hop version of "Jingle Bells"—you know, all the semi-secular holiday favorites—by some of our nation's leading and really-hoping-for-an-economic-recovery retailers, I have to say: I'd love to be able to tune this stuff out.