Finally I have learnt something at college that will actually be useful in real life. I have realised that I have a very Nietzschian approach to music! He said “Beware of superfluous teleological principles” which put more simply (not that it could be put less simply) means “ignore anyone who says there’s a hidden meaning in anything” and by “anything” I include art and… music! Nietzsche may have said some rather bizarre and pointless things in his time, but clearly anyone who says he was mad is completely wrong, as in that statement he is speaking more sense than any other philosopher I’ve ever heard of. He is basically saying we should listen to music for its sound, and choose the music we listen to for its sound, not its lyrical content. Nietzsche says we should enjoy beauty for beauty’s sake, and that is exactly what we do when we listen to pop music. We don’t expect to learn anything from it, it’s pure entertainment. I only hope this doesn’t mean that I too, and all you other pop fans who are not fooled by the illusion of depth and meaning, will be called mad in our old age! Oh well, hopefully we’ll all be put in a mental hospital together where we can listen to ABBA and chat about the merits of Alcazar vs. BWO all day. I’m quite looking forward to it actually!