To what are you currently listening?

[Chestertonian]

"I only listen to Belle and Sebastian and sit in my room all day reading 19th century poetry" or "I like nerdy mathematical prog-rock that has lyrics about dystopian futures, what's wrong with that?"

sounds like me in college

[Gardener]

Well, anyway, here's Andy Irvine singing a lovely song with hurdy gurdy.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l06ozEXOSaY[/yt]

And another good one, The Blind Harper.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJIKcfKdBUI[/yt]

[piabee]

I didn't grow up with rock music

Neither did I. The fairly intense classical background helps me discern superior rock.

[Baldrick]

I didn't grow up with rock music

Neither did I. The fairly intense classical background helps me discern superior rock.

Interesting - so what would you recommend I try? 

By the way, that version of "As I Roved Out" is lovely Gardener!

[erin is nice]

Modern pop, rock, or whatever, is from hell.

It really is - I'm surprised that more people don't know this.  It IS from hell; it is inspired by hell; recording artists reportedly take an oath to the devil (quite serious).  And it literally sounds like hell: senseless noise.

Show me magisterial support for your assertions. Both of you. Unless a source of entertainment is directly leading one to sin, you cannot say it's evil, or from hell. Doing so is certainly not Catholic, rash, and prideful.

The problem with the 'rock is evil' contingent is that they can't even agree on what 'rock' is.

[Chestertonian]

Modern pop, rock, or whatever, is from hell.

It really is - I'm surprised that more people don't know this.  It IS from hell; it is inspired by hell; recording artists reportedly take an oath to the devil (quite serious).  And it literally sounds like hell: senseless noise.

Show me magisterial support for your assertions. Both of you. Unless a source of entertainment is directly leading one to sin, you cannot say it's evil, or from hell. Doing so is certainly not Catholic, rash, and prideful.

The problem with the 'rock is evil' contingent is that they can't even agree on what 'rock' is.

i'm the only one who is cultured and sophisticated enough to decide what rock is

[erin is nice]

Is this rock?

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luflPzqfy3Q[/yt]

[Kaesekopf]

Heinrich, Baldrick, Bonaventure, and any others:
We need to, as Catholics, use our sensus Catholicus to discern what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate for consumption as good God-fearing and -loving, Catholics.  Blanket statements do no one any favors.

[Bonaventure]

Heinrich, Baldrick, Bonaventure, and any others:
We need to, as Catholics, use our sensus Catholicus to discern what is appropriate and what isn't appropriate for consumption as good God-fearing and -loving, Catholics.  Blanket statements do no one any favors.

Amen. Some men here are saying, unabashedly, that music hosted on this thread, and thus your website, are "from Hell."

[Mono no aware]

The problem with the 'rock is evil' contingent is that they can't even agree on what 'rock' is.

That's true—they can't.  Nobody can, really.  The rock debate is a lot like the modesty debate: it's all so subjective.  Exceptions become rules.  Probably a lot of the stuff you listen to, erin, is not evil.  All this neutered and bland and sensitive suburban millennial "indie" crap is pretty harmless.  Sufjan Stevens fans need not worry for their souls.  "That ain't dancin', Sally."  Rock music has been declawed.  I liked the feral stuff better.  At least it was honest.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ5cZED6dkA[/yt]

[erin is nice]

I don't think Sonic Youth is evil, either. It's not my favorite, I prefer Pavement or Built to Spill if we're talking about the grandfathers of indie rock. My personal rules are no blasphemous language and nothing too sexually graphic. Elliott Smith dropping 100 f-bombs and singing about heroin is fine 
I know you think of me as Sufjan's biggest fan, but he's not my musical true love-

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiBTykpkT9E[/yt]

[Mono no aware]

I don't think Sonic Youth is evil, either.

I'm not sure if their music is necessarily evil myself.  But it's certainly dissonant and cacophonous.  From the traditional Catholic standpoint, it's music that appeals to the "base passions" rather than the "higher faculties," which is the essential argument put forth by the anti-rock-n'-rollers.  And I don't see how they're wrong on that count: rock music is generally bacchanalian. 

I saw Sonic Youth in concert once.  They played about ten songs to which a good portion of the audience "moshed" (what an idiotic trend that was), bookended by twenty minutes on either side of creative "wall of noise" feedback-&-chaos—which naturally was my favorite part.  So I'm not saying I didn't enjoy that show.  I was in my early twenties at the time.  But looking back on it, I think if St. Thomas Aquinas were there he probably would've considered it aggressive, nihilistic, and satanic.  So, either the understanding of "satanic" is subjective and changes over time, or traditional Catholics are "compartmentalizing" when we listen to rock music.

My personal rules are no blasphemous language and nothing too sexually graphic. Elliott Smith dropping 100 f-bombs and singing about heroin is fine

I appreciate your honesty.  And ultimately, I think that's where we're at with this issue: it all comes down to "personal rules."  Absent any magisterial pronouncement, it ends in a stalemate—and everyone's left to decide their own standards for themselves.  Probably most Catholic moralists in the 1950s would've frowned on "hundreds of f-bombs and singing about heroin," but I guess times change.  It's the same thing with all the modesty debates we have on these forums, or almost anything cultural.  We're forever arguing over what it really means to "be not conformed to this world."

[Mono no aware]

P.S. erin, your new custom title is huge.  (It's very fitting, though).  I notice you go without a signature.  Perhaps you should switch your custom title to your signature?  A big, clunky box of text between a username and an avatar looks ... I don't know: "not streamlined."  The Kopf has a huge custom title, too.  Aesthetically, I think it's better to have less distance between one's username and avatar.  Just a suggestion.

[Kaesekopf]

The objectively highest form of music.

[Kaesekopf]

The Kopf has a huge custom title, too.  Aesthetically, I think it's better to have less distance between one's username and avatar.  Just a suggestion.

Sidebar can't handle me.

Just like the club.