You know what, I'm sick of people trashing bubblegum entertainers like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears and all of the 15 "boy bands" that are out there. What is the big freakin' deal? Does anyone else remember the time when people listened to music for its true purpose, ENTERTAINMENT? So many people use music as the defining element of their life these days.

"I listen to punk music; therefore, I will wear Goodwill clothing, mess up my hair, and rebel against 'society,' 'the Man,' 'establishment,' 'the patriarch,' and most of all, the evil, evil CONFORMISTS."

"I listen to death metal; therefore, I will wear black clothing, ugly makeup, and ridiculous clothing ensembles that look as if they were pulled from RuPaul's trash heap. Also, I will draw 'morbid' scenes of death, mutilation, and lots of skulls, and I will write 'poetry' about how misunderstood I am."

"I listen to rap; therefore, I will speak the language of the ghetto, wear a stocking on my hair, and ride around in my low-rider with my bad-ass system pumping away so that I will have lost 70% of my hearing by the time that I'm 20."

I listen to mainly oldies music. Why? Because it sounds good. I also listen to mainstream music when my oldies station won't come in, including the bubblegum artists. I personally don't care if they don't writ etheir own music, or if they don't play an instrument, or if they're only in the public eye because "500,000,000 screeching pre-teens can't be wrong!" If it sounds good, I will listen to it. End of story. It doesn't even matter if I like the artist or not. For example, I don't like Ricky Martin, because he's ugly, he can't dance at all, and his voice is mediocre at best. But yes, I loved the song "Livin' la Vida Loca" the first 50 or so times that I heard it. The lyrics were awful, yes; Ricky can't sing, yes; the absurdity of a grown man going by the name Ricky can't be ignored, yes; but I liked the music, and that's all that mattered to me. I can only call myself a genuine fan of a few artists, but I do like the music of many, many artists. I'm not a fan of Britney Spears, but I like some of her music. (I didn't like "Sometimes." It was just too sappy.) The same goes for the Backstreet Boys, 'NSYNC, 98 Degrees, and a lot of other musicians with no depth whatsoever. But since when did everything require depth? People forget that when rock 'n roll started, and for quite a few years afterwards, it had no depth; it was just fun. Look at every song by one of the undisputed greats, Chuck Berry; or how about Buddy Holly? The deepest song ever recorded by Elvis was probably "In the Ghetto," and that was about as straightforward as it gets, anyhow. The Beatles were pure bubblegum until about the middle of their career. When you think about it, almost all rock 'n roll up until about 1967 was bubblegum, wasn't it? That just goes to show that everyone who refuses to listen to any music with "depth" and "meaning" has bubblegum to thank for their deep, meaningful, philosophical music.

Why can't people look to music for its true purpose, entertainment, instead of searching for meaning and enlightenment in every single thing that they do? I get all of the enlightenment that I need from "My Ding-a-Ling," thank you very much.