Decline and fall as pop music hits wrong note

in reply to your correspondent Brian Sheridan (Yorkshire Post, October 4) about my letter regarding the deplorable state of “classical.”

Firstly, if he has changed 
his musical tastes as he says, let me point out that he has sacrificed fine Champagne in favour of cheap vinegar; 
therefore I feel more pity for 
the gentleman than 
aggravation.

As a lifelong professional musician, I am not to be accused of being narrow minded in my musical tastes.

For example, I always greatly enjoy the British and American dance bands of the 1920s and 30s, along with the wonderful sounds of the big bands of Glenn Miller and others.

But in spite of what people may say, post-1950s “pop” has, in the main, become gradually denuded of all shape, form, melody and rhythmic interest.

I do not condemn things merely because they are modern, so long as they are tasteful and add something uplifting to an increasingly sordid world, rather than degrade it even further.

I attended dozens of concerts at Leeds Town Hall and other venues in the 1960s and 70s. There were always hundreds of young people in their teens and twenties, thereby refuting his “elderly audience” theory.

Finally, Mr Sheridan relates his pleasant experience at the Magna Centre. Well, he is lending weight to what I was saying in my letter, as regards pop becoming “mainstream” in well recognised venues, and being backed by national institutions.

But then, what more can we expect in a set-up where there exist many striking parallels with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire? Technologically brilliant, but in all other respects? Well, need I say more?