Music is of paramount importance to me, it plays such a big and substantial role in my life. I cannot really explain how crucial it is to me and how much I enjoy a really good song or album. I pour so much emotion and thought into a song. One of my biggest ambitions was to learn how to play a musical instrument, preferably the guitar, my all time favorite. I attempted to learn playing the piano as a child, took lessons here and there with different instructors, but it never worked out, I don't know if it was the fact that I wasn't so passionate about playing the piano in particular, or if I was just too lazy to practice at home and take it seriously.

My purpose in/of writing this article is to express how I feel about music today; I want to convey my disappointment with music today because I am so fervent about music itself. If it were up to me, I'd write a whole book about the demise of entertainment, or more precisely, popular culture.

I have always been exposed to music, my father, my greatest inspiration, is a lover of music as well, all kinds of music, his taste in music is eclectic. I remember when I was in high school and my father use to pick me up at the end of the school day, he use to come with all the windows of the car rolled down, playing a different genre of music everyday, with the song on full blast volume. I must tell you, at the time, I didn't really like it; it was quite humiliating, so I thought. At the end of the school day, all the students use to gather and chat while waiting for our/their pick up, this was the time to shine and be cool, and my father use to come with Pavarotti and Mozart on full blast volume, not cool! But if it weren't for my father's daily lessons and lectures on the history of music, the history of certain musicians, and how to appreciate the artistic and lyrical value of a song, I wouldn't be writing this article, I would be listening to Britney and usher right now.

I have been suffering from writers block for a while now, I had so many ideas yet I didn't know how to make it flow and to express it properly. However, I experienced an epiphany while I was watching MTV's Video Music Awards which I was forced to watch by the dictator of Television in my household, my teenage sister. I was watching in disgust mixed with fury at those so-called musicians, and I thought to myself “I must write bout this!”

What music lacks today is artistic talent. It seems like anyone today can just open his/her mouth, make some noise, and become a filthy rich, renowned and respected musician. You don't need talent, you don’t need to play any musical instrument, you don't need to have a nice voice, you don't need to have the ability to write a good song with lyrical value, just look good and be willing to be a slave to the industry, which you will be rewarded with, very generously.

Mainstream music today is all the same. I can't even think of a mainstream artist today that actually composes his/her own music. Take Britney for example, even though she seems to be the cliché nowadays, but to me they are all just like Britney. She doesn't write her music, she just gets a ready-made song and is told to sing it with her crappy squeaky voice that happens to need a lot of technical support in order to make it sound bearable, hence the reason she never ever actually sang live in her performances. It is all about her image, and her overtly sexual music that happens to engrave itself in the subconscious of every teenage girl, "Oops I did it again" "I’m a slave for you" "Hit me baby one more time" "Boys! Sometimes a girl just needs one, and when a girl is with one (mmm mmmm) then she's in control", poison.

When I heard Usher's song "Confessions" for the first time, I actually liked it to a certain extent, I liked the beat, but for some odd reason I ignored the lyrics, I never really payed attention to what he was saying. So I secretly listened to it, it was like my guilty pleasure, whenever my family wasn't around, especially my sister, I would listen to it, I didn't want her knowing that I was listening to Usher. I even burnt the song and listened to it while driving. Then one day I figured that maybe I should know what Usher's confessions were, and boom! I hated the song instantly, I was ashamed of myself, I was listening to garbage!

My chick on the side said she's got one on the way
Got me talkin' to myself askin' how I'm gon' tell you
'bout that chick on part 1 I told ya'll I was creepin' with, creepin' with
Said she's 3 months pregnant and she's keepin' it
The first thing that came to mind was you
Second thing was how do I know if it's mine and is it true
Third thing was me wishin' that I never did what I did
How I ain't ready for no kid and bye bye to our relationship

Oh god, here I was listening to a song inspired by Jerry Springer! He doesn't know if the baby is his bla bla..yada yada....same old garbage.

Another example is Fat Joe's "lean back", now what the hell is that? This song is self-explanatory.

Now lean back, lean back, lean back, lean back.
I said my niggaz don't dance,
We just pull up our pants and,
Do 'da Roc-away.
Now lean back, lean back, lean back, lean back.
(Come on!)

R to the E'zzie',
M to the whiz-zY,
My arms stay breezy,
The Don stays fizz-zY,

Wow, I can tell Fat Joe put so much effort into composing the lyrics of this song, artistic talent at its finest!

I randomly chose these two songs in order to clarify and deliver my point.

I cannot write this article without mentioning my mother's role in my experience with music. My mother use to drop me off to school everyday in the morning. There was this radio station that strictly played Fayrouz, every....single...morning. And guess what? I had to listen to it, every... single...morning. On the rare occasion in which my mother would also pick me up at the end of the school day, I was compelled to listen to Om Kalthoom. Ah, how much I suffered, it was torture to me. Om kolthoom sounded like this old hag, who simply whined for 2 hours straight, which I must say is quite fascinating. It was noise to my ears, the same way rap and heavy metal sounded to my father's ears. Well anyway, my mother use to go on and on about how Om Kalthoom's lyrics are so beautiful, sentimental and deeply nostalgic, but I never understood my mother, and why Om Kalthoom was such a legend.

One day I decided to listen to some Fayrouz, thinking that I didn't know any of her songs, I arbitrarily selected a few songs to listen to, next thing I know, I was singing along with Fayrouz, I knew the words. Ahh, but of course, 5 years of listening to Fayrouz in the morning must have had a huge impact on me, her songs are deeply embedded in my subconscious!

I can go on and on about this topic, but I'll try to be brief. It is only recently that I have really discovered who Fayrouz, Om Kalthoom and Abdul Haleem really are, and what a wonderful discovery. The sweet, melodic and incredibly soothing voice of Abdul haleem, his sentimental and touching music that makes me want to cry at times. Om Kalthoom's powerful and dynamic voice, the intensity, effort and energy she poured into each of her songs, and her poetic words. Fayrouz, ah Fayrouz, I cannot really describe her music. I've also discovered how beautiful the Arabic language can be, how it can convey so much with a few words, how it can communicate what other languages cannot. Now I know why my mother loved their music so much, now I know, after all these years, what she was talking about. It all made sense to me.

If I could say just one thing to all those kids and teens out there who listen to MTV's music....LISTEN to what you’re HEARING.

Many people tell me that I am excessively critical of everything. Well regarding music, yes I am overly critical of it, and I thank God I am. Over years and years of listening to Pavarotti, Miles Davis, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Shostakovich, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, The Beatles, Abdul Haleem, Fayrouz, and Om Kolthoom (and so many more) in the car with my father and mother, can you really blame me for being so critical of today's monotonous and hackneyed mainstream music?