​A Facebook discussion about why people who like Rock music don't move toward having better taste concluded with this comment from me, which I wanted to share.

The reason people today do not move toward better taste in music is the mind-body dichotomy, a cultural anti-integration between our animal nature and our higher, human nature. Rock music is not mid-level music in the transition from childhood to adulthood; that implies that it is wholesome and integrated, but just less complex. The entire essence of rock music is the "liberation" of wild animal impulse from the control functions of higher intelligence. So it is not part of the proper and healthy and normal process of development; it is moving in the opposite direction, toward physicalism and animalism, constantly reinforcing a negation of the higher faculties. 

The essence of rock music is the boiling loins blowing out the brain. It is not just unsophisticated--in fact it is highly sophisticated in its means of accomplishing its aim which is the destruction of morality and humanity. 

(Cue the arguments that rock star X has has "classical training," that rock star Y has "very advanced guitar finger technique," that rock song A has "complex harmonies," etc--all of which are just mechanistic, out-of-context technical factors which lose the overall meaning and message of the music.)

Here's a new video conversation between me and metal fan and math-man James Ellias about Heavy Metal music and "anti-catharsis." Over the summer, in connection with my new book, we had gotten to talking about "what's going on" for people with hardcore taste in music. Because our conversation was so wide-ranging and generated a lot of insights, I thought it would be worth continuing on youtube, so that you could hear it too. James is totally blunt and fearless, but also willing to be challenged and to find new truth, so it was productive. Here are some of the topics we touch on:

• Catharsis vs anti-catharsis
• Self-understanding and unpacking the meaning of music
• Whether music is “just a sensation”
• How sensationalism in music is like pragmatism in philosophy
• Self-Referential/Self-Conscious Expression
• Stupid-making music
• The honesty of children
• Humor is disarming
• Self-Aware Expression and Parody
• Bootleg Romanticism
• Music as a utility versus a metaphysical statement
• How to deal with bad music that you like
• The effect of noise in music
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• Coen brothers movies
• Crime and Punishment
• “This is Spinal Tap”
• Pictures at an Exhibition
• Ayn Rand and Metaphysics of Man
• Apocolyptica
• Emo vs Screamo
• Metallica “One,” “The Outlaw Torn”
• Metalocolypse & Deathclock
• Cole Porter “Anything Goes”
• Rage Against the Machine