Are you polymusical?

Am I what?

Polymusical?

What the hell is that?

A long time ago, I used to listen to an FM radio station that played interesting music from all sorts of artists in all kinds of genres: the DJ might play a new track from John Prine followed by an old Zeppelin favourite, then an album track from Laura Nyro or The Moody Blues. I found that not only did I appreciate the artistry of each one of these pieces, I genuinely looked forward to the variety of the set that was being presented to me.

Now we have formatted radio stations, satellite channels that play nothing but Bruce Springsteen 24/7, pop radio stations that limit themselves to danceable releases from the video-friendly (i.e. young and beautiful) performers in the top 10, and all-classical radio for people who don't care for that kid's stuff.

The assumption seems to be that every person in the music market has decided what type of music they like and they will only listen to that type of music from here on in.

Does that seem reasonable?

Now, most of the musicians I know have learned to play many styles, mostly out of self-preservation in a competitive market, but also because to a player each style of music has its own charms and challenges. I can't believe that this affection for various musical styles is the exclusive domain of the world's musicians; it seems more likely that the average person has to keep flipping from satellite station to satellite station looking for some variety. Now, I'll grant that there are some stations, like The Loft that boast of eclecticism, but for every one of those, there are two dozen others with some narrow range of 'Hits from the '60s' or 'Lite Pop Hits.'

I think this musical balkanization is the result of corporate statisticians being given the levers of control over the artistry of radio broadcasting. At some point it became more profitable to feed a steady stream of Music That Was Popular When Baby Boomers Were Teens to the masses than any other style, so we have chains of stations cranking that out. Other stations carved out their own niches with a single style, and before long it was the accepted model, musical eclecticism having proven less profitable.

My mission (if I can call it that) with these sporadic musings is to remind people that it's OK to love Radiohead AND J.S. Bach, and we won't think ill of you if your iPod shuffles Norah Jones into Whitesnake into Little Feat. And if you're searching for a name for this kind of musical diversity, call yourself:

Polymusical.