The Bob Marley Theory and why it's okay to listen to Jedward.

Currently I am listening to Bob Marley. For a long while I wouldn't even consider listening to his music. There was no reason for this at all, from a musical perspective anyway. It's just he was always one of those people that everyone's like "Oh yeah, he pioneered the movement of reggae into mainstream music, and like he didn't take nothing from the man, yeah..." I switched off from 'pioneered' let's just put it that way.

In music there are always people you are 'supposed' to like and people you really just shouldn't. And then there are those people it's okay to like in an 'ironic' sense. So, you know... Mick Hucknall sucks, you can like Jedward as long as it's only on a Friday night at 2am, and there's something wrong with you if you don't like U2. Well I grew up listening to Simply Red, giving me a particular soft spot for Hucknall, I've never much cared for U2 and as for Jedward, well let's just keep them for 2am on Fridays...

My point is this, who cares? People say a lot of rubbish, but they don't mean half of it. When I was a teenager I told my little sister that I hated The Darkness and she told me she hated Busted. 2 months later I'm singing along to 'Love is only a Feeling' and I caught her blasting out Busted's 2nd album 'A Present for Everyone'. People are fickle, they change their minds. One day something is 'cool'. the next it's old news. I have decided to stop thinking things just because everyone else does.

I was reading on Twitter yesterday that George Lucas has made some alterations to the original Star Wars for its release on Blu-Ray. Horrified fans couldn't believe he was yet again messing with his creation. I analysed my thoughts on the subject and came to the conclusion: I don't really care. Bearing in mind that Star Wars is one of my absolute fave films, for me I just wasn't bothered he was 'destroying' the poignant moment between Luke and his father or whatever it was they were complaining about. It's not cool to love Star Was 'cause of R2-D2 or C-3PO or because Harrison Ford looks mighty fit back in the day or because you simply enjoy watching Good defeat Evil. It's just a simple film for me, and changing another little thing probably isn't really gonna affect my enjoyment of it. I don't care what anyone else thinks.

What people need is a Bob Marley Theory. My love of Bob came when I was feeling particularly good one day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, blimey - I just needed a feel-good song to sum up the moment. It didn't take me long to find a copy of 'Sun is Shining' on youtube. Blasting it out my speakers full volume and dancing around my living room, I realised just how good I felt. I felt RELAXED.

Now everytime I put Bob Marley on, I automatically feel good. If someone came up to me tomorrow and told me it's not 'cool' to like him anymore, I wouldn't care. It doesn't matter if I'm failing to get the rich array of Rastafarian metaphors or whatever it is. I just like it 'cause it makes me smile. I don't care if that's not how I'm supposed to be enjoying the music - can't I just enjoy it?

The Bob Marely Theory could just as well be The Jedward Theory or The U2 Theory or, yes I am gonna say this... The Miley Cyrus Theory. Who cares if they wrote the misic themselves, or whether it's an original, or whose track they sampled? Does it make you happy to listen to it? Good. Then it's totally cool for you to listen to it :)