Won't let the devil have all the fun

I've been collecting original cassetet tapes of my favourite musicians since sixth grade. And over the years, from high school until I graduated in college, this collection has grown that I have to house a whole cabinet for it in my old room. When I settled in Cagayan de Oro and was collecting CD's already, my tapes collection remained in my parent's house. It was only when I last went home that I've checked on it again. And i found out that they were deteriorating. I can't even play most of them anymore because they were already infected with dust fungus. I was miserable to say the least, because these music were part of the most memorable days of my student life. It's a pity that it went like that because i know that when I play a certain record, I can remember what memorable event happened to me while that song was my favourite. So each of it has cerain memories within their sleeves, waiting to be remembered as the song played away. This collection was as varied as my mood. They range from classics (such as America, the Eagles, Beatles, the WHO, CSNY, etc.) to metal (Poison, Megadeth, Slaughter, Metallica, etc.) to Grunge music (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sound garden, Verve Pipe), to Punk ( Pink Floyd, INXS, U2, Duran Duran, Greenday), Pinoy rock (Hagibis, The Dawn, Yano, E-heads, Wolfgang, etc) and to even mellow ones like Barry Manilow, Jose Mari Chan and Tommy Paige. Though the rock albums far outnumbered the mellow/ pop ones.

Back then, I get criticism from older folks about my choice of music. And I used to laugh a lot when I hear these crap from people. I can't understand why they like branding rock music as the "Devils Music". And Mellow, gospel and pop music has always been the goodie oldie-friendly tunes. It makes me sad to know that people judge music by its loudness or the costumes performers wear. I agree that there has always been a strong relationship between music and religion. Maybe because they both connect directly to the heart and can have real inspiration for good or evil, whichever way. But saying that it is an evil deed to listen to rock 'n roll or headbanging to metal and grunge band is insane! Music is beautiful. And it is irrelevant or even unfair to classify music in lieu to one's religion or being typecasted as being an evil sound just because it's loud and it has guitar riffs that echoes and such. We have to face the fact that good music IS good music. No matter what kind of music it is. I mean, there is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music. People are people. And like any ordinary person, we dream, we cry, we laugh and we feel things like love, hate, joy, pain, and so on. And being in the moment of these feelings, we need something to capture that feeling. To bookmark it in a compartment in our brain and recall it whenever we need it to. We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it. Like me, I can still remember the days that I was doing graveyard shifts with my design plates in college, or how it felt to have your heart broken-- and this is further amplified in our memories when we hear music that was played on during those times, or albums of musicians you used to pound the boombox with while drawing dusk till dawn. Music is like an instant recollection- activator. And we always associate it with the highest and lowest moments in our lives. So irregardless of what kind of music it is, as long as it hit you straight in the heart, be with it. Screw the hypocrites. Rock music is good music, and I like it damn fine. And never ever will I resign to the idea that it is the music of the devil. For heaven's sake, I wont let the devil have all the fun!