Letters

Thursday, February 12, 1998

Letters

Measure of success

Michael Nazarinia’s comments about the new Pearl Jam album
("Refusing to ‘Yield,’ Pearl Jam struggles to regain popularity,"
Feb. 4) are a prime example of what is wrong with rock music and
many of its fans. Nazarinia overemphasizes the importance of album
sales and promotion as key determinants in judging the success of a
rock band.

Unfortunately, many music fans today determine the success of an
album by its sales. The music industry encourages this kind of
discourse by concerning itself solely with maximizing profit. What
is refreshing, however, is that music fans don’t have to play the
numbers game. We can decide whether we like bands based on our
personal enjoyment of the music.

In his article, Nazarinia quoted local music store employees and
Sid, a KROQ programming assistant. These great musical minds
focused primarily on what Pearl Jam needs to do in order to sell
more records, achieve higher popularity and obtain a broader fan
base. These are helpful hints for people interested in marketing
and advertising. Let’s not talk about rankings, sales and other
industry-related mumbo jumbo. Let’s focus on the music itself, on
rock ‘n’ roll.

Decades from now, young people will enjoy Pearl Jam’s music,
much as kids today appreciate Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Record
sales don’t determine a band’s staying power. If they did more
people today would be listening to M.C. Hammer and Debbie Gibson.
Pearl Jam’s music will be enjoyed for years to come because it is
heartfelt, genuine, honest and innovative. Rather than coach them
on how to sell more albums, let’s applaud Pearl Jam for avoiding
publicity, steering clear of music videos and for continuing to
produce great music.

Dave Middleton

Fourth-year

Communication studies

Right to strive for social justice

Many times it has been necessary to break the law in order to
achieve justice. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and many
other advocates for social justice have broken the law in the
course of their struggles for social justice. Like the student
activists of today, King and Gandhi broke many rules, violated
numerous ordinances, stood proudly amidst ridicule and held their
heads high in the faces of authority. They were jailed, mocked and
eventually killed not for what they believed in, but for what they
were willing to do in the name of their principles.

And still today, there are many who would criticize them for not
obeying the law. Not too long ago, Ronald Reagan was opposed to
declaring a national holiday for King because he had ties to the
Communist party; that is ridiculous. King did much more for this
country in his short life than any of his critics who outlived him,
including Reagan. India has been independent for 50 years, and the
British government has yet to formerly apologize for the massacre
at Amristar (where British troops opened fire on 15,000 men, women
and children).

The struggle for social justice is not over, and there are many
student activists on this campus who are willing to break laws,
violate rules, go to jail and even die for the principles that they
stand for. It is very easy to criticize student activists, but what
is very difficult is to do the work that they do. Before you
criticize student activists, I ask you this: are you willing to
break human laws in order to do what you feel is the morally right
thing to do? Are you willing to be mocked by your peers in order to
stand firm on your beliefs and principles? Are you willing to die
for social justice?

Laws are decided by the people, but the people can be wrong.
Therefore, the laws do not reflect morality. Laws are forever
changing, but right and wrong will always be the same whether the
people recognize it or not. Slavery is always immoral; not just
after the Civil War, but before it too.

Justice is not about the law. Justice is about morality; it’s
about right and wrong, it’s about the dignity of human beings.
Justice is not always as simple as a rule book.

Andres Chang

Third-year

Theater