TOO MUCH MOANING

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 133, 9 January 1942, Page 4

TOO MUCH MOANING

Sir-It is clear from the letters that appear in your columns that people will complain about anything that any radio station puts on in this country. They are like the people who complain if their house is on fire and there is no fire brigade to put it out, and then when the fire has been put out, complain that they have lost the insurance. I have been to concerts given by leading artists, and have watched with interest the people’s faces there, and I would not be wrong in saying that 90 per cent go because it is the right thing to be seen _ there; half-way through they get bored and wish to get back to the radio for a little lively music. The fact is people must be educated to good music. Jazz piano players would not have been playing jazz to-day but for the fact that people must live, and jazz pays the bills. If some of the moaners lived in other countries where I have been and listened to Chinese and Japanese music, they would have reason to complain. Think of the country listeners some 70 and 80 miles from the nearest railway. Don’t they want a little in this life after a hard day’s work? Their wireless is their only contact with the outside world,

and so they sit and enjoy everything, including jazz. There has been too much moaning by older people. The day is approaching when the coming generation will be moaning for us.

LOFTY

(Christchurch.)