Classical music, dance and opera

Music has formed who I am, and it daily alters my perceptions of the world and the people in it. I want nothing more than to have others experience what I have: the tragic thrill of Bach's "St. Matthew Passion," the haunting emptiness and alienation of Berg's "Wozzeck," the sheer acid-rock rush of Mahler's Third. Or for that matter, the stabbing pain of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Music's power, after all, is not reserved for the "longhairs" among us.

Music

As lifestyle columnist for The Kansas City Star, I have the awesome responsibility of writing about everything under the sun and on most days, I love it.

I started working here in 2002. A year before that I graduated from Norfolk State University with a B.A. in Journalism in 2001. Shortly after, I became a Knight Ridder Rotating intern, spending four months at The Kansas City Star, four months at The Contra Costa Times and four months at The Pioneer Press.

By the end of the internship I was offered a job at The Star. So I left my home state of Virginia and moved to Kansas City. I started off as a general assignment writer for FYI and Preview and within a year I added "The Scenario," a nightlife column, to my duties. Yes, I got to write about clubs and dates and all things fun and fabulous!

Last year, I made the jump to lifestyle columnist, a great but welcome challenge and I look forward to sharing my stories and the stories of Kansas City, with you. My column runs in FYI every Tuesday and Saturday. You can also find me on MySpace at www.myspace.com/jeneeinkc.

Pop music

The question I usually get after I criticize a band or a record: "Who gives a rat's cadaver what you think?"

I can't answer that one, but I can define a few guidelines that go into my commentaries, which ought to put my opinions into context:

* "Pop" music is by definition -- "popular" -- created for a large audience. It's not a legitimate "fine art," like lots of literature, dance, films, visual art or real jazz, which seem to cater to elitists, academics and people with refined tastes. After one semester in music theory and a year of guitar lessons, I discovered how rudimentary most popular music is. And therein lies its intrinsic charm: It's built for a mass audience.

* You may insist appropriately that some popular music is superior to another (say, the Beatles vs. matchbox twenty), but it's pompous to assert that what you extract from your favorite music (Metallica) is superior to what someone else extracts from theirs (Britney Spears).

* Music is like religion or spirituality: It doesn't matter what you tap into as long as you find something that transports you (physically or emotionally) to another place, makes you confront something revelatory or just compels you to dance like a fool.

* A lot of my favorite records are mediocre. (A lot of yours are, too.)