Response to Muse’s Paul Van Dyk, Global CD Review

Name: Chris Kim Email: chriskim@bu.edu Phone: (617) 818-0004 School/Grad: CAS 2006

Hi, I just wanted to voice my opinion about Meredith Modzelweski’s review of Paul van Dyk’s CD/DVD “Global”. I first want to mention that her view is a bit biased and does not contain an open mind. Her thoughts are representative of the typical and ignorant view expressed by many Americans. She says in the review, “who enjoys listening to this kind of music in the comfort of their own home,” expressing her ignorance, stating that the music does not contain any material worth listening to outside of its typical setting. It’s analogous to saying that listening to a CD recorded by Aerosmith in someone’s home and not in concert is illogical. She also says that the tracks are not songs, saying that “Tell Me Why” is the only song on the CD. If each other track, especially songs such as “For An Angel” and “Forbidden Fruit” are not songs just because they do not contain words, does that mean that anything without lyrics are not songs? She also contradicts herself when she says “Beautiful Place” is a “dated track straight out of the early 90’s, because the track is from the 90’s, she even states before that the album is a collection of tracks from the past 10 years. She also fails to mention several qualities about the album that makes it worth purchasing. With a MSRP of $20.99, it is only $2 more expensive than most standalone CDs. Remember, this is a CD/DVD combination, with live footage of several events crucial to PvD’s successes. It also has interviews and music videos about PvD. Another thing she forgets to mention is that the music are all remixes specifically created for the album, along with two completely new songs, “Animacion” and “My World” never before released in North America (“Animacion” saw release a few months ago in Central America, hence its name). Also, it’s not “euro” music, it’s trance. Euro-“dance” music is a completely different genre of electronic music. I suppose I’m just saying it is unfair to have someone completely ignorant about the genre rate an album and give it bad press because she does not understand the music. It’s like sending a columnist to go take pictures at the hockey game, while the columnist can do because of a general journalistic background, it doesn’t mean the work will be fair or high quality.