My favorite band is old and ugly.

Or at least that’s the case for my favorite member. Harsh, I know. But compared to today’s annoyingly skinny, nubile poster-boys of rock, I could care less… in my minds’ eye, he’s hot, hot, HOT. Oh, and also one HELL OF A GUITAR PLAYER. Call me smitten.

In a recent Harvard commencement speech, J.K. Rowling (not surprisingly) exalted the “importance of imagination,” the distinctly unique human quality which serves as a precursor to all kick-ass achievement; in order to save the planet, compose a timeless guitar lick or write a novel, you must dream of the possibility first.

Which is why, when it comes to Andy, visually speaking, I simply invoke Rowling’s “power to imagine better” or at least to remember younger. Call me shallow. But it’s more than that.

Certainly, music isn’t about what we see… nor is it simply about what we hear. What we DREAM of while a song is playing, that’s how we engage with music — mentally, emotionally, and most importantly, as FANS.

Moreover, as Rowling suggests, not only is this our gift but our charge.

So sure, I like me some YouTube. But WATCHING the song is not the same thing as LISTENING.

Listening requires participation; it’s up to us as fans to fill in the blanks and thereby interact with the music intellectually as opposed to just visually, passively. Participation then requires us to draw upon the aforementioned distinctly unique human quality… imagination. After all, imagination magically allows us to identify with music, to give it new meaning, to transform it into timeless sound, and to feel as though the song is for us alone, i.e.: “They’re playing our song!”

All of which is a roundabout way of revisiting the Buggles; video, although at times unbelievably wonderful and informative, makes us LAZY. And similar to reading a novel as opposed to watching the DVD, somehow the sound of a song by itself is almost always superior.

As fans then — especially grown-up fans — it’s our duty not only “to imagine better” but to also DEMAND it. That is unless, like last year, we truly believe Josh Groban is as good as it can get.

I for one, am for dreaming bigger.

© Outlandos MusicTM 2008