Absolutely! End of blog. Wait? That is not a blog? That is just an answer to a question? Ok, fair enough. Allow me to elaborate.
This past weekend I was being interviewed by Lady Spitfire of the Indie Authority and the subject of bands came up. Makes sense since the station plays music by independent artists. I told her she could give me some bands to play and I will play them during the breaks on Davin’s Den. I said just don’t give me any bands that suck. She said no bands suck. And then everything stopped.
OF COURSE BANDS CAN SUCK!!!! She argued that they are all different but none suck. Yes they are all different but different does not make you immune to the standards of basic concepts in playing music. Forget about style or type of music. I assure you that no matter what you heard me sing you would think that I suck. Why? Because I can’t sing on key. Part of being a good singer is singing on key. Just like part of being a good drummer means you can keep the timing and the beat. Part of being a good guitarist is playing your guitar in tune. If you can’t do those things you suck.
More importantly if something does not suck how can you know if something is good? You need a scale of what is terrible and what you think is good. Take Freddie Mercury the late lead singer of Queen. Maybe you don’t like his music. You still can’t deny that he has a unique ability to hit notes that most mortals and lead singers could never hit. He had a great range. He did not suck.
Without suck there is no awesome. Without suck we are all good. If we are all good then maybe we are all really just ok. If we are all really just ok then maybe in reality we all suck. See you need to be able to say what does suck in order to get to the place where not everything sucks.
A compliment from somebody that does not think anything can suck is really not a compliment at all. How could it be? It is based on nothing. It is empty words. As far as compliments go that sucks!
If there was no suck how could anybody strive to be excellent? There would be no standards to make one’s work stand out. Why would you strive to be excellent? Your work would get the same treatment as somebody who could care less and had no ability at all. You need that person to suck so that a floor is set for you to reach for the stars.
As much as sucking sucks I do not want to live in a world without sucks. It would be a dull world. There would be no standards. The greats in anything would blend in with the untalented as it would be impossible for the greats to separate themselves. Everything would just be good. A kid learning how to play Marry Had a Little Lamb for the first time would be put in the same category as Duke Ellington. Compared to Duke Ellington the kid sucks. There is no shame in sucking. Sucking when handled properly can motivate you to get better. That is what makes us strive to be better at things. This is how we achieve greatness. This is how we impact the world.
For instance, it is quite possible this blog sucks. It is possible that if enough people made me aware that this blog sucked I would work harder on my next blog. I would try to improve my blog. It is also quite possible I would shrug it off and have a snack. Maybe find a piece of chocolate cake. Chocolate cake does not suck! Unless of course if it did suck. Then I would be a sucky blog writer, eating a sucky piece of cake, and having a sucky day. I am ok with that. Just means I would have to work harder to make sure tomorrow was better and did not suck.