As such, it has been something of a surprise to me over the past few weeks as I have come to learn more and more about the Islamic faith that many practising Muslims are under the belief that listening to pop music is an affront to God.
At first, I thought that it was simply a culture clash; during my time in Japan I found it occasionally frustrating that my students did not know of Springsteen or Bon Jovi, but put this down simply to my personal heroes not yet infiltrating the masses of Asia. As such I figured that my Arabian students' utter disinterest in British and American music was down to artists having not yet conquered the wavelengths of the Middle East.
And so to today; having planned a delightful lesson on The Mamma Mia effect, that being the boom in tourism in the Greek Islands that has been a result of that ruddy ABBA musical, I was knocked back somewhat to discover that in a class of seventeen Middle Eastern gentlemen, not a single one had heard of ABBA, let alone their delightfully cheesy musical extravaganza. Believing this to be some kind of well-planned joke, I whipped out my iPhone and played them the eponymous song. Genuinely, they had never heard it before. So much for that meticulously planned class...
So I decided to look into this a little more; surely a group that have been polluting our radios for the last forty years had at some point got some airplay in the Arabian subcontinent?
But this is when I discovered the source of my students' somewhat endearing naivety; according to the Qu'ran, any music that could inspire sinful acts such as drug use, fornication or adultery is prohibited in the eyes of Allah.
In many ways, I'm down with this idea; indeed a lot of the world's subcultural violence has inspired the debate into the influence of rap and hip hop. Drug abuse and sexual promiscuity is perpetually glorified in both genres, as is violence to those of different ways of thinking. Punk music has links in rebellion, and reggae in revolution (and again the glorification of drug use). Techno and dance music are linked with the hedonism of the Balearics, and screamo, death metal, and whatever bizarre names they're giving to that shouty music the goths are listening to these days lead to, well, goths.
And then of course there's Ke$ha... I really cannot defend her this time round...
But where would we be without love songs? Do they inspire fornication? Well, possibly... But is there anything evil about Barry White crooning a little seduction? It's an interesting debate that I would really like to get into with some of my more open-minded higher-level students.
Pop music isn't all about sex after all; more often than not it's simply about bringing a bit of musical joy into our everyday lives. I personally couldn't live without my daily dose of Taylor Swift, and I'm pretty sure that "We Are The World" never meant anything but a message of peace and unity.
I do my best to respect all religious beliefs; as a teacher of English as an International Language, I have to be prepared to understand anyone and everyone's ways of life, but this aspect of Islam has befuddled me. I can see both sides of the dispute, and would probably prefer a world without Puff Daddy, One Direction and Slipknot. But no Counting Crows? No Beatles even? I'm not sure I could deal with that.
Of course ABBA might not be the most innocent of examples... After all, does your mother know that you're out? Here's Mamma Mia star Amanda Seyfried to prove my point...
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