Bill Drummond, former leader of British anarcho acid housers KLF and current writer/conceptual artist, has taken to his son-of-a-Scottish-preacher roots and drummed up a dogmatic affront to the proliferation of music in our culture. Back in 2005, mainly as a lark, he birthed an idea to recognize November 21 as No Music Day (chosen because November 22 is the feast of Saint Cecilia, she being the patron saint of music). The idea is that in today's world, music is so omnipresent as to have become increasingly incapable of being the kind of cultural rallying point it once was. And really, when a Crucifucks or Air Supply link on your iTunes "My Top Rated" list looks exactly the same as you're about to flippantly click either, Drummond has a point. Rather than a pretentious overstatement, Drummond seems to mainly offer this audible respite as time to reflect on the topic. As the No Music Day site states: "No Music Day has nothing to sell. There is no mission statement." Though the Scottish arm of the BBC is increasingly adding some heft to the effort. Today, they will not allow any music—even incidental background tunes on the news, commercials, etc.—to escape onto the airwaves. www.nomusicday.com
