Timeless music

Tom Ewing doesn't care whether its a timeless classic:

Here's Dave Marsh, circa 1984, on the Smiths: "You can take all those sad cafe ballads, and I'll take [Lionel Richie's] 'Penny Lover'. Meet you on the corner of the centuries, and we'll see which one has lasted." While tinkering with my own end-of-year lists this winter I spent some time reading other people chat about how they were making their own choices. I kept noticing this line of argument, though rarely phrased as boldly as the Marsh quote. Even so it stood out because it annoys me. "I think people will still be listening to this in 20 years time," or conversely, "I don't think it will stand the test of time." Whenever I encountered that phrase I couldn't help think of my friend Mark Sinker, who gave a paper at last year's Experience Music Project conference called "B-but what about the test of SPACE?"