Bopping away in the jungle with LimpBizkit (who?)

From Mr Daniel Bath Sir, As a Church musician following the mostly ill-informed debate over Cardinal Ratzinger's remarks on liturgical music, I was astounded to read Fr Clifton's letter this week. Whilst the phraseology was rather offensive, Fr. Clifton would appear to be an ethnomusicological expert on the roots of western popular music. I wonder to which "pagan tribes" in which "jungle" he refers. Also, I'm sure many jazz musicians will be intrigued to hear that "ordinary rock music" (whatever that may be) has a ''swinging effect".
A few, highly subjective remarks about what is good music, together with an inspiring explanation of the cherubic nature of liturgical song, especially the Sanctus, form a very small part of Cardinal Ratzinger's excellent and visionary The Spirit of the Liturgy. Should we really expect a man of the good Cardinal's age and cultural environment to be a fan of Limp Bizkit?
The problem is, of course, that some people find popular music threatening because they are unable to disassociate a musical genre from the messages promulgated by some of its performers. Eminem is, indeed, rubbish, although rap music itself, driven by natural speech-rhythms and phrasing is thus closely related to psalmody and could be very useful in the liturgy in its subservience to the word and also in its familiarity for our younger parishioners, and a plain, heavy backbeat accompaniment would be far more inspiring than the insipid tinkling often passed off as "folk mass".
Plainsong has its melodic roots in the modality of popular folksong and is much closer to its primitive, pagan origins than is commercial pop. However, the style of singing often found in rock music is far more naturally expressive of the words' meanings than some of the more refined performances of Gregorian Chant.
If Fr Clifton is genuinely interested in music from the "jungle", then I suggest a careful listen to the Congolese Missa Luba, with its beautiful setting of the Tridentine ordinary, as modally appropriate as any in the Kyriale.
Yours faithfully, DANIEL BATH Todmorden, Lanes 0L14 8AJ