Aside from just posting in the "New Christian Chat Members (Introduce yourselves!!!)" forum, this is my first post here.
Even though it pertains specifically to the church, I've found this passage from N. T. Wright's excellent book "Scripture and the Authority of God" to be very helpful for me regarding music, and just about anything else:
"We could put it like this. 'Experience' is what grows by itself in the garden. 'Authority' is what happens when the gardener wants to affirm the goodness of the genuine flowers and vegetables by uprooting the weeds in order to let beauty and fruitfulness triumph over chaos, thorns, and thistles. An over-authoritarian church, paying no attention to experience, solves the problem by paving the garden with concrete. An over-experiential church solves the (real or imagined) problem of concrete (rigid and "judgmental" forms of faith) by letting anything and everything grow unchecked, sometimes labeling concrete as "law" and so celebrating any and every weed as 'grace.'"
Replace the word "church" with "person;" it's an imperfect analogy, but I think it's still a good one.
Are songs like Stevie Wonder's "As," Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is," and Spiral Starecase's "More Today Than Yesterday" genuine flowers and vegetables - or weeds? I believe it's up to each of us as individuals to look to God, look to the Bible, and look within ourselves to find the answers.
I do like the idea of weeding instead of paving everything over or letting everything take root.