How often have you heard something described as being cutting edge? Probably too many times to remember. The phrase used to mean that what it was describing was unique and exciting and best of all, absolutely brilliant. But now it's getting so it's used for any new piece of dross that has no merit whatsoever.

If it's so-called "music", odds are it's full of irritating gimmicks, has no tune, and leaves your ears feeling like a load of garbage has been driven through them. If it's "literature", it'll be unreadable with no significant thoughts or ideas, style, grammar or punctuation. And if it's "art", you'll know that you're looking at a piece of total crap. A case of the emperor's new clothes.

This is possibly because whoever called it "cutting edge" in the first place was too lazy to apply his/her critical faculties and think about what he/she was really listening to, reading or looking at. A thing isn't good just because it's new and strange.

So remember, kids, if something's labelled cutting edge, it really isn't. (There's also cutting edge technology, but I'm not qualified to pronounce on it.)

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