Article submitted by : CARBON CHILLIPRAWN, our man in Hong Kong

Is it just me or are music magazines getting just slightly out of control with these lists of the '50 Most Important Rock Stars Ever' and so on? We've had most important this, greatest that, and Q's recent '21 people who changed music' reached new heights of the absurd and excuse me if you're an Ian Brown'Roses fan and all that but I hardly think he ranks above people like James Brown, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley or let's say Hank Williams (well they had Elvis so oldies were included) or Miles Davis as significantly altering the direction of popular music as we know it.

Chuck in a few more contemporary favourites such as Thom Yorke and, excuse me, Damon Albarn (oh come on) and I would start getting really pissed off if I was Paul Weller, George Clinton, Eric Clapton, Prince, Sly and Robbie, Joe Strummer/Mick Jones and about 6,000 other people and they may as well change the topic to 'lots of people who deserve a nod in the last 50 years' or something. And I know that these articles will get just about everyone and his uncle going 'If you include him then what about her?' which is really what they are supposed to do - provoke.

Hah, see, I fell for it. Anyway, whatever next? 100 Greatest Roadies Ever, The 12 people who changed the accordian. Etc. Give it a rest. There are better ways to sell a magazine.

But anyway, this did get me thinking about lists (well so did Nick Hornby actually) I was on this junk trip recently, which is what we do in Hong Kong you see, and it's got nothing to do with rubbish collecting, junk being a small, pleasant sailing vessel usually loaded to the hilt with cold beers, wine, scantily clad people being silly and lo and behold - a karaoke machine. (Look, out here even the toilets have karaoke machines in them.) Anyway, this wailing box on the junk was commandeered no sooner than we had set sail with a few of the locals bawling out Canto-pop (the local brand of trashy radio play fare) so badly that even the jellyfish were making a run for it and they can't run. This had to stop. Me being mister 'I'm in charge of the music' I let it go for a bit before persuading them that the 66 year old Chinese boat owner and his wife actually would prefer it if we played something more soothing (we were swerving a bit here and there once the high notes were being butchered and there are rocks everywhere so I was actually being responsible) and before long I had slipped in one that I had prepared earlier and we were all bouncing along to such breezy favourites as 'Living in another world' by Talk Talk and 'Knocked Up, Kings of Leon' and as I was lying there on top deck sipping a Tsing Tao I wondered what would be the ultimate junk trip playlist. And then I thought, I'm getting as silly as those magazines so I left it there. It's all very subjective isn't it? Suffice to say thought that Pastime Paradise by Ray Barretto (the best cover - Ever!) sounds very good when bobbing up and down on the South China Sea on a sunny day.

I'll leave you with a China note. It was recently unveiled that hip hop didn't originate from New York or anywhere else in America. Go to You Tube and key in 'MC Farmer' to check out the man from Mongolia who's got a bag of his own.

Now that's what I called changing music.