At a time when the proletariat has unprecedented access to art and popular culture, we continue to enforce arbitrary and unnecessary divisions: rock 'n' roll versus r 'n' b; indie versus major; high versus low; b-girl versus indie boy.

The Global Pop Conspiracy believes that only one arbitrary division is necessary: like versus don't like.

The Global Pop Conspiracy may sometimes exhibit bad taste. We accept this.

But the Global Pop Conspiracy refuses to allow the false constructs of "genres" and "formats" to govern our aural prerogative.

In the travelling Jamaican sound systems of the '60s and '70s, musical duties were split between the selector, who chose the records, and the operator, who played the records. A quarter century later, the selector and the operator have become one: the dj. In the dj, we have allowed execution to overshadow ideas. We have perpetuated the notion that the soul of creation is in the technique, and that, lacking technique, we forfeit the right to create.

Yet, from Duchamp to McLaren, from ? and the Mysterians to Simple Machines, from FactSheet 5 to weblog, it has continually been proven: Technique is overrated. Ideas are still important. Use the tools around us: boom box, transistor radio, word processor, scissors, old magazine, photocopier, construction paper, scanner, URL...

The Global Pop Conspiracy believes this: You are the selector.