Is BASIC good for anything?

Has BASIC become the red haired stepchild that nobody wants?

Some folks look down upon BASIC programmers; in fact they even avoid thier company. I'm not trying to say that all programmers are equal in the eyes of the CPU or anything, but remember that Bill Gates is basically a BASIC programmer and that BASIC was once the language of choice for many music related application in the 80's. BASIC's PLAY keyword makes it simple to program musical notes and I'm sure the language has a couple of other redeeming features as well (I just can't remember what they are at the moment).

BASIC's lack of the need for formal structure such as class declarations or include statements plus its interpreted nature makes it a popular language to learn programming even in places like India where everyone is allegedly born partially a programmer.

Speaking of India, here is a song written entirely in BASIC.

10 '+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
20 '|                      The Indian National Anthem                        |
90 '+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
110  PLAY "L8C#D#FFFFFFL4FL8FFD#FL4F#"  '| Jana gana mana adhinayaka jaya hai|
120  PLAY "L4FL8FFL4D#L8D#D#CD#L2C#"    '| Bharatha bhagya vidhatha          |
130  PLAY "L4D#G#L8G#L4G#L5G#"          '| Punjaba Sinda                     |
140  PLAY "L8G#L4G#L8G#G#G#L8A#L4G#"    '| Gujaratha maratha                 |
150  PLAY "L4F#L8F#F#L4FL8FFD#F#L1F"    '| Dravida uthkala vanga             |
160  PLAY "L4FL8FFl4Fl8fd#g#g#l4g#f#f#" '| Vindhya Himachala Yamuna Ganga    |
170  PLAY "L4fl8ffd#d#d#l8cl4d#l1c#"    '| Uthkala jaladi taranga            |
180  PLAY "L8ffffl4fl4fl8d#fl1f#"       '| Tava shubha name jage             |
190  PLAY "L8ff#g#g#l4g#l8f#fd#l8f#l1f" '| Tava shubha ashisa mage           |
200  PLAY "l4ffl8d#d#d#d#cd#l1c#"       '| Gahe Tava jaya gatha              |
210  PLAY "l8g#g#g#g#l4g#l8g#g#"        '| Jana gana mangala                 |
220  PLAY "l4g#l8g#g#g#l8a#l4g#"        '| Dayaka jaya hai                   |
230  PLAY "l4f#l8f#f#l4fl8ffl8d#f#l1f"  '| Bharatha bhagya vidhata           |
240  PLAY "o5l8ccl1c#l8co4a#l1o5c"      '| Jaya hai jaya hai                 |
250  PLAY "l8o4g#g#o5l1o4a#"            '| Jaya hai                          |
260  PLAY "l8c#d#fff#f#d#fl1f#"         '| Jaya jaya jaya jaya hai           |
270  END                                '+-----------------------------------+