I am a huge music snob

[panoramic]

i'm digging this goon sax shit, noyce

[DeathJag]

I used to have this attitude, then I found it to be very self-alienating.
-snip-
when dating the first girl I truly loved, she'd want to listen to pop radio when we were driving. One time, Rhianna's 'Only Girl in the World" came on, she turned it up and said, "This is my song to you." Rather than scoff, I thought, "Well, it has a nice beat, anyway..."

Lovely post! It sounds like you’ve reached a somewhat happy place with this issue. It kinda sounds like you went Zen on it and just let it go. Maybe? Just curious - have other similar feelings been resolved in this manner? By letting go? That’s a tough concept to me. I guess I feel like the only way I’ll ever be okay with most radio stuff is if I stopped caring so much about music. I realize that is a black and white view!

I’ve had a few weird phases where months would go by where I guess I just enjoyed music less than normal. I didn’t seek out new stuff and I really became out of touch. During this period, I wasn’t as bothered by mainstream stuff. I also wasn’t really playing music. It’s kind of like I temporarily stopped caring about music. Internally I was convinced that there was nothing “good” coming out. Then I’d hear a new band or genre and it would flare up again. In kind of a “holy shit I forgot how much I needed you” style.

These days, I couldn't care less about how popular an artist is or isn't so long as I really enjoy their music. I actually like some pop music, like Bruno Mars , Imagine Dragons, and Maroon 5 (although I prefer their pre-The Voice stuff). I've also gone back and listened to the music System of a Down and Queens of the Stone Age released back when I shunned them as "sell-outs" and while I don't enjoy all of it, I feel like I missed out by refusing to listen to them just because they weren't "mine" anymore.

Some bands just get better with age, like The Queers. Others lose “it” after an album or two, and it’s sad. Sometimes the songwriting goes stale or more often the production style goes “slick.” There’s no shame in only having the “good” albums of a band. One of the bands you mention is ToD, who are old friends of mine! I’ve known Conrad and Jason since I was a teenager almost thirty years ago. Anyhow I think that band has really improved over time. The last few albums are great in my opinion, but I’m not really a fan of the first couple.

I'll intentionally listen to the radio from time to time as well, just so I can stay up to date with what's current in music. I've actually discovered some new artists I really like through the radio
-snip-
Part of my reason for doing this is that I'm getting older and I don't want to become out of touch.

I bow to your tolerance. I’ve tried making sense of the radio but haven’t had success. College or internet radio can be cool tho!

first off you're gonna have to explain to me what the fuck "breakcore" is, is that related to the music i make when i fart or something less cool?

Breakcore is like the shunned bastard offspring of the horror that is Happy Hardcore and commercial Jungle (or the shopping car with massive ICE and pedal bin sized exhaust end of drum and bass).

D

First off, no way dude! It’s the three-way love child of old jungle, hardcore, and straight experimental. But who cares where it’s from, some of it is a whole new thang! There are infinite genres there.

Lots of breakcore is not interesting to me, the more repetitive and the kind with the boring-ass techno beat, but some is awesome! Part of what I like is how unpredictable and chaotic it is, and the fact that it’s all pretty much drastically unlike any other sounds that my ears hear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fnt16cyUB4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8viGG3AJA8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KnAofridEQ

[sammynb]

i'm digging this goon sax shit, noyce

For the non Australians on the board, just to help with understanding their name; a "Goon Sack" is the foil bladder which holds the wine in a "cask" or box of wine. Often when empty you can re inflate and use as a pillow to sleep off the nasty hangover you're about to have after drinking said shit. cheap wine. The best goon sacks contain all your usual flavors but also include such classics as fruity lexia, which only bettered by a bottle of passion pop as the drink of choice on that first date when you're 15/16.

There is also a touch of very early Triffids in their sound which is no bad thing either.

[panoramic]

okay deathjag, that stuff is gross and if you're even moderately serious about liking it you're not half the music snob you aspire to be.

[shadowplay]

re inflate and use as a pillow to sleep off the nasty hangover you're about to have after drinking said shit. cheap wine. The best goon sacks contain all your usual flavors but also include such classics as fruity lexia, which only bettered by a bottle of passion pop as the drink of choice on that first date when you're 15/16.

There is also a touch of very early Triffids in their sound which is no bad thing either.

Much appreciated anthropological insight!

The Good Sax aren't totally my sort of thing, coming from Glasgow (where at times we've been up to our necks in child's anoraks on adults) I have something of a flinch response to twee or feyness which they aren't even a 5 out of ten on but it's still there. However folk I know really seem to like them.

D

[CivoLee]

Lovely post! It sounds like you’ve reached a somewhat happy place with this issue. It kinda sounds like you went Zen on it and just let it go. Maybe? Just curious - have other similar feelings been resolved in this manner? By letting go? That’s a tough concept to me. I guess I feel like the only way I’ll ever be okay with most radio stuff is if I stopped caring so much about music. I realize that is a black and white view!

Zen? I don't think so It's more that I realized a lot of my "snobbery" was petty jealousy toward popular artists/bands. The way I saw it, here I was in my bedroom playing music that was just as good if not much better than what was popular on my beaten-up, muddy-sounding guitars, and they were out there playing for thousands of people a night around the world with 4 grand custom shop instruments they likely bought with cash. When I retired the idea of being a professional musician (read: "rock star"), I was no longer in competition with them, so I had no need to be jealous anymore. Though it is true I can let some things go easily (some easier than others).

And yes, yours is a very black and white view, one I tend to look at somewhat askance these days, because it implies that people who don't share your tastes don't actually care about music. This is untrue. Anyone who listens to/makes music cares about it to some degree. Even image-driven pop artists like Charli XCX and Taylor Swift care about music, because if they didn't, they'd be fashion models instead. It's like when technique-oriented players rag on punk and grunge/alternative rock players for "not knowing how to play guitar". As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can strum 2 or 3 chords in a vaguely rhythmic fashion can play guitar, whether or not they can/want to run through scalar patterns on the fingerboard in a dexterous manner.

There's no such thing as "correct" taste. Some people find verse-chorus-verse songs with I-III-IV-V chord progressions fun and catchy; others find them predictable and formulaic. Likewise, some people find 10 minute epics that start off with atonal droning and ascend to a crescendo of heavy riffs/walls of noise interesting to listen to while others find them boring or "not music". It's a big world; there's room for both.

I'm not ragging on anyone for having particular or selective tastes. But, some of the posts in this thread have suggested some of you let your tastes in music affect your relationships with other people. I see that as a very petty and childish way to go through life, but to each their own, I guess...

[mezcalhead]

re inflate and use as a pillow to sleep off the nasty hangover you're about to have after drinking said shit. cheap wine. The best goon sacks contain all your usual flavors but also include such classics as fruity lexia, which only bettered by a bottle of passion pop as the drink of choice on that first date when you're 15/16.

Much appreciated anthropological insight!

"Goon" itself just means wine, generally cheap wine. There is an Australian brand of cheese called Coon, after the last name of an early cheese-maker. Thus a wine and cheese night can be referred to as "goon and coon", which always used to confuse the American exchange students.

[Larry Mal]

"Coon" being racist slang against black people here in the States, it would tend to do that.

[Jaguar018]

"Coon" being racist slang against black people here in the States, it would tend to do that.

Add cigarettes and it could be a Goon, Coon, and Fag night.

[DeathJag]

And yes, yours is a very black and white view, one I tend to look at somewhat askance these days, because it implies that people who don't share your tastes don't actually care about music. This is untrue. Anyone who listens to/makes music cares about it to some degree. Even image-driven pop artists like Charli XCX and Taylor Swift care about music, because if they didn't, they'd be fashion models instead. It's like when technique-oriented players rag on punk and grunge/alternative rock players for "not knowing how to play guitar". As far as I'm concerned, anyone who can strum 2 or 3 chords in a vaguely rhythmic fashion can play guitar, whether or not they can/want to run through scalar patterns on the fingerboard in a dexterous manner.

There's no such thing as "correct" taste. Some people find verse-chorus-verse songs with I-III-IV-V chord progressions fun and catchy; others find them predictable and formulaic. Likewise, some people find 10 minute epics that start off with atonal droning and ascend to a crescendo of heavy riffs/walls of noise interesting to listen to while others find them boring or "not music". It's a big world; there's room for both.

I'm not ragging on anyone for having particular or selective tastes. But, some of the posts in this thread have suggested some of you let your tastes in music affect your relationships with other people. I see that as a very petty and childish way to go through life, but to each their own, I guess...

That’s exactly what I’m doing, a form of “people filtering.” We all do it based on different stuff, some petty or surface crap, some based on imagined messages, some purely on appearances. I use food and cigarettes similarly, to filter people. I suppose you could say I (and some other posters) use music more than others.

Weird part about this is, of the few people who make it into my inner circle, none of them have “generic” taste. But it’s still mostly not what I consider great music!

I didn’t mean to say, if I did, that there are musicians that don’t care about music, just because they don’t play music I like. I do not believe that. When I spoke about people not caring about music, I meant non-musicians who don’t have opinions on music because they don’t listen to it. They listen to talk radio. Even people who listen to radio music care about music, and I apologize if I was unclear about that point. A logical counterpoint is “great people can not care about music, but still be great people.” I don’t disagree with this at all. They’re just people I might connect with over something else.

I also completely agree with your point about music vs. taste. It’s all music, whether there are vocals, guitars, or just noise. That’s neither here nor there. I believe everything is musical, especially field recordings with frogs or insects, bicycles, people’s footfalls, squeaky doors, you get the idea.

You state that musical taste has allowed some posters to affect their relationships, and that it’s childish and petty. Well now, THAT’S a pretty sweeping black and white statement. “Affect” is a pretty big spectrum of meaning. I mean, it could affect in a positive way jeez! I think you mean “negatively affect” not just affect. But I disagree with that modified statement too.

Being affected doesn’t necessarily mean ACTING on your thoughts. Which lots of people have pointed out as what they have learned to do. The other side of that is your style, to expand your tolerances, open your mind to broader means of appreciation, even if it means telling your “former self” it’s wrong. I don’t think I’ll ever get to the latter, but the former is within reach.

Which takes me to the next point, that if you’re not just tolerant but enjoy ALL music, by definition you don’t have refined taste. Finding “something to like” is a far cry from “like,” and way further than “love.”

okay deathjag, that stuff is gross and if you're even moderately serious about liking it you're not half the music snob you aspire to be.

Music no one loves should be the only music a True Music Snob ever loves. Not a single person I know loves breakcore, or can even tolerate it. (Those weren’t even noisy examples.) You’re so mainstream haha!

[budda12ax7]

Big Sigh.....is this leading to another Guns and Roses sucks takeover thread.

To OP....I can list ten bands you never heard of and your eyes will glaze over.....so I guess we can't be friends.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOibIxl3dLo

Can't hang with this? We can't be friends.

[mgeek]

I just do not understand why people have issues with other peoples music and act like they have accomplished something by holding their tongue or humoring them. You have been excited about a band, they are excited about a band, and understanding should be simple enough to reach through these common feelings, you know, sympathize. You may even learn to find value in such music, or even in those people.

I used to be a dreadful music snob, lost in a world of £500 freakbeat singles and barely any music from after 1972, but I've got over it/myself, and currently re-obsessed with off the wall, thriller, boney m just like when I was a child, and discovering Robin Gibb solo albums from the mid 80s!

Still feel the old bile rising, but it's mostly when someone thinks they are some sort of connoisseur for listening to The Smiths or some other lame ass make u thynk music like that

[oid]

Still feel the old bile rising, but it's mostly when someone thinks they are some sort of connoisseur

That could just be reacting to a snob, not being a snob.

for listening to The Smiths or some other lame ass make u thynk music like that

But not that

[mgeek]

Still feel the old bile rising, but it's mostly when someone thinks they are some sort of connoisseur

That could just be reacting to a snob, not being a snob.

for listening to The Smiths or some other lame ass make u thynk music like that

But not that

Haha, just one of those bands that rub me up the wrong way. Distinctly remember them being on the radio all the time when I was a kid, cos let's not forget, they were a very mainstream band, and it was all just so dreary, tedious and grey.

[panoramic]

Still feel the old bile rising, but it's mostly when someone thinks they are some sort of connoisseur

That could just be reacting to a snob, not being a snob.

for listening to The Smiths or some other lame ass make u thynk music like that

But not that

Haha, just one of those bands that rub me up the wrong way. Distinctly remember them being on the radio all the time when I was a kid, cos let's not forget, they were a very mainstream band, and it was all just so dreary, tedious and grey.

https://youtu.be/bf6Xwb03jTE
everyday is like sunday