elitism
I'm a music elitist.
I know this about myself. If you tell me you like Avril Levigne or something equally stupid, I will immediately think less of you. I will know you have bad taste. At the very least, I will think you haven't been exposed to real music.
And I know about guilty pleasures. I liked Pink's first album, yes. I love Brittany's Toxic. I'm not talking about the few crap CDs you let slip into your cart while picking up fabric softener at Walmart but that you would never tell people you own. I mean if I asked you what bands you like and Brittany or Blink 182 or the BeeGees were somewhere in that list of 5 bands you spouted out.
I'm not saying I'm the type of elitist that wont hang out with someone with bad musical taste. We can be friends. We'll talk. But I'll know that at a very basic level, you and I will never understand eachother. There will be many conversations on all topics where we will not just disagree, but about which we will simply be unable to converse. Basically, I will think less of you.
Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a confession. I'm not telling you something about myself that I think I need to change. I'm just telling you this about myself so that you will know. I'm telling you this because I realized today just how prominent musical taste is a factor in my opinion of you.
I had recently started hanging out with a friend that had only been an aquaintance before. We'd started talking about music and found out we had different tastes. He'd named some punk bands that I have no interest in... but that's not what made me lose all hope. There's some interesting things going on in Punk and Emo and Ska and it's really not a far cry from some Indie bands. I'm just not into screaming bands and heavy distortion. It's not my thing, but it doesn't necessarily constitute "bad taste" in my eyes. I'm not saying my taste is the only good taste.
So he likes punk, and he did name one stupid pop band from TRL, but I was even willing to overlook that because he said he was really open-minded about music. So we decided to make eachother a comp. {a comp. being a compilation, or the modern version of a mixtape but on CD} This is really a good way to get to know eachother actually. But the finer points of a comp. are another entry entirely.
Anyway, his musical background being so different from mine allowed me the freedom to pull up a CDs worth of any songs I wanted because I knew he wouldn't have heard of them. And in the last 10 years, there has been some amazing tracks floating around. I chose the best of the best. 18 of my absolute favorite songs as of right now {this changes quite often}. I even started it out easy for him... I put the most "punk"-leaning tracks first. Anything with a louder guitar and maybe some exciting yelling - if you heard it, you'd know what I mean. But it was supposed to break him in and get on a common ground. Then each track slowly built towards a more electronic and emotive sound. Each track flowed into the feeling of the next and it just got better and better, as any good comp. will do.
I'll post the mix someday soon because I need to know if I'm crazy here. But he told me today that he liked 2 or 3 of them.
What?
Two or three?
I suddenly realized where his musical tastes lie and in that instant, my opinion of him dropped through the basement. I'm sure we'll still hang out, but our relationship has changed. It's not some personal insult that he didn't like the gift or whatever... it's the fact that he is unable to appreciate good music. It's one thing to simply not know good music because you just haven't been exposed. Not everyone has the connections or the situation where they would get to hear something worthwhile. That's ok. But to have been exposed and not recognize it for what it is? To dislike something amazing and choose crap?
Yes, "amazing" and "crap" are in the eye of the beholder. I understand that. I understand that people with no taste use that argument. To say with a shrug that everyone has different tastes is to say that there is no such thing as bad tastes. But some things are inarguable. You hear Postal Service and you'd rather listen to Avril, then you are choosing crap.
I'm an elitist. We all think less of some people for one reason or another. I'll be honest about my reasons, because I think they're pretty good ones. This guy has bad taste.
Posted by heydomsar
2005-08-31
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
Rachel Ray - 2009-05-03
The cold wind was the reason - 2009-03-02
The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase - 2009-02-15
All's well that ends well. - 2009-01-07
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - 2008-10-04
