Court of the Ginger King: Music Snobs
As a reader of one of the more “in depth” music sites, you kids out there are no doubt passionate about music. Music is like the opposite sex (or same sex if you go that way). Sometimes people are shallow, even petty, and judge music on its looks, images or ridiculous band names. Other times, people might want to keep it secret, as if it’s a stolen kiss from an Ace of Base album.
Let’s get more specific, though…
Music can also be that mature lover who is clearly teaching you something. You were uninformed about certain things, and some music came along and changed the way you think, kind of like a Clash record. Other times though, music can be something that scares or confuses you. Maybe the song is good, but you don’t know why. Or, you know it’s good, but you can’t put words to it. If you know what I am rambling on about and can identify, then you are most likely a music lover, and if you are a music lover, does this make you a music snob?
Get the fuck up! Passion, knowledge and intelligence don’t equal music snobbery. Let me say this, to all you informed music fans, and more importantly you Consequence of Sound readers, “Fuck music snobs! And fuck people who don’t understand why music is appreciated and loved!” Still, not clear on who or what I’m talking about, allow me to digress. Let’s start with an example:
“Damn, you are crazy about that band, remind me not to discuss my favorite band with you”
Passion, what was once a soap opera, is now a bad word. Why can’t people be passionate about things anymore? Everyone is fucking apathetic about everything; politics, society, the economy, but if someone has
a favorite band or a least favorite band, all of a sudden they are a music snob. My response? Fuck that! If people want to walk around in Nirvana shirts that date back fifteen years ago, who am I to blame them? They are passionate about something in life. They still might be a music snob, but not because they are crazy about a band.
You can have a fiery speech about the finer points of the back and forth interplay between Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson but the main reason you are so nutty about the sound of salesman is that you have passion, and that is a rare thing in life. True music snobs don’t have true love; they just want to fuck music. They want to yell about things, but they don’t always believe what they say.
Moral of the story: People with passion and faith in what they say can’t be music snobs; they are just the lucky few who have something special inside them. So next time you think someone thinks you are a music snob, fuck ‘em (not literally… unless they are hot, then do it). But for all intent and purposes, passionate music fans aren’t music snobs, they are people with something unique.
NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just because someone knows the third drummer for Steely Dan doesn’t make them a music snob, it makes them kind of weird because Steely Dan is one of those bands where the drums never really took center stage. Also, Steely Dan had much more focus on the lyrics and the witty words contained therein.
Whoops! Off topic, but you get my point. Knowledge is power. Why is it that because you or someone you know is very familiar with music, all of a sudden they are a music snob? I just figure the person I’m talking to is an idiot, but if you know this isn’t true you can’t do that.
Example: Let’s say that there is a little old lady in Kansas and she has every Precious Moments figurine set ever made, her house is filled with them. Now imagine someone comes to her house and asks her about them and she goes on for hours and knows every little detail. Is she a Precious Moments snob? No, she is a cute little old lady who baked you some fucking cookies and knows her shit. She was a fucking nurse for all we know, she spent years saving people’s lives and now she spends time being knowledgeable about her hobby. Her husband died and now all she has are these figures and you want to call her a figurine snob? Don’t you remember how delicious her lemonade was? it had fucking pulp in it! How dare you?
Knowledge is very important. You need it to fully appreciate anything. Don’t fall into the trappings of the music snobs and only know a few bands, know as many as you can! Music is life and love to many; in other words, the more knowledge you have, the less of a music snob you are.
Now as for intelligence being confused for music snobbery, that’s just a moronic argument, stemming from confused morons. Maybe they dropped their black hair dye in the toilet or they got up on the wrong side of their ditch.
A personal example of this was a recent interview I conducted. I asked some questions that were deeper and focused than many others and the interviewee even made a comment about how the questions were good.
Another interviewer from a rival music site chose to refer to me as a music snob. His reasons were that my questions were too in depth and that I discussed the relevance of the fans in relation to the band and how they react. This makes me a music snob? Really?
I work for an up and coming music blog and I was chosen to interview one of my favorite groups, so of course I asked in-depth questions. Musicians know music, they haven’t seen a lot of recent movies, they don’t know dates and names, and they know their work.
If someone is talking about something in more conceptual terms or even more sophisticated than you are, don’t write them off with a simple word such as a, “snob.” And if you are talking about bands like Arcade Fire or something and you know a lot about them, don’t feel bad. After all, the person you are talking to
probably knows a lot about something too. Rest assured, you aren’t a music snob, you are just intelligent about it. But then again, I see the comments on this site, so maybe you are more of an “Idiot Savant.” That’s a whole other argument, however.
A fiery passion, unrivaled knowledge, and intelligence do not make anybody a music snob. A true music snob cannot appreciate or enjoy things on different levels, they know or like one thing and they stick with it and refuse to change. Stubbornness has no place in music. Music is about progression, entertainment, art, love, and life. Okay, that sounded a little pretentious, but the fact of the matter is, don’t let music snobs confuse themselves with you and definitely become more knowledgeable about Steely Dan because they kick fucking ass.
Please leave any comments calling me a music snob below. Thank you.
The defense rests.
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This came up with me recently. 2 weekends ago I was at a party and I was trying to explain to this girl how awesome the band T.Rex was, and she had no idea what I was talking about and told me to shut up about classic rock because she hates it, then I said she was probably a retarded Nickelback fan, then she called me a piece of shit music snob who listens to nothing new.
Needless to say, I did not end up having sex with this chick.
Yeah, knowledge doesn’t make a snob, but it’s unavoidable when you criticize because you’re partly saying that your taste is better than that of any of the subjected band’s fans. So I guess I can be a snob. ew.
Well said Russ.
Word. Now if I could only convince my good friends of the same… Unfortunately, that would involve the deleting of my blog, which will not happen.
Those other rival music sites are just hatin because you ride on chrome and stack paper to the ceiling. You did hate on the Ramones though. That’s kind of snobby?