I am a huge music snob

[DeathJag]

my band played a bunch of shows with bands I was into a few years back, my wife came to all of those shows and about a year ago she confessed to me that she just kinda disliked all of it in general and only liked my band because i was in it. sadness

That’s love! (I would be sad too.)

The Mummies are actually one of those rare bands that took something others have done (Sonics primarily) and added their flavor and it came out gold. Back in the early and mid 90s NO ONE knew about them, so it’s kind of awesome that they somehow got popular now. I picked The Trashwomen because The Mummies are too mainstream haha!

Thanks for talking about this fellas! I had to get it off my chest. It’s not just music either, it’s food (BIG time), movies, and comics. Oh, and PEOPLE too haha. Most other things there are grays, but those are black and white to me. I’m not proud of it either. Not consciously anyway...

[panoramic]

it's everything, novels, movies, which b grade horror movies are the best, which place makes the best tacos, where can i get the best pizza, best beer, i'm a snob about like everything i've ever been into.

[mezcalhead]

My name is Daniel, and I am a music snob. ..

Fair enough!

For example, I can say .. Morrissey

OK, you lost me.

I once went to a work acquaintances home in London and they had Spotify up on their computer and were inviting folk to crowd collate the playlist for the night...let's just say we left very early.

Missed a trick there, I would've taken the position that "hey I just know all you guys will love my early Scattered Order and Severed Heads faves, and if you don't then you just need to hear more of it until it makes sense".

My snootiness has caused some minor issues between my wife & I. She doesn’t go to see bands anymore that I like & vise versa. I remember dragging her to a Mummies show an hour & a half away while she pouted most of the drive. Ironically, she loved the show & couldn’t wait to see them again.

One of my finest musical moments was when my wife, who has inexplicably never taken my Stereolab obsession on board, turned to me during their show and said with surprise "you know, for the last five minutes they haven't sucked".

[TeenageShutdown!]

One of my finest musical moments was when my wife, who has inexplicably never taken my Stereolab obsession on board, turned to me during their show and said with surprise "you know, for the last five minutes they haven't sucked".

But honey...that’s just the opening band.

[BlueSparkle]

I think I can sum up my highly-inflated self opinion on this subject.

I'll listen to anything - Once.

If I think it is worth listening to more than once, it means I am curious. It does not mean I 'like' it.
It means I am curious about the music form, lyrics, maybe a lick or a particular harmony, some irregularity that intrigues.

If I listen to it repetitively, it means I probably have a significant interest. It still does not mean I 'like' it.

If someone askes me directly to opine on it, I will respond, unreservedly.
I don't care if the response cites a negative reaction. I'm WAY past that.

Noone else has to agree and I don't have to agree with anyone else. I don't care if others think my thoughts or opinions are disagreeable, they are entitled to think otherwise. I don't really care.
I AM interested in a qualified opinion - i.e. if someone has something very specific to say about a particular song... like " the vocal harmonies in that songs chorus are fantastic" or, "I love the solo in that song" to me it means they have actually LISTENED to the music, and they are not being superficial or dismissive. I usually find that further questions raised will engage a response and a positive discussion on more subtle nuances of that particular piece of music is the result.

If I say I "like" that particular music, it doesn't mean the artist(s) are an instant all-time favourite - it simply means I like the song.

If I say I like an artist / band, it definitely means I have listened to several works and it has a musical value to me that is not measured by popularity or any particular agreement with others. It is also likely to mean I have a hardcopy of aforementioned artist(s) music. If I really like it, I've probably got an SACD if it was available in that format.
It means I enjoy listening to the artists music because the form and complexity ignites an emotive response.
In other words, the music has feeling.

I really dont give a fork if someone thinks my musical taste 'sucks'. I am not highly critical of others tastes - I long ago learned that my taste in music was so eclectic that even the word genres could not cover my range of appreciation.

I don't have to like what you like, and you certainly don't have to like anything I do. It's really as simple as that. It's also the same for the guitars we own and play. Instruments and music are an INDIVIDUAL thing. not a pressganged collective of coerced opinion.

Getting shitty about not being in agreement is purile and childish. If that's how you feel about music and other people then you aren't into music, period.

It certainly is a true revealer of character.

[Larry Mal]

I go to work and sometimes Dave, the guy across the hall, tells me about Greta Van Fleet and how much he likes them and how he thinks they sound just like Led Zeppelin and it's great that kids still know how to rock.

I just smile and nod my head.

"Totally," I might say. "I have to go now. I have to go work."

It took me a lifetime to get to this point. The discipline almost breaks me apart. But I can do it.

[jimboyogi]

who the fuck complains about seeing the mummies? that's crazy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmBJA74JLRo

That's the best time I've had in weeks! WOW SO GREAT!

[Singlebladepickup]

I too find that the people I’ve met who listen to more music than me often like a ton of things I hate as well as some cool stuff. It’s boring only liking the “best” movies or music or food or beer or whatever, because eventually each of those things becomes increasingly rare as your tastes become more limited. When it comes to music, I imagine it’s torture if you have to go everywhere because there is always crappy music playing and lots of times normies are thoroughly enjoying it, but you have to just wait to be alone to enjoy your glitch punk post-noise afro-goth

[Shadoweclipse13]

It took me a lifetime to get to this point. The discipline almost breaks me apart. but I can do it.

Larry, you and I are so different. I've been that way my whole life, and as I get older, I'm trying to be more open about telling people that I don't care

I like a little of everything, but most of the popular stuff isn't to a deep extent. If I'm hanging out with people, or at a show, I can usually at least tolerate something that has a decent groove/rhythm. I won't listen to it unless it hits those 3 categories that DeathJag mentioned. There are bands that I listen to for primarily the instrumentals and the lyrics aren't great, but my favorite artists all hit those 3 things for me.

I try not to judge people on musical tastes, as a friend, but where this gets tricky is the dating scene. Most women I know like top 40 hip-hop /R&B, which is totally not my thing. It's tough as a single dude who'd like to meet a cool woman, especially when I find out her tastes are terrible. I like road trips, and music is ALWAYS on in my truck, so if our musical tastes don't jive, it will likely be a problem.

[shadowplay]

When I have guests over sometimes I make a playlist on iTunes.

When we have guests over I am forced to make up playlists* by Queen Shadowplay lest I spend the night constantly pulling out records and partially playing it before being reminded of another record and pulling that out and rinsing and repeating. I was initially annoyed about this but she sold it to me by pressing home the point that this closed off any attempts by people to have some sort of say about what music is on. 'Yeah because I know better' said I, 'or perhaps you're just very intolerant' says she, 'after all when we first met and I moved in you told me that my records had to be separate from yours like they were infected and eventually couldn't even be in the same room as your records.' Or when we first met I asked you to play a record (I was djing) and you told me you didn't do requests but you'd make an exception and play something I'd not asked for and didn't even know (pats my head), as if that was perfectly reasonable'.

That was/is true but she's glad it happened because she's got her petite few thousand strong record collection of the records she loves, which is essentially an edit of mine but doesn't need to deal with the overwhelming crazy nonsense of mine. If we'd unified the spheres I'd not have bought her a record every week and worse still we could have broken up at one time and had that horrible collection battle.

Think there's always going to be conflicts or interest mismatches between people and with music I usually just don't want to know what new acquaintances are into because I'm incredibly teenage about it and as Mrs S puts it 'want to Henry Higgins them out of their Red Hot Chili Peppers love'. As yet I've not met someone I liked into the RHCP (only a few total cunts ) but she's right I'd want to 'fix' them, truly believing it was for their own future welfare and happiness and it's really hard for me to let it go.

D

*Our midsummer, May Day, Hogmanay and Christmas parties are generally DJ'd by the kids, me and a few trusted cadres in shifts but casual get togethers are playlisted and it's like it or lump it.

[Shadoweclipse13]

...we could have broken up at one time and had that horrible collection battle.

That's my biggest fear with a potential consolidation of movies. I won't let that happen in my place.

[oid]

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 will yield to John Cage now.

"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all."

"Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness. "

Edit: Think Mr Ruskin should get a word in as well.
"
All true opinions are living, and show their life by being capable of nourishment; therefore of change. But their change is that of a tree — not of a cloud."

[Grey]

Being a snob about music is nothing to be proud of. If you want to be introspective about it then great, fair enough, hope it helps. If all you want to do is double down and say "well, I guess i'm just superior" in some kind of self-affirming masturbatory wank thread, i'll move along after this.

Having a strong appreciation for music, enjoying unconventional genres, disliking popular music, or recognizing that your tastes are more refined and specific than the average listener does not make you a snob. Judging or evaluating the worth of people who don't share your tastes as being inferior is what makes you a snob, which is nothing to be proud of in my opinion.

[shadowplay]

I will yield to John Cage now.

"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all."

I mean why put yourself through that, I've barely got the time to listen to the stuff i like without trying to find something in stuff I hate. John Cage probably just needed to buy some more records.

I also wonder if that's just meant to apply to music or does Sex and the City 2, 50 Shades of Grey and Fast and Furious 50 only start of make sense in the last 5 minutes. Or perhaps the novels of Katie Price only give up their special insight into the human condition 200 pages in.

I think music you dislike can have the exact opposite of the ASMR goosebumps thing music you do like causes. For example; the sound of shred guitar, a Gallagher brother or similar shaved ape, rawk barbarian spew or yodelling melisma just disrupts me at a cellular level. This is why I'd prefer supermarkets and the like cut out the fucking music altogether lest I run amok with a rustic baguette after having Good Day Sunshine forced upon me while I'm just trying to buy some pet food.

I also think we probably need to avoid getting bogged down in some notion of 'popular' music being bad and obscure music being good. IMO often the only real difference is marketing, or novelty or some celebrity angle or insertion in a film or something or even death because nothing brings int he fans like a death.

I remember post Drive someone asking me if I liked the Chromatics who they'd just discovered and me telling them; 'for a long time and enough to buy you their first album for Christmas (which they clearly never played)s' or bringing it up to date, me believing that Confidence Man should probably be totally massive because they have all the things that should make them massive bar a parade of PR tanks. For me promotion is as important a facet as the music, perhaps even more so when lots of records I buy don't even have a video to hook more casual browsers.

I was talking to a label boss the other day about an act they signed and I was telling them that her first album was going on my favourite the other year and that I was sad it hadn't caught on. We talked about her old label (which is one of the best) just not doing promotion, just putting out the music in limited numbers and moving on to the next one, not in a critical way merely as way of explaining things. This model is fine for me, probably not fine for any artist trying to eke a living but definitely not great for more casual late adopting music fans or folk who need music precooled by committee.

D

[Larry Mal]

I do think that Greta Van Fleet is crap, and I've always been a big snob about things and then again loved schlock at the same time. I liked Milli Vanilli back in the day, for instance. I genuinely like Busch beer and prefer it and will order it.

My mother, though, she was a pretentious person. I fried up some collard greens in onions and bacon for myself and my father one day, and he commented on how I made them the way he used to eat them when he grew up in Texas, and I was like, I didn't know there was really another way to make them all that much.

He told me that my mother made them once and sauteéd them down with white wine. My mother was a lifelong devotee of the Julia Child school of returning to French cooking and away from traditional American hack cooking of the Depression era techniques, so I guess she thought she had to culture them collards up by cooking them down with a little chablis.

I mean, what the fuck is that? I come from a long line of snobby and pretentious people is my point. My older son was walking around a while back- he's four- telling people, "Well, some people think Saturn is a rocky planet but it's actually a gas giant,", and while he's correct, I was listening and wondering, who are these "some people"? How have I already raised my son to be a pretentious know it all who already holds himself as knowing far more than "some people"?