How not to be a music snob?

[panoramic]

As a music collector I'd struggle if I wasn't open to new music, I listen to a lot of current music and a lot of old music and I try to not dismiss anything too quickly. Sometimes I'll listen to a band and I will kinda feel like it could be a grower so I let it grow on me and it turns out to be amazing, I think staying open to that is important. Hearing a band and thinking, geezzz the vocals are a bit awkward or the guitar is boring is something it can depend on my mood but at the end of the day I just have to remind myself that it's probably a grower and there will be some worth it in.
Some bands I've tried really hard with and they just don't seem to click or they only half click which is fine. It is what it is. Being open to new music and just listening to A LOT of music is the main goal with this topic.

When I was growing up I would scoff at a lot of pop music and then later in life I'd hear the worth in it, it's growing as a person while letting music grow on you! ^_^

I sway more towards indie shoegaze typically so this month has provided me with these amazing (mostly indie) discoveries...

Muncie Girls - Fixed Ideals (2018)
Basement Revolver - Heavy Eyes (2018)
The Daysleepers - Creation (2018)
Magic Shoppe - In Parallel (2018)
Juanita Stein - Until the Lights Fade (2018)

albums that are still growing this month:-

Film School - Bright to Death (2018)
Emma Ruth Rundle - On Dark Horses (2018)
Major Love - Major Love (2018)
Mirah - Understanding (2018)
Our Girl – Stranger Today (2018)
Spiritualized - And Nothing Hurt (2018)

one album that was a HUGE grower for me this year is The Magic Numbers - Outsiders (2018) took so long to click but I kept coming back to it and wow! amazing. I got into this band from their first album when it came out then drifted away with the second album, but I was clearly just not ready for them. Since gone back over their full catalog and it's been immensely rewarding.

magic shoppe and the new spiritualized are on my current list of shit too

[SadFuzz]

As a music collector I'd struggle if I wasn't open to new music, I listen to a lot of current music and a lot of old music and I try to not dismiss anything too quickly. Sometimes I'll listen to a band and I will kinda feel like it could be a grower so I let it grow on me and it turns out to be amazing, I think staying open to that is important. Hearing a band and thinking, geezzz the vocals are a bit awkward or the guitar is boring is something it can depend on my mood but at the end of the day I just have to remind myself that it's probably a grower and there will be some worth it in.
Some bands I've tried really hard with and they just don't seem to click or they only half click which is fine. It is what it is. Being open to new music and just listening to A LOT of music is the main goal with this topic.

When I was growing up I would scoff at a lot of pop music and then later in life I'd hear the worth in it, it's growing as a person while letting music grow on you! ^_^

I sway more towards indie shoegaze typically so this month has provided me with these amazing (mostly indie) discoveries...

Muncie Girls - Fixed Ideals (2018)
Basement Revolver - Heavy Eyes (2018)
The Daysleepers - Creation (2018)
Magic Shoppe - In Parallel (2018)
Juanita Stein - Until the Lights Fade (2018)

albums that are still growing this month:-

Film School - Bright to Death (2018)
Emma Ruth Rundle - On Dark Horses (2018)
Major Love - Major Love (2018)
Mirah - Understanding (2018)
Our Girl – Stranger Today (2018)
Spiritualized - And Nothing Hurt (2018)

one album that was a HUGE grower for me this year is The Magic Numbers - Outsiders (2018) took so long to click but I kept coming back to it and wow! amazing. I got into this band from their first album when it came out then drifted away with the second album, but I was clearly just not ready for them. Since gone back over their full catalog and it's been immensely rewarding.

Our Girl and Muncie Girls are two of my favourite bands. I saw Our Girl on the tour for Stranger Today and they were amazing.

[øøøøøøø]

In my late 20s I thought I was a music snob.

Turns out I was just aging. It has been empirically proven (there are multiple studies, this is just the first one I googled) that beginning in our late 20s, we become naturally biased toward the music we grew up with and away from anything new we hear.

This is why, I feel, we have a pervasive notion in our culture that the late 1960s were a particularly important time for music. That was the music of the baby boomers' youth, and being the largest demographic until late last year, that generation has driven the mainstream cultural narrative for our entire lifetime (unless there are any octogenarian members of this forum).

The good news is, once I figured out and accepted what was happening, I begun to realize my biases. And like any bias or prejudice, these can be overcome by reason. I listen to more new music now than I did in my early 20s, and it's incredible--there is some amazing and creative new music being made. As a bonus, working to acknowledge and let go of those age-related biases has been spectacular for personal growth, and for my growth as an artist.

[shadowplay]

And the cycle will continue. It will never be broken culturally. It's only broken as a matter of individual choice. Of course, some people might like to revel in the ultimately-delusional idea that their generation was the last to create any good music. And if that brings them fulfillment, I won't harbor any judgment.

But there's just so much cool shit being made all the time that it sounds profoundly boring to me to miss so much.

My personal music life has generally been the same for the last 40 odd years with varying budgets; go to record shop each week...look for new releases..buy them.

I agree to point but I think the boomer generation still have quite a hold over broadcast media and incredible power to still spend a lot of time promoting bands that have been essentially their own tribute acts since Jesus was a boy. I often think new media coverage of the rock grandees is not unlike coverage of the royals, a near endless drip of non news.

i also think we are seeing a slight reboot of disco sucks which is something i never thought I'd see.

I'd like to think we are at peak band reform but I guess there's going to be an infinite continuum of nostalgia for things that people in all likelihood are too young to feel nostalgic for and once they develop holograms fully the goose will truly be loose. I can't recall this in my youth at all, if I was jaunting out to see a band in the early 80's I was unlikely to be diverted to see Tommy Steele do his 60's hits with people who were were older than my parents (who were totally disinterested in music).

I some ways I think the retrenchment is even more acute these days with gangs of folk going to big venues to singalong to The Greatest Showman (surely hell on earth) or big mega medley tours of one hit wonders which are almost a throwback to music hall (though Greatest Showman is actually newish, so perhaps they are still one up on the boxed set). My sister has both sungalong to Greatest Showman and attended this which I moaned about in bad things.

I'm quite glad the cringey Record store Day seems to be less of a thing, since it's infested with novelty, rockism and boomerism. I near died with embarassment at all the naff press The Mighty Boosh got about their ambassador role and 'typical' novelty release. Unless it was a situationist parody and in that case well played chaps.

Btw we've spoken about the 'cost of streaming in the past but I heard an interesting thing on the radio the other day about the environmental cost of non physical media which you might be interested in.

Why CDs may be more eco-friendly than streaming

D

[Larry Mal]

The good news is, once I figured out and accepted what was happening, I begun to realize my biases.

That was a very good read, and it's an important thing to recognize about one's self. I am of the opinion that music is life and that one should always be a part of it, and listening to new things is something that you should always do.

I wish I was taking my own advice a little better at present but my music listening time is very limited. I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

But yeah, keep listening to music, remember that human beings are inherently musical and as such we make great music everywhere and all the time.

[DeathJag]

In my late 20s I thought I was a music snob.

Turns out I was just aging. It has been empirically proven (there are multiple studies, this is just the first one I googled) that beginning in our late 20s, we become naturally biased toward the music we grew up with and away from anything new we hear.

What percent of people, and by how much? I totally believe the majority of “1st World” humans do this, but most definitely not all. I want to see how much of a minority I am.

I have many “phases” that usually last 3 - 5 years where I will bury myself in something new. I had the breakcore phase, black metal phase, Dipset phase, Velvet Underground/PE/Primus phase (they overlapped in my early 20s), Ramonescore phase (not to be confused with my 15-year old punk rock phase), the instro post rock phase, doo wop / big beat phase, ska / dancehall phase, The Cure / TWP / Moz phase, others, and many many garage / surf phases. And others, so many others.

As much as I’d like to think there is, I have not found anything that I can “always listen to.” Nope. Many things I love and will listen to many times, but almost nothing has really struck me with the “it just finished and I want to hear it again” thing. La Sera has a song that is like that though, Cinerama too. But like movies or comics I want to experience multiple times, they are so rare as to almost not exist...

I love your approach though. A similar revelation happened to me a few years ago when one of my phases had “run its course,” and I actually went back to high school music I hadn’t listened to in decades. It was a really fun 4-month phase.

I’m a bigger snob than ever before though, because since opening up my mind and ears I’ve heard a LOT of garbage!

[jorri]

I suppose you're only a snob if you scoff and disparage certain music. I'm picky as hell, but tastes are tastes, its entirely subjective, so what is the issue with others listening to music you don't like? I mean, it doesn't affect me as such does it?

[Telliot]

And the cycle will continue. It will never be broken culturally. It's only broken as a matter of individual choice. Of course, some people might like to revel in the ultimately-delusional idea that their generation was the last to create any good music. And if that brings them fulfillment, I won't harbor any judgment.

But there's just so much cool shit being made all the time that it sounds profoundly boring to me to miss so much.

A thousand times, this.

[fuzzjunkie]

The good news is, once I figured out and accepted what was happening, I begun to realize my biases.

That was a very good read, and it's an important thing to recognize about one's self. I am of the opinion that music is life and that one should always be a part of it, and listening to new things is something that you should always do.

I wish I was taking my own advice a little better at present but my music listening time is very limited. I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

But yeah, keep listening to music, remember that human beings are inherently musical and as such we make great music everywhere and all the time.

I agree, and while I don’t dislike all K-Pop, just like I don’t dislike all hip-hop, or all country, I just don’t get this K-Pop boy band being “as big or bigger than the Beatles.” 1st, the Beatles played their own instruments, wrote their own songs ( for the most part) and didn’t dance. How are a bunch of back up dancers with tie dye haircuts on the same musical level as the Beatles? I realize some think the Beatles are not anything more than a 60s cultural phenomenon, but really, upstaged by Lady Gaga’s back up group?!?

BTS is my WTF?!?

[windmill]

But there's just so much cool shit being made all the time that it sounds profoundly boring to me to miss so much.

Agree with this

I like listening to the old stuff as much as anyone but there is so much good stuff out there that I haven't heard yet.

I just have to wait till Countertext posts it !

[shadowplay]

Does it really matter as a listener if someone writes their own material or even plays on the record? Let's say you hear something and love it but then learn it's totally manufactured, does that mean you can't like it anymore?

I guess it's nice to admire all round talent but if that really was that important it would mean that (thinking of something utterly mediocre)...like say...Shed Seven were better than the Shangri-Las and well that's crazy talk. I mean i fucking love Rasputin by Boney M (I mean what a devastating intro and arrangement and the lyrics are brilliant) but the people fronting the band are more or less just miming dancers (and Frank Farian repeated this later in nowhere near as good Milli Vanilli) and the tune is totally stolen but...doesn't matter one jot to me.

D

[s_mcsleazy]

i kinda agree with david that rasputin - boney m is a fantastic song. regardless on if the faces of the band were all just miming.

in the case of a lot of modern pop music, i do think writer/producer credits are getting out of hand but if the product is good, who cares? my favorite album album of 2017 was melodrama - lorde. a pop album with 9 producers and 2 main writers (including lorde) not a single moment of that album seemed wasted, which is more than could be said for most albums i was looking forward to that year.

actually, can i bring up something that's been bothering me with modern "rock" music? ok, while i hate that every boomer and their dog keeps screaming "rock music will never be like it was in the 60's and 70's" i think another major issue is a lot of bands really dont put enough effort into the album as a whole. i keep hearing rock bands bring out 2-3 singles and i think "oh, this is cool" then you listen to the album and it's pretty much trash. i think many modern rock bands think "oh rock isn't as popular as it used to be so we only have to focus on singles because that's what the popular artists do" when really, how you beat competition is by being better than it. if you're targeting the kinda person who will spend £18 on a vinyl record, make sure there aint wasted time on there.

[øøøøøøø]

"Andy Warhol didn't even design the Campbell's Soup Label"

[higgsblossom]

The focus is on playlist compatibility today. Just take a band like Imagine Dragons as an example: they are successfull because they play a song for every playlist on Apple Music. One for your Workout, one for Relaxing, one for Getting Up, one for In The Car, one for Romantic Moments... but that's not what we are used to. Our generation, and I believe that most members on here are >30 years old, grew up listening to albums. Something like listening to Nevermind in a row, listening to "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain", "You're Living All Over Me"... one band, one singer, one album, different emotions. It's all playlists now, replacing what we had to make ourselves: the mixtape. Mixtapes were for showing that you not only knew the standards but also the weird, uncommon bands. Mine always had one or two songs by The Residents on them, just to show off that I'm a music snob and know such an obscure band.

So... is it all better or worse these days? Probably it's just different.
Because there are also albums like "Hunter" by Anna Calvi that only work as an album, where I could not pick one song and say "That one is a hit!" but the whole album is magnificent. Or "Skeleton Tree" by Nick Cave, that is probably the most intimate and beautifully strange piece of music I know and also only works as an album.

[timtam]

K-Pop is a just a factory approach to pop music. The musical talent is in the writers and the studio musos who actually play it. To which is added some photogenic youngsters who can dance and sometimes sing (after several years training with choreographers and singing coaches before they are unleased on the public). It's just distilling the elements necessary to make a pop song to its extremes. Plenty of earlier pop artists have had much of their material written by professional writers. It's unlikely that many groups of teenagers will have everything it takes to be pop stars these days.

So .. criticize the kids if they can't dance or sing, the choreographers if the moves are bad, the hairdressers if the haircuts are bad, the videographers if the song vid is poor, and the writers if it's a lousy song.

I don't listen to K-Pop very often. But there's some very well crafted dance pop buried there.