Randomness: Music Snobbery

Music snobs. How on earth do you define a music snob? I tend to call myself a music snob because I make judgements on other people's tastes in music. On the other hand, I am all for everyone having their own taste in music and I maintain that there is no such thing as good or bad taste in music, just individual perceptions. However, when I see people who only listen to chart music or music which I consider to require very little skill or effort, I can't help but pass judgement on it. And then afterwards, even though I stand by my position on their music, I feel I've been a little harsh.

However, there are people like me, who just make vague "you seriously listen to that?" comments, and then there are people who totally rip into others who, they feel, listen to crap music. I didn't come across any for years and then I joined last.fm. I was actually horrified to see some of the comments left on the artists' pages regarding their apparently crap music. What really got me though, was that the people doing the snobbing generally had fairly limited tastes themselves. Not that limited tastes are a bad thing, but maybe you should actually consider listening to music before you write it off as crap. I will personally listen to anything once. I might then drown my ears in something loud and screamy to get rid of the feeling, but at least I try. I mean, I even gave Jedward's cover of Blink 182's "All The Small Things" a chance. I was traumatised, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. You will see my trauma if you have a listen: TRAUMA AWAITS

I drowned my ears in Taiwanese Black Metal after that (thank you, Chthonic) because it was loud and shouty and I didn't understand a word of it. This brings me on to my next point. The worst music snobs seem to be from very specific genres. You get music snobs from all genres who will even have a go at bands who apparently give that genre a bad name. Personally, I find the metallers are the worst. And yet at the same time, I've come across metalheads who will listen to anything. But, yes, for a small number metalheads - if it's not really technical metal, it's not good music. Or not even music, according to a very small number I've come across. Following the snobby metalheads, there are the indies. Oh how they make me laugh with their more-indie-than-thou attitudes. Again, it's only a small number, but it ticks me off. There's not liking music and letting people know that you don't like it and then there's being a total arsehole about it. If you don't like it, there's no need to have a go at those people that do.

Hmmm... I think we'll end that there, before I go off on an uber-long rant.