Musical Snobbery

The Wife (aka "Bride of Guzilla" or "Charzilla" in her own right) often accuses me of musical snobbery. While I would love to defend this as merely good-natured wifely ribbing, I have come to accept that a degree of this is true. But it's not entirely my fault. In fact, I maintain that if the bands I chastise or refuse to listen to were better, we wouldn't have this problem.

Musical taste is an intensely personal thing, to be sure. But there is a lot of empirically bad music out there. From the insidiously evil "My Humps" from the offensively manufactured Black Eyed Peas to the whiny collegiate Alt+Rock that people mistake for genius of a Coldplay, bad music seems to prevail.

And that's where the Internets really shine...

Firstly, it is now possible for smaller, lesser known bands to get their music out there and found via Myspace or equivalents, and there is a lot of great music available. Why, just look at Galactic. ("In my correct opinion" - a great band.)

Secondly, it is possible for people sitting in Peoria to now access truly World Music. (See Fela Kuti & Hugh Masekela.) And it becomes possible for similar artists to now get a global following where they had historically been working in obscurity & poverty.

But also, the faceless creative multitudes -- YOU -- awarded Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" can strike back in amusing ways.

Take prototypical "rock band" Nickelback for example... Now I admit getting sucked in to the wild popularity of 2001's omnipresent "How You Remind Me" -- how could you not when it was heard every 46 seconds? But I was not going to be fooled again by this band who took their name from their shared experience of working at a Starbucks and often giving customers change of a "nickel back." (this should have been warning enough) And that is where I applaud whoever the faceless genius was that exposed them for the talentless frauds they are:

By clicking here you can play their 2001 hit out of your left computer speaker, and their more recent hit "Someday" (2003) out of your right speaker. And quickly realize THEY ARE THE SAME SONG. Truly appalling. And I commend this person for illustrating this.

Well done, whoever you are. This is why YOU are Time Magazine's "Person of the Year." And Nickelback is not.

Bring back musical snobbery...