God is a DJ and I am a snob
I am a music snob.
There I said it. After so many years of listening to countless bands and even at one point of time selling the music, I'm bursting forth from the confines of my iTunes and fessin' up.
I'm not a trend follower or a Belieber. Neither am I a fan of soppy pop divas, K-pop (whatever alphabetized pop nonsense), pseudo-punk pretentious American garage bands with too much eyeliner, tweens who pretend to be 30-year-olds or part of the hip hop hooray parade.
I am a music lover and I wished that kids today would at least have a tiny inkling about where music comes from, who their favorite artists are influenced by and at the very least, recognize the type of music they are listening to. Have you seen those kids on the new season of American Idol? Half of them had no idea who The Beatles were! To bring it closer to home, I once had an intern who had never heard of Guns N' Roses. *rolls eyes* How freaking sad is that? This was a self-professed metalhead in his early 20s who liked music by Linkin Park, Funeral for a Friend and Paramore but he's never head of Guns N' Roses? Are you kidding me?!
Then again, perhaps it is the style of artists today or the fact that people want 'recognizable', catchy music without the angst . Just turn on the radio, the music that gets the most airplay is the ones with backing samples that come from artists back in the day. Case in point, the Black Eyed Peas' The Time (Dirty Bit), Ashanti's Rain on Me or Warren G & the late Nate Dogg's Regulate. Props to anyone who can tell me the original songs used as samples without Googling. Where once the original artist thrived, the music industry today has evolved to embrace repackaged sample artists. Artists who write and produce their own music seem few and far between. Just look at Lady Gaga. She is a great artist and it took her an inordinate amount of time to reap her success .
I find it hard not to roll my eyes at people who gasp about how good the original songs (sans sampling) were. Or people who claim to know music and yet have never heard of a band like Arcade Fire. Newer bands are good but to me, they are pretty forgettable. In about 10 years, no one will remember 30 Seconds from Mars, All-American Rejects or Justin Bieber. Remember Blink182? Neither does anyone else.
So what is my iPod filled with? I'm pretty eclectic. It’s pop music to offset the depressive alternative stuff, classic rock, hair metal bands, some metal, plus musicals with a dash of Latin and jazz. Top 40s stuff for me is rare. I tend to gag a bit at the overly shiny and bright stars of today. Rock bands today are so teeny bopper and clean, it makes me want to shove them into some mud, just so they can be a little grungy.
What’s on play for me these days are Florence + the Machine, Explosions in the Sky, the 88, Stars, Take That (yes, I am a fan!), Morrisey, Depeche Mode and Ryan Adams, among others. It is not just about the artists, it is about their songs and how it somehow influences my life just a little to make my days that much better or in some case worse.
So who am I? I the bastard child of Rob Gordon in High Fidelity and that dude in 500 Days of Summer. Should I keel over today, I will have a good music playlist to die to at the very least.
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