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Nobody Understands!

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Spinless:
I'm sure we've all been there at some point. Isn't it sorta crushing when nobody wants to listen to the same things as you? When a person has no interest in an album that is really close to your heart?

There have been a few 'spill overs' and a few of the bands you like have gotten popular, it gives you hope! You were right about that one band, folks know that! Maybe they'll try out that other band now too? Nope.
When you're out with friends, when you're meeting new people, trying to mingle, one of the first things that comes up is always 'So what kind of music do you like?'. How do you answer that question? I always get blank stares. Liking the music you like is a social handicap. You can't always just say 'I have the worst taste in the world, you wouldn't like it'. It turns people off just as much as a 10 minute discussion of trying to describe the sound of the Dirty Three. Which ends up being something like 'Nirvana without the singing' or something ridiculous.

After people haven't heard of your favourite bands, they'll always try to guess. That's depressing too.
"Oh, I know! You like Zep?"
"I guess I have enjoyed them in the past..."
"Queen?"
"Nope."
"No!? You GOT to like Queen!"
"I don't."
"GOT IT! The Chilli Peppers. Everybody likes the chillis."
"Not me."
"You're pretty weird. Listen, I...I'm gonna go over there somewhere...have a nice night!"

I guess the thing to do in these conversations is to either avoid music completely, or pretend a little.
How do you try to describe your music to somebody who is clueless to anything that's even remotely similar? To a person who's knowledge of music comes from the Top 40?

I recall an event when the Dinosaur Jr reunion was just announced. Not long afterwards they were playing at a festival. Several stages. They were playing the small one in the tent, probably more intimate. I couldn't go, I was pretty bummed out by this.
"Dinosaur Jr are great you guys, they made one of my favourite albums of all time, the soundtrack to the last few years of my life."
"Cool. What do they sound like?"
*description of dinosaur Jr, their influences, bands they have influenced and the period they were culturally significant8
"...So like Nirvana? Might check them out."
These people all went to see Pete Doherty's Baby Shambles or something while DJR played. One of the girl's father DID check out the band on my recommendation and told them "Hell of a guitarist, probably one of the best bands here."

They still haven't listened to YLAOM from start to finish.*

It hurts me a little that the people I know would rather hear Evanescene and think Amy Lee is the best song writer around, that Korn is the most heartbreaking music available and that Limp Bizkit has the perfect 'rocker' attitude.

Not only are they missing out on great things, they also couldn't care any less about this thing which is really dear to me.
It's terrible. Because you can't describe your music to a person, because you don't like Queen or the RHCP, you're boring and not worthy of a person's time.
So sad.

Share.

*The final track on YLAOM is Poledo and I'll shoot any person who says otherwise, even if the cure cover was pretty good.

E. Spaceman:
God, darryl. This is pretty pathetic.

LordNagash:
I do not have it so bad because I like most types of music, at least a few songs from most types. However I do have a preference for game music, as it has the most effect on me emotionally. It is very hard to ask most people to listen to any music from a game written only for that game. So I do somewhat understand what you are talking about.

C Patrick Carolan:
For the most part, I've given up on having conversations about music with all but a select few of the people I know in real life. I'm lucky enough to have quite a few friends with reasonable taste in music, though.

And at work... I've been working in a major chain music store (HMV) for about a year and a half now. At this point I don't even have it in me ot be polite to customers whenit comes ot their shitty taste in music. When I'm asked if the new Kanye West, Timbaland, or 50 Cent CDs are "any good" I flat out tell people they're asking the wrong guy and that I hate that shit. A customer buying a gift for her son (or whomever) asked me a few weeks ago which Nickelback CD was my favorite, and she didn't seem to understand what I meant when I told her outright that I don't like any of them. Which always leads to the "Oh, so what do you listen to?" question... and I hate to be the record store snob character, but my answer is usually "Oh, lots of stuff... but pretty much nothing you've ever heard of."

We're supposed to be nice to people and all that, but I just can't do it anymore. The best I can do when I'm asked those questions is "it's not my kind of thing, but we're selling a lot of copies of that CD" (as if sales = quality).

There have been a few decent moments, though. At least twice in the last few weeks a couple of customers have asked me for recommendations and actually bought the CDs I suggested... I even managed to sell a copy of the latest Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to a woman in her mid/late 40s. She said she was thinking about buying some AC/DC but decided that trying somehting new might be more fun, and it was such a refreshing thing ot hear in an HMV that I damn near wept. (okay not really)

It all really comes down to laziness, I think. It was kind of depressing to see how many people came in to buy the Blaqk Audio CD, just because it's two guys from AFI... but the same people would never listen to Mesh or Neuroactive or Iris, even though it's all pretty much exactly the same thing. Bon Jovi put out one of the weakest albums of the year (I can only say I've heard it because of the head office mandated in-store playlist) but it sold like mad because people have always bought Bon Jovi's albums. The local rock radio station hasn't updated their rotation since 1993, so of course we still sell piles of AC/DC, Motley Crue, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Nirvana CDs... to 15 year old kids. Nothing against those bands, but people are just really lazy when it comes to music and they'll eat up pretty much anything that's spoon-fed to them.

Spinless:
Guys, it seems I did this whole thing wrong.
Here are some bands that are popular, as dictated by the internet, in order of the most hits.

Kiss
U2
The Beatles
Pink Floyd
Nirvana
Metallica
Radiohead
Coldplay
Disturbed
REM
50 cent
Led Zepellin
Green Day
The Doors
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
AC/DC
Blur
Pearljam
Aerosmith
Evanescence


Tomorrow, I will make a list of bands that have quiet chicks infront of microphones, because that is how we roll on the QC forums.

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