It’s the time when people on message boards talk about their favorite albums/songs of the year/decade and others line up to say, “I’VE NEVER HEARD OF ANY OF THESE GROUPS”. You can set your watch by it.
And if the person adds anything else, it’ll simply be, “I can’t even tell which is the song title and which is the band!” And that’s it. They don’t want to talk about music, they’re not curious about the songs, they just wanted to come in and declare that none of this is stuff they’re familiar with.
It’s always said with a hint of accusation and a soupçon of pride. My favorites are the ones who go on to admit that they don’t listen to any band whose first album came out after 1974. “I haven’t listened to any new bands in thirty years, yet I’m not familiar with these! Are they anything at all like Mott the Hoople?”
I understand that there’s a crapload of new music out there these days, and it’s pretty damned intimidating. I also understand completely knowing exactly what you want to hear and sticking with it. What I don’t understand is having to declare to everyone else in earshot that the subject at hand fails to interest you as though you’re the star of the show here.
And it’s not one guy. In any similar thread there will be several folks racing to be the first to declare their ignorance of the music, as though a prize is being awarded somewhere.
Guys, you don’t have to say every thought that pops into your head. If a topic isn’t of interest to you, just move on. It’s all right if the person who posted it isn’t told that you were disinterested. Everyone will survive.
Or — and I know this is crazy but here’s a thought — you could check out the music (which is simple to do on the Internet) and see if maybe it might be something you like even though it’s not what you already listen to.
Pal Andrew has more to say here.
These kinds of posts are annoying (not that I ever participate in these discussions; I’m usually content to just read them), but I think they are at least sometimes a defensive reaction against those film or music or whatever connoisseurs who loudly revel in the obscurity of their tastes. A lot of geeks love to think of themselves as different from and somehow above the mainstream after all. So sometimes I see these “I have never heard of any of these guys” posts as a pre-emptive strike, an attempt to make obscurity seem nerdy rather than geeky.
Isn’t this kind of pre-emptive strike essentially saying “You’re pretentious, but I’m ignorant?”
It might be the reason some people do this, Mattwran, but assuming that people like the things they like because of an ulterior motive is another all too common and irritating behavior of a certain stripe of forum participant. A lot of the people I run across with esoteric interests are just really dang enthusiastic about music, the arts, indie comics, movies, etc. That’s what’s led them into whatever obscure corner they’re exploring.
In addition, it’s often the case that the music in question isn’t THAT obscure. It is if you only follow a narrow slice of music, but if so, then that’s exactly my point.
Fact is, any band *I’ve* heard of can’t be terribly obscure.
Amen, brother! I get very tired of that kneejerk reaction. I quite enjoy reading other peoples’ lists, and in fact have discovered some very good bands because of them. To lash out at someone else’s likes (unless I guess the list is written in a REALLY pretentious way) seems silly.