I’ve had it up to here and beyond with music snobbery. Full disclosure before I get into my rant: I’ve been guilty of the offense in the past, both as a fan and as a music critic. But I’ve since grown up.
Music fandom is a social signal among those of us who enjoy popular music as well as some that’s not necessarily so popular. We wear the t-shirts and affix the band stickers to our cars. It announces our perceived coolness and assumed sense of good taste as well as membership in a tribe that follows a musical act or genre.
It shows how much music means to people and is an element who we are, what we believe, and even grants stature in some social circles. But the tribal system is rife with misplaced loyalties and sometimes adolescent attitudes, almost like high school cliques. Alas, the social signaling that musical likes and tastes imply can too often fall prey to the notion of being superior to others: cooler, more hip, with better tastes.
And when that goes rancid, people start saying that music they don’t like “sucks,” implying that it is bad music, poorly done. Sure, there’s a small bit of music that makes it at least somewhat into the public consciousness that is in one way or another simply bad. But too often claiming a musical act “sucks” is a snotty and ultimately unfair way of saying you don’t care for it. And simply not true.
Back in August, recently-anointed Veep candidate Tim Walz posted on social media a triptych of photos of himself with his stereo and daughter with vinyl albums by Bob Seger and John Mellencamp. A friend of mine made a sneering comment regarding Walz’s liking the artist formerly known as Johnny Cougar. I almost posted a response about how “musical snobbery is not a good look.” But resisted lest it alienate him.
One irony in the matter is that my friend managed and released music by one of the most revered underground cult artists in contemporary music. So he hardly needs to get his hip musical cred card punched. The fact that he looks down on others into music that he doesn’t like strikes me as a personal failing on his part, a sign of insecurity as well as emotional immaturity.
Sneering at Mellencamp is also a sneer at the millions of music listeners who have enjoyed his music and seeing him perform. I may not be a regular listener to him, but in 1989 I did spend serious ear time with what I feel his finest album, “Big Daddy,” and found it enjoyable and impressive even if he isn’t my cuppa tea.
Musical snobbism can also be needlessly exclusionary. In the early ‘90s, I moderated the first panel on Americana at the South By Southwest music conference. One of the panelists was a co-founder/editor of No Depression magazine, which more or less became the house organ of the early Americana Movement. He’d previously been part of the Seattle scene during the rise of grunge, and decried how that success had ruined the scene. He hoped Americana wouldn’t get too big.
I was nearly horrified by his statement. And immediately piped up about how, when I hear music that I love, I want to shout about it from the rooftops. Not just to share the enjoyment, but for the artists to enjoy the benefits their artistry merits.
Or, as Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters sang many years ago: Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. Music touches peoples’ souls in a special way. Being a grinch about music that’s not to your tastes is in a way being anti-musical.
If you don’t like it, then don’t listen. Simple, right? No need to demean it and those who like it. That’s terribly bad form.
Album: “F-1 Trillion” by Post Malone – One could get snobby about this rap star doing a country album. But then again, he’s a Dallas, Texas boy, and all 19 tracks slot perfectly in among what tops today’s country charts.
Album: “Deeper Well” by Kacey Musgraves – Speaking of country, Musgraves keeps upping the ante of how she opens up that genre with her adventurous progressivism on every new album, buoyed by her superior songwriting and voice that feels like a best friend.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email robpatterson054@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2024
Blog | Current Issue | Back Issues | Essays | Links
About the Progressive Populist | How to Subscribe | How to Contact Us