A Music Nerd's Burden
I am not alone in the world. You see, I’ve been in more than my share of arguments about going out to a bar or club and how I picky I am about where I want to go. I can’t go to places with shitty music. I just can’t. It drives me insane. I can’t enjoy myself. People say I’m just exaggerating or being difficult and I wish it were the case, but it’s quite simple: if there’s shitty music, I’m not having fun. I can’t ignore it. I can’t block it out. It’s there and it’s awful and it makes me want to fight people.
If you clicked the link, you’ll see that somewhere else in the world there’s someone with this same complex who wrote a little comic about it. So next time I refuse to go to the Irish Pub or Silk City or all other manner of poorly DJ’d watering hole, you’ll know I’m not being difficult. I’m saving you the trouble of dealing with me being forced to hear Counting fucking Crows.
On the converse, if we go someplace with good music, you get to be around someone who is almost unreasonably happy and excited all the time. So it goes both ways, really.
Comments
Just for the record I love the Counting Crows’ 1st album and there’s nothing you can do about it.
They are the very picture of generic MOR bullshit and they infuriate me.
Is it the music itself? Or the people that the music draws to these places? I used to be the same way about going out, but I’ve learned not to bother other people if they aren’t bothering me about anything, so that was pretty influential.
95% of the time, it’s the music itself, but if they play sweet caroline, then it’s only 20% the music and 80% the people going “BA BA BAAA!”
I think its all a facade to overcompensate for the fact that, deep down, Hutch loves the Hold Steady and it just eats him up inside.
YOUR MOM loves the Hold Steady!!
Funny that you mentioned Sweet Caroline, Hutch. I was just thinking of that god forsaken song as I was reading through. I sympathize ENTIRELY!
So, this past weekend, I was in a place in Beacon Hill, and there was a gaggle of shot-doing, typical college girls. Wouldn’t you know it, they planted themselves at the table right next to ours, and proceeded to, for the next hour, belt out every song that they had put on the jukebox (which they had hijacked somehow with a bombastic barrage of your bar standards, Sweet Caroline included) at a deafeningly high pitch.
I had my own little slice of angrytime, then I made everyone get up and leave. I also “accidentally” knocked one of their purses over on my way out. Oops.
John said:They are the very picture of generic MOR bullshit and they infuriate me.
Do/Did you listen to Down By Law? Their album All Scratched Up is peppered with these scathing little tracks about how much they hate Counting Crows. I tend to disagree with them, even though I think Adam Duritz is a fucking asshole.
Not all music can or needs to be edgy and innovative. The purpose of trying new things is to see if you can find some new sounds that are pleasing to the ear or can evoke a specific emotional response. I’m all about hearing new things, and there aren’t many things more exciting than those “Aha!” moments that accompany a new musical discovery. But if a band can successfully invoke Brian Wilson (feel free to insert you favorite artists) I’ll listen to them ‘til the cows come home because the Beach Boy isn’t cranking out new tunes as often as I’d like him to.
Music snobbery is just a complete waste of time. What do you stand to gain by allowing shitty music to affect you so negatively? If you’re having such a hard time ignoring it, that tells me you’ve attached a bunch of emotion to some shit that really should just be irrelevant to you. Did the bully in your middle school give you swirlies and steal your lunch money while pumping “Round Here” through his boombox or something?
Julia said:I had my own little slice of angrytime, then I made everyone get up and leave. I also “accidentally” knocked one of their purses over on my way out. Oops.
Again, letting other people’s good time negatively affect your own is your problem, not their’s. As long as you’re not being physically bothered, you’re the sucker if you let stuff like that get the best of you.
They play Sweet Caroline when the Rangers win by the way, so I love that song. It’s cheesy, lame, generic, and FUN.
You seem to think I have an choice in the matter. Believe me, I’ve spent enough time in shitty bars with shitty music and shitty people to have figured out that maybe if I could stop it from bothering me, I’d be a happier guy. I’ve just yet to figure out how. I’m sure part of it is straight-up ADD. I can’t tune it out cause I can’t focus on any one thing.
If someone successfully invokes Brian Wilson, I’m all over it. But you seem to be of the mind that any attempt at invoking Brian Wilson is a success; that it’s not possible for someone to FAIL at making good music. I assure you it is, I assure you there’s nothing psychologically twisted about getting annoyed every time I’m forced to hear a failed piece of music, and I assure you Counting Crows fucking failed.
But no, I’ve never heard any Down by Law. Just seen the Jarmusch movie.
John said:If someone successfully invokes Brian Wilson, I’m all over it. But you seem to be of the mind that any attempt at invoking Brian Wilson is a success; that it’s not possible for someone to FAIL at making good music.
That’s definitely not what I think, although I am sure there are certain bands that I feel are successful at such things that you probably wouldn’t agree with.
I just think that the over-emphasis on innovation and edginess in music, especially among people who are serious about music, is completely unfounded. Those aren’t the reasons why good music is good. Sure it takes innovation to help forge new ground and to find new sounds, but in the end it’s the melody, the timing, the riff or the lyric that leaves the impression. Shitty music is shitty because it fails in those areas, not because it isn’t innovative.
This is all besides the point, though. Believe me, I spent many years as a straight-edge (I know that’s not you), people hating jerk, and I regret missing out on a lot of things. Fuck, I spent my prom night hanging out with Sammy because I convinced myself that I hated most of the people in my high school anyway and that the music that would be playing there was going to suck. No offense to Sammy, but that was probably not the best decision I’ve ever made. Don’t let the shittiness that surrounds you ruin your good time.
Thanks to you fuckers, I have Sweet Caroline stuck in my head. Fuck living in the middle of red sox nation as well (for it is their stupid theme song for whatever horrifically unimportant reason). Fucking assholes and their bad song choices and their general rebel rousery at inappropriate times, like hollering “GO SOX” in the middle of the fucking emergency room because some jerk named “YOOK” hits a home run for the umpteenth billion time. Shave your god damn goatees and get a new hat.
I’m mad at work.
To actually say something on topic, I also agree John’s sentiment about bad music in bars being intolerable. There’s no excuse for anybody to want to hear more than one Skynard or Jimmy Buffet song in a given year, let alone several times in one evening.
hutch i feel it’s impossible for you to go out then. i mean, i think the music is terrible that people choose to play at our local bar, brewer’s, but i’ll pump a few bucks in to play some good stuff and tolerate the rest of it for good company and cold beer.
Jay, I don’t think anyone here has over-emphasized innovation and edginess. I’ll admit that I’m more likely to like something if it’s very unique, but half the stuff I listen to is just really good pop. I know it’s a cliche and ridiculous thing to say “I listen to all music,” but I quite honestly do. I just can’t stand boring, uninspired, stupid, or rehashed pop garbage in any form.
Also, Gos and I didn’t go to our prom because they’re fucking ridiculous.
And Bill, I feel your pain. I heard my first E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES chant of the season the other day. It made my stomach hurt.
It’s not impossible Christina. It’s just limited. Sugar Mom’s, upstairs Tattoo’d Mom’s, plenty of great small restaurants, friend’s houses, or any time I have a spare $20 to spend and the bar has one of those touch-tone juke boxes where I can put on a shit ton of songs and have them skip to the front of the play-order.
Also, I don’t just go play Ministry or some shit (unless I’m feeling particularly mean and want to clear the bar). I usually do my best to play good stuff that people in the bar won’t mind. It’s not hard at all. And seeing as the Music Nerds in the bar are suffering and everyone else couldn’t give a shit, I see it as a duty and an obligation.
you could always go to a bar WITHOUT a juke box
Doesn’t that feel weird to you? Not having music on? I mean, just today at lunch me, Justin, and Heidi were eating in my kitchen and it was too quiet and had to put music on.
John said:or any time I have a spare $20 to spend and the bar has one of those touch-tone juke boxes where I can put on a shit ton of songs and have them skip to the front of the play-order
I think you just helped me solve the mystery of how their garbage got in front of my songs.
Jay said:
And also…
Julia said:I had my own little slice of angrytime, then I made everyone get up and leave. I also “accidentally” knocked one of their purses over on my way out. Oops.
Again, letting other people’s good time negatively affect your own is your problem, not their’s. As long as you’re not being physically bothered, you’re the sucker if you let stuff like that get the best of you.
I think my ears bleeding from their inexorably high pitch could be classified under being physically bothered. But really, the music was loud to start with, we couldn’t hear each other even at a yell with how loud they were being. They were being obnoxious, and obnoxious people bother me.
John said:Jay, I don’t think anyone here has over-emphasized innovation and edginess. I’ll admit that I’m more likely to like something if it’s very unique, but half the stuff I listen to is just really good pop. I know it’s a cliche and ridiculous thing to say “I listen to all music,” but I quite honestly do. I just can’t stand boring, uninspired, stupid, or rehashed pop garbage in any form.
I totally understand what you’re saying, and honestly, I’m pretty much in the exact same boat. The difference is, while I don’t like rehashed pop garbage, I can certainly tolerate it, which I guess brings this thread entirely full circle. I would say that you need to get over it and that you’d be happier once you did, but you’re already married and settled down. You’re pretty much expected to just curl up and die anyway, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
Believe me, man, I’ve tried. I’ll be somewhere, having a conversation, and it’s there the back of my mind, blaring through shitty speakers. And like a mosquito buzzing in my ear, I can’t ignore it. It’s there, it sucks, and it sends me on a mental tangent about bad music and stupid people and and the woeful state of american popular culture. This all happens in the span of a few seconds and it repeats every half a minute. My brain gets stuck on an endless loop being repeatedly reminded of something I wish never existed.
It’s like trying to hang out with someone who just wants to talk about Darfur all the time. It’s like, yeah, I get it. There are terrible, awful things going on in the world, but what can I do about it right now? I’m just trying to enjoy my beer and discuss the finer points of the Evil Dead trilogy. Stop fucking reminding me about this shit cause it’s bringing me down.
And yes, in a very roundabout way, I just compared Counting Crows to Darfur. I think it’s an apt comparison.
John said:It’s like trying to hang out with someone who just wants to talk about Darfur all the time. It’s like, yeah, I get it. There are terrible, awful things going on in the world, but what can I do about it right now? I’m just trying to enjoy my beer and discuss the finer points of the Evil Dead trilogy. Stop fucking reminding me about this shit cause it’s bringing me down.
So wait, are you saying that you are capable of blocking out Darfur, but not bad music? The plot thickens.
I have to say that one of my favorite memories of this summer is that bar in Jersey City that we went to after Aaron’s wedding.
Every song that you put on was a hit.
No, I’m saying I’m incapable.
i do actually have weird anxious reactions to certain music and it makes me need to leave the room so i don’t flip out.
but i am totally OK with stupidass pop music. mehhh. the only thing i can’t stand is when someone puts on a song that is a TOTAL DOWNER (read: johnny cash’s version of “hurt”) and then the jukebox runs out of songs and you’re stuck in that moment/mood and it fucks with everything.
O.K. see here’s my take on this whole deal. What’s being discussed here is called being a “music nerd” but it’s actually being a music snob. I consider myself a music nerd. I love music. It’s what I do, it’s who I am, and it needs to always be there. I can discuss the intricacies of what I call “the good stuff” but I can also talk about and listen to and take “the bad stuff” for what it is. But I don’t care what it is as long as it’s there. Yeah, I’m happier if it’s something good that I like or that I perceive as having some merit, but I’m only unhappy if there’s no music or no sound. What’s being described here is being a “music snob”. A music nerd can devour it all in equal measure and needs a situation where they can hear music and talk about music. A music snob needs to have a situation where they can hear music they like and talk about why what they like is better. The problem is, that more often than not, it’s based on subjective and personal reasoning. I mean for example, I don’t like the Beatles. But I’d be much happier at a bar that was playing nothing but the Beatles than say at a baseball game or something like that. Like it or not, bad music is still music and a true music nerd will find SOMETHING interesting about it, if not strictly from a musical perspective but a historical perspective or a pop culture perspective or whatever.
Yeah, but I don’t have to LISTEN to it to talk about it. And there’s no question that if you were in a bar playing nothing but the Beatles, you’d find yourself in a sour mood pretty quickly, cause you couldn’t help but think about all the things you don’t like about them.
Not at all. It’s like politics only less contentious. I’d have a good time discussing it, and pointing out things about it that I didn’t enjoy or things that I did enjoy or discussing minutiae and trivia about it. But then again I can really and honestly find something I can take away from positively from a good, rock solid 80% of music out there (and yes, that does include the Beatles). Seriously I think I can honestly say that the only way I’d find myself super annoyed by the music at a bar or club or whatever would be if it were a bar playing modern country music.
john’s other problem: THE UNBEARABLE BURDEN OF ALWAYS BEING RIGHT
maggie said:john’s other problem: THE UNBEARABLE BURDEN OF ALWAYS BEING RIGHT
i love maggie.
i had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be the music nerd/snob at my last job. as much as i tried, i hated everything everyone put on and eventually took charge with my ipod. for the most part to keep everyone happy, i put together an 8-hour long 80’s mix but sometimes when i knew no one would really notice or care, i delved deeper into my collection. it was fun.
i am finding the same thing happening at my new job, actually. you can hear everyone’s radios echoing WMMR all day as i try to drown it out with everything i steal from john.
maggie said:john’s other problem: THE UNBEARABLE BURDEN OF ALWAYS BEING RIGHT
And what a heavy burden it is.
The worst was working in an office for almost a year where they piped in 102.9 (for those of you not in the Philly area, it’s the same 100 classic rock songs over and over again). It was unbearable.
John said:BI’m just trying to enjoy my beer and discuss the finer points of the Evil Dead trilogy. Stop fucking reminding me about this shit cause it’s bringing me down.
I’d rather listen to Mmmm Bop then you talk about evil dead trilogy.
Personally, I’d rather hear John discuss which he prefers more: the biomechanical-beast version of Mother Brain from Super Metroid or the classic ol’ glob-in-a-glass-case version.
You KNOW he has an opinion.
Justin said:Personally, I’d rather hear John discuss which he prefers more: the biomechanical-beast version of Mother Brain from Super Metroid or the classic ol’ glob-in-a-glass-case version.
You KNOW he has an opinion.
Prefer? I really can’t say. It’s like asking which of my pets I love more. I love them both so much in their own unique ways. The first mother brain with the brutal relentlessness of her surrounding defenses; of the initial horror that the evil behind the whole game is a giant brain in a glass tube. The Super Metroid mother brain that grows to 10x your own height and FUCKING CLAWS.
Yeah, man. It’s… I just can’t.
It’s not easy raising a kid who’s always right.. wonder where he got that from.
Anyway, if you’re stuck in an office all day, give http://www.radioparadise.com a try.
I have it streamed on my lot in 2nd life, and last night they played Moonlight Sonata (with a banjo?!) weird.. but they usually play anything from radiohead to beatles, and I think I fav of the main guy there is Massive Attack.