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Music snobs - a short rant

#82
I worked in a kitchen in my youth and being a college city they played the folk music show in the morning (classical all afternoon and rock on the night shift) and after hearing one pedantic dirge after another for months I decided to name my next project Songs Of Silt in honor of the most boring pure folk music there is. Years later I was in an electronica band and we named an album Songs Of Silt.
 
#88
Misfit Wookiee said:
I think a lot of the previous posts calling out the OP for music snobbery were unjustified; I believe his intent was not to dash the entire genre of folk, but the limits of the friend's selection from the plethora of folk tunes available to play. A list of the songs would be helpful to illustrate this, if possible.

As to the whole music snobbery stuff... I firmly believe there exists only two types of music. Stuff you like, and stuff you don't like. My list is pretty eclectic, personally. Before my iPod crashed and wiped itself of its memory, a shuffle would have had anything from Bad Religion to America to Steely Dan to In Flames to Glassjaw to Iron Maiden to The Avalanches to Andy Gibb to DJ Shadow to... well, I made my point. I've always tried to make it a point to listen to anything three times all the way through before dismissing it, and I still wouldn't write off an entire genre. Hell, I had a few country songs on that bugger before it freaked, and country is definitely not my first choice musically. And I still argue that a turntable can be considered a musical instrument (please do NOT get an argument going in this thread if you disagree with me on this!)

If your friend is truly that closed-minded, I fear that playing out with him will be the musical equivalent of a toothache to you. The description you give intimates he'd be unwilling to change his set list to include things outside his musical wheelhouse because they're "beneath" him, whatever that means. Music is music, other genres can be just as effective at getting a political/informational point across as folk (have him read some of Bad Religion's lyrics if you have a chance), and life is too short to be playing with people you're not having fun with. Hang out with him, sure, but there's no law that says you need to play out with your friends if you're unhappy.
Click to expand...

Excellent response. Poor guy comes to TB and gets pages of passive aggression.

I wish the OP best of luck and I think he knows what to do.
 
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#89
On July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan performed a radical stunt by playing electric instruments at the Newport Folk Festival. Folk purists were offended by the appearance of electrical instruments at a folk festival. So, to paraphrase Steve Stills, the 'battle lines were being drawn' over 50 years ago.

In 1913, fistfights broke out in the aisles when Stravinsky's Rite of Spring premiered in Paris. Moral of the story, some people take their music pretty seriously. Call it snobbery or close mindedness, or simply adoration, some of us know what we like. ;)
 
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#90
Several comments asked for a song list that my friend chooses. Here is a list for his most recent gig;

Blowing in the Wind
Today While the Blossoms
Four Strong Winds
Day Is Done
Molly Malone
Weave Me the Sunshine
Rainbow Race
All My Life's a Circle
What a Wonderful World
Can't Help But Wonder

Two somewhat different songs;

Margaritaville
Bill Bailey (but done slowly)

To clarify; I do not dislike Folk music, and some of these songs I have not heard before. But it seems that they are all nearly mirror images of each other with similar messages and perhaps slight chord differences.

Thump on,

One_Dude
 
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#91
Unless you're being forced at gunpoint to play with this guy I don't understand the purpose of this thread. Do you want some cheese to go with that whine?
 
#92
I watched a cellist, a bassoonist, and a guitarist at a gig the other night. Cellist plucked, playing bass essentially. Bassoonist played hard just to be heard. Think anyone in the band was getting what they wanted there? They sounded pretty good, though, and the audience was pleased. Good people, making it work with what they had.
 
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