Popularity and harsh criticism in music: if you like it, then I hate it.

2. how is music right now having many levels, being culturally monstrous, or defining personalities any different from any other period in history?

3. re: garage acts of whatever quality--I actually see the opposite. a few years ago, bands that sounded like Stooges wannabes tended to be band that nobody gave much of a fuck about beyond their hardcore fanbase. now a lot of them are being feted as the "new White Stripes." this stuff comes in cycles--in three more years it'll be the other way around. why worry so much about it?

4. "the rock critic's know-it-all psyche" and "popular music is...the unoriginal, uninspired garbage it is" are both cant. prove both.

5. you know how individual human beings have different ideas and/or opinions about things? now apply that logic to rock critics! I mean, what do you think, we're all sitting in a room together with electrodes on our heads being fed our opinions by some Grand Overmind only to have a few rogues escape and decide they like popular records?

6. "true fans of music"? you don't say! who are these people and can we eat them?

7. I remember watching "Mr. Serious Music Critic" on PBS Thursday mornings at 11 when I was in second grade. My favorite episode was when he cranked the electrodes on all those other critics' heads and fried their follicles while the rogues threw pudding at the camera. what a great show!

8. your final question--indeed your entire post--makes no goddamned sense whatsover. you sound like a paranoid jerk.

neither can he!

Was actually using the phrase in the derogatory sense I've heard it. I have no problem with hipsters, nor do I get my panties in a wad over some so-called "hipster hype machine".

2. how is music right now having many levels, being culturally monstrous, or defining personalities any different from any other period in history?

There are more musical choices and entire categories of people often pigeonhole themselves as part of a "genre" or identify strongly with music as a personality indicator, as it ties in with their fashion sense, slang usage, etc. IE ska kids wear boots and say oi vs. hip hop kids who wear Jay Z's new sneakers and don't say oi.

3. re: garage acts of whatever quality--I actually see the opposite. a few years ago, bands that sounded like Stooges wannabes tended to be band that nobody gave much of a fuck about beyond their hardcore fanbase. now a lot of them are being feted as the "new White Stripes." this stuff comes in cycles--in three more years it'll be the other way around. why worry so much about it?

I actually don't see the opposite. Critics will always hail the Stooges, popular culture may not give a fuck, but the critics do. The Stooges would be an example of what I was getting at with PopFan A, who would buy The Stooges after realizing it was an influence on, say, The White Stripes. And, I'm not worried about it at all. Don't take this seriously, please. At least not angrily seriously. I'm merely thinking out loud here...

4. "the rock critic's know-it-all psyche" and "popular music is...the unoriginal, uninspired garbage it is" are both cant. prove both.

I wasn't speaking my personal viewpoint here. I was speaking as the "know-it-all rock critic". I do not think popular music is unoriginal or uninspired and I don't think all rock critics are know-it-alls. I do, however, think there are some rock critics who are know-it-alls and regard popular music as "unoriginal, uninspired garbage" with a few minor exceptions.

5. you know how individual human beings have different ideas and/or opinions about things? now apply that logic to rock critics! I mean, what do you think, we're all sitting in a room together with electrodes on our heads being fed our opinions by some Grand Overmind only to have a few rogues escape and decide they like popular records?

Yes, that was precisely what I was thinking. Can't you see that I stopped at phase one of this analysis: black and white of popular music using two stereotype characters? This is not how I classify everybody on earth for crying out loud, nor do I even think it's an apt classification of ANY one person, except maybe in some novella where there wasn't enough time to further develop the characters.

6. "true fans of music"? you don't say! who are these people and can we eat them?

My guess is you're one of them!

7. I remember watching "Mr. Serious Music Critic" on PBS Thursday mornings at 11 when I was in second grade. My favorite episode was when he cranked the electrodes on all those other critics' heads and fried their follicles while the rogues threw pudding at the camera. what a great show!

I never saw that one....

8. your final question--indeed your entire post--makes no goddamned sense whatsover. you sound like a paranoid jerk.

You sound like you take this music stuff pretty seriously... And here I was just trying to understand the stereotypical buttwipes I run across on the internet in a joking manner... Or did you not notice the idiocy of my conclusions?

It bothers me that I can't say that I like the White Stripes to a certain group who just lump it in with The Vines, The Strokes, The Hives, The Ravonnettes, etc. when I know darn well that these people havne't even listened to the album.

That's just a for instance. It's something that happens all the time where people like something before it "sold out" and therefore it's now useless. Shit like that.

I wish there were a convenient all purpose response besides, "Well, I like 'em" reserved for music snobs.

Why are music writers so annoyingly cynical?

Matos is OTM. You're just paranoid.

that sounds like me,
except that i sneer at the (mainstream) radio for its variations on the same old tricks and promos, and for the "industry" jumping on youth before they'd had time to think much for themselves -- no "punk revolution" allowing youth to realise that they could have had something to do with making up the rules, a break from the all-consuming cycles

and
except that i have the same attitude of superiority to my own music, but i've spent years whitling and fine tuning and finding the more and more interesting stuff for me (so there's been lot's of rejection -- the music isn't the same old music)) -- it's the attitude i snagged onto in my youth of "do not accept _fake_ rock" (whatever that means) that hasn't changed -- if the music hasn't remained new and/or challenging over time then it's been rejected

so i think you should check to see what it is that the 30-something "joe shmoe" is so passionate about:
(a) continued newness, intrigue and artfulness vs. commercial entertainment industry (me i hope)
or
(b) same old drinking banging music that takes me back to he first time i heard "good vibrations" (hopelessly conservative but usually not so passionate about ïmagined "virtues" of the "art" anyway)

Paraphrased due to poor memory:

(Conan is talking to the audience and suddenly, a man with black framed glasses stands up from behind the couch and appears to be staring at the walls.)

CONAN: Excuse me, who are you?

(another man pops up wearing a non-motorcycle leather jacket, which appears to be brown and 70s-ish)

CONAN: Hello? What are you doing? Who are these people?

MAN FROM AUDIENCE: I think I have your answer, Conan. They're hipsters.

CONAN: HIPSTERS?

Well, Conan, you've got the White Stripes on. With their minimalist punk and blues, you've got a veritable hotbed for hipster infestation...