Episode 91: You've Probably Never Heard Of Them

"You would hide away and find your peace of mind/with some indie record that's much cooler than mine."

-Taylor Swift, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"

   There's a website called Topster where people make collages of their favorite albums. There's a subreddit called r/Topster wherein people post their charts. The thing is, nearly every chart I see posted on this sub is full of obscure bands and weird indie records. There's of course nothing wrong with simply liking obscure bands and indie records (I like many myself), the problem is how some of these people act about their enjoyment of this music.

   A lot of people seem to base a lot of their self-worth on their interests, and unfortunately a lot of those people use their interests as standards for other people. This is especially prevalent when it comes to fans of music.

  I've noticed that it seems like a lot of people who are into more underground music are very critical of mainstream music and the people that enjoy it. They think that anything that doesn't fit the genres or success-levels they enjoy is bad music and people are wrong for enjoying it. 

   I love AJR and Imagine Dragons, in fact they're both in my top ten, but I see a lot of people, especially in the underground crowd, hate on these bands. But, here's the thing: they only know the surface level. They see how popular a band is and reject that band merely because of the popularity. Or, they only hear a few of their hits on the radio, not enjoy them, and assume all their music is exactly like that and thus they are not good. 

   Which brings me to a similar idea: a lot of people, especially older people and some "born in the wrong decade" younger people have this notion that somehow all modern music is bad. But, if you look beyond the Top 40 formulaic pop hits, if you actually bothered to take a little time to go further than the very surface of today's music, I can almost guarantee that you'd find at least a few artists you quite enjoy. 

   And I realize that I called the Top 40, "formulaic", which might make it seem like I myself am saying all super successful music is bad. I'm not. Yes, a lot of pop hits are formulaic, but that's why they're successful. And it doesn't mean they're bad. A lot of the biggest songs are quite good, certainly catchy. I enjoy some of Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, what have you. 

    I talked about punk music in a recent episode, which I'd like to talk about again. Punk isn't dead. But a lot of people, even in the punk community itself, would have you think it is. Why, though? It's because even though there are a ton of punk bands still making bangers today, a lot of them may not fit some of these people's standards for what punk is. If something doesn't fit their cookie cutter worldview of what constitutes something, it is not that thing to them. And that doesn't just apply to punk fans, unfortunately that runs deep everywhere.

    I like a lot of indie bands, bands that aren't necessarily huge in the mainstream. On multiple occasions, I've asked a friend or family member if they'd heard of a certain band I really like, only for them to say no. But the thing is, even though I like a lot of these more obscure bands, I also like a lot of the big ones. I don't let my appreciation for indie artists get in the way of my appreciation for the bigger ones. I enjoy both. We all can, if we stop being so picky and exclusive, and even judgmental towards others, about our music tastes.

   There are many artists I don't like. Even whole genres I don't like. But it's okay that others like that stuff. I'm not going to make fun of music someone is passionate about to their face unless they know I'm only kidding, because I hate it when people make fun of music I'm passionate about. Just don't judge others and let them jam out to what they wanna jam out to as long as it's not hurting anyone.

Anyway, see you next week!