Confessions of a music snob

'Hi, my name is Stu... and I'm a music snob'.

At least, that is what CJ says and I guess she's probably right. I've been one for a long time. It probably started when I was about 10 and a friend introduced me to the music of Alice Cooper. I became an instant fan (still am). That sort of launched me into being about 4 or 5 years ahead of my peers in terms of musical preferences (at 10, my peers were mostly listening to 'The Partridge Family' and 'The Cowsills', for God's sake).

So, while my classmates listened to CKLW, I prefered Arthur Penthollow on WRIF and while they went gaga over Barry Manalow and Abba, I listened to Yes, Zep and Pink Floyd. In my defense, my tastes were (and are) very broad. I also liked Chicago, Earth Wind and Fire, Cat Stevens, CSN&Y and James Taylor. But I liked them before anyone else my age knew who they were.

It is interesting to me that music was, perhaps, the one thing that I did not completely abdicate during my years in The Word of God. Not that they didn't try - my type of music was a 'tool of Satan'. But, it was a time when I allowed myself to have an internal double standard. I only wish I would have paid more attention to why I felt I needed to do that. Part of growing up I guess.

After college, a friend introduced me to classical music. I had worked at liking classical music during college and had made some progress, but it took this guy to really get me hooked. So, now I'm a walking classical music encyclopedia rather than a Rock music one.

So, back to the snob thing. Yes, I am very opinionated about music. And, sometimes, I get too vocal about it. In a way, I'm not apologetic about that. After all, my distaste for 'KC and the Sunshine Band' or 'Bachman Turner Overdrive' is, for the most part, due to the objective fact that they made bad music. :-)

But, there's more to it than that. One of my favorite music related movies is Mr. Holland's Opus. There is a scene in it when he is trying to get through to a student who plays clarinet but is on the verge of quiting. He plays 'Louie Louie' on the phonograph, pointing out how simplistic it is, but adding that he loves it because 'it is fun'. I guess that's the downside to being a snob - being unable to put aside one's opinions for the sake of fun. Maybe, someday, I'll grow up enough to do that.

The sad thing is that I'll probably lose my hearing first...