Good taste or just a snob?
 

My taste in music, until a teenager, was limited to classical music. No other kind was ever heard in our home. I still have a strong recollection being invited to listen to Bill Haley(?) & the Comets performing Rock Around the Clock one day returning from Sunday school. ( No, i’m not a believer). I thought the human race had gone insane making my escape as soon as possible. Now in my 70’s I still find most early white rock & roll a boring dilution of the blues & jazz.
Being a pipe organ student may have warped my perspective which thankfully has been stretched much wider. However, I can still be snobbish even when it comes to classical music much of which I experience as ‘pot boiling’ rubbish. Took me another forty years to learn to appreciate the blues and country & western ( not the Australian variety of C & W which I gives me the horrors)
Punk, Dixieland and most Hollywood musicals (with the exception of West Side Story) I can’t abide.
When it comes to recorded music I find a nasty percentage of todays studio productions ruined by over manipulated digital effects - and don’t get me started on so called auto-tune.
My tolerance for a lot of today’s recordings is probably over sensitive but having been addicted to high end audio since my teens (once referred to as high-fidelity) and being blessed (cursed?) with perfect pitch makes listening to a lot of music over the web via MP3 compression etc at times irksome.

As of yet I can not ascertain as whether or not you are a " music snob, or have good taste in music." I would need slightly more information on your situation. I need to know what you like, what you don't like and perhaps why. So I post these videos as a test for further assessment and analysis.

Egg - Fugue in D Minor


The Stranglers - Golden Brown

I’ve aways enjoyed this somewhat laid back tune. As a geriatric hippie it reminds me of a time many decades ago when we interpreted ‘golden brown’ as refering to a specific kind of hashish we were very fond of.

I don't know, I like a tight perspective on my pipe organ.

Yeah, I'd kind of think you're a music snob. I like the Egg track as it is more of a homage to Bach than anything cheesy in my opinion. And, of course, there are so many homages to classical music in the rock genre to use as an example. Heck, ELO alone would probably want you to head for the hills, Ayn. :laughing:

As, for Golden Brown, yeah, one of my favorite songs from the Stranglers, but the harpsichord, as you may know, was used quite a bit in the sixties. Indeed, I always think of Sunshine Superman when someone mentions harpsichord (and the instrument was used in pop songs way before that).

Anyway, yes, I think you're a snob, but so what? All that really matters is that you enjoy the music you like. :)

There's a parallel between your introduction to music and mine, Ayn. This would be my own story:

My taste in music, until about seven, was limited to classical music. No other kind was ever heard in our home, except for "Children's Hour" on the radio on Saturday mornings.(Little White Bull, Seventy-Six Trombones, Nelly The Elephant etc.) I still have a strong recollection being invited to listen to Lonnie Donegan performing Don't You Rock Me Daddio. I thought the human race had at last come to its senses and now included adults who wanted instant, accessible fun from their music too.

So, similar, but completely different. Anyway, welcome to MB! We don't have many Australian members here: you'll soon discover that most of the posting action happens while you're asleep!

I don't know, the jury is still out on this one. I think for some people they wear "music snobbery" as a badge of honor, for others it's a pretty serious accusation to hurl at them. So before I call some a music snob I have to know whether I am stroking their ego or hurting their feelings. Neither of which I consciously want to do.

@OP I really enjoyed Fugue in D Minor by Egg. I like how the electric bass and organ intertwines. I think JS Bach would enjoy this himself too.

I don't know if these next two songs are the best examples of Hollywood musicals, and Punk. (I've seen the Plasmatics labeled as "Shock Rock" among falling into other categorizations) I imagine Judy Garland and Wendy O. Williams will have their detractors on MB. I fear there will be more ire for Judy Garland. I guess that is to be expected.

Judy Garland - The Trolley Song


Plasmatics - Butcher Baby

I don’t care who calls we a snob but experience has taught me to expect it.
As to your appreciation of that Bach interpretation I’ll stick my head out. I know enough about J S B and his works, his opinions of other musicians etc to be certain if he heard that version he’d be horrified, and not simply due to his somewhat puritanical religious views.
Anyhow don’t worry about hurting my feelings. I’m a tough enough and maybe arrogant enough for ‘insults’ not to matter.
I have one question for you though. Have you ever had the experience of hearing live a top rank organist perform J. S. Bach on one of the great instruments? If not I suggest you do.

I don't think there's anything wrong with being a music snob as long as he/she doesn't somehow feel superior. We do have a few of these snobs here, after all :laughing:

I'm curious about your username, Ayn. Could there be a connection to the author, Ayn Rand?

As a teenager I was besotted with her writing. Later on I came to realise only her metaphysics makes any sense. Have a look at Ronald E Merrill’s “The Ideas of Ayn Rand” Publ’ 1993 Page 94. On other forums I’ve often used either ‘Ayn Marx’ or Karl Rand’ given I regard both as mistaken in their political philosophy . But hey, this really isn’t the place to start delving into all that.

As to any connection to Ms Rand I attended a lecture given by her in NY many decades ago where her chain smoking gave me such a headache I had to depart.

By the way I still think Atlas Shrugged is one of the 20 th Century’s most significant novels the effects of which are still abroad (often unacknowledged) in the world. Mind you if Rand knew anything of today’s American ‘Right’ she’d be rolling in her grave.

She'd hold her nose and shake hands with them the same as every reactionary capitalist.

I think neither of us can prove our speculations but remember, Rand was a refugee from one of the many variants of Marxism and had an extremely, almost puritanical idea of political and economic reality.
I terminate my contribution to this discussion here having observed the content of your avatar.

Многочисленные заблуждения марксистской идеологии не знают границ.

Lol I'm not pro-Soviet, I'm pro-killing Nazis and for a few years the Soviets were the undisputed kings of killing Nazis and nobody has before or since touched their kill streak. And so while I denounce Stalin I stan the T-34.

Oh how wrong you are. This place talks more about psuedo intellectual jumbo than music at times.

Perhaps even most of the time.

Not as much since you stopped talking about movies.

Dude I stopped WATCHING movies. I miss it to be honest. I'm like at one a week or two at the moment.

You need a Troma arc.

Hell, I'll jump in with a Bach update courtesy of SKY.


FYI, since nobody answered you, to post a video take the YouTube address URL, eliminate everything up to and including the equals sign. Then click to the right at the top where it says "WRAP [YOUTUBE] tags around selected text", paste the truncated URL in between the two and bam!
Or if you prefer, take your URL (after removing all up to the equals sign), type square bracket YOUTUBE square bracket, pop in the URL, then type backwards slash square bracket youtube square bracket (have to write it that way as it won't be visible if I do it here without an actual video).
Alternatively, just quote my post to see how it's done above.

You can't help yourself. I try to be apolitical but my own left of center views (Not to be confused with certain violent revolutionaries here. :laughing: ), compels me to voice my own views once in a while. I think we're all guilty of that here to an extent.

This might be of interest to you, as a classical fan.
Overture: Trollheart's Classical Music Journal

Every genre of music has its own way of enjoying.

I bet there's a genre of music you don't like though

Do tell...

So 12-tone equal temperament is the only "correct" tuning system? That's not your perfect pitch speaking, that's just cultural conditioning

^this. I also don't see how perfect pitch necessarily implies intolerance to off-key sounds. More than snobbish, this whole story just seems a bit ignorant. I appreciate Any Marx's love of Bach though

Mongolian throat singing, but then there's this:



There's usually an exception, though I'm not sure I've found one for bagpipe music quite yet (which btw often sounds out of tune).

edit:

As someone who auto tunes things, most of it you probably don't hear. I agree it can be grating when you do hear it, though, like in all of Dwayne Johnson's singing in the movie Moana.

Auto tune can be an artistic flourish that adds rather than distracts or grates

You seriously refused to play organ at your friend's wedding? Because the thing was out of tune? Sounds a little selfish to me, and definitely snobby.

Doesn’t mean I want or need to listen to it.

Well now, you're the one who asked the question as to whether or not you would be seen as a snob, and if you couldn't put your own discomfort aside for a friend on the most important day of their life, then that does make me tend in the direction of agreeing that you are a snob. Also, your responses here to just about everyone reinforce that view. Sorry, but you're acting the total snob here, and seem surprised that everyone is calling you out on it, and it's your own fault: you didn't have to ask the question. You did, so there's little point in being pissed off when the answer is not the one you want.

As you will. Your snide comments to just about everyone who's posted here though say differently. Your attempt to characterise SGR's two-word comment as peurile, when he's one of the most articulate people here, a great writer and a very intelligent man, and your other snappish replies speaks to someone who expected one reply, got the opposite and is now lashing out verbally at people because of it. But hell, what do I care? For what it's worth - which isn't much - you have my opinion, and my answer to your thread. I'll leave it at that.