The Music Elitist

Source: re1000.wordpress.com

So I recently moved from Florida to Brooklyn, New York and I have been exposed to a bit of the local music around here. A lot of it were bands that I had already heard, but there’s been a few that were new to me.  I have for the most part enjoyed the music I have heard, but honestly, a lot of these bands (and their die-hard hipster fans) need to just get over themselves. I think I have less of a problem with their music than I do with how they act like it’s the greatest music ever created. It just seems like anything that isn’t neo-folk, lo-fi, electronic or psychadelic is considered to be inferior music by these people and it really pisses me off.

Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of these “hipster bands”. Grizzly Bear’s record is great. I dug some of MGMT’s songs (though ANYONE can make songs in Garage Band on a Mac…it’s not that difficult). But I just can’t imagine listening to ONLY these types of bands. But if you ever mention a band that you like that is outside this little musical boundary these hipsters have created (or rather, websites like Pitchfork have created), you are instantly not cool anymore. Take Thrice for example. It’s not really considered cool to listen to a band like Thrice anymore. But those guys have consistently been putting out great music (especially their newest record Beggars) and most of their old fans have missed it because they have “moved on” so to speak. It’s not cool to listen to a band you may have liked 5 or 6 years ago. But that also has a lot to do with the music A.D.D. that the digital age has created (there’s a post on this coming soon).

I try to listen to all types of music (though country music has just never done anything for me), but my favorite kind of music is the kind  where you can hear the passion and/or emotion in the singers voice. Not necessarily emo, but just anthemic and powerful (Tim McIlrath from Rise Against, for example). While this hipster music is great for just chilling out and listening to in a bar or dancing to in a club, it is not inspiring to me at all. I like distorted guitars and a driving beat. That’s the kind of music that excites me. The only band like that right now that it’s considered “ok” to like is Them Crooked Vultures. And for good reason, they are amazing. But I honestly think most of these hipsters just give them lip service because if you ever talked badly about a band that a former Led Zeppelin member is in, you’d be ex-communicated from the musical community.

I guess the point I am getting at is, hipster music is a trend. Just like everything else that came and went before it. From the fact that all the music sounds generally the same right down to the fact a lot their names make animal references (Grizzly Bear, Bear in Heaven, Animal Collective…etc.), it’s all just a trend and its only a matter of time until it isn’t cool anymore. That usually happens right around the time they are widely popular and everyone in the mainstream is suddenly into it. It may already not be cool to like Animal Collective and I missed the memo. Bottom line is, I don’t care. I’ll continue listening to the bands/artists I like regardless of what some skinny jean, American Apparel hoodie wearing hipster has to say about it. You all just keep thinking you’re so elite and on the cutting edge and I’ll just stand back here and laugh at you like I always have.

Ohio indie rock band Lovedrug had an interesting post on their Myspace blog on Tuesday. Seems they don’t care too much for “hipster music”:

I can barely take it anymore. The amount of horseshit music out there on the internet and how the hipsters eat it up like it’s honey flavored oatmeal.
Hey guess what dude, my dead grandmother just started this crazy new folk/indie/electronic project that she totally recorded on garage band(you know, that computer program that plays the intruments for you so you don’t have to actually learn anything). Yeah man, she’s totally gonna be the next MGMT. So hip. So sweet. Totally boss… soooo bosss.

While I don’t really mind MGMT (in fact I like quite a few of their songs), I kind of agree with this guy (which ever member of Lovedrug this may be). When I first heard MGMT I was expecting to hear some amazing revolutionary music simply because of how some of my friends talked about them. When I heard their music I wasn’t necessarily disappointed, but I didn’t get the hype. Then again, most electronic music never really “moves” me that much anyways.

And yeah, whatever happened to people playing instruments? I must be getting old because it kind of scares me that playing instruments isn’t something a lot of these new “hipster” bands like to do. It’s usually just two DJ’s that might occasionally play a synth or if you’re lucky, a guitar.

I think my favorite thing about these hipsters is that they for some reason think that the music they listen to is so much more superior than anything else out there, when in reality a 12 year old could do the exact same thing if he had a Mac and Garage Band.