The other day a friend of mine posted a video on Facebook. I commented something like "This band is great, I just started listening to them!" or something equally innocuous. Below my comment, some guy posted "I would just like to point out that I started listening to them years ago". I don't know the guy personally, and for all I know he might have been kidding, but still. It's a sentiment I hear often. I'll say something like "Oh yeah, I love such and such band" and the guy at the party goes "Oh yeah? What did you think of Album X?", Album X being some obscure record recorded in 1979 when the band was called something else entirely and was listened to by approximately 8 people. No, I haven't listened to it Dude.
I always want to say to these guys, "So what exactly is your point, sir? Are you under the impression that there is some kind of race to see who can find the cool bands first? Are you saying that because your love of the band predates mine, it is somehow superior?"
Or maybe these guys simply mean to point out that they are not just jumping on the bandwagon. Maybe they believe that liking a band before others do proves that their love of said band is pure, and untainted with commercialism and unsullied by "commonness". Perhaps they are implying that their taste is rarefied, special and eccentric. But logically speaking that does not follow.
It's stupid to scorn something, be it music or cars or whatever, simply because it is popular. Some things are popular for a good reason - they are appealing. There is no qualitative difference between me liking Song X after hearing it on a commercial and you liking Song X after hearing it in your cousin's basement when you were ten. Taste is taste. Either you have it or you don't, and your methods and timing of acquiring new passions have nothing to do with the quality of your taste, as long as those tastes are genuine.
Amen sister!
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