I went to play some pool (billiards) with some friends back home this weekend and while there i ran into a guy who used to frequent the record store I worked in. Someone decided to load the jukebox up with the complete Smashing Pumpkins catalogue, starting at Gish (their first album) and going on from there (I left somewhere around Siamese Dream). I remarked that listening to that band makes me nostalgic and reminds me of a particular time (early 90s, college, mall jobs) so I went around the room and asked my friends what they thought of while hearing the Smashing Pumpkins. It was a lot of the same crap I was saying but the guy from the record store starts going off about how he NEVER listened to them, and never liked ANY band that came out after he was born, and he was very proud of his music tastes differing from what all the other kids in school liked and being deemed 'so weird' by his friends. I think he did mention that he liked Nine Inch Nails and New order but that was it, so just like that, 2 and half decades of music sucked to him. Apparently, he had heard it all and it all sucked.
Anyway, I could see where this was going and having generally had my fill of arguing about music lately, I let him go off on the tangent that he felt he needed to make. After a few minutes, though, he said, "I don't understand how anyone could listen to grunge rock or alternative music or the Pixies. It all sounds like noise to me. Matt, you like the Pixies. What's the big deal about the them?" I tried for a minute or two to explain the enjoyment I get out of the Pixies to which he said, "But it sounds like noise" and "It's not like they're the second coming or anything." I shrugged it off and said, "Well, maybe that's the problem is that you're looking at them through hype colored glasses and so all you're getting is the 'this isn't as good as everyone says' vibe." He concluded by reminding me that "They sound like crap."
Well, on the way home I was talking to my wife and I began to realize that women never argue about music. I've never heard two women anywhere bicker about who brought punk rock to the states or Public Image Ltd was better than the Sex Pistols, only guys. And I've seen several times where the conversations heated up into full fledged fights. What the fuck? And it's not like I haven't heard women argue over some trivial business, but it's never music. I thought back on my record store days and realized that there were a ton of guys who came in and had to have every CD single, b-side, bootleg, and soundtrack that had band A on it (particularly guys into Guided by Voices, Yo La Tengo, Jim O'Rourke) but only about one or two girls who were that into any band (the two instances I can think of are the "Tori Amos" girl and a couple of Ani Difranco avids).
So my question for you all is this, why are guys so obsessed with music but not so much women? Why the need to collect them all? I think the answer to this make strike at the reason why there are so many sub-genres of music now, because to collect is to classify and distinguish. I yearn for your thoughts.
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Peeing sitting down is the gift you give yourself.