The time period between the beginning of 5th grade and the end of 6th grade was a treacherous one for me, and anyone in my school that showed any interest in popular music. If you didn't stay on your toes you could find yourself oblivious to the changing tastes of the crowd and end up admitting that you liked a band that was no longer cool, thus affecting your social status. I remember the band Poison flip-flopping multiple times between cool, lame, and cool again in practically successive weeks. If I remember correctly, they were first cool because they had a hit record, then they were uncool (even "gay") because they wore makeup. What type of band wears makeup? (We didn’t really get that whole “glam” vibe.) Then they were cool again because their most recent record had a cover that was banned for being vulgar. It could be dizzying keeping up with everything. Most of the time the decisions were based on practically nothing. Then again, I went to a school that randomly selected people to hate. I remember one time the newest target was picked for having an electric guitar. When in the history of man has owning an electric guitar been considered uncool? I guess the bottom line was few bands could stand up to the fickle tastes of snotty 11-year olds.
You would think that things would change as people got older, and in some ways they did as we all found more reasons to like or dislike people, whether it be clothing, degrees of sluttiness, the ability to solve for pi, or drive after 9:00. The social implications of music fandom weren’t as great, but certain assumptions would always be made depending on the music you listened to. Pearl Jam and Nirvana were middle of the road, over enthusiasm for heavy metal, goth, or Morrissey made you a weirdo, and the same for Phish or The Dead made you a poser hippy, although that was much more acceptable. If you wanted to be really cool, you would find whatever rap music the handful of black kids in our high school were listening to, and listen to that.
At college, music didn’t make as much of a difference unless you were trekking somewhere for a show. Basically as long as it didn’t interfere with getting wasted or playing Sega, and you could sing along with it while you were drunk, then it was ok. Unless it was a really nice day out, then you had to play Bob Marley out your window. That was the rule.
I'm now on the cusp of my 30th birthday and I just don't care anymore. I'm tired of worrying about my taste in music and defending what others think is lame. Worrying about stupid crap like that is exhausting and I have better things to do. You know what...I kind of like John Mayer. His music can be sappy, and so many teenage girls find him dreamy that they scream so loud you can’t actually hear him singing during his concerts, but he plays a decent guitar, his music is easy to listen to, and one of his songs reminds me of why I love my wife. The Barenaked Ladies may be uncool but listening to them reminds me of upstate New York, and their concert at my school was one the best times I’ve ever had at a show, sober or not. I don’t care about the genius of any of these new wave of bands that have come to save rock. Some of them I like, some of them I don’t care for, and a lot of them sound alike.
There's a line in the movie High Fidelity that goes, and I'm paraphrasing here, "It's not who you like, it's what you like." I guess, at this point of my life, I'm saying I don't care what people think about what I like. Some of what I enjoy is "cool" some is "lame" but I've lost interest in deciding which is which. I'd rather play Fantasy Baseball.
