I second this, but i also submit he is the type of person likely to get you thrown out of a nightclub.
I can imagine him telling the disk jockey to stop playing the same old shamelessly repackaged subgenre of popular music.
Thal
You'd have to get me pretty piss-drunk to actually get me INTO a nightclub. Besides, I don't think I own nice enough clothes to get past the doorman under the best circumstances.
I'm way way less assertive with my musical opinions in real life. When I hear something that sucks, it just makes me walk faster to get the hell away. Plus, I'm a part-time guitar/bass teacher, so I have to swallow my pride constantly when my students show up asking me to teach them the new All-American Rejects song or whatever else they heard on Guitar Hero III and downloaded for their Ipod. Almost all of my students are 5th-8th grade aged, so I'm subject to a steady diet of what kids are into these days and what's going on with popular music culture. I thank heavens that I grew up in an age where record stores still existed and kids actually spent their money on albums.
The impression I get from widespread musical culture is that, these days, everything is treated like a soundtrack for something else. This is probably why the record industry has become such a complete joke. Punk songs belong to skateboarding and extreme sports, nu-metal is perfect for lacrosse advertisements and the hardcore video-game market, rap and r&b sell clothes and jewelry, electronica and trip hop sells cars and gadgetry, classic rock brings back a notion of one's rebellious youth (especially for mid-life crisis a-holes who are making too much money and wondering why they never have any fun) and probably sells lots of Harley Davidson crap..... Even classical music and jazz seem like they're most often contextualized as a soundtrack to one's status of being sophisticated. If you don't believe me, you should see how over-packaged the "music scene" of Princeton, NJ is nowadays. Most folks around here don't have a musical bone in their body, but their Princeton-ness will compel them to attend every local performance of The Marriage of Figaro or the Four Seasons because it makes them feel more cultured. Of course, when they're at the performance, it's likely they will worry over the list of charitable donors more than they'll read about the piece or the performers.
I met a rock band one time whose crowning acheivement was getting 10 seconds of one of their songs tacked onto a Dawson's Creek episode. Aside from that, they almost never rehearsed or played shows out. What's sad is that they are probably just as likely to succeed in grabbing a market share as some raw-dog rock band that sports a killer setlist, develops its own merchandise, and hits the road 300 nights a year.
I agree with the last point that there are tons and tons of talented singers out there, even in the pop scene. The problem lies in how they are framed by the overall music scene, which makes them strive for American Idol and riches instead of striving for real musical achievement.
Topic: Amy Winehouse