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I have a friend, or rather a guy who I'm acquainted with, who is a big fan of Lower Class Brats but could care less about The Exploited. He holds the opinion that "Sex and Violence" by LCB is the only song by that title that matters, and as a result, I often feel compelled to inflict violence upon him when we talk about music (Not really, I'd never hit anybody over such a minuscule disagreement. No matter how much of an idiot they are...).
The opinions and tastes people have about music , and things in general for that matter, I find really intriguing at times. It always strikes me as funny when some one says the love fruit but cant eat cantaloupe, hate country music but love Kenny Chesney, hate dark or depressing films but are always the first one at the video store to rent a copy of the newest vampire movie as soon as its hits the shelf (my mother), or who love The Circle Jerks but feels sorta neutral about Black Flag. That last one is me. I'm not afraid to recognize the contradictions in my own musical tastes. Believe me there are plenty. I'm not a metal fan by any stretch of the imagination and have to leave room when someone throws Van Hallen on to avoid violently vomiting the contents of my stomach all over their Cd player/ computer. Yet I'm a die hard System of a Down fan and can't help doing a little head bobbing every time Rage is played on the radio. But thats pretty much what I'm talking about, we're all so inconsistent, and similar examples, as those previously mentioned, can be found in all of our lives. The inconstancies in our opinions and tastes seem so natural sometimes its hard to notice them unless they're specifically pointed out to you. I don't think that dilutes anyones conviction in the things that they enjoy, the things people like still matter to them even if they don't make sense to other people. What is really poignant about these contradictions in my opinion is: A. it shows the variability in our experiences, and how the things we encounter in our lives effect everyone differently and therefore produce varied habitual reactions that are specific to that individual and B. that we should be charitable to others when they express they're opinions becuase they're experiences differ from our own and our own experiences often do not lend themselves to an absolute continuity of tastes and opinions, any more then theirs do. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, those that criticize are often as flawed (or more so) then those who they are critiquing. I try to keep this in mind when I write my album reviews to varying degrees of success.
Other times, there are situations were someone is just flat our wrong... like Wholly in todays comic... that kid just doesn't have a clue does he? My heart goes out to Glen, it really does.
The opinions and tastes people have about music , and things in general for that matter, I find really intriguing at times. It always strikes me as funny when some one says the love fruit but cant eat cantaloupe, hate country music but love Kenny Chesney, hate dark or depressing films but are always the first one at the video store to rent a copy of the newest vampire movie as soon as its hits the shelf (my mother), or who love The Circle Jerks but feels sorta neutral about Black Flag. That last one is me. I'm not afraid to recognize the contradictions in my own musical tastes. Believe me there are plenty. I'm not a metal fan by any stretch of the imagination and have to leave room when someone throws Van Hallen on to avoid violently vomiting the contents of my stomach all over their Cd player/ computer. Yet I'm a die hard System of a Down fan and can't help doing a little head bobbing every time Rage is played on the radio. But thats pretty much what I'm talking about, we're all so inconsistent, and similar examples, as those previously mentioned, can be found in all of our lives. The inconstancies in our opinions and tastes seem so natural sometimes its hard to notice them unless they're specifically pointed out to you. I don't think that dilutes anyones conviction in the things that they enjoy, the things people like still matter to them even if they don't make sense to other people. What is really poignant about these contradictions in my opinion is: A. it shows the variability in our experiences, and how the things we encounter in our lives effect everyone differently and therefore produce varied habitual reactions that are specific to that individual and B. that we should be charitable to others when they express they're opinions becuase they're experiences differ from our own and our own experiences often do not lend themselves to an absolute continuity of tastes and opinions, any more then theirs do. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, those that criticize are often as flawed (or more so) then those who they are critiquing. I try to keep this in mind when I write my album reviews to varying degrees of success.
Other times, there are situations were someone is just flat our wrong... like Wholly in todays comic... that kid just doesn't have a clue does he? My heart goes out to Glen, it really does.
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