| Yes, this is post number 100. And yes, it's long. |
[17 Jul 2007|06:04am] |
Music consumers come in a variety of makes, models and ideologies. Polarity's a bit of a stretch because it's quite rare that anywhere in the world you'll find a person who hates all music or, on the other side of the spectrum, a person who loves all music. As I was kicking back and listening to some of my favourite artists (Mogwai, Manic Street Preachers, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Shellac, Sebadoh, mclusky and so on), I thought that even though there are so many approaches we take towards music, there are some archetypes. You may think that I'm missing some, that I've made too many, that I'm absolutely wrong, but this is simply my amateur analysis of musical psychology. Ladies, I use the term 'his' by default because his/her is a rather clunky descriptor, but know that you may substitute the gender of your choice.
The Classicist. This person's standards are temporal in nature. His record collection is like a pub: there's a minimum age posted. If it's tried, true and platinum many times over, then you'll find it here. The Classicist is handy because he has every old track you heard on the radio growing up that was a hit before you were even born. His problem is that he lives in the past and believes that nothing good could possibly come out of the 1990s or later. Sometimes he runs the risk of being a Miniver Cheevy or drinking whisky with 'old' or 'olde' in the title. Sometimes the Classicist will listen to a new song...provided that it's a cover of an old one. Then he will claim that the original was of course better. Much distress falls upon the Classicist when Paul McCartney releases new work, though we all know that The Beatles were always superior to McCartney's Starbucks bollocks.
The Leech. I'm almost hesitant to call this person a music fan at all, but I did use the term 'music consumer' at the beginning of this post, so I suppose that would include this lot. The Leech cares little about his own taste; he'll listen to practically anything. Now, I said before that I believe there are very few people indeed who like all music. The Leech doesn't listen to music for his own sake, and he doesn't seek out artists of his own accord. If left in an isolated room with a laptop with the iTunes store and unlimited credit, the Leech's head may very well explode. That's because the Leech relies entirely on others' taste to guide him. If he's not listening to music to look cool in another's eyes, then well, what pleasure is there in listening to music at all?
The Tech Savvy. I'm sure you all know this person. He has an external hard drive just to contain all of his music, and they don't yet make iPods that are large enough to handle his library. If you were to prowl round his belongings, a CD that wasn't burnt would be quite rare indeed. The Tech Savvy knows his way around Limewire and other such P2P services. This is the kind of guy the government and the record labels would love to pummel if given the opportunity. Unfortunately, there are just too many of them, and there's a bit of him in most of us. The purest of Tech Savvy individuals has so much music that he probably forgets all that he has. While he's open-minded like the Leech, the Tech Savvy downloads entire albums or catalogues without discretion; after all, iTunes lets you uncheck an item so it won't play. While the Tech Savvy sounds well-versed, sometimes he may have bragging rights while forgetting if he's even listened to half of it.
The Indie 'Elite'. What, you mean you haven't heard of this band? Well, they're going to be the next big thing in 2009. At least, that's how the Indie 'Elite' feels about his favourite of the moment. What matters to him is that he's the one listening to the most obscure band of the moment, especially if that band has been named as up-and-coming by a publication such as the NME. The Indie 'Elite' has few concerns: play counts in iTunes/tracking websites such as last.fm; wearing colourful outfits to get attention; and being ahead of the curve while still being close enough to the curve to laugh at all of the stupid tossers who weren't smart enough to catch onto that band the moment they formed in some garage in Kentish Town. Bonus points if the band only has a MySpace. Sometimes it's difficult to tell whether the image complements the music or the music complements the image, but eventually you stop asking questions.
The Purist. The Purist thinks mp3s are the worst thing to happen to media since people thought they could bring cameras into the cinema and then sell the bootlegs. He's the Purist because he rejects the temptation of illegal downloads and buys everything, even if it might turn out to be absolute crap. The Purist is a dying breed due to the cost of albums, the sheer quantity of Bonus Editions With Special Shit You Can't Get Anywhere Else and other modern obstacles. Let's face it, in trying to encourage people to buy CDs, we're making it harder for them to get what they want without having an aneurysm. The Purist deserves our admiration and our pity for being so willing to spend so much. Sometimes he has to watch to make sure he's not actually turning into an absolute snob because he feels he is the most noble. While the Purist makes sure we can all eat and get tattooed or a bit plastered, his ego for his own actions has the potential to make it all seem like a hollow gesture.
The Mortal. The Mortal is probably most of us. He's floating amongst all of this media coming at him. He probably doesn't have easy access to all the music that seems tempting to him, or he can't be arsed to download every random song he wants from iTunes or 7digital. Besides, does he really want to admit that he likes to do the dusting to That Only Song He Likes That He Can't Admit To Liking? He figures hey, he owns dozens of albums, so what's the harm in downloading a song every now and then? He uploads, downloads, swaps suggestions, forms opinions. His taste is even more schizophrenic than he'll ever care to admit, but he's fairly honest about what he does or doesn't like. He doesn't expect people to take his word about music. If someone dislikes his musical taste, then that just means he's more elite for enjoying it. If they do like it, then he can pride himself on winning over a convert. In public, a lot of musicians would take shots at the Mortal regardless since he's still stealing music, but those musicians know that they're also Mortals.
So these are my classifications. Take them as you will. It's by no means complete or necessarily accurate. We all enjoy our music in different ways, but just think about where you fall and what that might mean. Or just assume that I think about music and its social ramifications way too much.
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OOC