graven

Why are some people so obsessed with being pretentious and others are offended when you even bring the "p" word up?

It's much worse since the internet came about, but I remember this kid showing up in high school talking about bands no one heard of. When he realized no one listened to them, he immediately said we all listened to shit bands. I then informed him: "this city is 10,000 people. 10,000 farmers, old people, immigrants, and hard core Christians. We've had one record store and that place can't stay open if it takes risks with "alternative" or "indie" music. The people here were brought up on Mtv and popular radio and that's their only connection to current music. The only city large enough for the non-commercial record stores is Souix Falls and that's an hour away."

This wasn't an excuse. The kid became a loner until the internet blew up and he suddenly found people who related to him. That's when he finally opened up and became friends with us, though he never stopped complaining because we listened to Marilyn Manson (this was 1996) and Manson was "a fucking sellout hack".

Why is this so important to people? Some indie bands really are horrible and yes, some are great. But does it really make people happy to listen to some polka band from backwoods Georgia just because no one has ever heard of them? "I listen to Corky Haywiser and the Bayou Band. They're up and coming. They could make a record, but they prefer to play live. Mtv should beg to have them on. I listened to them while they still played bars."