003: Irony in musical tastes

We live in an age where liking things ironically is considered the norm. The neo-hipster set has ruined any chance at letting things be, as the self-policing corps of tight jeans-wearing, filterless cigarette-smoking mob dictate what's cool and what's not. And like sheep, we let them, through websites, blogs and social networking sites. Our relative coolness is gauged and then mentally ranked. "Oh," one hipster would say to another, "I hear that Mark enjoys Iron Maiden." The other hipster would pause, and sigh. "Maybe it's just a joke. Maybe he just ironically enjoys the triple-guitar attacks of the band's current line-up." The first hipster would throw the spent cigarette to the ground and then squish it with his Chuck Taylors. "Nah," he'd say. "He knows all the words to 'The Trooper'. He can't be kidding." And then the two hipsters would mentally knock Mark down a notch in their totem pole of coolness, for actively enjoying a band as passé as (the almighty) Iron Maiden.

Because Mark is a hipster and not a devoted metalhead, his interest in Bruce Dickinson and co. is confusing. He should be out enjoying My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, not pumping his fist in the air while listening to '2 Minutes To Midnight'. That's what rednecks do, the hipster alleges. Hipsters are (supposedly) smarter and more involved, and their music should reflect that is a party line I've often heard before. Liking something as "moronic" as Iron Maiden is to be put down to the taste level of a southern Texas gas station attendant circa 1986.

To concede to a modern-day hipster that you enjoy something based on its merits and not its supposed ironic factor is an interesting concept. It is tantamount to heresy, an act not seen since the 17th century in some circles. To show off your tastes and be judged upon them is to label you a heretic, one who cannot be trusted with The Next Big Thing. It colours you a scarlet red, forever tainted in the eyes of those in your holier-than-thou circle.

The notion of irony creates a security net that allows people to admit to liking things without actually outright spelling that out. It's an unspoken agreement; though you may admit to liking something because it "makes you laugh" (like this) or its sheer absurdity (The Beach Boys go disco!), deep down inside a part of you most wholly enjoy it in order for you to even consider enjoying it "ironically". The safety blanket imposed by inserting the i-word allows you safe passage through the land of MC Hammer, Motley Crue and Star Wars flicks.

I'm not trying to defend people who have outright terrible taste, but rather empower those who want to admit to liking things that are non-canon per the hipster dictums. Watered-down versions of superior bands are usually a no-brainer when it comes to most musical genres. Being able to articulate why you enjoy something based upon its merits is good reasoning. Being unable to do so may lump you together with the target audience you're desperately trying to avoid in the eyes of your peers.

Thanks to the technological advances we can be kept up-to-date on every scene around the globe. Even 20 years ago, with the emergence of MTV/MuchMusic/other national video music outlets, scenes and tastes were largely local and/or regional, depending on where you were. There were clear differences inbetween East and West Coast rap music; New York hardcore and Cali hardcore were markedly different. But as technology advances, so do the invisible lines in-between scenes get erased, and tastes become unified and dictated a lot more clearly. Those in possession of the biggest internet traffic dictate the terms. The reasons for the traffic are varied (access to people who may be The Next Big Thing, album exclusives, the most up-to-date news, etc.), but the fact remains that it is still there.

Tastemaker sites like Pitchfork are ardently followed by thousands (and perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands through osmosis) and dictate what is cool and uncool. Where before that was decided on a local level, it is now decided on a pseudo-international level, thanks to the equality of the internet. How else could a record like the Arctic Monkeys' first album sell so well in the UK right out of the box? Pitchfork and co. deemed it "cool", and in response fans ran out and picked it up. The band's subsequent fall from grace denotes the fact that the band had once again fallen out of the good graces of the majority of those who bought the first album and moved on, to perhaps one day be labelled ironic and uncool due to a myriad of reasons.

I think we live in an age where we're scared to admitting what we like. Our guilty pleasures turn out to be our only pleasures, in some instances. We're scared to stray away from the party line lest we be mocked for enjoying things that other people enjoy in the comfort of their own abode.

So in that vein, I'm going to list off 3 things that I enjoy un-ironically:

1 – Boy bands
Sure, mock away. I happen to be ale to understand that one cannot judge all music using the same criteria. Comparing a Cursive album to a Converge album is like comparing apples to oranges. Sure, there are instruments and vocals involved, but beyond that there is a sea of difference. And so, with that viewpoint in mind, I feel as though I cannot judge pop music the same way I would just metal music. Pop music must be judged by itself, stood up against its peers and then reviewed accordingly. It is music is something I find to be enjoyable in a non-ironic way, as long as your radio dial doesn't hover around your local FM station with your ears glued to it 24/7, then you might find something you like before it's beaten to death through rerererererepetition. And one of my favourite subgenres of pop music happens to be boybands (and girlbands too, natch). Part of it has to do with the fact that boybands came to prominence again through my formative years and its sound has always stuck with me. A lot of the bands I happen to enjoy have catchy hooks and great production. Pick up Nsync's 'Gone' and give it a listen, and you shall see that if you took the band name off you could actually see yourself listening to it. I make no bones about enjoying this brand of music based upon its merits.

2 – "Emo" music
I think the music speaks for itself. Unfortunately labelled, unflinchingly emotive. Beyond the legion of black-wearing, bad-haircut-owning shmucks of today, there is great music if one just looks past the fans and access the music itself. Yes, sad bastard music, for those who understand it. Raw emotions abound, the need for metaphors is dropped. The wounded lyricist strikes back, and I think the primitive nature of a lot of the lyrics are attractive.

3 – Southern rock
Great musicmanship, catchy tunes and a laid-back attitude. These are three selling points in any music I happen to enjoy, and although those three are far from the only points I judge music upon, they play a large part. Bands like the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd received a bad rap due to their perceived public personas, in the case of Lynyrd Skynyrd people assumed they were loud rednecks and nothing else, due to their American southern roots. The truth is, though, that the original line-up that produced two untouchable albums of pristine material that's the perfect soundtrack to hot summer evenings. Leave your pretentions at the door and sit down and enjoy.

Unfortunately, the overplayed nature of 'Freebird' and 'Sweet Home Alabama' (and its use as a comedic punchline, in some case) knocks it down in the eyes of many, and the only thing a lot of people only see the words 'southern rock' and get turned off, assuming the word. Thankfully, there is much more beyond the descriptor words utilized.