If you genuinely don’t like it, that’s one thing. But if you soully don’t like it, only because it’s popular, not because you don’t like the song, or that type of music, then THAT is being an elitist.
Or, you stop liking one of your favorite bands because they become popular, and refer to them as “sell-outs.”
Forget pop culture for a moment – I don’t like what’s in style, as far as fashion goes right now, because I happen to think most of it is ugly and unflattering. That has nothing to do with it being popular. It’s simply ugly. THAT isn’t being a snob.
However, if I simply refused to wear something simply because it was in style, THAT would make me a snob. Do you get it?
But I believe the original complaint was about people who originally did like a band and then changed their mind when it became popular. That would indicate sheepleness.
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion - as long as it’s an informed opinion. It’s fine to hate shit that sucks. But you shouldn’t say you hate something while admitting you know nothing about it. And it’s rude to say this to people who like the thing. That’s essentially saying “I have no direct knowledge of this thing so I’m basing my opinion on the premise that whatever people like you think must be wrong.”
Or maybe they’re tired of you talking about whatever is on TV this week and they’re trying to let you know that they can’t discuss that with you. The only time I ever say “I don’t watch TV” is when friends start talking to me about some show they’re watching and want to get my opinion on the latest episode. It’s not that I look down on them or think I’m superior; it’s that we just don’t have that in common, so maybe we can talk about something else.
Either one of these is still obnoxious. Just because a band records one hit that blows them up doesn’t automatically make their entire catalog of music, that same music you were previously a fan of, suck. Now if everything they release after that one hit was different from all their old stuff that’s one thing. But to abandon a band because they release one song you don’t like that happens to be a hit is obnoxiously elitist.
Hey, now. Some of us only watch an hour of that a week now that Real Housewives Jersey is the only Housewives franchise on Bravo showing new eps at the moment. (Unless Bethenny Frankel peeing in a bucket for an hour a week counts?)
Actually, I feel more embarrassed when I don’t know the latest pop culture. (“Uh, who’s Snookie/Lady Gaga/The Soup/etc?”) It makes me feel like a dork.
Again. So what? I don’t particularly care what the goal is. I’m certainly not going to let it sway my opinion. Sometimes stuff that appeals to the lowest common denominator might be pretty good. The Beatles didn’t suck.
Well, one reason is that in concert, they will play more of their new-style stuff than the old-school stuff, leaving people no choice if they want to hear the old stuff live. Fortunately I’ve never experienced this, although for awhile I thought Dashboard was going that way.
Saves the Day is going this way, but I can’t say that they are playing a new style just because it became popular, because they’re not popular They are part of the late 2000’s trend of “alterna/punk band generally recognized as emo tries to pander to critics/themselves by writing more self-consciously adult, vaguely Beatlesque music”, except like the rest of them, they forgot the “popularity” part of the Beatles equation.
Nobody is saying you can’t dislike shit that you think sucks, but being rude and obnoxious about it to people who do like it, or even worse, being rude and obnoxious about a person/show/band/movie that you admit you don’t even recognise is just really jerkish, and says much more about the person who felt the need to proclaim their superiority rather than the people happily talking about said person/show/band/movie, no matter how lowbrow or common it may be.
I know what he was trying to do, that’s usually why almost all my posts have an edit at the end, because I inevitably fuck up my quoting and have to go back to fix it.
I just hate that particular attitude I was misquoted as having.