I might have been a year off, but I was working at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo and mp3 sharing was the rage. Napster hit in '99. All the kids in the halls used their computers to play music back then, too. My first mp3 player was a Rio 500, which went to market in '99. So call it '99 and not '98 - but I was following what my students were doing. They were on the bleeding edge.
They definitely had to be bleeding edge, because MP3 players just weren’t that big in 1999. If I had to guess, I think they only held 20-30 songs at a time. Not much more advanced than a CD player, especially for the price.
But you’re right, Napster was a big deal in 1999. Probably the biggest file sharing ever will be.
Yeah, I used Napster, but I converted the mp3s to whatever huge format (.cda?) and burned them to CDs.
DMB was played on all the top 40s stations in NH and Boston during the mid-90s. Not on the real rock stations like WAAF or Edge 103, but Kiss 108 etc.
The problem is that their genre sucks syphilitic platypus scrotum.
Yeah. What is “their genre?” Really whiny, mediocre singing, with totally uninteresting instrumentals, bland and predictable rhythms and chord structures, and no soul whatsoever?
Yes, but it’s usually shortened to “RWMSTUIBPRCSNSW.”
It sounds kind of like “roomstewiebupperksinzwuh.”
Well that’s pretty much it, isn’t it? DMB is basically considered “uncool” by people who aren’t really all that cool.
And not to mention DMB was popular when I was in college like a decade ago. Kids seem like they are more into the weepy indie rock and wearing stupid Fedoras than they are into upbeat jammy music.
Exactly. Very few people give a shit what pretentious music snobs think is cool and uncool. It’s why Coldplay still gets tons of critical respect and its why DMB is still beloved (or at least recognized for their musical talent) by pretty much everyone who doesn’t hate all popular music.
You know, some people hate popular music because it’s boring, derivative, trite, and predictable–not just because it’s popular.
ETA: Just a side note that I love the irony of anti-snob snobbery.
Please define boring, trite and predictable with their relation to music. By who’s definition does this distinction flow?
Anyone who believes there is universal criteria for pointing out “bad” music the way there is for other forms of entertainment is a fool.
Why thank you - assuming you are addressing the epithet “pretentious music snobs” to folks in this thread who have stated that DMB is uncool. 
And do you really want to go with and “if you hate the DMB you must hate all popular music”? Feels like you are dismissing DMB-dislikers with the same broad brush you are accusing music snobs of dismissing you/DMB fans with. Pot, meet kettle.
I stand by my initial assessment - DMB is made up of excellent musicians who play music that is the rock equivalent of smooth jazz. Count me out. But just like there are a ton of smooth jazz fans out there, I know there are tons of DMB fans out there - yay; more power to 'em.
…and does Coldplay really “still get tons of critical respect”? I think they are judged well for their ability to turn out commercially viable pop, but I don’t hear Big Dog critics claiming that their albums are masterpieces that belong in the pantheon of the greats…unlike, say, U2 (whom CP are most often lumped with), who have many CDs that are considered to be in that pantheon…it is one thing to say “this is a great pop record that should go multi-platinum” and quite another to say “this is up there with Achtung Baby, The Joshua Tree, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, etc…” I don’t recall hearing that about CP’s stuff…
Which is fine, you are obviously not a pretentious music snob. You understand why some people could like a style of music and why they think it would be good.
I put almost no stock in someone who tells me they don’t like a performer or an album just because. And I put even less stock in them if they pull out words like boring, trite and predictable. Those words have no meaning in a discussion of music.
I definitely don’t hate all popular music - if I made a playlist in iTunes of just “popular music” (songs that have been chart hits, I’m assuming you mean) I own it would probably be bigger than most people’s entire libraries - but I think DMB and Coldplay suck ass. I love the reverse-snobbishness displayed in these kinds of posts, where the “pretentious music snob” bashing is the exact same behavior you’re ridiculing them for (not to mention the Appeals to Popularity/Authority inherent in the argument). It is quite possible to dislike these groups because you find their music bland beyond reason without any notion of hipness entering into it.
When they released their first album of just harder than easy-listening hippy rock for aspiring yuppies.
Pardon me, my statement would have been better phrased as, “Some people hate music that is boring, derivative, trite, and predictable, which in the Great Venn Diagram of Life shares a large intersection with popular music.”
Might want to rein in the hyperbole there, by the way–there’s no universal criterion for pointing out bad music? Just off the top of my head, I think you could get most people to agree that instruments played unintentionally out of tune would make for bad music–there’s a universal criterion right there. Also, I’d be very interested to hear why you think that it’s possible to have objective criteria for “badness” with regard to other types of entertainment, but not music.
I am printing this off and showing it to my wife and friends. If they don’t die when they choke on their food as I tell them this, I will let you know their thoughts. ;)
To be clear: I am *totally *a pretentious music snob 
- I just have come to realize that trying to arbitrate subjective taste is a really, really silly thing to focus time on in my life. Not to mention that there is always more to learn.
Please don’t misunderstand what I meant. I’m saying it’s wrong to say DMB (or any band for that matter) is objectively bad. And that’s what threads like this always devolve into.
You made the right choice.
The difference between Tool and the other bands mentioned here is that Tool is awesome. ;p
It’s funny, almost all the bands being compared to DMB were bands I immediately hated. Coldplay and Green Day I couldn’t stand. Nickelback was a bit after my time of listening to teeny bopper rock, so they didn’t make an impression on me. I assumed at that point that there was no more real rock coming out that it was all focus group rock industry machine crap. (I generally still think that’s correct) Staind/Creed and any other band like them fell somewhere between the Pearl Jam/Stone Temple Pilots spectrum.