We get it. You just can’t get into Phish‘s music, you can’t get behind John Mayer playing Grateful Dead music, you don’t like it when jam bands incorporate electronica or you find some professional singer’s voice to be unappealing. Whatever qualms you have, we urge you to just let it go.
It’s going to be okay.
In the earliest days of recorded music, choices were fairly limited. You could put on the FM Radio, watch the occasional musical guest on a variety program like the Ed Sullivan Show, listen to records, or get out and see a concert. Though the format of albums changed over the years and new forms of media popped up, including MTV and the like, it really wasn’t until the advent of the Internet did a fan’s options truly begin to open. Now, there’s an incredible bounty of music from which to choose, spanning a plethora of genres and approaches.
With all of that music available, it’s feasible for individuals to have a wide-ranging taste in music. My personal Spotify history ranges from jam bands to classic rock to funk to bluegrass to the soundtrack of Hamilton. With an enormous amount of music at our disposal, it’s almost irresponsible for true music lovers not to explore new and intriguing sounds. There are literally 20 million songs on Spotify right now. How many have you heard?
The thing is, music is a subjective experience. Anyone who’s ever read Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Guitarists list will almost certainly find something objectionable (seriously though, The Edge is higher than Frank Zappa, Trey Anastasio, Tom Morello, David Gilmour…), because there’s no possible way to objectively declare one professional musician to be better than another. You might enjoy hearing one band more than another, but someone else might not. We all experience the world through our own unique lens of life experiences, and different sounds and styles resonate differently through those lenses.
For more on that topic, I suggest reading this lovely feature about the ways in which personality is linked to music taste, according to research.
The point here is that different people like different things. We try to maintain a healthy sampling of musical genres, whether it’s the “jam” groups, the bluegrass, the funk, the hip hop, the R&B, the soul, the jazz, the electronic, the classic rock… Just take a scroll through our news section and you’ll see what I mean.
It is true that the bands with the biggest followings in this live music scene tend to evoke the biggest reactions. When Phish is on tour, our content tends to gravitate in their direction. Without fail, some of our readers feel the urge to let everyone know that Phish sucks. It’s okay for you to have that opinion; it really is. Like I said, everyone perceives music through their own lenses.
So what can you do about it? First, feel free to ask yourself, “Why don’t I like this band?” If it’s for a superficial reason, you might want to give some of the music a chance. If you’ve listened to the music and genuinely do not enjoy it, then your next step is even simpler. Do nothing.
Writing a nasty comment on a Phish thread is like going to a baseball game and telling fans you think baseball is boring. All you’re doing is making little kids cry.*
In the end, it’s okay for you to dislike what other people are listening to. We all have our own subjective opinions about music, and we’re all allowed to feel our own way. When you cross that line and insult people for their taste, however, it sends a message that your own taste is superior. In reality, it isn’t. It’s superior to you, just as my taste is superior to me. It suits me, and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
It’s easy for people on the Internet to subject others to their negative opinions. Fortunately, when you actually find yourself at a real world performance, the negativity tends to dwindle into non-existence. Only here, on the troll-friendly platform of social media, do people think it’s okay to hate on other people for the kind of music they like.
In the end, the moral of this story is the same moral we’ve learned from any fairy tale. Don’t be a dick.
Can’t wait to read the comments on this one…
* I have so many more analogies for writing mean comments. It’s like bringing a bag of Filet-O’-Fish sandwiches on a fishing trip. It’s like going on a date and texting other people the whole time. It’s like going to a restaurant and knocking hamburgers out of people’s hands because you heard red meat is dangerous. It’s like talking to me nonstop when I’m trying to watch this movie. Seriously though, why did you put this movie on if you won’t let me watch it?