I emailed this strip to a ton of people, and a bunch of my pals put it in the “About Me” section of their Myspace page. Good stuff, sir. Good stuff.

music nerd? possibly. pretentious? maybe. but who cares. do your thing dustin.

If I’m in a store that’s playing bad music, I may leave because of that.

I think my music tastes are eclectic (does using that word make ME a pretentious asshole?) – music just has to be good for me to like it. Doesn’t matter if it’s popular or mainstream, that won’t ruin it for me…. but of course, the interesting and cool stuff isn’t on z-100.

But that’s not to say I have good taste or not. I’ve liked The Violent Femmes for over 15 years now, esp the jam on the track “Black Girls.”

A benefit of having a deep musical catalog is that you can play songs most people don’t know, just to entertain yourself. I played a song by the Scissor Sisters purely for the entertainment value of playing a song by a group with that name, not for the (ahem) quality of the music.

Anyway, what’s also funny about music is how a band will sound great on a CD, but will totally suck live in concert, or be inconsistent from show to show. I used to be into Sonic Youth, and with them live, it was hit or miss. One show at Roseland in 1995 or 1996 was mind-blowing, but other shows they played around that same time were difficult to get through, mostly due to Kim Gordan’s vocals sounding like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Similarly, there are bands that I don’t like too much on CD, but live they’re not that bad. A couple of years ago I saw Mudvayne and they put on a decent live show, surprisingly. Kinda reminds me of how much I miss the “NYC Hardcore” scene… going to the Wetlands on Hudson St. to see Vision of Disorder, Madball, Orange 9 MM, Civ. (Civ works at tattoo parlor on Long Island now.)

I guess nostalgia plays a big role in whether I’ll like a song or not. And there are songs that I like just because someone I like has played them for me on the guitar.

But yeah some songs are flat-out bad and playing them in public places should be banned. For me, my all-time least faves are “Ride wit Me” by Nelly and “Electric Slide” by Marcia Griffiths…(as well as the entire genres of R&B and whiny wuss rock aka Daniel Powter and The Fray, those can ruin a meal).

When I was a freshman in high school, I attended the Texas Governor’s school. It was basically a math and science nerd camp. It was, for the most part, an interesting experience.

However, you could not walk -anywhere- without hearing Soulja Boy every 5 bloody minutes.

That fact alone almost ruined my entire time there.

Music is a sacred thing and that fact should not be ruined by overplayed and uncreative pop songs. A new piece of music should be something that expands your horizons and gives you new appreciation for music itself, not something that makes you wish for deafness.

Additionally, if you have such a refined taste in music, you should perhaps start a music blog. Or you could simply have a page listing artist/album suggestions with a brief description.

For people to have a refined taste in music, they must first learn about music.

Oh dear.

“God it’s a huge burden to have this great taste in music, if only I was stupid like everyone else”

Closely followed by:

“What do you mean I’m a douchebag?”

And by the way, to all the ppl that said stfu: good music does NOT come on the radio (not the big stations anyway), it’s just a matter of searching. Once you do it you will be surprised to hear what’s out there ..

Grtz!

I have recently become a fan of multiple online comics. One thing determines if I read them or not. RSS feeds with the comics. Look at xkcd.com’s feed to see how yours should look. It will greatly increase your viewer numbers and make it easier to enjoy.

http://www.xkcd.com/rss.xml

I will definitely be passing on “The Music Nerd’s Burden” to my Music Nerd friends. I have a few in particular this made me think of.