I was in the midst of a conversation with Julian, Danny, Emily and Ellen on facebook when I realized the root of my issue with Music-Shaming. Music-Shaming is making someone feel bad, like less of a person or just generally demeaning them because of what type of music they like. I absolutely detest it.
Part of my distaste for it, is that I used to be an adament believer in it. Feeling like a better person because of my taste in music made me feel better about myself all around. I couldn't and can't change who I am as a person, the shape of my eyes, the shade of my skin. But I could choose my interests. I let it define me.
That isn't how people work. The measure of a man is not their interests or their image, it's how they interact with others.
That's the point I'm trying to make. The reason I intensely dislike music-shaming is because of the disrespect it affords to others. The most important thing to me in my life is the relationships I share with others. And putting someone down for something they enjoy isn't someone I'd want to identify as. People have the right their own opinions, and I'd hate for someone to disregard mine as less worthy. I think I'm allowed to like Guns N' Roses and Rita Ora and La Dispute and Brand New and Mayday Parade and Belle & Sebastian and Ed Sheeran and Bright Eyes and the freaking Smiths.
That isn't me thinking my music is better than someone else's. That's me being proud that I can sit here and not worry about what someone else thinks about my personal preferences. I would have never admitted this a year or two ago, but I wouldn't have been able to do this at that point in my life, talk about the things I love without regret. Music I refer to as my guilty pleasures, like One Direction or Taylor Swift give me a euphoria that other music doesn't. Sure, a lot of it's repetitive and honestly ridiculous, but it works for me. I need them for different reasons. And I know a lot of other people have the same feelings about different things in their lives. People just don't like to talk about it. And I'm not asking them to. I guess this is just a public service announcement. Next time you feel like making fun of someone for something as menial as liking Justin Beiber of all things, remember how absolutely meaningless that is. How meaningless it all is. And how you're the only person who can make things matter to you and those around you. Do you really want to be that person?
2 comments:
Isn't everything a bit shaming, when it comes to matters of taste and opinion? Because really, there is no way to really grade it via quality. It's more about standing tall on your own taste and to hell with everyone else. I actually got beaten up in high school because I didn't like the stuff everyone else liked. It was very stupid, stupid of them to hit me, perhaps stupid of me to not just shut up and agree. There are always guilty pleasures, there are always nuggets of genius buried in even the worst bits of movies and songs. And eventually, maybe when you get to be about 20 or so, suddenly all of it doesn't matter and you simply like what you like. But when you get really older - like old man old, then not only don't you care about what people think of music, you basically don't care what people think of anything. I wait for that day.
this post I like.
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