Too good to leave in the del.icio.us bookmarks by its lonesome: a very good essay on music, indie snobbery, and popular culture:

There’s a sizeable portion of the population that listens to the music they listen to because it’s there and they don’t know any better—a reality that actually predicates the existence of mainstream music. Here’s what I mean: nobody thinks long and hard about music and what it means to them and then ultimately decides to listen to Toby Keith. Similarly, an equally large portion of the population goes to concerts to go to concerts. And I’m not necessarily referring to the twelve albums-a-year crowd who camps out for Rob Thomas tickets; I’m referring to anyone who goes to concerts for every reason except the music. It just seems to me that people who go to concerts for sex and drugs would be better off staying at home and masturbating to internet pornography or meeting shady characters on Adult Friend Finder (more efficient means to the same ends that don’t also involve ear damage).

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(via waxy)