music philosophy

picture this.

a typical 16-year-old is at a music store, and he has P500 to spend on one cd. of course, he could come back next week with another 500 to spend on another cd. however, the focus is on the now. he would be bragging telling friends about his purchase later on, and of course this typical teenager would be conscious of his purchase, which would be in direct relation to his music tastes, which would be in direct relation to his social standing. (i.e. [bleeding heart] emo = laughingstock. or something like that.)

so what does he buy?

3 out of 5 times (okay, so i just made up that stat but hey) he will buy a cd of a band that the number of people who have heard of them is less than or equal to the fingers on your hands. why? because it looks cool. however, that answer would be too broad, and this is the real answer: you start listening to a band almost no one else knows, you tell people about it, it will generate curiosity, it will become a new trend, and you feel accomplished for having discovered gold.

of course, the average teenager will not realize that. he'll just stick with the answer of "yes, it does make me look cool."

despite that, almost all the time, he will get into the music he chose to listen to, but deep down it's a forced feeling, and almost all the time, when he hears once more the music he gave up, it'll be like a sort of homecoming reunion that he's not gonna drop those songs just yet, before going back to ol' pretentious, nonconforming him.

wait, there's a term for these people. ah, yes. poser. however, i am above such terms, though such people do exist, trust me.

anyway.

be it for the reason that you are trying to look good, or you are into bands no one else knows, or you hate pop, the thing is, nonconformity (at least in music trends, i'm not sure about other trends) is starting to become the new conformity, whether it is intentional or not. i've noted such a trend, and it did emerge passively.

i'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing - well, maybe it is for those who don't like being called conformists - but what it does is create an amusing paradox, that goes like this: if you are a nonconformist, then you would have to be a conformist now - but being a conformist defies the definition of nonconformity.

so what are you?

anyway, there is a corollary (for lack of a better word) to all this, which i'll talk about in the next post. enjoy.