Rock Snobbery

Recently, Splangy Radio featured a program on “Rock Snobbery” via Podcast. They defined a Rock snob like this: A Rock snob buys the Astral Weeks CD when he is 18. Hey buys a Velvet Underground CD when he is 21. At 24, he buys the same Velvet Underground album on an LP!

I was laughing out loud all through the program as the things they talked about were so similar to the snobbery I exhibited in this part of the world. Well, my Rock Snobbery peaked out when I was 23-24.

I thought I’d jot down some stuff from my snob years for budding Rock snobs. Here it goes:

Five artists Rock Snobs should rave about:
1. Nick Drake (Unfortunately, Drake’s Pink Moon was featured in a Volkswagen commercial recently, making him a bit “popular”!)
2. The Stooges
3. Velvet Underground
4. Jeff Buckley
5. Television

Five easy tricks to become a Rock Snob:
1. Always specify timelines as “Since Dylan went Electric…”, “After the British Invasion..” etc.
2. Lester Bangs. Mention his name at least twice in a conversation. Call him Lester. " Lester.. who?” “Bangs. Lester Bangs. The man who coined the word punk.”
3. If you stumble upon some artist whom you have not heard much, blindly state that His solo work is superior! Clicks most of the time.
4. Talk about Producers and production. State that this artist delivered better with that producer.
5. Last but not least: Trivia! Very often we come across rock rookies who proudly show off their knowledge by quoting Cobain’s suicide note and stating that the lines are from Neil Young’s My My, Hey Hey. Ask them about Neil Young’s Cobain tribute album (Sleeps with Angels) or about whom did Young write the song My My Hey Hey (Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols).

…and if you have it in you, walk out of a party where they play “I just called to say I love you”!