I Like Them, So You Can't

I was having a conversation with my friend the other day about the music we like. He finds all of his new music by listening to pop/contemporary radio. The songs he mentioned recently downloading were tracks that make me cringe (even if I don't know the song, just the artist). I really wasn't trying to shun his music or say it's necessarily bad, I just don't prefer it.

But an interesting observation he pointed out is that he doesn't care if other people listen to his music as much as he does. That is to say he likes songs and bands regardless of how popular they are or how often they're on the radio. And my reaction is the exact opposite. The more a song is on the radio, the less I like it. While I don't purposely try to listen to weird or unpopular bands, I do like the fact that there are some bands and songs I like that nobody else knows or not many people know. Granted my list of favorite bands is so 90s mainstream it hurts, I could just as easily post a list of bands nobody I know has heard of. I've frequently looked at a person's "favorite bands" sections on facebook or myspace and not recognized a single name. The one big difference between them and myself is that typically their list is of indie, emo or hardcore bands and mine is random punk or electronic bands I found on yahoo 4 years ago.

I can't really differentiate between whether I really like the way certain bands sound or if I like the fact that other people don't like them. Plenty of people like the Dead Kennedys but no one I know is among them. Jello Biafra really truly does kind of sing like a goat. Mindless Self Indulgence is incredibly immature and spastic, but I like them. I like drum and bass because it's loud and fast, but it's very repetitive. To me, loud and fast and screechy and obnoxious is likeable. Things that are radio friendly are too...radio friendly.