Rock snobs unite!!

Scott emailed me this link today: it's a review of The Rock Snob*s Dictionary. I suppose I am a rock snob by default, since I am posting about The Rock Snob*s Dictionary. I also make lists for any sort of occasion, and try to at least know of the original version to popular cover songs. I also appreciate music on many levels, only one of which being the aesthetic pleasure. Thus I am okay with being a rock snob, and so is the author of this article, Stephen Metcalf, since he rightly feels that "only one thing is more incorrigible than [rock] snobbery, [...] and that's [...] indefensibly crappy taste in music." I feel justified. But another article, from Michael Crowley (whom Metcalf cites), indicates that rock snobbery is dying out because digital access to every song imaginable eliminates "rarities" or "trivia". Now everyone can possess those once-impossible-to-get live versions. And the growth of the iPod means that a physical music collection, cds or vinyl (*gasp*), is out of vogue. In ten years, will people even be able to buy a cd? I don't know, but I like my cd collection; it's part of what makes me a rock snob. I am also proud of my digital collection, in a different way: I think about what I will say to someone if they see that song by John Mayer or Supertramp on my iTunes list. I will, inevitably, have to defend myself. I even feel a little bad for liking John Mayer; nevertheless, he's in my collection. So I agree with Metcalf: even if everyone has every single song at his/her disposal, it is what she/he actually listens to that is important. I know that you're thinking, "I better not admit that I like so and so to Garry, he'll bite my head off," but I assure you it's not true. I am not one of those "militant" snobs that laughs at everything because he can't quite be sure that it's good enough not to laugh at. I prefer to appreciate diversity and secretly judge people based on their music interests, or at the very least why they have those interests. So you like Bon Jovi because you're from Jersey and Richie Sambora went to your high school? Well, that I can live with. I guess I am a rock snob snob, too.