Cool

Some Watery Tart (which, btw, great nom de net) has a post up about Music Nazis she encountered at Borders.

I wouldn't say I'm a Music Nazi (I did marry a man who *loves* Styx), but I do think people's musical tastes can be revealing. There was a girl in my madrigal class who was putting CD's in a portable case once, and I asked her what CDs she owned: "Celine Dion, of course - I have all Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Cher, and Phantom of the Opera" - I don't want this person carted off to music re-education camp or anything, but I can safely say that I might not want to invest too much time in getting to know her, either.

As I'm getting older, I find that I am turning into my mother when it comes to music. I love all my old favorites, but I am still intrigued by new stuff that sounds interesting. My mother is a sucker for a melody, and in my middle school years she was obsessed with Ozzy Osborne, who, bat-eater or not, put out some very melodic metal. Behind the guitars was a catchy tune, and that's what my mom likes. My metalhead friends thought my mom was so cool.

When I was in high school, though, my taste in music did not make me cool. I would say the split of what kind of music people listened to broke down this way:

30% Monsters of Classic Rock/Music To Get High To - Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Stones, Pink Floyd, The Doors
40% Whatever was on America's Top 40 - Bruce Springsteen? Okay! Cyndi Lauper? Why not! Michael Jackson? His videos are so awesome!
15% Prog Rock - Rush Rules!
10% New Wave - The Police, The Cars, Berlin, Talking Heads
5% - other - country, punk, "I only listen to classical", funk, R&B, hip-hop (my town was 99.9% white, but there are always people who are listening to the next big thing)

Although I like Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper, I fell pretty firmly into freak territory. I was a little too hard-edged (what with the mohawk and the surly attitude) to fit in with the New Wavers, but not quite hard-edged enough to fit in with the punks.

Now I'm not as regimented in my musical tastes. I love Ben Folds, who is most often compared to Elton John (who I loved when I was 8 and Crocodile Rock was kind of funny to me, but lost interest in after that); I love Rufus Wainwright with his mush-mouth singing and sincere and personal lyrics; I love Nellie McKay with her smooth jazz voice, her perky Doris Day looks, and her brutal and funny lyrics; I love the spare punk sound on The White Stripes first CD; I like Missy Elliott, OutKast, Queens of the Stone Age (and even though he looks like Craig Kilborn, who is like the anti-sexy to me, Josh Homme is, IMO, unbelieveably sexy), the Foo Fighters, The Shins....

Now Sio hears from her friends "your mom is so cool!"