the bad ears

A great little bit of a (somewhat monthly) music-oriented column by Tom Ewing:

We're rhetorically hostile to fellow music listeners. We bundle up fans of particular acts, of course. But we also create stereotypes of people who listen too intensely (audiophiles, obsessive fans) and too casually (people for whom music is "just background noise"). We construct listeners who are too into music-- hoarders and novelty-seekers-- and the 10-albums-a-year buyer who's not into music enough. We project ideas of not listening the right way or for the right reasons-- calling into being the "hipster," the "rockist," the "fangirl." The implied contrast is to our own, naturally superior, modes of consumption. After all it's easier to suggest people fit into some kind of straw man category-- posers, ideologues, undiscerning bobbleheads-- than to risk ourselves by empathizing with what they hear or don't hear in the music.

Read the rest here.