Music and Cheese

I've been called a "music snob" before, and possibly for good reasons.  I don't feel like a "snob," though - I merely recognize music for what it is.  If it is shallow, banal, trite, and unoriginal, I tend to dislike it.  Sue me.  I do realize, though, that not all music was created for the same purpose.

Forgive the analogy, but I think music is a lot like cheese.  I am no connoisseur, but I understand that there are a wide variety of gourmet cheeses, and that the process of making them is nearly an art form - they are carefully cultured, handled and salted, aged and matured to produce unique tastes and textures.  Even the same types of cheese produced by different people can taste different - each maker might have a carefully cultivated signature.  There are hundreds and hundreds of gourmet and artisanal cheeses, and each one is unique.

And then there is cheese whiz.  Cheese whiz and other processed cheeses are designed to be cheap and consistent, suited for mass production.  It is... nasty stuff in comparison to "real" cheese, but it sells very well.  Sometimes people just want a cheap dairy product, and that is what cheese whiz is designed to be.  Someone well acquainted with the wide and dynamic world of gourmet cheeses might sniff in disdain at that unoriginal, characterless, artless, pasty yellow stuff.  Can you blame them?

Music is similar.  Some music is thoughtless stuff that sells well because people prefer shallowy music that doesn't make them think.  This is the cheese whiz of the music world.  Interestingly, cheese whiz music is often mistaken for the "real thing," not because it is deep or artistic, but because people lack the background to understand that they are listening to banality.  Its like the world is filled with people who have only really tasted cheese whiz and therefore think it is gourmet.

On the other hand, some music is genuinely art, studied by musicians for its originality and revered for its depth.  "Gourmet" music isn't arcane and boring.  In fact, a lot of the best music happens to be wildly popular.  But popularity is not an indicator of real music any more than it would be an indicator of real cheese.   There is good stuff, and then there is stuff designed to be mindlessly consumed.

I understand enough about music to know when it is good art, and I prefer to avoid music that isn't.  If this makes me a snob, then so be it!