The Buzzkill

When I was in high school, my friend told me that he hated the song "Everlong" by Foo Fighters. I asked him why, since I (and pretty much everyone else) loved the song. He told me he hated it because it was overplayed, which I thought was an unacceptable answer. His hate was misguided. It wasn't the song he had a problem with or the band, it was the radio DJs that he had issues with, but he still held his ground saying that he hated the song. With the invention of the mp3 player and the technological advances, I figured I'd never have to have a discussion like that with anyone again since you can choose what gets played, and therefore protecting yourself from having a specific song overplayed to the point that you hate it.

For the majority of us, this is true. We have our iPods/Zunes/Zens hooked up to our cars and we forgo the radio so things get never get overplayed, unless we're masochists, but this hatred is still there, it just has a different form. Rather than hate things that are overplayed, we now hate things that we believe are overhyped. Not that overhyping things is a new concept, it's just become easier with new technology. So technology saved us from one thing and brought in something to take its place.

So we've replaced the radio with iPods, but where do hear about new music if don't have the radio? Blogs, and god bless these blogs. These blogs tell us what's new and hip, and often they give us free music. I appreciate it, but a lot of people don't, and they really really don't appreciate it. I can understand not liking a song or not liking a band, but these people have developed intense hatreds for bands that have barely existed, and it's pretty puzzling.

The big buzz band of the moment goes by the name of Vampire Weekend. I heard about them on a bunch of blogs and sites, but didn't actually check them out until they were on an episode of Saturday Night Live (I'm an Amy Adams fan and they just happened to be the musical guest). I enjoyed them enough and picked up their album in iTunes. I thought the album was pretty good, not mindblowing, but pretty good. I didn't think they were the greatest band ever or the worst band in rock and roll history, but that seems to be the reaction according to most people on these blogs. I'm not saying you have to like or dislike this band, it just seems so strange that they warrant such strong reactions. For better or worse, this band is pretty inoffensive.

I understand music, or art in general, tend to get stronger reactions out of people because of the personal connection people make with it, but this buzz battle reaches to other things as well. My friend was in the market for an mp3 player and was torn between the iPod and the Zune. I advised him to get an iPod because I've had experience taking them apart before and that I could troubleshoot them if he ever had any issues. He went with the Zune for a bunch of different reasons that I found pretty petty.

1) One day the Zune is going to be better and more popular than the iPod because Microsoft has a huge warchest of money.
2) There might be a hack one day that will make his Zune awesome.
3) Everyone else already has an iPod.

So basically, my friend bought his Zune because he hated the iPod hype and because he wants to be on the winning side of a battle that hasn't even really started yet. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see he has to buy the Zune now, even if he believes it will one day be better. Why not just buy it when it is better? (Some people may believe that is now, and that is fine, I don't believe my friend does and that is the point.) What it boils down to is hype. He doesn't want to be part of it. He, like many of these buzzkillers, is happier rebelling against things, than possibly enjoying the things he's rebelling against. To each his own, I guess.

Not that I'm completely innocent in this anti-hype hatred. I think got caught up in the Garden State backlash. I voluntarily watched the movie in the theater watched the movie and actually enjoyed it, but started to hate it when I met people who thought the movie was the greatest thing since Citizen Kane. So it wasn't necessarily Zach Braff that I was hating on, I was hating on the fans of his film who allowed a film about nothing to manipulate themselves into believing that the film was about everything. I realize this is not too fair to Zach Braff, the same way that my friend wasn't being fair to Dave Grohl. I guess there's some backlash in all of us, just some more than others.

I think I'm going to listen to my Vampire Weekend and Everlong playlist on my iPod now. Have a nice day.