I spent the summer of my freshman year of college working as a delivery boy in a pizza shop in small-town Easton, Md. When business was slow, we had nothing better to do than sit around in the back of the store, talking meaningless nothings to pass the time. That was when I met Donovan, a 6-foot-5-inch giant with tattoos scrawled across his arms and gauge earrings the size of pepperonis.
On a particularly slow evening, I asked him what type of music he listened to. He responded, "Death metal. Nothing else." I was blown away. With all the different types of great music available today, I couldn't imagine someone restricting himself to one particular style for his entire life.
In the '60s, listeners didn't have a choice. You would turn on the radio, and it would be mostly rock and roll. Rock music united the youth of America, but that was soon to change. The '70s brought an array of different genres and styles: glam rock, prog rock, disco, funk, soul, reggae. The '80s saw the dawn of punk, metal, hip-hop, grunge and early alternative. Today, there are almost too many classifications to count. The expansion and diversity that has grown in modern music, however, is a mixed blessing. Many listeners, like my death metal co-worker, tend to side with one particular style of music, proclaim loyalty and ignore the rest, pledging a musical allegiance. Punk rockers rip their jeans and spike their hair. Goth rockers paint their nails and don their spiked bracelets. The different directions that music has followed has created a wide spread of closed-mindedness, a segregation of listeners.
This is disturbing to me mostly because I don't understand it. I grew up listening to my parents' music, namely "classic rock," but as music has developed I've embraced it rather than sticking to my roots. To understand these divisions in the music world, I spoke with some die-hard fans of different genres on the Hopkins campus.
"Music I like would be alternative rock," sophomore James Gettinger said. "That's kind of a broad category. And, music I would dislike is ... almost everything else." When asked about different genres, he responded, "I think that most people really ... I don't want to say don't know a lot about music but I just don't trust a lot of people's taste in music, especially people who like a lot of the genres I dislike."
I also spoke with Scott Yin, a senior and another metal head. "I like very extreme forms of music," Yin said. "I like a lot of metal, different types of heavy metal, like classic metal, thrash metal, speed metal, death metal, black metal. I also like the extreme forms of rap music like gangster rap."
Yin defended his seemingly exclusive tastes, saying, "Music is all based on music. Taste is all based on personal opinion. Something that is not rap or metal I already have a bias toward because I probably have a pretty good idea what it's going to sound like and I know that I don't like that particular type of music."
Listeners also tend to associate different styles of music with different periods in their life which strengthens their attachment to a particular genre. Sophomore Stu Sweeney, a country fan, said that he listened to country music because he spent much of his life overseas and country music reminded him of his hometown in Texas. Noah Haddaway, another sophomore, listened to alternative rock, mostly through particular local radio stations, so he associates that style of music with his childhood.
Personal taste may drive listeners' choice in music, but the culture that surrounds different styles is also a major factor. Genres such as punk rock and rap foster the division of listeners by creating a cult-like group of followers who unify in their dress, their speech, and sometimes even their beliefs.
Sweeney said, "I went to school with a lot of people in Connecticut, and it was mostly kids from Greenwich and New York and they were extremely rich and extremely preppy, but they all listened to hardcore rap. They were all trying to put on this 'Oh yeah. I'm down with 50 Cent and Jay-Z' and all that s---, and I thought, 'you guys are a joke.' But they just wanted to seem cooler, so they listened to all that s---. I definitely think that people listen to it because they want to associate with the culture rather than its musical value, which in some cases it doesn't have."
"Certainly there are some people who do identify with, like, the rap culture, not because of the music, just because it's 'cool' to do," Yin said. "There's people who once you get so involved into it, you just can't help it."
Many listeners see music as an aspect of their identity. This is no new phenomenon. In the '60s, America saw the cult origins of the "Dead Heads," which would grow to a world-wide phenomenon over the years, and the hippies, whose taste in music was a part of how they saw themselves. There are many, however, who ignore the social culture of music and listen to it for what it is. Sophomore Greg Shultz claims to be a fan of all different types of music. He said, "I think what attracts me to the music is the actual music itself. With rock and jazz and that kind of stuff, and even to a point with rap, the music is about the music and the actual writing of the music. When I listen to pop I feel like it's more about the culture.
"I wouldn't say that music defines who I am, it's just what I listen to," Haddaway said.
One somewhat unifying characteristic of the divided modern generation of listeners is a reversion back to rock and roll's golden age, the music coined "classic rock" of the '60s and '70s. More and more teenagers across the country are starting to listen to the music of that generation. Classic band logos are seen on clothing and posters. Movies such as Across the Universe and Walk the Line are achieving huge commercial success. Some bands, such as Led Zeppelin and the Who, are even reuniting on tours and playing sold-out concerts. But is this music considered relevant today, or is it merely a page in the history books?
"I think [classic rock] is definitely relevant today," Gettinger said. "Especially because most of the bands from the '60s and '70s are what contemporary bands draw their influences from. Performances like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles: If you ask most of the really talented people today what types of music they like, that's what they say," he said.
"The good thing about music is that it feeds off the past and a lot of artists are influenced by artists that they listened to growing up," Yin said.
However, in the divided world of music, there will always be differing opinions. Haddaway said, concerning classic rock, "I feel that the Beatles are really the only important thing from then. Lennon's message and Paul McCartney's message certainly live on today. As for everything else, who cares?"
Are these music allegiances a bad thing? I don't think so, except when there is a refusal to experiment and experience something new. I admit that I too am guilty for often favoring classic rock from the '60s and '70s over some of the drivel on the pop charts today. It would be nice to live in a world where I wouldn't have to argue with my friends over whether or not the Beatles were a better band than Radiohead, but without competition and conflict, where would all the creativity go?
Music is what the listener gets out of it and the feelings he associates with it. It's about the rush I get when Jimmy Page rips into the "Heartbreaker" solo, the rush some people feel from "T-A-S-T-E-Y" by "Fergalicious." The allegiances are nearly impossible to break, but for those who maintain an open mind, the possibilities are endless.
