“The iPod is the most popular Christmas gift this year, but it comes with a new type of snobbery: what, exactly, do you play on it? Musical snobbery has been around since one Neanderthal struck another on the head with a bone and called it a drum solo. Now there is a new form of musical elitism – iPod snobbery,” Charles Purcell writes for The Age. “First, there’s the vanity that comes with owning that slimline, beautifully designed instrument, with its white headphones a sign for all nearby muggers that a new client is in town. Yet the real snobbery is in the choice of music one imports into the iPod; which songs, to paraphrase Elaine from Seinfeld, are ‘iPod worthy.'”
“Looking at some people’s iPod song list is like examining some yuppie’s bookshelf, full of books about feminism and architecture in the Weimar Republic that you just know the owner has never read, there simply to impress the casual viewer. So it is with the iPod,” Purcell writes. “Perhaps scared of admitting that they like Mandy Moore, snobs pack their iPods with music from impenetrable weirdos such as Belle & Sebastian, Sigur Ros, Mum and Bjork. It doesn’t matter that the songs are by a collective of 20-something lesbians from Kent singing about how they ritualistically severed the manhood of a university lecturer who gave them a C.”
Purcell writes, “What matters is that the selection doesn’t attract scorn from fellow iPod snobs. Otherwise, they might be forced to kill to retain their credibility, like Christian Bale explaining his love of Huey Lewis before going nuts with an axe in American Psycho… Sometimes entire decades are verboten. There are those who believe the ’80s new romantic movement is yet to be surpassed, but iPod snobs think it was more of a bowel movement. Devo’s Whip It and Duran Duran’s Hungry Like the Wolf are not for them or their sacred iPod.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Click to launch Apple’s iTunes directly linked to the iTunes Music Store’s Barry Manilow collection. MDN openly admits to having one or two of Barry’s best work on one or more of our iPods — and we didn’t rename the files to hide them either!
like ’88 i’m damn quick!
now give me my medal!!!
hopefully some iPod owners can listen to music they love without worrying what everyone thinks…
Wow, must be hard to be a snob with that much capacity. How do you fill something with 10,000 “snob” songs? And why would you?
I’m still converting, but my iPod is going to be filled with all the stuff I liked from the 80s and still like today. I’ve got stuff from the 90s as well, but I just didn’t find a lot in the last ten years that made me really want to own it. There’s stuff I like and stuff I don’t like; everybody has that. I really don’t care what other people listen to; that’s their business, not mine. May they enjoy it and enjoy their iPod!
All I can say is… that man has one HUUUUUGE chip on his shoulder!
I guess he still doesn’t have an iPod and has to make up nasty stories about all those around him who do.
My iPod contains:
Classical
50’s hits
60’s hits
70’s hits
80’s hits
90’s hits
hoobastank
crowded house
audible books
George Carlin
Grateful Dead
jazz hits
Lenny Bruce
and lots more eclectic shit… it is what I like, not what I think other people like. I am sure the other 99.9% of the iPod owners are the same.
I think the author is a “Sad Little Man”�.
Hey! What’s wrong with Devo? I have “Whip It” on my iPod…I’m not ashamed to admit it either.
i’ve got 40s, …, 90s quiet and loud pop, classical, jazz, musicals, movie sound tracks, ragtime. even a few c&w.
Sorry Purcell, Devo and Duran Duran were not New Romantics. Devo may have been what we Americans called “new wave”, but the New Romantic movement was a British/European invention. A search through the archives of NME or Q magazine is in order.
DakRoland
Hey! What’s wrong with Devo? I have “Whip It” on my iPod…I’m not ashamed to admit it either.
What about Mr. Robotto?
er.. Mr. Roboto
“snobs pack their iPods with music from impenetrable weirdos such as Belle & Sebastian”
I love Belle & Sebastian and respect all the other weirdos altough i’m not a fan and i don’t have a iPod…
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…Yet
When i have one this guy won’t even imagine all the weirdo cd’s i own that i’ll rip to my iPod, my iPod will be a real Freak Snob.
This is one silly article.
twilightmoon
What about Mr. Robotto?
….Yes. I am a child of the 80’s…what can I say?
I have everything from Duran Duran to Megadeath on my iPod. With the capacity of the thing I can put anything and everything on it, and listen to what the mood suggests, not having to worry that I have limited space so I have to be super picky and “snobby” about what songs make it onto the player… that is such a “memory/flash based player mentality”.
Can’t beat a bit of musical snobbery.
A couple of weeks ago, the family went to see my parents. I added a playlist that had plenty of stuff my wife likes so that there was some balance to it.
I have some inclusive playlists, like current favourite albums, and I fill any remaining space with random songs. The random list excludes stuff that I deem unworthy of a place on my iPod.
I also have a list for playing in iTunes that is exclusive. It’s called “No Books, No Kids, No Crap!”
I forgot to uncheck the in-the-car-with-the-family though and today was accosted with some bloody Robbie Williams. Urgh!
Don’t have this problem. Nothing but photos on my iPorn…er iPod.
Early eighties music-
How about Sole Survivor by Asia (awesome)
Late eighties-
Metallica
Ratt
Motley Crue
Queens Ryche
Nirvana
As for the nineties, I was trippin out to Dead can Dance.
Reading that article it is obvious that the author is not expecting to receive an iPod for this Christmas – either that or Santa forgot his toy train when he was 6.
😀
My iPod contains music and just music. I think he is the snob not us.
This person has no clue.
My iPod contains Bach, Bach JC, Bach CPE, Bach WF, Bach WM…
If the composer was alive in 1850, they are too modern for me!
OH, and goon shows..
I’m not embarrased that I listen to Britney Spears, Spice Girls, Kenny G and other similar stuff lol, I love telling people what music I like:)
Y’know, this guy isn’t even a good hack journalist. Jeez, even the style section bozos for the Philadelphia Inqurier will actually get off their fat asses (or at least make a couple of calls) to get some quotes to pepper their puff articles with. (More likely they walk to Starbucks and annoy whoever is sitting down.)
What I find particularly amusing is that I bought Rhino’s 80’s alternative box set yesterday, am copying the tracks to the ipod right now, and what’s right there as disc 2, track 2–Ultravox’s Vienna.
Stupid Aussie moron…doing a proper article would have taken him away from banging koala bears for too long.
Opinionated Jerk
Stupid Aussie moron…doing a proper article would have taken him away from banging koala bears for too long.
lol.. now now.. banging a koala would require locating one up in a tree and climbing, far too much work for said lazy bastard. More likely he’s bending over for a kangaroo ride.
No offense to all the Australians out there, not directed at you, just this particular “journalist.” Just having some fun. Cheers.
Ah, but those ‘impenetrable weirdos’ including Radiohead, Alanis M, Moby, Coldplay, Modest Mouse, Dandy Warhols, The Verve, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beatles, make you want to come back for more.
The poptarts that this guy likely listens to, will rot yer teeth in 1 hour.
Tho’ DD are a guilty pleasure.
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–
Ch-ch-ch-changes, is the the password.