Music Snobbery and Why It Annoys Me

Hey everyone!

So, unlike my last post, this one's probably not going to be very long (I thought it was not going to be long. I tried to keep it short. I failed.) particularly earth-shattering.  But I just needed to get this off my chest real quick and I figured, why not do that here? So this post is going to be me venting about some people's need to make others feel bad for the music they listen to. I apologise in advance for any expletives I might use, any confusing turns I might take while rambling my way through this, and any toes I might step on - sorry, I mean no harm! Let's get this party started then, shall we?

Call me naive, but I do actually believe that it's possible to go through life without labelling things based on personal opinions all the time. Hearing people say things like "Wow, that song is complete shit!" - BIG pet peeve of mine. And I try not to get too annoyed, because I KNOW that sentences like that slip sometimes and I KNOW that I've said stuff like that before, too, but... It really does rub me the wrong way. Like, why do you have to say that so negatively? What if the person you're talking to actually really likes this song? The amount of times I've heard people chuckle uncomfortably and mutter quiet "Yeah!"s, because they feel stupid for liking a song their counterpart has just declared utter crap, makes me mad. Can't you just phrase it a bit differently? I don't know, maybe say "I don't like this" instead of "this is shit"! Basically conveys the same message, but isn't as offensive.

Dara O'Briain, Irish comedian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaQlQjLDsvI at ~1h 4min

Another phrase that I really don't like to hear: "You listen to that?! That's so mainstream!" in an incredulous tone, paired with a condescending look. Luckily, I haven't been on the receiving end of said tone and look all that often, because I can't guarantee my response would have been all that nice...

I don't really understand when and why "mainstream" has become some sort of slur. Correct me if I'm wrong, but to me, mainstream refers to something that a lot of people do or like. Why is that a bad thing? I mean, yeah, don't limit yourself to the stuff you hear on the radio, broaden your horizon, yadda, yadda, yadda... I get that part. I understand that people get fed up with hearing the same ten currently immensely popular songs over and over again. But a song being popular doesn't immediately make it bad. Using the word "mainstream" as a synonym for "not good" or even "shit" has become rather popular and I fail to see why! If enough people like a song for it to be successful, to be played on the radio, to sell a decent amount of copies, it can't be all that shit, now, can it?

What even classifies a "good" song? If a song is really catchy and you can listen to it a lot without it getting old, but it's just not all that musically complex, does that instantly make it a bad song? And is a song, that has the most carefully thought out, poetical lyrics and is near impossible to play live, because it was written by some musical prodigy, really that much superior, if you just can't listen to it, because it gets annoying after a while? Of course you might be able to appreciate that song more on an artistic level, but will artistry alone make you enjoy listening to it?

Now, I am not trying to belittle anything here. I'm not trying to say any one type of song is better than the other, no, that's exactly the opposite of what I'm trying to do. My point is that different people like different things and I don't think anyone should be put down for the things they like just because others might prefer something else. Of course, that doesn't only go for music, but also for movies, books, hobbies, clothes and mostly everything else in life as well. Think about it, does it really concern you, if someone chooses to exclusively listen to top 40 music, if someone prefers metal over alternative rock, or if they've got Beethoven sonatas on repeat? I don't believe it does. To each their own, right? So just go ahead, like the stuff you like and leave others be. And most importantly, don't tell other people their taste in music or whatever is shit, just because you might not like the same things. It only makes people feel bad and I don't think people feeling bad because of something they enjoy should be a thing. So your friend likes folk music and you don't - big fucking deal! You might not agree, everybody is entitled to their own opinion after all, but that doesn't give you the right to tell said friend there's something wrong with their taste in music. What good is that going to do anyway? You won't make them stop liking folk music. The only thing that you might achieve is them not talking to you about the music they listen to anymore.

So, long story short: don't be a dick about other people's taste in music. Actually, no, let me rephrase that! Don't be a dick. Full stop! Repeat that after me, slowly and clearly: Don't. Be. A. Dick. Not going to make you any better, just makes others feel bad. And we don't want people to feel bad, do we? Good. Rant over, class dismissed!

Good night everyone! :)

Christmas Rituals

Hey everyone!

Sooooo... Remember when I said I'd try to post once or twice a week? Well, turns out I couldn't do that, which now leaves me with less time and more half-finished blog posts than I'd like to have...

But enough about me and my lack of self-discipline. IT IS CHRISTMAS TIME!! YAYYY! :D (Well, technically, it's already over, but let me have this!) Now as we all know, Christmas is celebrated in various extremely different ways all around the world, which kind of figures, since different parts of the world obviously have different cultural backgrounds, etc., etc.... But even within one single country or culture, where the festivities in general are more or less the same, Christmas can be celebrated in several different ways. Each and every family has their own, let's call them rituals, on December 24th and the days following. I've always found it quite interesting to kind of compare Christmas stories with my friends. To find out what rituals or habits we have in common and in what ways my own personal Christmas experiences differ from those of others.

So I figured why not make that into a blog post and tell the lovely people of the web (if there even are any who bother to read my unfortunately rather inactive blog ^^) a little bit about how my family and I usually celebrate Christmas.

When, where, with whom

On Christmas Eve - which, in Austria, is "the actual" day of Christmas - my parents, my siblings and I usually celebrate at my parents' house. It used to be just us, but a couple of years ago my dad's parents came over on the 24th to celebrate with us and it kind of became a tradition (can you call that a tradition?) for them to visit, so now were seven people instead of just five... The more the merrier, eh? ;)

Christmas Day is normally spent at my mum's parents' house together with my uncles, aunts and cousins. If everyone's there we're 15 people, so the tranquil, reflective holiday that is Christmas Day tends to get quite... lively... But it's always good fun and a nice opportunity for the whole family to come together and catch up.

"Christkind"

I am Austrian, so of course it's the "Christkind" who brings our presents. There's no Santa Clause, no "Weihnachtsmann", and no anything else. Go "Christkind" or go home! Us Austrians are pretty strict about that one, I guess... ^^

My parents still like to pretend Christkind exists, even though none of us, not even my eight year old sister, actually believe that anymore. They mostly do that to annoy us. Asking direct questions about who is going to buy/wrap/hide/etc. Christmas presents is an absolute no go, because "What are you talking about? Christkind brings your presents, I don't have anything to do with that! You're going to have to ask Christkind...". Me and my siblings have heard sentences like that out of my smirking parents' mouths more often than I can count. Usually they're followed by an eye-roll, annoyed glares and a lot of begging to "just please give me a serious answer for once"... As exasperating as those conversations might be, they, too, have become a part of our Christmassy rituals over the years. *sigh* ;)

[This isn't really connected to celebrating Christmas itself, but I happened to come across this on YouTube a couple of days ago and found it funny, so here's a video of Christoph Waltz rather aptly, if a bit exaggeratedly, describing the Austrian tradition of "Krampus" on an American talk show: ]

Church

Christmas is obviously a Christian holiday. Which is why it makes sense that for lots of people going to church is a really important part of celebrating Christmas. Personally, I am not that much of a religious person, so church usually isn't part of my Christmas routine. That may seem hypocritical to some people and they might argue that I shouldn't celebrate Christmas at all, if I can't do it in the religious, biblical way, but I'd feel like even more of a hypocrite if I went to church and pretended to believe in everything that's said there just for the sake of Christmas and meeting other people's standards. To me, Christmas is not so much about religion anymore as it is about culture and tradition. I think you don't have to believe in God or Jesus or whatever in order for Christmas to be a nice, happy and festive day spent together with your loved ones. Don't tell my grandparents I said that... ^^

Food

From what I've experienced there seem to be a couple of "typical" Christmas dinners. A lot of the people I know usually eat either fondue or raclette, which I've always found kind of weird, since neither of the two are typically Austrian dishes or strike me as particularly Christmassy... But for some reason they still seem to have established themselves as rather popular dishes for Christmas dinner.

But since me and my family are proper rebels, who don't just go with the flow, we don't have raclette or fondue for Christmas dinner, no, we have decided on a much more creative and luxurious dish. On the 25th of December we eat noodle-soup... Each and every year. I don't know what started the Noodle-Soup Tradition or even when exactly it started, but I suppose it might be because cooking for fifteen people is obviously a bit of a hassle... I'm not sure though, you'd have to ask my grandparents for the exact reason why noodle-soup of all things has become our traditional Christmas dish. Besides the soup there are tons of other things to eat as well - all sorts of snacks, ice cream and, of course, truckloads of homemade Christmas cookies - so after the 25th the whole family usually needs a day or two to just laze around and wait for the food coma to wear off...

Sooooooo, that's everything about my Christmas "rituals" that I can think of right now... If you have any questions, if you'd like to add something, if you agree or disagree with me on something I wrote, feel free to comment and I'll gladly reply!

I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas had a nice one! Enjoy the rest of your holidays! :)

WELCOME!

Hello, people of the internet and welcome to my blog! :) My experience with blogging is rather limited - I've never really had a blog before, at least not one that I actually, actively used - and I'm still trying to figure out how to work everything on here, so please bear with me. I promise I'm going to try my best! ;)

Alright... So this is just going to be a short introductory post to give you a little bit of basic information about myself and to get this whole blogging thing started... My name is Marlene and I am currently studying English and Russian at the department of translation at the University of Graz. I like reading, watching films, and I constantly listen to music, usually with my headphones in, which annoys my parents to no end. I'd like to be able to give you a whole list of exciting free-time activities and sports, that I do regularly, but the truth is, I am just too lazy for my own good, so the odd tennis-session (aka hit-that-yellow-thing-once-or-twice-then-give-up-session) with my - equally as lazy - best friend will have to do.

I've set up this blog for my English class, so some of my posts will be about topics assigned by my teacher, but there will also be plenty of posts about topics I chose myself. I will label those "freepost". I don't really know what I am going to blog about yet, but hopefully I'll be able to come up with a couple of interesting topics...

Yeah... I can't really think of anything else to say right now, so I'm going to wrap this up. I've set myself a goal of posting at least once or twice a week, which I hope I'll be able to keep up and I am going to do my very best to make those posts as interesting and exciting as somehow possible. Wouldn't want to bore anyone now would I? ;P

Well, that's it from me. If there's anything you'd like to tell or ask me, feel free to comment, and I'll see you soon! :)

P.S.: Please excuse my excessive use of smiley faces... Bad habit of mine... I'm usually trying to keep them to a minimum, but sometimes I just can't help myself... ;)