I enjoyed this article at the AV Club about the writers' favorite songs. I have to say, though, that if you asked me to write a parody of what an Insufferable Music Snobtm would write on the subject, it would be about his love for some song by The Wedding Present, but not one that they ever actually released on an album.
But I'll give him a pass, not only because that song is awesome, but because writing for the AV Club (or Pitchfork, or whatever) means you get to reach out and grab your hipsterdom with both hands.
I was glad to see that not all the posts were about such obscurities. One poster raves about Tom Petty's "American Girl", and another heartily defends .38 Special. Yet another names "Birdhouse in Your Soul", which would be on my short list for reasons similar to hers.
A lot of people think music hipster-types live to out-obscure one another, and immediately trash anything someone else might have heard. It just isn't true. It probably is true for most of us, at least for a little while, but the ones who really love music get over it quick, and the ones who don't were just posers to start with. Great music is great music.
I had to snicker when one writer mentioned her "50-gigs-of-music-hoarding fellow critics". 50 gigs? Really? Get with the program, AV Club writers. I'm up to about 200GB.
Oh, and since you're wondering: "Thunder Road", by Bruce Springsteen. It's one of those songs that historians will use 1000 years from now to reconstruct what it was like to grow up in working class Jersey in the late 20th century. I have about a dozen versions of it on my hard drive, and each one is perfect in a completely different way. And even though I've heard the song probably 1000 times, "what else can we do now, except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair" gives me chills every single time.
But I'll give him a pass, not only because that song is awesome, but because writing for the AV Club (or Pitchfork, or whatever) means you get to reach out and grab your hipsterdom with both hands.
I was glad to see that not all the posts were about such obscurities. One poster raves about Tom Petty's "American Girl", and another heartily defends .38 Special. Yet another names "Birdhouse in Your Soul", which would be on my short list for reasons similar to hers.
A lot of people think music hipster-types live to out-obscure one another, and immediately trash anything someone else might have heard. It just isn't true. It probably is true for most of us, at least for a little while, but the ones who really love music get over it quick, and the ones who don't were just posers to start with. Great music is great music.
I had to snicker when one writer mentioned her "50-gigs-of-music-hoarding fellow critics". 50 gigs? Really? Get with the program, AV Club writers. I'm up to about 200GB.
Oh, and since you're wondering: "Thunder Road", by Bruce Springsteen. It's one of those songs that historians will use 1000 years from now to reconstruct what it was like to grow up in working class Jersey in the late 20th century. I have about a dozen versions of it on my hard drive, and each one is perfect in a completely different way. And even though I've heard the song probably 1000 times, "what else can we do now, except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair" gives me chills every single time.
