Msn “What I’m Listening To” = Wank

I hate the “What I’m Listening To” feature on Msn Messenger. And whats more I hate myself all the more when I use it. Instead of simply listening to music that I want to I have to cater for my target audience. Who is online on msn? What do I want to be seen to be listening to in front of these people?

This is shallow I know but I see it all the time with people on my list. There are 2 different groups of people. You have those who will deliberately listen to all of the most obscure music they can find so that they can appear to be all mysterious and cool.

These are the same type of people who will continually complain about bands selling out. Whining nonstop about how mainstream music is shit and such.

I was once like this. I listened to obscure music because I felt very mediocre in comparison to other fans of the band. I was not as intelligent as a lot of the bands fanbase or as goodlooking so I decided to start listening to obscure bands so that I had something of my own. I wanted something to show for my mediocrity. I wanted to say to the public “Look I listen to these bands, you’ve never heard of them so therefore I rock and you do not.”

The other group of people are those who have recognised this fact and start listening to everything and anything they can listen to. On one side you have people who actually listen to the music for the music rather than the image that listening to that artist or genre conveys.

On the other side you have those who want to appear open minded. Often their friends will be heartless devotees to one band. Usually Nirvana or some other piss-poor Grunge act. Anyway yeah these people will listen to as much as they can just so they can say “I have a wideranging taste in music. I am so fucking open minded! Get out of my way you closed minded fool”.

Along with Last.fm I think the “What I’m Listening To” feature brings out all that is shit about music today. It just tends to take a lot away from the sanctity of sound. “I’ve listened to My Festering Cunt’s Gobshite 15454 times this week! If I just listen to it another 454545454 times I will be My Festering Cunt’s biggest fan!”

Ultimately, it feeds into the hands of those who are completely insecure about themselves and therefore have to somehow project an image to attract others who might be similiar to them. All of this tends to raise the non-existent genre barriers that bit further making music more about security than anything else. Which isn’t in its nature. Music is by its nature ambigious.

Or at least it should be.