Friday, November 04, 2005

I Hate You

"Oh, I listen to everything!"

If there is a phrase that drives me right up the wall at social functions, it's this one. I find small talk irritating and pointless enough as it is, considering that all it really is is empty waffle; airspace filler until someone thinks of something that's actually interesting to say, or gets bored and wanders off for another drink, both parties immediately forgetting everything that was just said.

You see, what this phrase really means, is "I don't have an opinion!" It is also entirely possible to extend this meaning to "I am an incredibly boring person." What it almost certainly does not mean is that they actually listen to "everything," a fact that can be easily exposed by simply questioning this vapid loser. "Oh, so you don't listen to jazz fusion? Or Erik Satie? Well what do you listen to then?"

What it very probably does mean is the person listens only to radio and chart singles. They allow the flavour of the week to be shoved down their gullet, relying on someone else's opinion of what constitutes "good music," safe in the knowledge that they will never have to make their own decision. They probably own several "NOW!" CDs.

This is deeply tiresome. You're attempting to find something out about someone, and possibly make a connection, and here they are telling you that they are essentially a blank sheet on which other people can write their own opinions. You could go down the road of talking about your own tastes in an attempt to stir some mental activity in your companion, but generally they don't know, don't care, or they like "that one song." Not good enough. There's nothing to talk about there, and you're back to square one.

What's especially irritating is that somewhere deep down, this person probably does have an opinion. They probably have an few albums at home that they like, perhaps a musician that they like more than the others that they listen to. You could go down the road of attempting to extract this, but when someone claims to listen to "everything," that's not exactly an easy task, and well beyond the limits of my patience.

Of course, when people say "I have pretty eclectic taste," that's not so bad, as long as they've got a something to back it up, for example, "I'm a big fan of Indie, but I also enjoy Reggae." You've got somewhere to go from there, because they've indicated a preference. When you don't do that, the message that you're sending out is that you're incapable of forming one. That makes you a very boring person.

Form your own opinions, scum. Then people might actually be able to have a meaningful conversation with you.

As long as that opinion isn't "I like rap." Because then I won't want to talk to you anyway.

3 Comments:

At 8:29 pm, Blogger Thaddeus "B." Glands said...

I'm not saying that I hate all rap because of the stereotypical rap "lifestyle". The musical style just really does absolutely nothing for me. There may be one or two artists (not any of those you listed unfortunately) that I like, but I don't think I've found them, and I don't really want to go looking for it.

I'm not generalising the people behind the music. I just don't like the music.

 
At 12:02 am, Blogger Thaddeus "B." Glands said...

That's my point.

I may be rather drunk, BUT. My opinion of rap is nothing to do with this lifestyle that you are talking about. I don't debate that you find the rhythmic/musical structures and genuine lyrical content interesting. I don't debate that many people do. My point is that I don't.

I'm sure I've missed the point of your last post somewhere and I'd love to clear up this issue between us, so I'd love to discuss it further if we still don't understand each other's viewpoints.

Nevertheless, the rap thing was certainly not the object of my post. I just included it as a humourous postscript.

 
At 9:07 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awwww

 

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