I thought that I had a wide ranging knowledge in obscure bands, which gives people, and me a rush because you feel somewhat elite if you know stuff that isn't particularly popular. Like, it gives me power when I'm like "do you know Ryan Adams" and someone is like "no." I just think, well I do and I'm in a cool elite group that likes semi-obscure stuff.
But I helped close the store down last night-late last night, around 1:30 and all along we were listening to Rob's musical repertoire. Most of the music that was played sounded passable or good. But it made me feel inferior. His musical library did not include all of the popular artists mine does and I realized that I had been outdone in the indie-obscure band area.
I came off as closed minded because his music spanned such a breadth and width that mine doesn't. I count myself as being pretty open minded in life but I also realized that I am pretty close minded about music and I didn't like that.
So I am going to say two things to myself. 1) Just because someone can out-obscure me in the music department does not mean that I have bad taste. In fact, I am the first to say, that for the most part, when I hear a pop song that I like it doesn't mean my taste has no value, it just means that everyone else recognizes a good song and gets it. 2) This experience has reminded me that I need to be open to new things and I need to stop pre-judging. Judgment, contrary to popular belief is a good thing, just not when it interferes in being open to something new. The key here is to judge after hearing or experiencing whatever it is in life, not pre-judging. Pre-judging does not allow one to hear something with a blank canvas of thought.
I'll try to keep these lessons close to my heart. Once again music has touched my life and taught me some valuable lessons and something about myself.
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