“My music taste isn’t cool or obscure enough 😭”

Kosuke Ajiro, “Hellll", 2019

TL;DR: who cares.

You might be familiar with the idea that once a metric is used for evaluation, it loses value as a metric. Something I’ve noticed within the digital generation is that we tend to use analogues to approximately determine the “coolness” of things. When trying to determine the “coolness” of our music taste, we can use its relative obscurity. Listening to an artist with many monthly listeners on Spotify is inherently less cool than listening to an artist with few monthly listeners. While it’s true that being able to find obscure music probably indicates that you listen to a lot of music, it doesn’t necessarily determine the “goodness” of your taste. Putting time into a hobby can be admirable but we should be careful about where we get our sense of superiority over other people.

We may have a perverted view of what listening to and sharing music should be. We really need to evaluate why we would ever worry about how good of a music listener we are. It is probably not healthy to spend cognitive energy worrying about how you are perceived by others! That is not to say that I am free from this. I do this too!!! My whole life is basically a case study on the ruinous effects of shame. What I have been trying to teach myself, though, is that there are actually benefits of enjoying yourself and potentially looking like an idiot. The end goal is to discover that there is nothing separating smart music from dumb music. Good music from bad music. It’s just music. We only have so many hours on this earth. Something as basic as the sounds that we personally derive pleasure from should not be the source of anxiety. Why must you feel shame for something that is not within your control? God forbid you enjoy your precious time on Earth without worrying about appeasing or impressing other people. The hope is that with enough time, you will find people who are non-judgmental. That’s the greatest feeling in the world. Living your life without judgment. Do not dilute your enjoyment of things by feeling obligated to perform for others.

Please alert someone if I have made any sense at all...