The value of obscurity
Over on another blog, the subject of music came up. The question: If you like music that's not exactly popular, does that make you an elitist?

Ever since I got over my heavy-metal phase in the mid-1980s (I saw Bon Jovi three times, and all three times they were the opening act), I haven't exactly based my musical tastes on the Top 40 radio. Oddly, a few acts I followed closely before they were popular -- the Black Crowes and Pat Green come to mind -- ended up being "mainstream" acts.

So while I can't tell Alicia Keys from Britney Spears from Creed from Matchbox 20, I can tell you about Maria McKee and Allison Moorer and Terri Hendrix and Jack Ingram and Nickel Creek. Does that mean my musical tastes are more sophisticated than yours? Absolutely not. It just means that I have a pretty good tolerance for listening to stuff that might not be on the radio or on Everybody's CD player.

And it's not to say that I'm not wild about a few "mainstream" acts. For instance, I am a huge, huge, huge fan of the Dixie Chicks. I'd pay $20 to hear Natalie Maines sing in the shower. (I said, "Hear," you pig.) Their incredible talent overcomes their popularity. (Did that sentence make any sense?) I also dig Alan Jackson and Lynyrd Skynyrd (the pre-1977 version). My secret shame: I still listen to Boston, which went out of style in 1979.

A close friend has the most varied musical taste that any human could possibly have. At one point, he had albums by Hank Williams Jr., Quiet Riot and ... Tiffany. Remember her? I heard on the radio that she's in this month's Playboy. Memo to LeAnn Rimes: Don't let this happen to your career.

I don't get to go hear as much live music as I used to, which means I don't get exposed to as much good "obscure" stuff as I used to. Thankfully, I live in a big enough city in the right part of the country; I get a good alt-country station. My ultimate test of a radio station is this: If it plays as many songs I can't stand as it plays songs I really like, that's a good station. They're stretching the boundaries.

And when they play a song I don't like, I head right over to the classic rock station. Maybe they'll be playing a Boston song.