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Notes"Sure, the hunger can be rigorously closed-minded. There are afternoons where all I want to hear is the implacable beat of extremely straightforward techno, and the thought of any other music seems pitiful in comparison. There are also afternoons when I want techno to keep the hell away from me while I listen to someone warble quietly along with a harp. Maybe I’m just way too malleable, but none of these impulses seem to have anything grand or overarching to say about the world. It’s just that when I’m really enjoying a rock band, I tend to feel like every other kind of music is nice but basically secondary; and when I’m really enjoying a rapper, rock suddenly seems comical and self-serious; and when I’m going through another period of trying to understand more jazz, 90 percent of my record collection seems as if it were made for children. Maybe you’re the same way? It’s closed-minded, but in turns, which I like to think eventually adds up to being open-minded. And it’s that brief purist impulse— the sense of an itch that only one thing can scratch— that lets you enjoy the music."from Nitsuh Abebe’s terrific Why We Fight column on “rockism”
To answer his question, I’m the same way.
An example: I didn’t see the Grammys, but I watched Springsteen’s opening performance online. “We Take Care of Our Own” isn’t even close to one of his best songs, but the way he played it triggered some deep seated “purist impulses” of mine. In the moment, I couldn’t conceive of a single contemporary artist, rock or otherwise, with a similar power to move an audience, to thrill through sheer exuberance.
Like most self-aware music listeners, though, I’ve developed mechanisms to limit those impulses to the moment. I can’t remember what I listened to after watching Springsteen, but I’m positive I didn’t compare it to him favorably or unfavorably. He’d satisfied that particular urge—one that would be ridiculous to deny or feel guilty about—but I could also move on without judging the next thing through a Springsteen-informed (or “rockist,” in general) lens.
