Don't you hate those people who have to know absolutely everything about music?

They know every ambiguous band that you've never heard of, and every obscure fact associated with those bands. And if you don't know or enjoy their "chosen" music, you're ignorant and misinformed-- just another nameless, taste-free facet of the uncultured collective.

I'm speaking of course of music elitists. There are elitists for just about every nuance of life, but I find music elitists particularly discouraging and overwhelmingly obnoxious.

There is plenty of music that I don't like, but I have never felt the need to impose my opinion on someone with a contrasting taste in music. I simply don't see any need in pointing out the "error" in a person's taste in music. People can enjoy and love music for countless different reasons.

Perhaps the ability to dance to a song makes the song great. Or maybe its intricacies in the melody, or rhythmic deviation that really enthralls someone.

Music is the universal communicator; it has the remarkable ability to traverse cultural boundaries by expressing certain human universals.

And while music has the ability to reach different cultures. We must not forget that music is one of the most crucial components of a culture.

A person is likely to relate more to music that expresses the cultural values or motifs that they associate with their identity.

But usually the same universal concepts (the concepts of love, sex, death, etc.) are being expressed; only they are being filtered through different cultural contexts. When someone critiques different kinds of music other than what they personally enjoy, they critique a culture by comparison.

If the certain factors that they enjoy in music are not present, then the music is bad. It seems that elitists fail to recognize that different cultures and environments are often associated with different kinds of music.

And while certain elitists bash on music on the basis that it doesn't correlate with the finely tuned identity that they've made for themselves, other elitists bash on the specifics of style.

For example, a certain elitist could say that music that focuses on virtuosity is terrible, that there is no depth or thought; fast solos are only a senseless barrage of notes.

Another elitist could say that punk music is primitive because it mainly consists of the most basic chords and simple progressions.

The fact is there's no way to say that any argument like this is correct.

One can't even look towards the classical conventions of music to find some sort of definitive answer because conventions evolve.

For example, classical music theory is opposed to parallel fifths and eighths and direct fifths and eighths.

However, all contemporary music is chock full of all of those things. Music is constantly evolving, and constantly breaking its own rules.

I'm not saying that it's wrong to dislike different music.

But it is wrong to shove your own opinion down someone else's throat, and ruthlessly pick apart other types of music.

Music is meant to be loved and enjoyed, it's a wonderful outlet from the hardships of life.

So elitists stop making people feel bad for their particular outlets.

Start asking yourselves if it really makes any difference what kind of music other people like.