When I'd tell people I like country music they'd get this look on their faces. People were kind of ashamed of country.
The biggest myth I'd like to bust isn't about me - it's about musicals. So many people dismiss the entire art form through highbrow snobbery, but I think a lot of those people would be suprised if they actually saw some.
People who like progressive music tend to sneer at the idea of a kind of punk aesthetic, and people who like alternative indie rock or punk rock tend to sneer at what they see as the pretentiousness and pomposity of progressive music.
People speak with enormous pomposity and arrogance about music.
There is a lot of snobbery towards pop music, to me and pop in general - it's kind of a despised art form.
Many elitists hate rap as much as they hate country, though they don't like to admit it for fear of appearing racially insensitive.
I've never felt opera was a party I've been invited to, and maybe I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder about it.
It is my belief that there is a tendency among the so-called 'modern' or 'hip' jazz musicians to consider styles other that their own, 'corny', and it is my contention that in actuality it is these musicians who are producing that which in future years perceptive critics will deem 'corny'.
When I was a kid, it was so important to listen only to bands nobody had ever heard of. I missed out on so much interesting music because of my need to listen to a psychobilly band that only two people knew about... Because I thought I was cool.
Those are terrible people who don't like Glenn Gould... I will have nothing to do with such people, they are dangerous people.
I despise people who revel in the ignorance of not being able to play their instrument.
To me, being a classical snob in the highest possible way and being an indie snob is just as bad!
People do look at it as an insult that I say I don't listen to country music, which cracks me up.
When you're a little kid, you just like music that makes you happy and is fun. As you get older, you reach college or your 20s and you decide that music should be challenging and all art should be smart. So you start to think it makes you like high art more to put down things you consider low art. I don't even think things are low art.
I love opera. I love jazz, especially Mingus. This makes me sound highbrow. I'm not.
Dire Straits is a great band. Someone tells you they like 'Brothers in Arms' and immediately you know they're a stupid annoying git.
I resent the implication that I'm less of a musician and a worse person for not appreciating certain works.
Country and western is ignored by the intellectuals. They don't look at it as an art form. They think it's just somebody sitting on his couch singing about his life.
How could a New Yorker possibly take something called the Hollywood String Quartet seriously?
I used to be a jazz snob, believe it or not. I sort of turned my nose up at anything more commercial.
I recognize that as a musician there is a certain chauvinism attached to it, which is the thing of, "I spent my time learning how to play. You didn't spend time learning how to play, therefore, you are not a musician."
I feel like certain people think that certain styles of music will taint their jazz style.
