> > This is in line with a concept I've been thinking a
> > lot lately, that
> > musical tastes are very much formed early on, based
> > on exposure, but
> > that as those tastes mature and evolve, they
> > simultaneously both broaden
> > and narrow (at least for the avid music-listener).
>

I am increasingly of the mind that most of us of who grew up in the 1980s
listening to indie or college radio rock eventually
found our way round to every band in that era/movement. That is, you could
listen to both 10,000 Maniacs and Husker Du, and there wouldn't
be anything mutually exclusive about that. There was plenty of room in
record collection for both Dinosaur Jr. and REM. I think, in those days, it
was all of a piece. I think it was just the nature of the time; there were
so few bands (until the majors got wind of them) making the kind of music
that we (collectively) were into, that there was plenty of
cross-pollinization.

While the Internet hs been a blessing in that it's connected me with
like-minded fans (instead of feeling like a lone outcast in the days of my
youth), I think it also serves to hyper-compartmentalize individual
interests, and it has made, to a degree, that kind of cross-pollinization
more difficult.

And I don't think it necessarily follows that, as you age, your tastes
calcify. If anything, I find myself more curious about different forms of
music outside of the admittedly limited diet of guitar rock I grew up on. I
started exploring trance/electronica this summer, and have some affection
for some rap. While I'd rather chew aluminum foil and cut my hair with a
cheese grater than listen to nu metal or teen-pop, I understand its place in
the cosmos, and I don't begrudge it that space.

Do I wish that some of the artists that Auditeers collectively love could
find their way to a broader audience? Certainly. But Good Lord, I wouldn't
want to impose my orthodoxy on the larger world anymore than I'd want them
to impose it upon me. So, I guess I'm saying that The Shazam and Evanessence
(or however they spell it) can exist in the same universe without
apocalyptic implications.

John
(feeling a bit scholarly on a rainy Friday morn)