I think that OP is right, that labeling someone as an elitist would be difficult. It would almost be like trying to label someone normal, or abnormal. It's an opinion, which is all it comes down to. I think that's all that the concept of Innocence, Arrogance and Elitism is.
The internet is a resource that is more or less useful for finding music. I think most people can agree on that. In the end it does come down to if you really want to use it. To me, the notion of how information was obtained in the past as opposed to today is completely arbitrary. The reason to use it remains the same as it was for people who were 'in the know' back then; which is people who like metal are going to get into it one way or another. Metal continues to be pretty much a cult following and in a way, looking stuff up on the internet does make you 'in the know' in a way. It's got to be one of the largest unknown followings in the world.
I was born in 1994. I was too fucking young to know what a toilet was, let alone Mayhem or Judas Priest. So really the only difference is probably that I've never been to a concert, and you listen to most of your music on record; if you reading this happen to be one of the "elderly man in a wheel chair with a breathing tube wearing diapers and crapping myself." Sure, it's got to make a difference about how you think about the music, going to shows and being around for tape trading and stuff as opposed to me, who finds 99.99 percent of what I listen to on the internet. Who's to say who's experience is the better experience? I kind of want to know what it's like to be to a show or something like that. However. if you happen to think you're better than me for your experience, then that would make you an arrogant elitist.
I don't really see what innocence has to do with anything. Innocence, as in doing nothing wrong or not?
I kind of had to force myself to read that OP, admittedly. It's been about a week since I decided I wanted to take on actually hammering out a post in this thread! Hope I don't upset someone, sorry if I did. I don't think I did though. Pertaining directly to the OP, the part about acceptance of the metalhead who saves his lunch money for patches is a good message. If there was on thing I could take out of that OP positively... I don't buy patches (besides my two gorement and Death patches for my school backpack) I've saved up money for buying music, for no other reason than I like it!
Another thing, pertaining to the OP, I agree that the internet could very well overshadow real talent. It's exhausting to look through blogs and sample the seemingly endless selection of random black metal bands, just wading through forgettable stuff, keeping attention up just enough before maybe something that's deemed good enough to be saved in my favorite videos on youtube, likely to be forgotten afterwards.
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Zodijackyl wrote:
A lot of people don't even listen to albums, they put iPods on shuffle and rarely listen to anything long enough to really get involved with it, to feel it, to get the full impact of an album. This is an evolution of the convenience and detachment of listening to radio, buying singles, and having the primary form be the song, not the album. There is a reward to listening to songs, but I found over the years that I could find more enjoyment when a band crafted a longer album as a whole, rather than a collection of smaller pieces. Those who listen to full albums and get involved probably feel that they are becoming much more intimate with the music than those who don't give the whole piece that time and dedication. Certainly sounds elitist to say it, but I think I'm getting more out of the music than people who are like I was 5-10 years ago.
I always listen to the entire album and I listen to a lot of music on my iPod all the time.