Death of the music snob/ Long live the music snob

"Obscure knowledge was once a kind of currency. To get it, you had to be in the loop. You had to know the right people to learn about the right bands. You had to know the right record stores to hear those bands. The right record stores, like the right comic and book and video stores, were manned by knowledge guardians who scared the bejeezus out of us, so the act of going in to these stores felt kind of intrepid." -- Alexandra Molotkow 

I'm probably quite a bit older than Molotkow, but I think my own generation has a lot to answer for. I grew up in the High Fidelity school of music fandom where obscurity was a mark of importance. Knowledge of unheard, unheralded bands was worn like a badge of honor among music fans -- "real" music fans -- which in hindsight is ridiculous -- who gets to determine who is a proper music fan? I think the primary focus here is that the underground doesn't really exist these days. It can't. There are too many avenues for artists to get their music out there, to reach an audience -- and this is a good thing. Growing up in the 80s or 90s, there were very few options for those of us without a good record store, or a community of college radios station. You were pretty much at the mercy of the radio or MTV, whose playlists were limited. The underground had to happen, but to paint that world with wide, rosy brushstrokes is unfair: it was insular, exclusive and a lot of great stuff still went unheard, particularly if it didn't fit a certain template. "Indie" right now is sort of a meaningless term (kind of like authenticity), but at least bands now have an easier time finding an audience and maybe more artistic control to boot.

I think Molotkow makes a few valid points, but I think she's been unduly criticized. Reading the comments on the original post, it's easy to come to the conclusion that almost any music story with a female byline brings with it harsh judgement. I'm not saying that by simply being a woman daring to write about music, one should be immune to criticism, but music snobbery -- and its deconstruction -- has long been the domain of guys. So progress, sort of?