|
Velvet Underground fans--at least that branch of VU fans that started appearing in the '80s; you know what I mean, those ignorant little snotbags from our high school and university days who couldn't make it with the jocks, couldn't make it with the brainiacs, couldn't make it with the punks, metalheads, goths, etc., so they would hang about dressed in black, pretending to be more intelligent than what they were, pretentious as hell--just a little close-minded social club, complete with inside jokes that they thought no one else understood (I always had news for them, and so much more). You could always tell the real Velvet Underground fans, the truly intelligent ones, from these little fakes who used them as a crutch and social emblem because the real ones also liked The Doors, The Pink Floyd, Leonard Cohen, The Stooges, MC5, The Who--you know, all the classic acts who were "too butch and hetero" for the snooty, precious Velvet 'fans'. The only major act from the '80s/early '90s that they dug (or at least pretended to dig) was Morrisey--with or without The Smiths. They could emulate his most annoyingly eccentric and whiney ways quite adeptly, as well. The saddest thing about it is the fact that both The Velvet Underground and The Smiths made some great records, but for me--like a lot of people I meet in my age category--the virtues of the music have been substantially eclipsed by memories of those conceited, close-minded little cliques who based their social status on their identification with the bands in question.
Then there are those awfully annoying AC/DC fans, who seem to have never listened to--or even heard of--anything but those rowdy boys from Down Under. Throw in those gen-X Alice Cooper and Kiss fans who never started listening until they were in their mid to late teens in the mid '80s (about 5 to 7 years after the rest of us had stopped paying attention), and you have what's pretty much my pettest of peeves when it comes to rock fans.
"It's not the bands I hate / It's the fans..."
--'Coax Me' (from the Smeared album), Sloan, 1994
|