Fear of the Other, or Why Dave Matthews Really Sucks

My grandmother was fond of referring to rock and roll as "jungle music," a term that I'm sure was pejorative for her, but never sounded that way to me (granted, I had never heard the term "jungle bunny" or other associated racial slurs). To me at age 10, a jungle was probably the coolest place ever, and tribal rhythms were fun and participation-friendly. In fact, to me now, jungles are still awesome.

I think my grandmother's complaint had less to do with the music itself than with who was listening to it. She knew R&B as "race music," a segregated section at the record shop for black folks' music. As the daughter of a prominent architect in Des Moines, my grandmother was probably even less aware of black culture than I was growing up in Harrison, Arkansas. So the scary thing for her generation was that white kids were listening to race music and liking it. She merely feared what she did not understand.

I would wager that those who openly hate on a particular artist or genre are, like my grandmother, simply afraid of the people who listen to that music.

It's easy for us as a culture to forget how passionately people hated rock and roll at its birth. No genre has been as abusively maligned - not even rap music. The haters are more small-scale now. Folks hate on country-pop, jam bands, metal...even specific folks like John Mayer and Dave Matthews.

You don't hate Dave Matthews. You hate the frat guys who listen to Dave Matthews[1]. You might try to hate Dave Matthews for making music that appeals to frat guys, but an artist's audience is not his fault. It's not like his band sets out to make bland, retreaded rock specifically for insipid people (that's Nickelback's job). By any measure, the Dave Matthews Band is a thoroughly unique, cross-culturally pollinated band of really tight musicians. They also make music that's safe enough for frat guys to dance to without seeming gay. What's to hate?

You don't hate John Mayer. He's a decent guy who plays guitar better than most people in the pop pantheon, and seems to be actively trying (key word) to write good pop songs and to try different things. Sure "Your Body is a Wonderland" is cloying, but is it any more saccharine than "I Want to Hold Your Hand"? You may find him bland and uninteresting, because most of the time he is, but that's no reason to dis a guy. If boring is a crime, then a lot of people are going to jail. No, the vast majority of the hate comes from the fact that he makes money and gets chicks and you don't. And/or you hate the girls who adore him. Oh how you hate them. It's not his fault he's handsome and reasonably talented.

The same goes for the genres. Country-pop? You hate people who wear boots and hats, dip Skoal, watch NASCAR and go line dancing. Metal? You hate nerdy kids grasping for some kind of power in their otherwise sad lives. Gangsta rap? You hate an underclass who are so poor that pretending to be rich and badass is their primary form of entertainment. There's nothing intrinsic in the music that you dislike; it's just the people you don't understand.


1.) I'm making broad generalizations here, of course. No offense to frat guys, but if you want us to stop making broad generalizations about you, you need to stop enforcing conformity in your ranks.