I've never 'got'

Originally Posted by Eightball
I can pretty much sum up people using two tests - if they say 'The Smiths.......why would you want to listen to that miserable crap' they are a tool

Hehe! My best mate falls into this category... or fell. It used to drive me nuts. I love the smiths but came to them late. Took me years to convince him to get on board.

He's always been into hip hop, funk, soul, rock, pop etc but his main thing is he loves big bouncy beats and "groove" so perhaps the smiths were never going to appeal to his (perhaps slightly muso) tastes but still, his hatred was for years, beyond all reason. He cited the traditional twin complaints of hating the voice and the perception of relentless melancholy, but i think there was more to it than that. He (in a mirror of eightball's statement) believed he hated anyone who professed to like the smiths.

I think it came from his bitterness at feeling excluded and patronised by self appointed "cooler" kids at school. I think, subconsciously, his thought process was something along these lines:

• kid x at school was my friend and used to have similar taste in music to me until one day he rather suddenly started cultivating a different taste in music, fashion and friends. kid x had become a big smiths fan.

• kid x at school now thought he was cooler than me. he looked down at me and patronised me.

• i have decided therefore to hate the smiths

• i have also decided that anyone who likes the smiths will consider themself cooler than me and will patronise me.

• i have decided therefore that i will hate anyone who likes the smiths.

i argued with him about this for years, pleading tolerance and reason but it really was deep seated. He's mellowed with age and fatherhood and I finally got him to admit recently that he'd been listening to them. He finally had to begrudgingly admit that he now realised what it was people saw in them.