Gar, I'm not viewing this solely through my own perspective. You on the otherhand have just latched onto a narrative that you like and facts be damned.

I raised that I'd never heard of most of these bands as evidence that their fans are not those that have given up and need to be force feed. Popular culture is not as ubitiquitous as it was 10-15 years ago. There are only a small handful of new'ish acts from the last 5-10 years that you'd have to live under a rock to not know (lady gaga, amy winehouse, white stripes, strokes, and maybe some of the American Idol acts are the first that come to mind for me). Fritz and the Tantrums and all the others are easily enough avoided. The people who became fans had to have their ears open or be out searching in some fashion to find them.

I know plenty of people who have given up. They aren't listening to anything new at all. They are either listening to the same thing they listened to 10-15 (maybe even 25) years ago or they've given up on music entirely and listen to talk radio/sports radio/audible books. And for whatever its worth, I think Mumford & Sons and Ray LaMontague are significantly better than the average band/artist that gets mention on obner.

As far as the Food trucks go, you have basically admitted that you know very little about them. I'm white and have been eating food from taco trucks for about 15 years. They have never in LA been just mexicans cooking for mexicans. What changed was not their customer base but cooks of other cuisines realizing that the food truck business model could work for them too. As I mentioned above, it was really the battle between restaurants and food trucks that woke a lot of people up to realize that their fixed costs were extremely low and that they must be doing well if the restaurants viewed them as such a threat. As much as some people here want to view hipsters as the tastemakers who made the trucks popular that's just not the case in LA. The earliest and most vocal advocates for the food trucks were the hardcore foodies - the folks who would would drive 30-45 minutes to a bad neighborhood to eat at some dirty strip mall restaurant with a C rating from the city inspectors because it had an excellent reputation for some hard to find exotic foreign dish. These are the folks who post on chowhound ten times a day where they rank restaurants' ramen noodle dish like we rank albums. They haven't fit in skinny jeans in years (if they ever would have) and don't know or have any interest in the cold war kids or even likely mumford and sons. It spread from there because the food was good and cheap, and people like good and cheap food. You are overcomplicating it.

this is probably getting a little off-topic, but that's always fascinated me with music typically being the first/only popular culture element that people give up on. i think we all have friends who were way into music once. now they're older, maybe have families and are in a musical vacuum if they even listen to music anymore. however, they still keep up with movies, read a lot of books (probably even more) and keep other interests like scooters or sports. is it just because music is such a rabbit hole that you're either way into it or not into it at all?

I don't know, I think what people "give up on" depends a lot on their lifestyle.

I'd sort of given up on books for the past few years because I'd started so many of them that I never finished. And I've still got a bunch that I bought years ago that I haven't read. The main thing is just finding that kind of solitary time to be left alone to read. But I'm starting to realize that I just have to be more proactive about it because it's something I really miss.

I've also given up on watching sports and most TV in general. For the most part I don't miss those at all.

Maybe partly. It's also that music isn't as disposable as other forms of entertainment. With some exceptions, you see a movie once and read a book once so you need to keep finding new books and new movies. When your time for listening drops significantly, you can more easily just decide that you have enough music to keep you happy.

It is. (Your English is a lot better than it used to be)

thanks!

fify

food trucks were pretty hip during the depression, so sadly they are hip again.

Yep, it's called XM and still having a subscription to RS and/or Spin.


quote="billyg"]As far as the Food trucks go, you have basically admitted that you know very little about them. I'm white and have been eating food from taco trucks for about 15 years. They have never in LA been just mexicans cooking for mexicans. What changed was not their customer base but cooks of other cuisines realizing that the food truck business model could work for them too. As I mentioned above, it was really the battle between restaurants and food trucks that woke a lot of people up to realize that their fixed costs were extremely low and that they must be doing well if the restaurants viewed them as such a threat. As much as some people here want to view hipsters as the tastemakers who made the trucks popular that's just not the case in LA. The earliest and most vocal advocates for the food trucks were the hardcore foodies - the folks who would would drive 30-45 minutes to a bad neighborhood to eat at some dirty strip mall restaurant with a C rating from the city inspectors because it had an excellent reputation for some hard to find exotic foreign dish. These are the folks who post on chowhound ten times a day where they rank restaurants' ramen noodle dish like we rank albums. They haven't fit in skinny jeans in years (if they ever would have) and don't know or have any interest in the cold war kids or even likely mumford and sons. It spread from there because the food was good and cheap, and people like good and cheap food. You are overcomplicating it.[/quote]

So, they were never ethnic food for ethnic sake, but people would travel to the neighborhoods to sample the authentic food they purvey, AND chefs from other cuisines realized it was an easy/low overhead way to get people interested in something say, "more real" than what they usually eat?

And, in America, "people" do not like good cheap food. As a matter of fact most of them like shitty cheap food, and even the "silent majority" that can afford middle of the road food do just that. There's a reason that an Applebee's/Chili's/Bahama Breeze/$9.99 Toilet Bowl complex is every 43 feet in this country. A majority of people like things easy, don't like to make decisions, etc.

And then when you tell them they're simpletons, they get mad and prove it to you.

I think movies and books are a lot more accessible. First, you have trailers running on tv which, automatically gives you an idea of whats out there. But, secondly its a 2-hour investment and its usually enjoyed in coordination with something else (dinner, date). Second, the stuff you've mentioned kinda can be compartmentalized into a busy lifestyle. Sports, movies, books--they all can be swallowed up into a schedule. Music, on the other hand, usually is an investment. Like Billy said, its easily jettisoned its not as disposable. Third, to a lot of people its just plan hard to get music now. They aren't comfortable with the whole technology thing and its frightening to them. Case in point--there is someone at work, close in age who had no idea how itunes/downloads worked. Had no idea there were alternatives out there for downloading (amazon), nor did she realize you could download to your hd and then move to itunes.

Also, as an aside--I feel like I'm pretty up on stuff and I have no idea who Fritz and the Tantrums are.

The two hour investment in a movie is roughly 1 billion times harder for me to make than keeping up with music. Priorities I guess.

Stimmt.

Completely, but I think yr atypical. I think more people will invest 90 mins in an Adam Sandler romcom on Netflix Instant than reading whats new in music. Which, completely deserves a

Yeah, I think this is pretty much the world of being a parent + having a job where you can browse the internet freely and listen to music while you work.

This is true for me as well. I do love a good movie or even decent entertaining one, but risking the time to find turns me off. We hardly ever go to movies let alone see one at home with any regularity.








(unless its porn of course)

We sometimes sneak in a movie theater experience during a weekday afternoon when the stars align (I can be in town, get off work, and the nanny has our daughter), and we're both like visibly angry when we finally get to see a film and it sucks.

actually going to movies is impossible, but with netflix and streaming,etc., i can usually see what I want at home and keep up on shit. probably haven't actually been to the theater more than 2 or 3 times since our son was born, though. keeping up on music is a little easier because i can listen to thinks like pandora or spotify at work. plus obner gives good suggestions from time to time.

god, this is so fucking true and depressing.

I don't know, I think Gar's just been in Montgomery too long.

I actually think the Gom has better options that most cities it's size that are land locked like it is.

But, to the larger point, I think there is something to the fact people like "shitty cheap food" because they simply have no other choices.

I mean how many cities in this country are under 100,000 in population? Thousands.

What's the biggest social class? The working class? I think there is something to people A) not being able to afford to go to Whole Foods every week and B) not having the healthy options or even any option outside of McDonalds, etc.

I think it can be summed up in this way:

Enlightened minority: look to get something OUT of movies, books, music, food, etc.
so-called Silent Majority: look to BE ENTERTAINED by movies, books, music, food, etc.

Eh, I don't know. I don't think those two things are mutually exclusive nor do I think there's anything "unenlightened" by simply wanting to be entertained.

But I realize it's a generalization.

i certainly want to be entertained by media i consume. maybe russian literature one week and maybe a fucking slasher movie some other time. or horse porn. whatever.

Well, I'll also freely admit that I'm not much of a movie person. And seriously, if not for my wife, I would rarely see them.

I think we can all agree that porn is the only thing we can all agree on.