Can you pinpoint the moment when you fell completely

[Duke Silver]

out of touch with the mainstream musical world? Or felt it pass you by? (Assuming you ever did...or were ever in touch with the mainstream to begin with!)

For me it was 2002, when Justin Timberlake emerged unscathed from N*Sync to be anointed as this generation defining, critic's darling pop star on the level of Michael Jackson. (This was also around the same time that Pitchfork went all in on pop and hip-hop coverage, which also threw me.)

The boy band/Britney era happened while I was in high school, and up to that point I felt like although my tastes went a lot further and deeper than my friends', we were generally in the same ballpark. (i.e., everyone knew what the new Foo Fighters single was, but I was the guy who could tell you that the bass player and drummer used to be in this great band called Sunny Day Real Estate, who pioneered emo, etc.)

In college when Timberlake launched his incredibly successful solo career I distinctly remember feeling like, "Wait a minute! I thought we all agreed that this guy sucked! What's going on??" And I get the same feeling every time I hear Beyonce or Kanye discussed in the same hushed, reverent tones. Like the rest of the world has fallen under this spell, but really it's just me.

What about you?

[tinnitus photography]

probably around the time i started mail ordering records from Ajax and Forced Exposure, around '90 or so.

suddenly an entirely new world unfolded.

[Duke Silver]

Pearl Jam was responsible for my "new world unfolding" experience in high school. I was obsessive about them back then (still am to some degree), and discovered a ton of semi-obscure music via their opening acts, side projects, covers, pirate radio shows, etc. They were also my window into a lot of classic rock stuff (simmer down, KG) like Neil Young, The Who, and the Rolling Stones.

But even at my most obsessive in HS, I still felt like I was more or less in the mainstream. Timberlake being exalted was the first time I felt like a grumpy old man.

[211poundsofpork]

Probably after the early-mid 90's alt. music explosion was dying out and Matchbox 20 started to unfortunately exist.

[211poundsofpork]

totally agree with you, Sir Duke when it comes to Justin Timberlake. Never had an appreciation - I was always just annoyed. However, (I wish I had or knew how to post a youtube clip of it) I do love his SNL appearance where he and somebody else were poking fun at the boy band genre with "Dick in a Box" or something. Thought that was hilarious!

[Kudzu Guillotine]

I was probably only into the purely mainstream stuff as a little kid when I hadn't really taken an interest in music as a passion. In those days, my musical world was pretty much informed by local Top 40 AM radio. Thanks to my older brothers, my sister and our friends, I was exposed early on to the likes of the Grateful Dead, Goose Creek Symphony, John Prine, Commander Cody, Little Feat, Jimmy Buffett (yes, there was time way before "Margaritaville" when he was considered a cult figure), Guy Clark, etc. The first real dropoff would have been in the mid-90's when the local rock stations stopped playing new music altogether. Shortly thereafter is when I went online and started finding other fans of alt.country. I had always been aware of music that was off the beaten path but this opened up entire new worlds, leading to my discovery of artists from nearly every genre that I never would have been aware of otherwise. I have only gone deeper down that wormhole ever since. At this stage of my life, I've probably never been more out of touch with what's popular in the mainstream. Something has to be immensely popular to the point of a Justin Bieber, "Gangnam Style", Outkast, Kanye, Taylor Swift, etc. for me to even be aware of it. Even then, that doesn't necessarily mean I've heard the music, I just know of its existence. Considering the state of current popular music, I'm perfectly ok with that. In fact, most current popular music has never really been to my taste anyway.

[allisonsdc]

I'm not sure when I lost touch with mainstream music, but my 10 year old son is putting me back in touch. We share a Spotify account, and somehow he is able to override what I'm listening to. I'll be in the midst of a great song and it will end abruptly, and Fall Out Boy, Justin Bieber or Fetty Wap will come on. It sucks.

[Clams]

Well, I discovered DBT in Feb 2008, discovered the old 9 Bullets site about a week after that, and the Listening thread a week after that. That would probably be the moment.

[Tequila Cowboy]

I would say about 1993 but I hadn't really paid much mind to pop for a decade before that. I came from a very "hipper than thou" crowd in college that dismissed anything that sold. I owned CD/record stores from 1990-1995 so I was aware of current pop but almost religiously avoided listening to it. By 2002 or so I had become aware that so much music was being made in image of a lot of seminal eighties indie stuff (Replacements, Husker Du, etc.) and dove in head first eventually finding DBT in 2004.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

One aha moment that happened to me was when I was entertaining the idea of catching the Gourds at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, TX during the Austin City Limits Music Festival back in 2003. The Gourds show was also a gathering of fans from the Cucurbitaceae list on Yahoo Groups, which gave it extra added appeal. When I mentioned this to a friend, he said, "hey man, I love the Gourds as much as anybody but you're really going to pass up seeing Steve Winwood on the main stage?" That hit me like a ton of bricks at the time. I did opt for Winwood and thank goodness I did as this performance of "Dear Mr. Fantasy" as the sun set over Austin has to be one of my favorite concert experiences, ever.

[Iowan]

I don't know that there's been a specific moment. I've heard of a lot of the hot pop artists, or come across the music in social situations. I've heard of these people, often don't recognize their songs, but I've been that way since sometime in college.

In high school I tried to keep abreast of it in a "know your enemy" sense, as I was dumb enough to view music as some sort of cultural battleground and that good taste had to "win" over bad taste, or whatever. I paid attention to charts, or sales, or Top 40 rankings just to see if good artists would ever break through.

As the music industry tanked in the early Aughts, I just kind of quit paying attention, as I realized there's a world of music out there that I like and probably always will be.

[Zip City]

I don't feel like I've lost touch with mainstream music, at least in the sense of being aware what's out there.

[Smitty]

Probably when I was about 16. I was already into a lot of local and indie punk/scene bands, but Whiskeytown/DRA pretty much pulled me out of the mainstream altogether.

[blackwll]

10-18-1988 Grateful Dead, NOLA

[LBRod]

I gave up on the mainstream when disco hit.

[dime in the gutter]

1980ish.

older stoner brother, who turned me on to most things 60s/70s rock and roll, went to college and got a job at the university radio station.

he made me tapes.....rem, echo and the bunneymen, replacements, the cult, motorhead, 60s garage rock, smiths, cure.....

guess i was off the grid at that point.

most of that stuff is now universally known and respected. back then it was not. it set me on my path to dash rip rock and rem. which led to uncle tupelo. which led me here.

[Zip City]

Not pointing fingers at anyone here, but I'll say that I don't take it as a badge of honor to be disconnected from mainstream culture. There is a lot of crap to be sure, but there are some gems. Plus, there's nothing impressive about ignorance

[Clams]

Not pointing fingers at anyone here, but I'll say that I don't take it as a badge of honor to be disconnected from mainstream culture. There is a lot of crap to be sure, but there are some gems. Plus, there's nothing impressive about ignorance

Who said anything about being "disconnected from mainstream culture?" We're just talking about what kind of music we're all listening to. And, just because I'm not into mainstream music doesn't mean I'm ignorant about it. Hardly.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Not pointing fingers at anyone here, but I'll say that I don't take it as a badge of honor to be disconnected from mainstream culture. There is a lot of crap to be sure, but there are some gems. Plus, there's nothing impressive about ignorance

What if what is receiving airplay on Top 40 radio simply isn't your taste in music? Looking at the current Top 100 songs on the Billboard chart, there's more artists I'm familiar with than I was expecting but being somewhat accustomed to what type of music tends to chart, why would I like it? I also don't have a television, which also removes me from exposure to mainstream culture to a degree but since I do have the internet, it's not like I live under a rock. As best as I can recollect, a lot of news programming is more akin to Entertainment Tonight than the type of hard news I grew up seeing on television as a kid in the 70's so I don't see where I'm really missing out on anything by lessening my exposure to bullshit.

[Zip City]

I said I wasn't pointing fingers, so you guys don't need to take it so personally.

I didn't say anyone had to like it. Just be aware of it

Reread the thread title

[Cole Younger]

Hard to say when exactly. I know that I identify with what Duke said about the rise of Justin Timberlake from rightly being considered a joke to suddenly being someone you were expected to take seriously.

Around that same time there was a serious shortage of real rock bands. Radio stations were trying to pass off all those Awful "nu metal" bands. I had a collective name for them and referred to them all as PoppaKornBizkits. When rock stations were acting as if I was supposed to think of these bands the same way I thought of all the great rock and roll bands I had grown up with I wanted out. I hung in there and was briefly relieved and excited by the emergence of a bunch of bands that seemed to be at least trying to play real rock and roll. They are now known as the "The Bands". The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Vines, The Hives. They all seemed to come out of nowhere. And while none of them weren't great, although I'm not ashamed of occasionally listening to some of those records to this day (ok the Hives are awful. So what?), they weren't rapping, none of those bands included a dj, and they could at least somewhat play their instruments. But I tired of them pretty quickly. It seemed there were no bands making music worth getting excited about. The irony of course is this coincided with The Truckers' SRO-TDS run. And I was aware of them. But wouldn't truly discover them for a few more years. What could have been...

I don't really remember what country radio was playing then. I just remember hating it.

It was around this time that I started listening to a lot of Widespread Panic, Government Mule, etc. I also listened to A LOT of hip hop during those years.

I do know that by 2004 or so I had just about left mainstream music behind for good and by 2006 I had my first Truckers record. The rest as they say is history...

[beantownbubba]

I have no idea.

When I was in HS, AM radio was still around while I was listening to WNEW-FM, but then again so was everybody else I knew or knew of so I'm not sure what the mainstream was at that point. In college, I was very much of a music snob but was totally aware of the popular stuff, whether it was Boston, Peter Frampton or disco and with stuff like Fleetwood Mac and the Cars there was a lot of overlap between mainstream and cool. When I started my working life it was harder to keep up w/ music but that went for what I liked as much as for what was pop/mainstream so I'd still say that i was sort of current just on a less "global" scale.

My knowledge of rap is spotty but I'm not sure of the ins and outs of the intersections between rap and the mainstream which seem to come and go.

If mainstream means the pop diva or boy band of the moment, well then I'd say I lost track a long time ago - couldn't name or recognize a spice girls, britney spears, n'sync or new kids (I even had to look up their name lol) song. I'm not sure if that's the right definition, though. I couldn't help but be aware of Justin Bieber's first incarnation (but again, I couldn't name or recognize any song) and by the time I heard of Bruno Mars he already had at least a couple of hits that I haven't heard or don't know that I've heard. Certainly by the time singers made their mark on tv competition shows and something that was allegedly country music became popular I wouldn't even turn the radio on. So where does that put me? Do the boy bands go back to the 80's? My kids were young in the 90s so I heard some mainstream stuff but not that much - the car radio was my domain and even if I heard some stuff I definitely wasn't keeping up. So I guess we're talking somewhere between the late 80's and mid 90's (?)

[Iowan]

I was heavy into the "The" bands during my senior of high school/freshman year of college ('02-'04).

I moved on pretty quick, with the exception of the White Stripes, but I remember those tunes pretty fondly. Might have to dig some of that out. I fucking loved The Hives in 2002.

[Duke Silver]

YMMV, but for me there's a distinction between when I learned that there was better shit outside of the mainstream, and when I learned that "the mainstream" wasn't even what I thought it was anymore.

For the former, it was probably when my family got AOL dial-up. I discovered a shit ton of bands around 95-96 via chat rooms and bulletin boards. (Imagine that!)

For the latter, JT's popularity was the first time I felt totally out of touch with pop culture. Like waking up one day and everyone's speaking Chinese.

[Cole Younger]

YMMV, but for me there's a distinction between when I learned that there was better shit outside of the mainstream, and when I learned that "the mainstream" wasn't even what I thought it was anymore.

For the former, it was probably when my family got AOL dial-up. I discovered a shit ton of bands around 95-96 via chat rooms and bulletin boards. (Imagine that!)

For the latter, JT's popularity was the first time I felt totally out of touch with pop culture. Like waking up one day and everyone's speaking Chinese.

Yeah the Justin Timberlake thing was like a splash of cold water to the face for sure. I remember seeing some clip of him doing what appeared to me to be a really awkward and stiff imitation of Michael Jackson. I did t see it in real time but I remember him moving like Frankenstein with arthritis, taking this hat off his head and putting it back on and everyone freaking out like he had done something great.

All of the sudden people acted like he was supposed to be taken seriously and as if he was somehow important. I knew right then I had reached some sort of point in my life where I had crossed some kind of line beyond which I no longer understood pop culture, no longer wanted anything at all to do with it, and was put off by what I did see. I had become a grumpy old man at age 25.

[Zip City]

I think Justin Timberlake is talented as hell ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Flea]

I think Justin Timberlake is talented as hell ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You can recognize his talent and still not dig his product. That's how I feel about Gaga.

[Zip City]

I think Justin Timberlake is talented as hell ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You can recognize his talent and still not dig his product. That's how I feel about Gaga.

I don't consider that being out of touch

[GW in IA]

After reading in Rolling Stone (?) About the break up of some band I had never heard of called Uncle Tupelo, and about the different directions that the two new bands born from that were taking. In one day, I found Wilco and Son Volt.

Yes, I can pinpoint the moment.

[bovine knievel]

1997. An older friend gave me a copy of John Prine''s album Live On Tour.