It's my last chance to talk about music for The Daily Cardinal, but I'm going to use it to talk about movies instead. Specifically, a movie that presents the picture of music intellect that so many have subconsciously tried to replicate. This movie is ""High Fidelity,"" and the film's protagonist, Rob Gordon, stands for what audiophiles today both strive for and are hindered by.
First, the easy part, the obsession with music. Whenever Rob and his fellow Championship Vinyl employees get bored, they present a top five, like side-one, track-ones. And after Laura dumps Rob, there's only one therapeutic thing for him to do: reorganize his record collection.
""It's something I do in times of emotional distress. When Laura was here I had them in alphabetical order. Before that, chronologically. Tonight, though, I'm trying to put them in the order in which I bought them. That way I can write my own autobiography without picking up a pen."" When Laura's dad dies, there's only one tribute: a top five list of songs about death. The breadth of subjects Rob ties to music in the movie proves music is their way of life; Or more, a constant soundtrack life is infinitely boring without.
But what's the point if you don't have the knowledge to back it up and incite debates or inspire new listeners whenever such questions are posed? Rob does this throughout the movie, peppering his friends and family with questions about miscellaneous, random music trivia. That mindless trivia is what drives all of his relationships. It's how he fosters connections with other people.
Lastly, despite his outbursts, he gets the girl(s). Not only does he get the intoxicating, exotic musician (Lisa Bonet from ""The Cosby Show""), but he wins back the only girl willing to put up with his obsession and the resulting defense mechanisms.
But even though the high and mighty employees at Championship Vinyl embody audiophile aspirations, they also present the drawbacks. Rob and friends compete with each other in utterly immature ways. At one point or another, they all look like assholes who enjoy the title of ""snob"" way too much, and they all deal with similar social ineptitudes. These—even moreso than the aspirations above—can be associated with the breed of music-lovers. And when audiences are forced to get to know Rob in these personal ways on top of his superficial snobby qualities, it's easier to look past the pretentiousness and sympathize with his inadequacies. This is the hope and envy of audiophiles: To be judged not by the sometimes snobby color of their language, but by the content of their character (and music libraries).
Journalists and experts comfortable discussing or arguing the merits of subjects such as politics or sports are revered as intellectuals by most, even if their opinions are not as well-respected. Yet when it comes to music, asserting your opinion with facts and references outside of mainstream common knowledge is the modern definition of pretentiousness. ""Poptimist"" writer Tom Ewing gives this idea a contemporary context when he describes an ""indie-teen conviction that indie people are magically better at feeling music than other people are."" But ""High Fidelity"" as a whole attempts to disprove this, and at no point is it more succinctly put than Dick's script definition as ""a nervous, forlorn but sweet and intelligent discophile,"" which is about as acceptable as descriptions get for the breed. Nobody magically knows more than anybody else, some people just choose to spend all their time in a desperate attempt to find the best music instead of learning about numbers or chemicals or other far more important subjects. And the fact that the subjects being neglected are more important leaves audiophiles nervous, forlorn and sweet—mostly because of the awkwardness that follows when talking about anything that can't be tied back to music. But who can blame audiophiles?
Mostawesomestthingever.com has music at fourth all-time (excluding the newbies Mohondas Gandhi and Legos) behind the Internet, Life and Oxygen. Everybody loves to listen to music. It causes joy, comforts pain and cures boredom. So the next time you want to resent somebody for knowing a lot about music, just think of all the personal inadequacies Rob Gordon suffers as a result of his passion. And remember, audiophiles are not asking for sympathy (after all music is the fourth most awesomest thing ever), merely tolerance and acceptance in the face of such unimportant ambition and pride.
Have any last words for Justin? E-mail him at jstephani@wisc.edu.
