Does teenage snobbery about music still exist in any way any more? I don’t have access to teenagers so I don’t know but in the mid-70s it absolutely did exist and it was a multi-layered multi-hued beast.
On one level it was part of identifying ourselves as ‘rock’ kids. This was a very broad definition but we all knew where the lines were, even if it was occasionally a bit confusing.
Some bands were definitely ‘rock’ and put off people who liked pop music or anything else.
Budgie were a good example. We all loved them but kids who liked the Bay City Rollers or the Osmonds definitely didn’t. However those same kids might like Slade and the Sweet who we rock kids knew had a heavy aspect to their music. These bands straddled the genres and were a bit of a problem for us. We didn’t want to be seen to like pop music but liked tracks like How Does It Feel and Love Is Like Oxygen.
The more open-minded could freely admit this but it was an unspoken secret amongst the rest of us.
It was more performative mostly, because the attitudes we had were ridiculous. Other forms of music were looked down on. Even the word ‘commercial’ was used as a criticism even though the biggest sellers were usually rock music. It was seen as almost more moral. That ‘pandering’ to the masses was frowned upon whereas rock bands were almost accidentally popular. Unsustainable, I know but logic played no part in this.
It only worked because the definition of rock was so broad. Tangerine Dream? Rock. Zeppelin? Rock. Fairport Convention? Rock. But almost anything that was a hit was pop. Even if it wasn’t! And why did it even matter if it was or wasn’t?
Given that this lasted years and was a definition I very much went along with, I’ve spent some time thinking about it.
Obviously in those years you’re busy finding your place in the world and your gang, if you like. These definitions about rock helped do that. And it eased social interaction if you could identify someone who liked what you liked. The assumed feeling of superiority was also a way to feel good about your choices.
We weren’t just snobby, we were incredibly judgemental. We had an unofficial committee which screened records for suitability. Someone would bring an album for us to play at lunchtime and we’d refuse to play it if it failed our “is it rock?” test. Despite being on the committee, I even had trouble getting my jazz rock albums played. Jeff Beck was OK because he was part of our rock history, whereas Mahavishnu Orchestra definitely wasn’t and was deemed “too jazz”
Sometimes the cover was used to find out what was on the grooves. For example, Terry Reid’s The River is a superb, hard to categorise record but he's featured on the front with long hair and beard by a river. That looked like rock to the committee when I proposed it so it was accepted. Anything with a Roger Dean cover was given a free pass even if it was Osibisa.Mad. I feel embarrassed by myself to be honest.
The weird discrimination didn’t stop there though. “Soft rock” was equally frowned upon as "commercial” music. This meant not playing Rumours or Gerry Rafferty both of which I liked but did mean you could play America, which even I didn’t understand. America passed as rock whereas Fleetwood Mac in this incarnation - Peter Green was fine - didn’t. Country influenced music was problematic but guitar solos got them in under rock. So The Outlaws were fine as were Marshall Tucker Band but Emmylou Harris or Flying Burritos weren’t.
In 1976 and 1977 as punk arrived, the debate shifted, some wanted to play punk but we wouldn’t, saying it was too simple and fashionable (a subsect of commercial) We’d have furious debates over whether The Stranglers were punk or not. I said they couldn’t be because they had Dave Greenfield’s keyboards but others said different because the band’s name was punky and the general attitude was. I lost that one but maintained I was right. Greenslade had 2 keyboards and no guitar and we played them, I argued. But they got the Roger Dean free pass. Incredibly that was said in all seriousness!
I hope this sort of discrimination doesn't exist anymore because it's very silly. I suspect it probably does but perhaps in a less tribal way.
