I got excited when I saw a new (to me) thread about music but I'm pretty disappointed.
Music is one of the few things I'll agree with Ian on and I agree that people will dismiss your opinion on something if it's become cliche. Nickleback hate is a great example, but there are other examples as well. I knew a lot of potheads in high school and they absolutely loooved Sublime and Bob Marley. Some may have been legitimate fans, others were probably doing it because it was cool and I guarantee they've come across the same problem; their opinion is dismissed because it's become cliche.
Anyway, trying to get the thread back on track.. it's hard for me to throw out a band that I like but many other people don't, for a few reasons:
1. My taste in music has grown so eclectic that I like a lot of things that most may not of even heard of, because generally most people just stick to one form of music, the main genres (rock, hip-hop, pop, country, jazz).
2. I don't know as many people in my personal life anymore that are as into music as I am. What I mean is, while everyone is going on and on about popular hit shows like The Walking Dead, I'm so far removed from the conversation because I'd rather be listening to the Day of the Dead soundtrack than the show, so I picture myself on my own little island of music far far away from everyone else.
What I can say, though, is that in high school I had a few friends, all musicians as myself, that seemed to hate on one of my favorite bands at the time; The Ramones.
This one friend loved **** like Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam.. god he fucking jerked it to Pearl Jam, I swear. Anyway he didn't like most of the punk bands I listened to at the time, but if he heard me listening to the Ramones or saw me wearing their ****, he'd rant on and on about how much trash they were and he just thought they were so beneath him.
Meanwhile the friends I had that listened to modern punk acts like NOFX, The Offspring, etc weren't fond of the Ramones either, and I didn't get it. I know everyone has their opinions but considering they were fans of the genre that the Ramones arguably help build, I thought they'd have at least some respect. NOPE.
But anyway, these days I listen to so much.. I don't listen to the radio at all, but like Ian said - You can't really escape Top 40 stuff. There's a lot of pop stuff out there than I can enjoy though, if I have a party I HAVE to put on some LMFAO for my friends and I dig it. Then there's stuff that I didn't realize was mainstream until later, like that Gotye song "Somebody that I used to know". A friend sent me a cover of that awhile back, I dug it, then one day when I was in a rental car and was stuck with the radio, I heard a guy singing the song and though "wait i know this!"
For the curious, this is what I've been listening to a lot of recently:
The Chromatics
Gym Class Heroes
mc chris (lower case, no dice, REWIND!)
the Drums
Metric
Aesop Rock
but that might change soon :p