Band Face Off - Round 18

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by amber

My favorite thing about this is how sometimes when certain people vote for some things over others, they say it's because they know music waaaay better than other people, or that people who "really" know music will vote for such and such. It cracks me up when people choose to quantify their particular musical taste using that "pseudo expert" reasoning. I'll have to do that myself more often. I mean, you know, why not? I played instruments and sang for years. Surely I'm an "expert".

I'll assume you're talking about my prediction about how the votes will go, and if so, you're reading a hell of a lot into it that isn't there. I didn't say anything about people who "know" music "better" than anyone else.

The fact is, there are two ways that people vote in these little face-offs. They either vote for musical reasons and choose the artists whose music they like more, or they vote for non-musical reasons and choose an artist based on some association or another (Neal voted for Neil Young because they share a first name, someone voted for Emmylou because she's associated with Gram Parsons, and a number of people have voted for The Eagles because they've been associated with Stevie). Given that this is just a for-fun poll on an Internet message board, there's nothing more or less legitimate about either tactic. My prediction was simply that most of the people who vote because of the music will pick Skynyrd. I didn't say anything about "experts," and I think we already had the thread in another forum about how there really aren't any objective standards to "quantify" music taste or decree that one band's music is "better" than any other's.

As for why I think most people who will vote based on the music will vote for Skynyrd: For one, Skynyrd strikes me as a slightly more dynamic and arresting band who would appeal to more of the music nerds who post here. Second, I think the people who tend to vote based on the music also realize that a lot of people will be voting for the Eagles simply because of Stevie, so they'll vote for Skynyrd just to even things out and make things more interesting.