An offshoot of this kind of music snobbery has become an issue in Seattle recently. In a town noted for band-hopping, side projects, and cross-pollination, musicians are disowning their pasts for fear that music snobs won't give their new bands a chance.
Kinski is a new-ish local band who have just released a foggy, enveloping debut CD, and played several knockout shows in the past few months. Kinski's dirty little secret is that their lead singer/guitarist, Chris Martin, used to be in the power-pop band the Deflowers. Kinski have made an effort to divorce themselves from that connection, which is natural since the bands have divergent sounds. But the subtext is this: If Seattle music snobs knew of the connection to the Deflowers, they might not give Kinski a fair chance.
Even more of an indictment is the case of the Now. They played their first show at the Crocodile last month, and immediately became The Impressive New Seattle Band. And their spastic drummer, the life of the Now party, is also in -- shhh! -- '80s cover band the Beatniks. No one respects the Beatniks, but that fact shouldn't diminish your willingness to check out the Now. It's perfectly logical that the musicians in an '80s cover band would also have real bands. And the one shouldn't reflect poorly on the other: If the drummer was creatively fulfilled by playing in the Beatniks, he wouldn't need to be in the Now, now would he? Musicians need day jobs, and doing what you love in a band you don't care about beats doing something you hate in an office you don't care about.
When done in jest, music snobbery can be funny. But if it would stop you from going to see really superlative local bands like the Now or Kinski, as the bands themselves seem to fear it would, then it's a sad and ignorant prejudice that hurts not only yourself but the music community.
