File under: "No duh!"

From Steven Levy's column in the current Newsweek:

It turns out that we really do make judgments about other people—and even have attractions triggered—based on what they listen to. Actual scientific proof of this comes from recent studies by Cambridge University psychologist Jason Rentfrow and his colleagues on "the role of musical preferences in interpersonal perception."

Really?! I had no idea!

Okay, okay ... the rest of the article is actually a pretty good exploration of the new Zune's shortcomings while extrapolating exactly which feature could, once tweaked, help set it above other mp3 players. (The final paragraph does make the caveat that Apple will probably take that tweak and run with it too, though Levy seems to think that in this case Microsoft wins out for being the early adopter. I am not so sure.)

I do tend to forget that a tech column in something like Newsweek needs to be simplistic enough, and careful enough to avoid assumption, so that any average reader can "get it." In this case, I take for granted that everyone is aware of the role music plays in people's lives, whether they know it or not. The simple fact is that most people don't know it, never bother to explore why they respond to songs the way they do, and that is perfectly okay.

Still, admit it, the above quote does come off as kind of obvious to folks like you and me though, right?

OKAY. BACK OFF TANKBOY. So much for keeping it light this week, huh? I see a quote, I want to make a brief aside about it, and next thing I know I'm battling by trying to come off as an open minded populist, but I keep slipping into snarky superiority. To be honest this is a probelm I envountered yesterday (which is really funny, since I actually wrote everything before this sentence (yes, sometimes I draft early thoughts for entries ahead of the morning I actually finish and post them) on Chicagoist, when a reader was complaining about my failing to reveal the background behind a particular criticism.

In this case, the reader was right. The aside was a personal condemnation of the direction Jeff Tweedy took Wilco on their last album. People that regularly read my comlumns, either here or at Chicagoist, would have gotten the meaning of the obscured reference, and to be honest that's who I wrote the reference for.

However I forgot that when writing for Chicagoist, a site with a huge readership -- many of whom may not visit everyday, and many of whom may be landing on the site for the first time ever -- I have a responsibility to include everyone and make my writing as accessible as possible. I can still be as ornery in my critiques as I wanna be, but folks need the full background each and every time I make a bit of commentary. This is even more important on Chicagoist because it's not a music-centric site. Music is just one of many subjects we cover, and when someone is reading my views on this band or that event, I have to make sure they understand what I'm talking about or they're not going to take the time to read what I have to write the next time.

The situation is not the same on this site or over at donewaiting, since each has a rather specific audience, for the most part. As a matter of fact, I can be a obscure as I wanna be on this site, since the only audience I'm ultimately trying to please is myself. I mean, I appreciate, no, I love, the fact that so many people visit here daily ... but I would never write anything to specifically try and keep people here. At donewaiting, the folks visiting there are already pretty music-savvy and they're probably there hoping to feel like they're part of an ongoing dialog with which they already have a certain familiarity bred through years of listening to (and probably having a pretty intense love of) good music.

Aw, you know what? It's the eve of a four-day weekend and I've really got to let this go. So I'm going to to.