Once, in the early nineties, I met a couple of people who knew who Hasil Adkins was. Now, it's not so much of a big deal, but twenty years ago it sure as hell was. We were at a party around that time where I was accused of talking about music too much. And I can't really blame myself, considering how few people I knew back then (including John Battles) who were into that kind of music. Not that I was afraid to change the topic, but I wanted to milk that cow dry before we moved on down the list. And these people weren't even collectors, per se - they were just ordinary citizens who just happened to cross paths with Hasil's music somewhere down the road.
At that point, I was in my early 20s and did know people whose musical tastes were close to mine. But not to the point where they could go deep like that. I could wear a Replacements or Velvet Underground or Robert Johnson T-shirt and get thumbs-up from passersby. But as far as cratedigging for obscure 45s, I was the Lone Ranger. (Remember, this was when most people my age were dumping their vinyl for CDs.)
It's not like now, where every other hipster (male and female) goes digging for old singles and then gets a DJ night. Matter of fact, this is how much things have changed in two decades: back then, if I saw someone wearing a Sun Records T-shirt, ten times out of ten it was a stone-cold Sun fanatic who knew the lesser-knowns as well as the stars. Now, if you see someone in that same T-shirt, they probably won't know Sun from Moon; they just bought it because it was in the gift shop at Graceland.
Alex said:
I almost never run into people with the same music taste. Basically if I want to go to a show or even the record store, I go alone. When I do run into someone with the same taste at a party or something, I get pathetically giddy. That said, I'm still amused every time my friends make jokes about my not liking bands that have more than 50 fans or bands that someone else has actually heard of. It's a point of pride.
