'Tis The Season To Be Nasty

Bit of a rehash here, but recently participated in an online forum discussion of musical hate lists. Now, personally, I don't see much point in proclaiming my "hatred" for particular music acts... if I'm not interested, I can just ignore it, so why sweat it? And what does it mean to "hate" an artist -- should I hate Celine Dion for being an annoying hack? The Eagles for being dull and crassly commercial? R.E.M. and the Rolling Stones for daring to tarnish the legend of their early albums by continuing to release increasingly irrelevant music? Mike Love for apparently being a complete dick? The Black-Eyed Peas for "My Humps"? (Actually, that last one is undeniably worthy of utter revulsion.)

So, no, didn't feel like going there. But I did manage to cobble together (on the fly, so it's probably incomplete and subject to revision) a Rock & Roll Hate List of a slightly different nature, and here it is:

1) Sony (and other corporate scum) who use "copy protection" and related insidious devices that restrict the listening rights of paying customers

2) Frat-boy assholes who attend concerts, presumably based solely on that one single they overheard at a party, then end up talking through the show, spilling beer on you, dancing obnoxiously, and just generally ruining the live music experience for everyone else there

3) Similarly, anyone else who talks during the quieter songs at concerts (or, even worse, makes cell phone calls, which is becoming increasingly prevalent and I swear to god one of these days I'm going to strangle one of these assholes), and idiot teenagers who insist on treating the floor as their own personal mosh pit

4) Ticketmaster

5) Every last goddamn member of the Bush Administration, past & present (which has nothing to do with music, but needs to be said)

6) Homophobic rappers, misogynist rappers, and anti-semitic rappers (and, of course, you can find this sort of thing outside rap, but it seems to be more prevalent there)

7) Whoever invented the tape strip used to seal the top of new cd jewel cases, which is impossible to remove and when you do tends to leave a sticky residue that makes the disc case all grungy

8) Any artist who releases a cd and follows it up several months later with an "expanded edition" that includes a couple remixes and/or live tracks and/or b-sides, rendering the already-overpriced cd you just bought earlier this year already obsolete (not to be confused with a legitimate reissue of a previously unreleased or badly-in-need-of-remastering classic that is appended with bonus tracks)

9) Any artist who releases a greatest hits collection or box set that commingles hits & rarities, thereby screwing serious fans who have to re-purchase the songs they already own to snag the rarities

10) Whoever decided that MTV, VH-1, and other "music" networks should stop showing videos and concerts music-related movies, and instead focus on inane reality shows and interminable spring break broadcasts