Jon asks where are all we female music geeks coming from? Hey, I've been here all along, wasting bandwidth talking about music online since at least 1989, first on CompuServe, then on Usenet.
I actually wrote about this to someone last fall, as part of an anecdote from last fall's WFMU Record Fair, which I think is worth reprinting here:
So, funny story about the fair:Posted by nstop at June 17, 2002 08:58 PM
As a major record-collecting geek, I naturally had to be there for the early-bird opening this afternoon, even though it costs about $15 more than regular admission. I got in line about 20 minutes before opening, with about 50-75 people ahead of me in line.
I'm reading my magazine while waiting, checking out the usual people-walking-by-and-wondering-why-the-long-line-of-people giving me and my fellow collectors funny looks. Two women walk by and are doing the requisite "what the heck?" drill, when I overhear one of them say, just as they pass by me in line:
"Look, there's a woman!"
I almost started giggling -- it was so funny because it was true. As the line started moving and snaking around inside the building, I could see about 50 people ahead of me, all of them men except for one gal who looked like she was just there with her boyfriend.
Why is record collecting such a male pasttime? Interestingly, this very topic has been debated as of late on the Typical Girls mailing list, with all sorts of theories thrown out there. I say, you either have the obsessive collecting gene or you don't, period. How it's expressed just has to do with your environment. Which is why Home Shopping Network and the Franklin Mint have a reason to exist (though not in my universe).
Why is record collecting such a male pasttime?
*That* is what I want to know. I know in my household, I'm the one that has trouble not spending money on music.
In the song "In A Young Man's Mind" by the Mooney Suzuki they state "there's a little room for music and the rest is girls". I say we girls write a counterpart to that song.
It'll all change one day...
Posted by: shannon on June 18, 2002 01:15 PMHmm, I feel the urge to hunt through my records for songs about record collecting. There's "On Tape" by The Pooh Sticks, which is pretty funny. But I can't think of anything specifically pro-female.
Jon: Why dontcha sign up for the Typical Girls and try out your proposition? That would be interesting... ;-)
Posted by: nstop on June 18, 2002 02:23 PMBut I can't think of anything specifically pro-female.
There's a great song by the Fastbacks(written by Kurt Bloch but sung by the very female Kim Warnick) called "Old Address of the Unknown" where she sings:
"I'll stay away from work again today and dream of all the records that I wanna play..."
Close enough?
First of all, glad to see the site up, nice job and consider yourself linked.
Second of all, some of us male record geeks are glad to have you ladies in our community as I say here. We're just a lottle stunned is all, most of us were used to being ignored by girls in our formative years, mainly for our geekiness, knowing that girls, and cute girls at that, are as High Fidelity level fetishistic about music as us, is great news, but it takes some getting used to.
That mailing list named after a Slits song is a good sign though. If any of you ladies on it need a music geek boyfreind, I am single....:)
Posted by: jonmc on June 17, 2002 09:20 PM