<h2> nerd vs jock rock </h2>

title is clickbait; this is essentially just a bit of rumination on what happens when
you analyze artistic expression from a framing of expected "social demographics"

as always i'm not so good at formatting this in a standard and easy to think about way
but just try and follow what sort of led me down this train of thought:

think about the sort of typical groupings of highschoolers you hear about in the movies,
the "nerds and the jocks and the preps and the goths" or whatever. the nerds do their
nerdy things, talk about math and comic books or whatever, and then the jocks do all their
athletic things and listen to rock and roll or whatever etc.

when you look at an activity like being in a rock band, what category is that in?
it's pretty athletic (think of a drummer) and pretty social, but its also really
nerdy (you're literally practicing use of a tool to play songs and writing poems
to the music usually).

i think some movies take the time to deliniate "music kids" from the rest and maybe they
make some other categories but its interesting how all these modes of expression really just
overlap all sorts of categories we try to make for them. Things like jock-types working on
their cars is like, literally just a form of engineering, but when you do it on a computer
suddenly youre an ultra nerd. theater and improv makes you a "theater kid" but actors are
lauded as sexy celebrity hearthtrob thingymabobs. yknow.

obviously, nobody reading this really thinks about people in those narrow ass categories,
but i guess i just find it interesting how quickly it breaks down when you put it under
any kind of scrutiny, the divisions that people hold near and dear meaning pretty much
nothing. it's not that deep

i guess as a side tangent thought, its fun how hard it is to be vulnerable and express
yourself but if you do it in a cool enough way people probably arent thinking about it
deeply enough for it to matter. pretty sure nirvana has like, 3 or 4 songs about how
people don't pay any attention to what their songs are about. pretty sure because i havent
paid enough attention to know for sure if that's what they're about.

that whole grunge thing strikes me as "jock" coded but anyone who can play more than
power chords on a guitar is definitely a "nerd", and then you get into the whole "metal-heads
arent really that metal because theyre singing you a song designed to evoke emotions in you
which is kind of geeky and also they arent out there actually sacrificing people to satan so
its all just a front to sell cds" discussion, and it turns out liking rock and roll is about
as cool as reading a book about vampires in the end.

that's all i got, i'm not going back to edit any of that, those are my raw unfiltered thoughts!!!

edit: fixed a few wording choices

i also had a bit to add about the perception of "rap" as masculine compared to poetry as less-so,
even though that is half of what rap even is (r.a.p.) but i forgot it in the midst of my rambling
the point is theres a million different ways these double standards get applied

and i also forgot to throw some tags down

#art #society #culture #music #axes