I think the only thing I ever fear when thinking about all the music I get is that one day I'll become some kind of music snob. Like I'll one day feel so sure in my musical taste due to owning a massive record collection that I'll start judging other people for their music taste a la High Fidelity. I feel like I could never show my friends something like Trout Mask Replica because they would never understand it and if I tried to argue it's validity as a great work it would come off as snobish or something.

Perhaps I'm paranoid, thoughts?

Well, that's why I come here. Don't worry, Michael, we won't judge.

hopefully one day you will find someone who you can talk about music with so that you won't have to worry about those who don't understand it.

If your a true music snob, you wont be able to help yourself. I almost strangled a close friend for saying that The Velvet Underground's music has no relavance, and was utterly pointless. I spent a week digging up every article I could find (300 printed pages) on musicians that cite VU as being a prominant influence over them. Then I took names from those lists and sited who they influenced, and so on til I had almost everyone he liked crossed off a list. we're not friends anymore...lol

Sometimes you just need to recognize you have superior taste in music. You'll find some people who you can discuss some of the music you like with, and for the rest, that's what AM's for.

btw I don't like Captain Beefheart at all.

Actually all my friends call me a music snob because I have rather outspoken opinions about artists, and have listened to much more music than they have.
I've actually been introducing my brothers and my friends to a lot more music, and now my 13 year old brother loves Neutral Milk Hotel, Radiohead, and the Talking Heads because of me. How many 13 year olds listen to that?

Anyways there are some artists that I know my friends probably won't get (Beefheart being a common example, but also Blur, Bjork, Television, The Smiths, Joy Division, etc. - all of who I love)

...just my thoughts on the matter.

People who have mainstream tastes in today's culture like throwing around accusations of elitism whenever anyone else doesn't have mainstream tastes.

It only makes you elitists if you think not having mainstream tastes makes you better than other people. Otherwise, you're just listening to the music you like.

Somebody may like Kelly Clarkson better than Sam Cooke. But ten years from now, they won't like Kelly Clarkson anymore. They'll like some new pop star, and you'll still like Sam Cooke. That's what makes the difference between people who really love music and people who just like it socially.

Embrace the snobbery.