The End Of Music Snobbery

The much-discussed “death of the snob” in the internet era explains part of the shift on display. Even though some High Fidelity–styleshops catering to vinyl collectors have survived the extinction ofbig-box retailers, streaming and downloads have chipped away at thesuper-listener’s pretexts for arrogance: special knowledge (entirediscographies are now explorable with a click), special access (few Bsides can hide from Google), and curatorial chops (algorithms can DJyour l