Music Nazis would be a good term for them, the zealots who take their music so seriously. They want to tell us all what is good and brand those who don't agree as uncool or unenlightened. It's not even that they want everyone to like what they like. It's not as generous as that. Because if everyone liked what they like it wouldn't be elitist enough for them. It is important for the Nazis that it is only they, the initiated few, who are party to the incredible insight, wisdom and depth of taste that is required to be true appreciators.

I can't be bothered with them. They run contrary to what music means to me personally. For me it is a much more joyous thing. It is shared and participatory and centred around emotion. It is at its best when it brings about a connection. That connection might bridge an entire society and its disparate groupings. That is why I am a populist when it comes to music appreciation. I enjoy seeing lots of people identify with a particular work of whatever genre.

The Nazis are the antithesis of this. They get as much out of disliking as they do liking. Instead of using music as something that connects they prefer it to be divisive. It serves as a vehicle for their snobbish contempt. This is not to deny the need of such vehicles, just that for me music is wasted when put to such a use.

Now, it may be so that the creator uses his music as a way of purging dark inner material. This is quite another matter. The artist, working from an elite context, needs to dig deep in order to express something meaningful. But that something then needs to be resonant on the bigger stage. The ensuing insights might then be used by the populace as catharsis and the music judged based on how well it does that job. To take that worthy process and distort its value in the interest of creating partisan divisions is a travesty. It corrupts the music experience and subverts its place as surely one of the purest activities in the human inventory.

To hell with Nazis of every creed and colour.