I have to admit, there are certain things that bring what I read in High Fidelity to my mind. Like making a mix tape (yes, I'm still so old school, I have to do that). In High Fidelity, he decries the idea of putting two songs by the same artist on one tape unless the entire tape consists of doubles. I used to do that and never thought a thing of it. But now? I wouldn't think of it. I can, thankfully, say that the combo of vinyl and CDs exceeds 500 hundred in my house, but when I first read that as a means of judging someone in High Fidelity, I did a quick count just to be sure I was over that threshold. (I took a long hiatus from purchasing music while the kids were young, so I'm missing about 10 years worth of accumulation). Now, I'm thinking I want to hit 500 with CDs sooner rather than later, but I think it will send me to the poor house and I don't like buying just for the sake of buying. As for disdaining the Beatles ...Well, even Nick Hornby can be wrong when it comes to music.
When my daughter was in a coma, I bought her "I Just Called To Say I Love You." And I *don't even have a daughter*. RS
I make mix tapes/cd's exactly the way that I want to and, while I love High Fidelity, NH can stick it in his ear if he doesn't approve because none of the mixes I've made are for him. Admittedly, most of the mixes I do are to introduce people to bands I like and think they might like and you really can't do that well with only one song.
High Fidelity I thought it was probably REO Speedwagon's best album. Oh, wait, that's High Infidelity. Sorry.
When he and his girlfriend go to her friends' house, he checks to see if they have Beatles albums. I believe she makes some comment or thinks to himself that he's not going to hold it against them that do own some.
Yes, it influenced me. Reading the book felt like complete vindication and justification for continuing to live a life of permanent adolescence. Then seeing the movie it occurred to me how much of a self-obsessed, immature, whiny prick the main character is so I finally decided to grow up.
Ok - I could be completely confused. But I was think he'd rejected the Beatles because they were too pop. When they went to visit that couple, I thought there was some Beatles verification and, if found, it wouldn't be a good thing in his mind. It could have had something to do with the context of the other records. Of course, I could be totally confused.
I imagine it confirmed a lot of behavior for guys-all the compiling of stuff, that seems very much a "guy thing." You see this a lot re: sport; the way men keep all sorts of stats about teams, players, their schools, etc. For me, this also dips into music-a bit like the guy in "Diner" who goes off on his wife when she misplaces his records. It's a source of anger/awe with my wife, as she thinks I should "do more with all of that information" But of course, that's besides the point, and why I think this sort of behavior skews more towards men than women (although I've met met fair share of women who can go on about what guitars Edge used on "Joshua Tree," and other useless facts). Sad to say, I still have rules about mixes. Just made a CD for my mother-in-law, and although I really wanted to put two tunes from the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack on it...well there are rules.
He listens to Abbey Road after he breaks up with Laura at the beginning the story (although he skips over Something...I've always wondered why he didnt skip over I Want You too). I'll state the obvious...I make music top-five lists constantly. And Barry seems to be a bit anti-Beatles too.....wow, I've read the book too many times.