There was a discussion going on in another thread (we went slightly off topic. Its why I started a new thread ) about differences between musical tastes and the hostilities between rockers/punks/goths etc and townies/preps/jocks

The thread is Here if you wanna have a look.

anyone else had any experience with this sort of thing?

I go to a lot of LAN parties, you can imagine how diverse the crowd is, everybody gets on and all is cool.

When you look at it as a whole it's the attitude of the PEOPLE, and not the group, "rockers" can be just as abusive to other groups as "townies" can, but then again either group has nice people.

That's very true.
There's always nice people within any group, but you can't say that there hasn't been a lot of cases where both parties have been completely jerkish over this though?
How many times have we been at a local gig and there's been people waiting outside ready to clobber the first person who steps outside?

Yeah but that's the point.

They are horrible scumish dirty inbred *naughty word*, but they do not represent the whole group.

I've met about three or four nice people who could be considered to be in this group in my whole life. But saying that, I should mention that nearly all of my friends listen to the same music as I do

Redditch is really not the best example

James (guitarist mentioned in previous thread linked in this topic) was in Nottingham when he got chased down the street.

But you see my point.

I used to go to a school where all the outcasts (Rockers, punks, goths, etc) joined up in one big group. We were refered to as freaks... Dont know why but yeah. I have a real problem with taking abuse from people of a "higher social class" for lack of a better term. They look down at us like were primative, but they dont relize that were people too...

My description of "Townies" would include the word rough as standard feature

There *ARE NO* "nice, decent" townies in my school/town/area. None. At all.

Yes, I do. I just think there is a large population of this group that are complete k**b heads.

mwa ha ha ha ha, at a gig i went to all the rockers/punks/goths beat the townies up. was funny.

but saying that some days i am a townie. i have townie friends, and friends who are punks, goths and other stuff.

Thats probably something you shouldn't consider to be funny

i just consider anyone beating someone else up funny. i am a mean mean person.

I am a bit of both, depending on what mood I'm in, and who I'm with. I've got friends in both categories, and can change my attitude to suit, so in a way I'm neither, but at the same time I'm both.

I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure!

I get abused all the time for what I am....Being a Rocker here is called being a Metalhead lol...and I can really get hurt here for jaming out to Metallica or Led Zeplain...

I've never had any experience with this sort of thing, other than cowgirls wanting to beat me up when my friends took me to country night at a bar, because I was dressed as a skater. They tried to intimidate me out, but I stayed and they eventually left me alone.

Other than that people around here seem to do their own thing. rockers/punks/goths all hang out together. Preps go to goth/rock/punk clubs to check out the goth/punk/rock people as a novelty show sometimes.

I do get some crap from other people who like metal though because I hate Metallica.

yeah I wish i could say the same for here...

There aren't a ton of people like me (punk/rocker/freak/whatever) around, so the "townies"/"preps" are more fascinated than abusive.

"Wow...how do you get all that eyeliner on so straight?" "Oh hey I didn't even know they still made Care Bears..." and on and on...

But sometimes that's the clincher...if I piss people off they can turn this around...

There have been a few run-ins with people who are like "Whoa those chicks are weeeeeeeeird!", but mostly it's not been so bad. Sorry about some of the things you guys have to go through just to be you.

i have a good mixture of friends ... mostly goth/punk/skater nowadays but thats my friends ive met over the last few years (and of course im gona gravitate in a friendly way to the people not throwing irn bru at me) but in saying that only a month ago at the school play after party i ended up having six people who have given me some of the worst crap ive ever recieved at school staying over and now we get on great.

also - one of my best friends is majorly into ballet (shes amazing - i dont get how they do that) and shes very much "pretty pretty, into fashion, pink pink pink!" but we get on like we have for the last 5 years. i turned up at one of her big shows at our local theatre and went backstage to see her and all these "things" in tutus just stared at me as if i was a bug and started giving me sh!t ... then jo came running out and threw herself on me and proceeded to give her snotty friends a mouthful and storm off (sorry no relevance just a favourite memory ...)

i dont like it when it gets violent though... up where my goth/rock friends hang out is pretty safe but sometimes neds (non-educated deliquents - its great even newspapers call them that) come up to fight. the last time it happened my littlest buddy rach and her boyf laurie ended up fighting off three guys with bottles and i hit someone in the face with my jeans chauns ... thing is we get in more crap due to the fact that neds claim we wear our weapons and start it while they just grab whatever's lying around ... suckingness muchly

everyone should just be nice damnit!

I personally don't get any ridicule anymore. Well......that's a lie, but it's not as rampant as it was in high school. Nowadays it's either discrimination from the gay community for not being "gay enough" or it's from random passerby because I have an affliction for a black floor length skirt. Damn rednecks.

Anyway, back in high school, I had two big problems. My only coat was a black trenchcoat. And I liked to wear Marilyn Manson shirts. At first, I only had minor comments (Hey fag! or Are you a satanist?). People actually thought those clothing and black colors meant I was a homosexual satanist. What made it even more insulting is that most of them, were asking me out of serious curiousity because that's what they thought. Odd how most of them are gay now. ANYWAY. When the Columbine shootings occured, things took a change for the worst. Ridicule and abuse stepped up a lot and I was almost expelled from school for wearing a coat.

In a perfect world... but sadly yeah. I don't use weapons... I have this dumb thing about having honor and whatnot. I swear thats gonna get me killed one day.

me neither usually but i wear a huge dragon ring that gets bits of people stuck in it whenever i fight (which ill admit is kinda often)

and if youd seen what those guys were doing to my friends you would have hit them with chains as well, i walked into the whole thing when they were all into it and just plain panicked

Marilyn Manson got the blame for those shottings. Apparently his music influences people to do this kind of thing.

BULL CRAP!
Everyone has free will. Music has nothing to do with it.

well, the "preppies" around here dont really harass the "punks," mostly because they think new found glory, good charolette, and all american rejects are the coolest thing ever. its more the "ghetto" people who harass the "punks." sometimes people say i dress like/act like/am a "punk" category person, but i really dont think i am. i have freinds in all of the different groups. i even have friends in the "skater" group. and i just really dislike skaters as a whole.

The Columbine gunmen didn't even like Manson. They were into KMFDM (whose guitarist, ironically, now plays for Manson).

yep yep, i know this problem all too well... you see, in my area, rap is the predominate music, and everyone who doesnt listen to rap, gets yelled at or whatever... nothing big... but of course, i HATE rap, and so do my better friends in RL, so we have to open our big mouths about how much we hate rap (no one flame me here for my musical opinions....) and that makes us popular targets for insults and what not from many people. some people have gone as far as to say we are racist and white power because we dont like rap because "rap is the black man's music, and anyone who doesnt like it, doesnt like us" or so we have been told on rare occaision. i find it stupid, and horrably out of place when someone can make such a judgement based on MUSICAL OPINIONS. im also seen as a "punk" by people who dont know me all that well, and that makes people act a bit weird around me when they dont know me... like im different some how.. i really dont get it... its music... just music...

Any particular reason why?

In my town we ('we' being my friends, the people regularly called punks, grebos, moshers, goths etc.) have found it to be safer to hang around in large groups in one area. before this, we got harrassed by everyone, including old people who thought it was their right to call us yobbos and wasters, middle ages women spat at us, 20something neds told us we all looked the same...
but now they call the police. if one person is acting badly, then automatically we all are. and the townies have started gathering their numbers near where we hang now and harrassing us, but to the general public, if the townies are being yobbos, than we all are.
i guess we are kind of lucky though, in my town, being a 'greeb' is the in thing, so there are loads of people like that. i dont particularly like labelling or being labeled, or people who follow the crowd, but thank god there are so many, or i would have been beaten so many times by now.

I've heard of something like that before. Lots of people have been finding it safer to travel in larger numbers. I guess this isn't always possible on every occasion though :/

In Manchester, there's a section (at the top of Oxford Street) that's pretty much dedicated ta the "alternative" scene. Most that happens is the cops patrol it. Prolly cos the townie areas are so rough they leave well alone!!

We rockers are a gentle breed...

To be honest i've neva really come across too much trouble myself... but thats probably because i hang around out of work with people who have the same tastes as moi. Occasionally get comments shouted at me an my cousins got beat up because of her music tastes but i just generally try an ignore the shoutin... violence on the other hand is unnessasary.

At work its slightly different as there are people who are "rockers" an then people who are "trendies" an yes there is a bit of separation between the two groups as i find it hard to talk to someone about Amen and System etc... when they hav no intrest in that but i think they also find it hard to talk to me about dance music - just cause i seem to stare blankly at them!! But overall at work we hav no problems an outside of work we are still cival an occassionally go out together as a group!

I think the way some people act can be based on the people they hang around with an their upbringin... cause to be honest there is always going to be peer pressure from somewhere an if that to act in a certain way to someone with different tastes to yourself then theres a great chance its going to happen! I think the people that cause the problems may feel slightly insecure in themselves an feel that they need to act in the way they do just to try an make others feel uncomfortable an uneasy. It's immature an i think that people that act like this need to do a bit of growin up... theres no reason to act in that sort of way... aren't we all equal!?