Jokes about music-based stereotypes have always been popular, whether people are bagging on “hipsters” or “millennials” for having predictable taste, or unfairly bashing teen girls who stan pop artists. The latest version of mocking musical elitists is a new Twitter meme, “yo let me put on some music u ain’t never heard before.”
The format goes like this: first, you establish the character with a photo of some characteristic item of clothing they’d wear. Next, photos of three predictable songs the person would hold up as cool and obscure. Then, the caption: “yo let me put on some music u ain’t never heard before.”
The meme appears to have started on March 27 with a tweet by @lexcereal. The person he’s mocking wears cuffed pants and Tyler, the Creator’s signature sneaker, the Golf Le Fleur. They listen to teenage bedroom pop sensation Clairo, rap “boy band” Brockhampton, and Rex Orange County (who was featured on Tyler’s 2017 album). It’s exactly what you’d expect from a kid in Golf shoes.
https://twitter.com/lexcereal/status/978787775368409088
The trend continued when controversial music YouTuber Anthony Fantano either mocked or praised himself with this one, featuring his own plaid shirt:
https://twitter.com/theneedledrop/status/979111846702731264
Here’s the classical version, featuring composer Gustav Holst. The joke might be that Holst is mainly known for The Planets, so this selection features the Holst you’re most likely to have heard.
“yo let me put on some music u ain’t never heard before” pic.twitter.com/A6QJyOKX8w
— luke henry (@twtrlessluke) March 29, 2018
And here’s the all-Yeezy outfit with all-Kanye-West soundtrack. A gimme.
https://twitter.com/Azzu1l/status/979427955217596416
In Australia, buff kangaroos love listening to homegrown band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard:
“yo let me put on some music u ain’t never heard before” pic.twitter.com/6V7fSAACt3
— ᴹᵃʳᵏ ᴹᵃⁿⁿᶻᶦᵗᶻ (@MarkZitzmann) March 29, 2018
This one features someone wearing the Revenge x Storm sneaker—a Vans Old Skool ripoff with a lightning bolt on the side. The shoe was designed by “influencer” Ian Connor. If you’re not familiar, here’s a one-sentence primer from The Outline’s Jeff Ihaza: “The 22-year-old stylist got his start ripping off skaters’ outfits for an audience on Tumblr, which led to relationships with members of A$AP Mob, which in turn led to his introduction to Kanye West’s creative team.”
And now you’re ready to get this joke:
https://twitter.com/SinnRay/status/979522957465628673
The specificity and savagery with which this meme calls out certain types of music fans has made it very popular. And the people doing the calling out here are quite clever—it takes a lot of specific subcultural knowledge to pull off one of these memes.
https://twitter.com/GnarIyJess/status/979527101991694337
If you see a “music u ain’t never heard” meme that hits too close to home, don’t feel singled out. When it comes to culture consumption, we all fit into a type. Just listen to what you like and remember that it never hurts to experiment with sounds that may be outside your comfort zone.
