I have been a part of the local musicians community for many years so I have observed the different stereotypes of them. Musicians have different stereotypes and personalities and I’m about to list them all and explain them too. Chances are, you have pretty much seen all of these and I’m sure you’re one of them as well.

Well, lets get right to it… these are in no particular order:

• The Egomaniac and Narcissist: People always think I’m full of shit that there are egomaniacs and narcissists in your music scene but you will meet some of these guys. Ya know, the type of musicians who are full of themselves and love themselves a bit too much. Always talking about themselves and only thinking about themselves. They don’t care about you at all and only about themselves. They think their musical talent is so great and they think they play better than other people. You will meet some huge egos out there in your scene whether you want to admit it or not.
• The Expensive Gear Collector: These are the type of musicians that are obsessed with musicians gear. They’ll collect all kinds of guitars, amps, pedals and get all kinds of home studio gear too. They spend a lot of money on gear and obsessed with it. You’ve probably seen these kind of musicians too.
• The Music Theory Expert: You’ll see these kind of musicians too. Ya know, the music theory expert. The one that is always talking about theory and you don’t know what the hell he or she is talking about like the notes in a chord, scale degrees, chord progressions and things like that. There is always going to be a music theory expert around for sure.
• The Asshole Musician: Yeah, you’ll definitely see some of these too. Not everyone in the musicians community are gonna be nice to you. That’s one thing that you’ll have to accept. All musicians are different. They’re gonna be assholes and some are gonna be nice. You will run into an asshole musician who is never friendly to people, just one thing for you to be aware of. You can be nice to all musicians all you want but not all of them will treat you kindly in return. Trust me, I know from experience.
• The Music Critic: You will get a lot of musicians around who think they are a music critic of other musicians and bands. One thing to be aware of, some of them are gonna be brutally honest about your music and playing ability. So because they’re a musician they feel the need that it’s okay to critique others music.
• The Political Activist Musician: This is the type of musician that will bring politics into music. This isn’t just liberal musicians that goes for conservative musicians too. These are the musicians who are always going political in their social networking pages, writing political songs and going political at their live shows. You’ll definitely see some political activists around here for sure.
• The Unprofessional Musician: These are the guys who are no-shows for gigs, late for gigs, irresponsible promoters and just plain lazy that they don’t get anything done. They also have unprofessional attitudes as well. You will get these in your music scene too.
• The Attention Whore Musician: This is the type of musician who will do anything it takes to get well-known in the scene and community. They don’t care what it takes even if it means acting foolish and just plain dumb. Just ramming themselves down in everyone’s throats is what they’ll do. I’ve seen some of these.
• The Mr. Know It All Musician: This is the kind of musician who goes around thinking he/she knows everything. Watch out for these types. They think they know everything about being a musician, they think they know everything about your scene and blah blah blah. They think they know more than you just because they’re a musician and out there playing.
• The gullible and naive type of musician: These are the ones who trust everyone and everything so easily when they shouldn’t. For example, musicians falling for all the scams and pay-to-play bullshit that is out there. Also, easily going for the gigs when they shouldn’t and stuff like that. You get the deal.
• The pretentious and rock star wannabe musician: This would probably fall under egomaniac/narcissist but this is a little different. You will get some musicians out there pretending to be something they’re not. For example, there are too many musicians out there thinking they’re rock stars just because they’ve been hitting the bigger stages and having some successes. You will also get some musicians claiming they’re a “professional” musician when they only know 3 chords and playing shitty gigs.
• The Hard Partier: You will meet plenty of musicians who are into it for the hard partying so watch out for that. There will be a lot of heavy drinking and maybe even hard drugs involved too.
• The obsessed self-promotion musician: These are the musicians who will be obsessed with promoting themselves and their band. There will be some who will over do it so much. Always sending you show invites, ramming show advertisements in your face and blah blah blah. You get the deal. You don’t need to promote yourself too much.
• The only do it for the money musician: You will meet some musicians who are into it for the money alone and that’s it. They’ll only want to play music for the money. Meaning they don’t do free gigs… always wanting to get paid for it. Some like to see music as a “make a living” kind of thing… ya know, kind of like a job. Money is the only thing they think about so just be aware of that too.
• The Mr. Perfectionist Musician: Everything to them has got to be so perfect… whether it’s their playing or the way they record their albums. Everything’s got to be spot on. There will be demanding musicians out there like this so watch out for them.

So there you have it. Enjoy the list!

Kev