The sort of men who come out with phrases like that are (almost universally) arseholes. Having a default response, that can be rolled out quickly, and hit at emotional sore spots is useful.
As for why it works, if they are willing to come out with that line, then either a massively misogynistic, or badly socially stunted and rude. Both will drive women away aggressively (and likely a lot of male friends).
How often does that line happen? I can definitely see “What’s your favorite song/album?”, that’s just making conversation based on a common interest. And it can be kinda disappointing if you thought you were gonna get to talk about a band you like, but the person just liked the design and hasn’t even heard them.
But “Name 5 songs”? I thought that just happened in memes.
Are you a woman? It might also be something that developed during very young gen X/millennial generation, because it was at that point I believe the band shirt trend escaped the “die hard fan” category into just general audience category. Maybe it’s location based, or appearance based. If you don’t “look the part” whatever that means to the person, you’re a suspected “poser.”
I’m younger than you and am a woman and can confirm this has happened to me on multiple occasions. I had an ex that liked band merch and I often wore their clothes out when I stayed over and just kinda kept them because they looked cool. I was generally happy to say I didn’t know the band, but it happened enough times that I started telling people I got the merch off a corpse. It was generally a left field enough response that they didn’t try to continue speaking to me. I can’t remember the number of times it happened but it was enough to prompt me to change my response from “it’s my boyfriends” to something to make the conversation stop.
The sort of men who come out with phrases like that are (almost universally) arseholes. Having a default response, that can be rolled out quickly, and hit at emotional sore spots is useful.
As for why it works, if they are willing to come out with that line, then either a massively misogynistic, or badly socially stunted and rude. Both will drive women away aggressively (and likely a lot of male friends).
How often does that line happen? I can definitely see “What’s your favorite song/album?”, that’s just making conversation based on a common interest. And it can be kinda disappointing if you thought you were gonna get to talk about a band you like, but the person just liked the design and hasn’t even heard them.
But “Name 5 songs”? I thought that just happened in memes.
It does only primarily happen in memes. I’m 50, lived a very unsheltered life and never once heard someone ask something so stupid in the flesh.
Are you a woman? It might also be something that developed during very young gen X/millennial generation, because it was at that point I believe the band shirt trend escaped the “die hard fan” category into just general audience category. Maybe it’s location based, or appearance based. If you don’t “look the part” whatever that means to the person, you’re a suspected “poser.”
I’m younger than you and am a woman and can confirm this has happened to me on multiple occasions. I had an ex that liked band merch and I often wore their clothes out when I stayed over and just kinda kept them because they looked cool. I was generally happy to say I didn’t know the band, but it happened enough times that I started telling people I got the merch off a corpse. It was generally a left field enough response that they didn’t try to continue speaking to me. I can’t remember the number of times it happened but it was enough to prompt me to change my response from “it’s my boyfriends” to something to make the conversation stop.