I was eating some chocolate when I imagined a world where Hershey’s was widely accepted, even by elitists, as the best chocolate.
Is consumer elitism just a facade for pretentious contrarians? Or are there things where even most snobs agree with the masses?
Also, I mean that the product is intrinsically considered to be the best option. I’m not considering social products where the user network makes the experience.
Edit: I was not eating Hershey’s. Hershey’s being the best chocolate is a bizarro universe in this hypothetical.
I’d say musical instruments.
Even an entry-level Fender Squier guitar is going to be more solid, easier to set up and keep in tune, and have better tone than an off brand instrument. Yamaha also makes beginner/student models for a large variety of instruments, all of which are designed to last for years.
I’m hard-pressed to think of any small brand that makes anything widely preferred over the recognizable ones.
I would disagree with this quite strongly. Most brands have several different tiers of products. Often, especially for the budget-level options like Squiers, the manufacturing is outsourced. For example, my first electric guitar was from Cort, a South Korean company whose main business at the time was doing contract manufacturing for Ibanez, Squier, PRS, and G&L, Kramer, Honer, and more. Literally the same wood and parts, just with slightly different shapes and branding.
The highest-end, elitist guitars would be small shops that focus on handmade custom work. Stuff like Dunable or what PRS used to be. Jackson is now owned by Fender, but it used to be a more premium brand. Custom shop stuff is always going to be premium regardless of brand- Schecter, Ibanez, Dean, Gibson, Fender, doesn’t matter.
To compare this to OP’s prompt, it would be like if Hershey did custom high-quality chocolate options, also sold good quality chocolate, and also sold a decent value option in grocery stores, and also sold the plastic brown goop they sell today as a budget option.
Yamaha is amazing. I recently got into playing recorders and their base-level $8 plastic recorder is honestly a great instrument.
I’ve still got my first bass clarinet which is a Yamaha. Still plays great for what my dad paid for it.
Lol recorders are the bane of parents with children in grade school across the US
No offense taken. They are an odd instrument that no one would know about if they weren’t forced on every elementary school music student. I seem to have missed that somehow, probably by changing schools at just the right point.
I like the sound, but I particularly like the sound of the lower-voiced recorders. I am mostly playing tenor and bass, which have lovely rich tones. My wife and a friend are both humoring me, so they’re playing soprano and alto with me. I’m not any good at it yet, but I am having a good time learning.