In the record label of life, the guys in High Fidelity are always the B-sides. John Cusack singlehandedly steers this amusing, if uneven, film. They have absorbed pop music since they had ears, filing away every B-side and heritage link in brain space usually reserved for more important things.
Customers are merely the unwashed masses to be enlightened.
High Fidelity is always amusing when Rob, Barry and Dick challenge each other with pop quizzes or steamroll an item request with cascading trivia and dropped names. Those superior feelings cover up deeper insecurities. They can organize this musical knowledge, and thus their control, in lists of musical minutiae at the precise moment when a shot of confidence is necessary. When someone dies, grief turns into naming the Top 5 death songs of all time. As Rob's love life sours, he reorganizes his multitude of records at home.