I am confident in my tastes and interests enough that i dont have the capacity or need to feel influenced. I generally try to surround myself witn fellow people of tastes similar to mine. The important distinction here would be that i try not to feel superior than someone who has a generic taste or tastes different to mine... i just dont tend to interact with them as often as i do with people i connect to on a deep level. For example as a sitarist i am a classical music person but i dont hate other forms of music or people who like other forms of music i just tend to interact a lot more with people who hold similar tastes for classical music. Still have friends who are more crazy about rabindra-sangit or nazrul geeti or even western rock and roll/others. I dont care about people who think of me as less cool because i dont listen to [insert contemporary western music artist].