The Music That Pop Ate

[cross blues]

Did pop culture destroy any of your favorite bands? One day you're enjoying a great album by a band hardly anyone's heard of, then they get a video on MTV and it's all over... now you have to hear their music on every radio station and hear everybody talking about how great they are... ever happen to you?

here are mine:

- Blink 182
- Good Charlotte
- New Found Glory
- Simple Plan
- Dru Hill / Sisqo
- Jimmy Eat World

soon to be ruined: (I'm guessing)

- All American Rejects
- The Used
- Finch

[Starflyer 58]

Nope. The music I like doesn't/wouldn't ever get played by MTV.

That doesn't mean it's all obscure, either. Take Kraftwerk for example. They're legendary. A bunch of German guys who pioneered electronic music. Everyone from the Chemical Brothers to Madonna owe props to 'em.

Then of course there's the likes of the Violet Burning. Who have been around indepedently for 15 years and are successful in their own right, but will perhaps never get recognition from the mainstream industry.

Sorry to hear it's happened to you so often, though. I know of very few bands who've permeated pop culture and not been in some way influenced by it... so I can see where you're coming from.

[The Landstander]

one band came to mind...the Dave Matthews Band. if you agree with me, you already know.

[Terminatah]

I don't think popularity ruins anything. I don't get any kinda cheap thrill from thinking that I listen to something that few people know about. If the music is good, I like it, no matter how many times they play it on the radio.

-Terminatah

[Djm912]

No, I can honestly say that the 2 bands that I like that are relatively popular have not been ruined.

All the rest are pretty far off from anything the mainstream media has interest in right now.

[moreysurf8]

Originally posted by DrWeird
one band came to mind...the Dave Matthews Band. if you agree with me, you already know.

Yep *sigh* such a good band. Dr. Weird I don't know if you listened to their "Everyday" album? but I hated it it was nothing like DMB.

[GoufCustom]

Well, Tool certainly hasn't been ruined. The same cannot be said for Metallica.

[Damien]

Music for me went downhill as a whole around '97 or '98. Most of the new stuff I like is techno, and not many of those artists are played on MTV.
There are, however, a few bands that are okay, like Chevelle and Queens of the Stone Age, but their time is coming (or maybe it already came. I don't watch MTV, specifically for this reason.).

[atf487]

QOTSA, Zwan (known about them for about 6 months), and Sevendust (liked them since 99)

[The Landstander]

Originally posted by moreysurf8
Yep *sigh* such a good band. Dr. Weird I don't know if you listened to their "Everyday" album? but I hated it it was nothing like DMB.

thats pretty much what i meant by "you already know". most DMB fans hated that album...i was never a huge DMB fan, but (especially compared to their older stuff) that album was a different style and sucked.

[Zechs]

I'll have to go with Starflyer on this one. Most of the music I listen to will never get air time on MTV. I listen to a few of the popular artists but not very many.

[DarkAngel]

Originally posted by DrWeird
thats pretty much what i meant by "you already know". most DMB fans hated that album...i was never a huge DMB fan, but (especially compared to their older stuff) that album was a different style and sucked.

So that means DMB's finished as a band? I think a lot of groups are going to have an album or two that isn't that good. Based on that, most band's have been destroyed. Do you really expect perfection from musical groups?

[Jedigreedo]

Not really, I just really listen to rock, and since I watch VH1 I know I definitely won't have to worry about MTV being interested in making them "popular."

[Pilmedium]

I do not like or hate music because of how it got publicized. Even if it is annoying to hear everyone talk about it, my opinion on it does not change. If publicity causes groups or singers to change their style of music, that is when it goes too far.

[Mynd Hed]

Popularity and/or publicity, in and of themselves, do not change my opinion of music. If I like a band before it's popular, wouldn't it be pretty elitist and narrow-minded of me to stop liking it just because it suddenly appeals to many other people as well?

On the other hand, there are instances where a band will do a 180 degree turn in their musical style in order to appeal to the MTV crowd because they think it will keep their popularity (and, hence, profits) up.
You take Sugar Ray for example. Take a listen to anything they wrote before "Fly" hit big, and then you take a listen to anything they wrote afterwards. See the difference? Now, me, I never cared for them too much either before or after they became "big," but they make a great illustrative example of what I'm talking about.

Sometimes, even if the music itself doesn't change, other things change that can affect my enjoyment of a band. For example, I saw Incubus two and a half years ago in Phoenix, and they played in a relatively small venue called Mesa Amphitheatre. It was a great show; since the stadium was so small, there was no such thing as a bad seat. The crowd was very diverse, with lots of college students like myself, some older folks, some little kids, and a good mix of guys and girls. It's an outdoor venue, and the weather was great, and since it was small they didn't have to blast the music so loud that it left my ears ringing for hours like at most concerts.
I saw Incubus again a year later, after their popularity took a dramatic upward turn. This time it was at a bigger venue in Phoenix called the Cricket Pavilion. Being a poor college student, I got general admission seating in the nosebleed section. I couldn't see anything that was going on on-stage, the sound setup was noticeably worse, and I had to elbow through a very rowdy crowd that was definitely skewed toward the 13-year-old-teeny-bopper-girl demographic in order to get to my seat. Incubus' was just as good as it had been a year before, but overall my concert-going experience wasn't as pleasant.

[hyprlynx]

Originally posted by GoufCustom
Well, Tool certainly hasn't been ruined. The same cannot be said for Metallica.

I sooo agree, I haven't repected Metallica for some time now.

[GoufCustom]

In regards to Incubus, although they have become highly popular, I enjoy them tremondously. Big Incubus fan here. It's good that they have maintained quality musicianship.

[HelloKittyKat]

Originally posted by Mynd Hed
Popularity and/or publicity, in and of themselves, do not change my opinion of music. If I like a band before it's popular, wouldn't it be pretty elitist and narrow-minded of me to stop liking it just because it suddenly appeals to many other people as well?

Amen. I wouldn't care if the entire world started listening to Husker Du. In fact, that'd probably be a good thing.

[Andy Mancini]

I never got the whole "they suck because they're popular" thing. Sure, there are some bands that fit that, like Limp Bizkit (listen to "Three Dollar Bill Y'all" and "Significant Other" back to back and you'll know what I'm talking aout), they seem to be more the exception than the rule. While pretty much everything I listen to is either unknown (Vendetta Red), underground (Mephiskapheles) or made for the infamous "niche audience" (They Might Be Giants, "Weird Al" Yankovic), it doesn't stop me from liking more "mainstream" stuff.

[ccffan01]

No, because those bands were pop to begin with.