Have you ever felt this way about a band you love?

[ForeverAutumn]

Sometimes when you discover a great band before everyone else, it often feels like this music is your personal secret. You discovered it, and it's effect is so powerful on your psyche that you don't want to share it with anyone except your closest friends. But then the machine takes over. The artistic merits of your band make it impossible for them to stay small. The small club tours turn into arenas and stadiums.

The zine stories turn into covers of spin magazine. And instead of being racked in the back of a small Indie record store, the albums are suddenly displayed up front at HMV. The band you discovered is now selling millions of records, records that are being bought by fans that came late to the party. You did all the hard work. You did all the prospecting. You made the initial emotional commitments. This was your private music. Now you're being forced to share it with the world.

Even worse, the band appears to be enjoying this success on some label. The singer dates a model. The bass player buys a house in Hollywood. The drummer seen driving a new Ferarri. The guitarist vacations in St. Barts.To some, this is a betrayal, and rather than accept this as a normal part of the rock-n-roll life cycle, some fans will blame the band before being good enough to sell a lot of records and make a lot of money. The band's music hasn't changed. Their attitude about is still the same. They rock just as hard. They're still playing with the same intensity as they used to. But because the group is now selling a significant number of records, they've been branded as sell-outs.

- Alan Cross
- Ongoing History of New Music, Selling Out Part 2.

[Dusty Chalk]

Nope.

I mean, I've seen part of it, but for the most part, I don't bemoan any of the bands that I like any of their success. Rarely is it so night-and-day as the picture the author painted.

Take Tonio K., for example. His first album, Life in the Foodchain, is a brilliant piece of angst-driven, soul-baring, just plain rock and roll. Then he got happy, lost the angst. Still good, but that debut album has a lot to live up to. I don't think he sold out, so much as...well, it's really hard to maintain that level of quality. I don't bemoan him his happiness, but...well, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a piece of me that wouldn't like to know if he could have churned out as good records if he hadn't found happiness.

[3-LockBox]

I know Metallica lost their luster with diehard metal heads when they started getting more popular. But then again, their music changed with the success.

I'd love it if a band I really liked got some over-due notariety, like PT for instance. As long as they didn't pander to their newfound popularity and forget what made them great in the first place (can you say, Aerosmith?).

As long as the 'new fans' understood how much more knowledgable I was than them for liking a band way before anyone else, respected my superior tastes in music, recognized my authority in such matters, and thus sought out my advise on other bands (that I liked) that they should like and I become some sort of local music sage/guru then fine, I'd be all over it.

[likeitloud]

Being born in LA, and of drinking age in the mid 70's, we "discovered" Van Halen
while partying on sunset (Gazzarri's-The Whiskey) and always knew if they got
signed, our own little house band would be gone. Well, with a flashy frontman and
a guy who would shock the world less than a year later, it happened, they hit
the big time, and we looked for a replacement to fill the gap. We were, and are of course
happy they made it, because we knew there was gonna be a lot of great music
from these guys if they had the means. Good and bad, it happened. When I play
a disc, I do remember those times, and wish it lasted longer. Good thread.

[kexodusc]

As long as the 'new fans' understood how much more knowledgable I was than them for liking a band way before anyone else, respected my superior tastes in music, recognized my authority in such matters, and thus sought out my advise on other bands (that I liked) that they should like and I become some sort of local music sage/guru then fine, I'd be all over it.

And isn't that what it's really all about?


I know Metallica lost their luster with diehard metal heads when they started getting more popular. But then again, their music changed with the success.

I don't blame a band for evolving and changing their music as they get older either. Damn it must get boring playing the same brand of music over and over and over and over again, then having to go back to studio for the next album, the last thing you want to do is make more of the same old stuff. By "Ride the Lightning" those albums were getting predictable and formulaic. That thrashy, but kinda proggy brand of metal on the first 4 Metallica albums sounds extremely dated and except for some truly great songs on a few discs, I don't play them nearly as much as I did years ago. Doesn't help there were a zillion bands popping up with similar sound. With the exception of St. Anger, I can find at least 2 or 3 good tunes on any disc post "...And Justice For All". I think some bands become more about the "song" and less about the "album" as they mature. I'd love to hear those guys do a Southern Rawk album just for fun.

Fans are the most fickle bunch of whiners. If a new album "stays true" to the roots, it sounds too much like Album 1, version 2, and the fans whine. If it changes too much, the same fans either become estranged and don't like it, or the change by moving more to the mainstream and criticize the band for selling out their principles. Just let these guys do what they want to do. Most artists I know are lucky to have 1 good angle...asking them to put out 2 completely original hit albums is a bit demanding.

Nelly Furtado is a good example of this. She's a fairly decent singer/musician that got big on her pop debut. Her second album was something I actually enjoyed a bit - it was completely a folky-pop album with tons of instruments and different sounds, but flopped by comparison. Her new album is more mainstream pop again and she's back on top of the world...too bad for me, but if she's having fun and enjoys writing that music, power to her.

Hey, sometimes I do what my boss tells me to do, not what I necessarily want to do, but that's what keeps the bills getting paid.

[Duds]

Yup, I feel that way about Tool. They are still my favorite by far, but I kinda wish they werent so damn big now.


Sometimes when you discover a great band before everyone else, it often feels like this music is your personal secret. You discovered it, and it's effect is so powerful on your psyche that you don't want to share it with anyone except your closest friends. But then the machine takes over. The artistic merits of your band make it impossible for them to stay small. The small club tours turn into arenas and stadiums.

The zine stories turn into covers of spin magazine. And instead of being racked in the back of a small Indie record store, the albums are suddenly displayed up front at HMV. The band you discovered is now selling millions of records, records that are being bought by fans that came late to the party. You did all the hard work. You did all the prospecting. You made the initial emotional commitments. This was your private music. Now you're being forced to share it with the world.

Even worse, the band appears to be enjoying this success on some label. The singer dates a model. The bass player buys a house in Hollywood. The drummer seen driving a new Ferarri. The guitarist vacations in St. Barts.To some, this is a betrayal, and rather than accept this as a normal part of the rock-n-roll life cycle, some fans will blame the band before being good enough to sell a lot of records and make a lot of money. The band's music hasn't changed. Their attitude about is still the same. They rock just as hard. They're still playing with the same intensity as they used to. But because the group is now selling a significant number of records, they've been branded as sell-outs.

- Alan Cross
- Ongoing History of New Music, Selling Out Part 2.

[3-LockBox]

I don't blame a band for evolving and changing their music as they get older either. Damn it must get boring playing the same brand of music over and over and over and over again, then having to go back to studio for the next album, the last thing you want to do is make more of the same old stuff. By "Ride the Lightning" those albums were getting predictable and formulaic. That thrashy, but kinda proggy brand of metal on the first 4 Metallica albums sounds extremely dated and except for some truly great songs on a few discs, I don't play them nearly as much as I did years ago.

I actually found the band hard to really get into because of the piss-poor production. I mean, why have a bass player, if all you're going to do is mix him out. I think AJFA is a great album, but the mix job is horrible. I'd love it if someone else would remix this album. I didn't give their music a lot of spin until the Black album, which Ulrich and Hetfield hated the sound of, but I loved.

[SlumpBuster]

Rent the documentary "Dig!". It won the grand jury award at Canne for best documentary in 2004 so you can get it at even Blockbuster.

The movie follows the emergence of The Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre each as the supposed next big thing. The bands were friends from the same "scene" but quickly diverged as the Dandys found huge success overseas and the BJM sunk into an oblivion of rock excesss. BJMs resentment of the Dandys success is blatant.

It is a great stand alone movie for any fan of music or documentaries, not just fans of the Dandys or BJM. Like a told my wife when I convinced her to see it with me "No, honey, its a real movie, its not some fanboy thing."

[GMichael]

Blue Oyster Cult was a local band from this area. Used to go see them at local bars for years. It was kind of cool seeing them grow the way that they did. But they did always play locally under another name even after they hit it big. This way we still had that "we've got a secret" feeling. Eventually word spread. Then you couldn't get near those bars when they played under any name.

[-Jar-]

[I]Sometimes when you discover a great band before everyone else, it often feels like this music is your personal secret. You discovered it, and it's effect is so powerful on your psyche that you don't want to share it with anyone except your closest friends. But then the machine takes over. The artistic merits of your band make it impossible for them to stay small. The small club tours turn into arenas and stadiums.



I try not to feel this way, I think it happens mostly with teenagers and twentysomethings.

The posterchild band for this process is R.E.M. They had a huge cult following before they really broke big with "The One I Love".. I remember all the kids looking at me funny for being an R.E.M. fan when they were all going to see Def Leppard. I'm like, man, Def Leppard was so '83.. In College, we actually had a name for this.. we called it "Athens Syndrome" - a guy we knew said he "saw R.E.M. back in Athens when they were playing bars" * - so we sort of coined the phrase "In Athens".. if you "did it in Athens" or "saw them in Athens" that means you saw the band or knew the band way before everyone else did. Like.. "I knew Nine Inch Nails in Athens dood.." We were weird.

* turns out the guy was lying and never saw R.E.M. in Athens. He told me laster he just said it to sound cool. Kind of ironic huh.

[Woochifer]

In my case, that would be the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They were a fixture around the L.A. club scene, and I once saw them play a gig on campus with some unknown band called Guns N Roses (?!) as the opening act. I showed up late, but I heard that Axl Rose got a bit antagonistic and subsequently booed off the stage.

They already had a major label deal by the time I discovered them, but they were still a local act with more of a cult following nationally. I was happy for them when Mother's Milk garnered them more national attention, but then came the onslaught of Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Aside from hearing them on the radio around the clock without any let up, they became just another target for the tabloids. The music was still good, but it just didn't have that same creative fire as before (and by the time of One Hot Minute it sounded tired to me). Perhaps because the idea of melding funk, punk, and rap elements by that time was no longer adventurous and had become an accepted part of the mainstream. Hard to be "alternative" when their albums are going platinum eight times over, and they're headlining the Lollapalooza stadium tour.

[-Jar-]

The first Lollapalooza was kind of like that... most of the mainstream people hadn't caught on yet, so the crowd was VERY sub-culture.. tons of punks and ravers but mostly goth/industrial folks.... great lineup for it too.. Butthole Surfers, Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Jane's Addiction.. by the next year with the Pearl Jam and the RHP (no disrespect) - though Minstry again drew the goth/rivetheads, the crowd started to change dramatically (lots more Jock/Fratboy types) I didn't even go the 3rd year, though I did miss Nick Cave :(

-jar