I just need to vent for a bit. Have you guys ever met those people who feel they have a better understanding of “good” music than everyone else? The bastards who say shit like, “Yeah, I liked them before they sold-out” or “I liked them before they became popular. They were much better then.” I don’t know why they feel they have a better understanding of music, or that their taste is so much more sophisticated than everyone else’s. I guess sometimes people just really get on my nerves.
It just has to do with the fact that some bands go mainstream in order to appeal to a much broader market. Which translates into much money from many more sales.
And along the way, many of them lose the edge, or some of the style that attracted the original listeners.
Old bands like Rush, Kiss, Blue Oyster Cult, Journey, etc. used to have a much more “raw” rock 'n roll sound that I used to love, and then started sounding all “bubble-gummy” and wussy.
So, although I ain’t no expert, I too started to miss the days before they became so mainstream and thought they now sucked.
I’m one of those people.
There’s also a level of stupidity to go with it.
Look at the great NZ band Shihad. They had to change their name to Pacifier in order to break into the US market because Shihad was deemed to close to Jihad for American sensibilities after September 11.
I kid you not.
Its not just the band, but sometimes the individual. Now that ‘his’ band is popular and hes not the only one with their poster on his wall, its time to point out all the posers who dont know anything about music and only listen to the band because he said they were cool. Something among those lines anyway.
I’m with mamann. What often attracts the early listeners is different than what the mainstream likes. For instance, I really liked the first Linkin Park album, the second is a little so so for my tastes.
Bruce springsteen is the same way. I loved his first three albums. The rest I like a lot, but not as much as the first three.
The reason why we seem a little elitist, is that we saw the before and after. After might be good, but before is sometimes better.