Sourpusses and the music industry

 Sourpusses and the music industry.

Face it, we all love our music dearly. But something that has been bothering me lately is that certain breed of music lover who takes their fandom to a new level of annoying. I am not talking about the swarms of pre-teen girls swooning over new, popular acts such as 'One Direction' or 'Justin Bieber', I am not even talking about the viewers of shows such as the X-Factor. The people that bug me are at the other end of the scale, and no I am not even referring to 'Hipsters'. No matter what genre you're a fan of, whether it be dance, rock, metal, punk, indie, you will always get this horrid niche of fan, who thinks that everything is too 'mainstream' and nobody should listen to the 'corporate rubbish' that's 'polluting the airwaves'. I hear it all the time, it's like a script. Apparently the only way to be a 'true musician' is to sit in your garage making music that genuinely sounds like an old man banging on a pan at 140 BPM with a spoon, making out-of-tempo jungle noises every now and then. I cannot for the life of me get my head around why you'd prefer something like that because someone has plastered the 'understated' label on it, when catchy brilliant artists are cast asunder because of their pop music undertones. The irony is, it seems to be the trend to reject anything popular, and you don't even need thick rimmed glasses to share this disposition.

Now, I am fully aware this is not a new concept, there has always been those annoying fans (particularly in rock music) who have the whole 'more-punk-than-thou' & 'you sold out' attitude. The reason this has come to my attention is due to this: When I was 10 or 11, I was just starting to get into music. I was listening to things like My Chemical Romance, Slipknot, Enter Shikari, The Killers and my (still) favourite, Green Day. Just basically everything Kerrang! threw at me, I would have heard. I would go to the town skate park in my American Idiot tee, only to be constantly told by moody boys 3 or 4 years older than me that 'New Green Day sucks!'. At the age of 11 I instantly clocked onto what they were doing, trying to be alternative. Trying to be something they weren't.

After my short-lived phase of hanging around skateparks when I had no bike, nor a skateboard, I went to secondary school and didn't hear that horrible, cringey word 'mainstream' for another 3/4 years. Suddenly, at the age of about 15/16 people started this whole stupid debate again. I'd see friends who had previously been chilled out, carefree little buggers listening to New Monkey getting in knots over the X-Factor and how it's 'corporate lies are corrupting and destroying the music industry, polluting the minds of the masses and making every song into repetative dance music'. Sourpusses.

I am adamant that there are people who listen to nothing but top 40, know what I say to them? Awesome. You haven't been sucked into this whole hormonal debate over whether your favourite band are 'sellouts'. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less if a band releases merchandise, plays huge gigs and get's coverage from MTV reality shows. Music is music, if it sounds good then listen to it. If you want to make a massive fuss about background and personality, read a fucking biography. Or don't. By constantly complaining about bands who are 'overrated' due to image, marketing etc. All you're doing is reinforcing the attributes of the music industry you claim to loathe so much. You should just chill out and listen to the music, don't throw your dummy out the pram because you're trying to rebel against something that's not controlling anyone.

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