I say this because recently there has been an increase of people liking the band Owl City, due to the song Fireflies. I see comments from the "older fans" saying that everyone is a band wagon jumper, and some certain types of people shouldn't be listening to this band. This band falls under a different genre than what some people generally listen to, etc. You get the picture. Basically older fans are generally disgruntled that a band has a new found fame and suddenly shot to number one in more countries. Now, this certainly does not go for all fans, no, I'm certainly not tarring all fans with the same brush. But the few that seem to think this way I think ruin your perception of a bands already existing fans. It creates segregation of fans in my opinion. When, really, music should give you a common interest, something to bring people together. Entertainment, happiness and all that jazz.
I also noticed it with a band I liked a couple of years now, called Sick Puppies. I was introduced to them via the Free Hugs video, with the song called All The Same. So, I downloaded their music, a few of their albums, went on to become a fan of them on facebook. A little bandwaggony, sure. But I liked their stuff, like I'm sure plenty of people before me. I know that I often discover music a bit later than most people, but I enjoy it all the same. I noticed some comments on an update on the fan page on Facebook, they were quite rude in my opinion generally of the attitude that Sick Puppies had sold out simply because they had shown their music to a wider audience and were advertising their tour in America. Some Australians (they're an Australian band) were quite bitter and saying that they should "come back to Australia", if you really like a band, surely you'd spread their material for them to gain a wider audience, not hoard them and keep them to yourself?
I just don't get the mentality of being so possessive and bitter about a band or singer you've liked from the early days growing bigger and gaining more types of fans. Music is not about splitting a community, it's about bringing a community together, or bringing many communities together. If a band or singer can bridge a gap between "emos" and "chavs", or "goths" and "posh tottie", or whatever you want to label people as, surely you should recognise the band or singer for being so diverse and not make derogatory comments to other newer fans, or fans that have a generally different taste of music to yourself. A band or singer growing bigger is not the band selling out. It's simply gained a wider, bigger audience.
I thought the whole point of making music and producing it, was to share things via music. Whether that's a message, which one of the most poignant "message holding" songs to me is Everybody Hurts (REM, if you didn't know!), and it's often quite obvious why. Or even just sharing how you feel about the world, life, love or whatever subject takes your fancy by writing some lyrics, or rapping a rhyme. You can also express many emotions in a simple score, by making a melody with certain strings, or percussion, changing up the woodwind or the drums. All of these impact music so greatly, and all of these go onto impact an individual. However that may be. If a song brings out an emotion or memory in you, are you not more inclined to share it that keep it from the world?
I just wish more people, the minority in general, would not be so negative about the increasing popularity of a music they have fallen in love with, it gives certain fans bad names.
No comments:
Post a Comment