For my first ‘blog’, or should that be ‘rant’, I want to touch on something HugeRockStar touched on in his piece ‘In Flames: Stop Beating A Dead Horse!’ which I have to say was a great piece. Seriously go read it.
So lets get down to it.
I have a real problem with some fans of bands out there. There I’ve said it, now let me clarify why.
The problem is all the haters and doom merchants who call themselves loyal fans, but every time a band tries something different, or tries to progress musically a group of these so called fans pops up and tries to crush them for it.
If you want proof, look at the METALLICA situation. How many message boards out there have at least one thread dedicated to slagging of this band? Almost every metal board you care to mention has one.
Now it is everyone’s given right to an opinion, that’s not my problem. My problem begins when people go onto the bands personal boards to do nothing but slag them off and the people who actually enjoy what the are doing. I don’t like the new Metallica stuff, in fact, I’d go as far to say I hate it, but I will defend them to the end of time for producing the stuff they want to.
Yes I do agree that at times we feel so aggrieved that we feel we have to say something, so say it and let that be an end of it.
I watched for months on the ANTHRAX board as people daily posted messages about how bad they felt about how they were betraying the fans by ‘ditching’ one singer to go on a reunion with another. This led to quite a few people leaving the board or stopping posting altogether and the board becoming mostly a new vs. old fight with people just slagging off people.
A band, like a person, evolves through time and the things they experience. Are you the same person you were 10/15/20 years ago?
I’ll answer for you, and I’m guaranteed to be right. NO YOUR NOT!
As our lives change so do our opinions and the way we look at things, so why can’t bands be the same. If you don’t like what a bands doing, instead of wasting their time and yours slagging them off, don’t buy their stuff and don’t clog up there message boards spouting about how you feel they have personally s**t in your cornflakes.
Posts
3 comments:
I totally agree. You tend to see it on almost every bands forum when they release a new album, in particular I'll mention Opeth, when they releases Ghost Reveries.
Opeth wrote the album and THEN signed to Roadrunner Records, and all of a sudden the so called 'fans' were slagging the band for selling out, saying that the album wasn't as good because of RR etc etc. No matter how many times the band said they the label never has a say in theit music, these people just kept coming with their rediculous thoughts and ideas which they were sure to be so correct they wanted a friggen prize for it.
Opeth is a great example of the loyal fan though, as is katatonia because they've changed so much from album to album.
It's pure Hypocrisy when someone labels themself as a 'true fan' but as soon as the band does something different, they're the first to complain because it's not what they expected. Personally, I like being suprised by my favourite bands, which I'm sure Watershed will do.
Cheers!
Thanks for the kind words on my blog!
I totally agree with you. Once a band becomes big, they cant do anything without fans complaining about it. Some bands have it worse than others.
In the case of Metallica, I never thought they even sold out at all. If they were to write another 'Master of Puppets' to please everybody, THAT would be selling out. They write the album they want to make and take all the complaints from people like nothing. I respect them for wanting to do something different each album.
Progression in a band is a good thing! I don't want to hear bands repeating the same albums over and over! At the same time, you need to know when to give up. Metallica in my opinion, were past it years ago. Then again, I've never been much of a fan of theirs.
Selling out is when you change your style because it's "cool". I remember reading an interview with Linkin Park saying how they changed their style to "Nu metal" because they saw it was becoming the next "big thing".
There's a huge difference between "selling out" and progressing, but I find a lot of fans can't seem to spot the difference. The likes of In Flames and Opeth haven't changed their styles because of label pressure or because it's "cool", but because it was a natural progression for them, and fans should be able to evolve with it if they are "true fans". It might just take a while to get used to!
Post a Comment