We Hate it When Our Friends Become Successful

While reading one of my friend's blogs today, I came across a comment regarding people who claim to not like this band or that because they are liked by many other people. Although I have had conversations in the recent past with this person regarding the popularity of bands and my corresponding distaste of their popularity, I don't necessarily think that comment was directed right at me. Rather, it was directed at many people who enjoy a particular musician and then reluctantly let go of them as their popularity rises. Even so, I'd like to respond for what it's worth...

I include myself in their ranks.

Why? Why do I profess attraction to a musician up until the point that everyone else sees the same thing? Why do I truly enjoy pre Joshua Tree U2 and then find their newer things less enjoyable? Why would I find myself excited to see Coldplay in a small no-name club in Charlotte right after Parachutes came out and then be disappointed when they come to the same town, but play in a huge amphitheatre?

Am I just a music snob who thinks that anything everyone else likes can't be good? No.
Do I have some "holier-than-thou" complex that I must support by falsely believing that I'm better than the masses because I refuse to acknowledge what is popular?
No.
Am I someone who has witnessed too many examples of corporate America spoiling something good? Someone who believes that power, fame, and money and the pursuit thereof have an enormous capability to corrupt even the most well-intentioned person; be it an artist, politician, business man, or religious leader?
absolutely.

It isn't that my reasons in liking a particular band have changed. I still like Coldplay because...well...they are Coldplay. But there is an important variable that has come into play in that case: I'm not longer getting just Coldplay themselves, I'm getting them plus millions of dollars of influence, millions of fans, an image thought up not necessarily by the members of Coldplay but by producers sitting in their high-rise offices thinking about how much money they can hope to make off their next album who then sit back and smile as they watch so much of the 13-30 sector of society fumble over themselves to buy the album, tickets to shows, t-shirts, stickers, and little worthless trinkets that have nothing to do with the music itself.

That is the poison in the water.

I might possibly be wrong, but I for one scoff at American Idol. I see it as a reflection of the depravity of this society and it promotes nothing but the selfish pursuit of fame and fortune in its viewers. So how does that affect my opinion of Kelly Clarkson? Sorry girl, you've got a great voice, but you've sold yourself out from the very beginning and everything about your image presented to me seems polished, produced, and unnatural.

No, I want something more genuine. Something pure, or at least as close to pure as I can get. But then again, I'm a New Order fan. Granted, I still like their older music much more than the newer things, but nonetheless I'm a fan...and they sold out after their popularity to such a large degree that they were hardly the same afterwards. So there is some measure of forgiveness to this. I'm not "hard-core" about it. Because music, like so many other art forms, is not something you can honestly be overbearing about. Art is so overtly subjective that for me to sit and say, "John Mayer sucks" and try to convince others of that would be ridiculous. Sure, I might have that opinion, but who am I to hold that opinion as if it were a cold, hard fact? There are as many different reasons people pick one band over another as there are bands out there. I may not like them for the same reason I don't like the color red: I simply don't like it. So what would make my opinion any better or worse than someone who thought Corporate Generated Band #67945 was the greatest set of musicians ever established?

One word to any musicians out there. You may have already had great success, or maybe you hope one day you will, but bear this in mind: when you become successful, you will give up part of yourself. You will make compromises, you will allow things to occur that otherwise you would have restricted. Don't believe me? Watch a couple of episodes of "Behind the Music." So when the opportunity comes your way, you will not only be making a decision about your future, but how much of yourself and what you originally set out to accomplish you are willing to compromise. There are few great artists who compromise themselves and still retain the qualities that made them great (Ray Charles), but the landscape is chock-full of the dead and dying who gave too much of themselves and sacrificed too much.