Ugh, I HATE how Apple uses small indie bands and then everyone and their mother starts to like them. What's the point of hearing a song over and over until you start hating it?

One of my former roommates was in a band that got big thanks to a movie, and a lot of former fans decided they hated him afterwards. He was genuinely surprised and baffled by the haters- I felt so bad for him, because he was the same exact guy he had always been, still writing the same songs, and the only thing different is that he was able to pay his rent on time now.

Absolutely not. That's a bit absurd.

Pretty typical, isn't it? People who start hating a band after they become more famous will never be able to give you a real reason why they feel that way, and that's because it's embarrassing for them to admit they don't feel special anymore. It's alllllll about not wanting other people to think they have mainstream taste, at all. I spent years hanging around with people like this, and there was a time I would have considered myself one of them. *shudder* It's reverse snobbery, ya know? They don't seem to realize that refusing to be told what to listen to is still a way of having your opinions decided for you.

Mainstream success doesn't ruin a band for me, but overexposure does. When an indie band I like is suddenly on every radio station and TV commercial, a teen drama on Fox and MTV and VH1 every five minutes, then, yes, it ruins the band for me.

I tend to stay away from the radio, MTV, and VH1 now so the overexposure doesn't get to me as much now.

To Francesca Fiore's point (still LOVE the screenname, by the way), I remember there was a TON of backlash against the Shins when they became really big due to Garden State.

Oh. There's another thing, though.

When a band has mainstream success, their ticket prices go up and they play in bigger, crowded venues, which sucks. I saw the Shins in 2000 in this tiny bar here in Philly for $12. A few years later, they played a huge theater in the city, tickets were $40, and they sold out instantly. So I didn't get to go.

I don't blame the band for that, but I think it sucks.

AKirstin - I agree!

I do want to feel special, but it's not about music snobbery, I think. I love when you see your fav band in a small venue with a couple hundred die hard fans. After they're big, tickets are expensive like WhiplashGirlchild said, and you see the band with 15,000 people who just scream for the hit song. The experience changes for me.

It's awesome to see a band in small venues inexpensively, but how can you begrudge them success, especially when you're a fan? Go forth and hit it big, little talented ones.

I always love it when a small but talented band made it big or get the recognition they deserve.
But I also know that their good work usually will 'suffer' or at least, it won't last...nothing lasts forever anyway, so it's not like I'm surprised, but I totally want bands to succeed regardless the mostly inevitable 'downhill' in the future.

It's only annoying in some circumstances. Like I saw VW last December and got a ticket at the last minute. And now I can't see them against next March because they keep playing that one song on the radio. And everyone got tickets to it.

It's also annoying when people only fall in love with the band after a song, and only listen to the album that song is on. A lot of times people refuse to listen to bands' back catalogs. I feel like that happened with The Shins, and Feist's older stuff is a lot of fun, yet people won't hear that

im with whiplashgirl on this one. mainstream success does not bother me...i want the bands i like to be known. but overexposure is when i stop liking them.
for example, i was a huge fan of onerepublic before everyone else. apologize was my favorite song for a few months before it started playing on the radio. and when i did first hear it on the radio, i was so excited that i wouldnt be the only one who knows them. and then they started playing that song like 5 times in an hour and the music video plays nonstop on vh1. i'm still a fan, but not a big fan like i used to be.

The only thing that really ruins a good song for me is hearing it over and over and over and over. I still like Feist, for example, but it's going to take some time before I can listen to 1,2,3,4...

But actually, one thing that bothers me about more obscure bands is that their music is so hard to find in stores, and pricey if you can find it. Whereas, you can find any popular album on sale for $10... err, people still buy CDs, right?

I feel like these guys are getting so much buzz, and when I finally listened to them, I was all, "Them?" in the same way that Michael Bluth says "Her?" about George Michael's girlfriend Anne.

Also, I'm sorry, but Vampire Weekend is such a silly name.

I hate when people get annoyed when their favourite bands go mainstream! I would think that fans would be happy for them, it seems ridiculous to me to ditch them.

You know whats funny is I was a HUGE fan of Fall Out Boy before they became famous, and since they are from Chicago like me it wasnt hard to find a venue with them playing on the weekends. I saw probably 10 of their shows and then a few months later they were on the cover of Spin and i was like OMG I know those guys! Thats awesome! and now they are HUGE!

I only like 1 song of vampire weekend's anyway...

What Whip said.

I don't understand why my opinion would change as long as the music stays the same--or equal quality.

the thing with commercials is the song become annoying and then you want to hurt that artist for agreeing to torture their fans like this. I use to really hate when a band i liked became mainstream but i guess you should be somewhat happen for them. Because they are now going to make decent amount of money and great exposure.

Vampire Weekend i believe will be MTV's artist of the week. I went to MTV and there are tons of picture of them, so i guess in a few weeks they will be that.

oh i agree whiplash-it sucks when they move up to bigger venues. I really hope Kenna and Mark Ronson don't do that.

I think that it can. I personally feel mainstream success has kind of ruined the Heroes and they just aren't the same. I fear all the great indie bands that are truly blowing up, great for them, but I think people can let things go to their heads, in any genre of art (music or acting).

P.S. I think bands getting the success they deserve it great.

My husband and I have been listening to Vampire Weekend for months, absolutely loving them. They came to do a show in DC about a month ago, and the tickets were sold out a week in advance!!! We were sure nobody else knew them until I saw your writeup of them, but even still we thought we could get tickets the night of. What a downer.

oh, and I had the same issues with The Decemberists. Back in the day, tickets and shows were nice. Now the shows are filled with frat kids who are really rude and only like the more recent tunes.

i can't but be put off by extreme buzz. i really don't like force-feeding myself music/movies just because they're 'in' at the moment. waiting means i get to like something on my own terms, rather than be influenced by those who love/hate it at the time.

Sometimes it ruins it for me. But I LOVE Vampire Weekend!

I don't know, it depends. It really annoys me though when some people only like obscure bands and they get mad if they find out that you like them too or they think that you are a "poser." Good music isn't meant to be heard by just a few people.

i don't get the "deserve" thing - bands get popular partly because of who they know and yes, luck! i hate that ticket prices for concerts go up when bands get more popular. like the vampire weekend show was $18 or something not long ago (last month?) i wonder what it'll be the next time they're here! i don't like feist less because of her success. she still plays the smaller folk festivals and such, but her main concert is rediculous - $65!! there's no way i'm paying that to see her a 3rd time.

i tend to not listen to bands that have stuff at Starbucks out of principle.

strange - i am listening to a CBC radio 3 podcast with a segment about indie musicians' music for ads.

some of the people say that it is so hard to sell indie records in Canada (?!) and some people have said that they don't feel like they own the song anymore and don't play them live because it feels like an ad. people are exposed to some great stuff that they wouldn't be normally when they hear it in ads. i guess there are so many ways to look at it. i mean, for the advertisers - it is so much cheaper to offer money to indie bands than mainstream songs, plus wouldn't they rather support a smaller band, seem young and youthful and have something fresh?! i think it is really lame to hear the older songs sung by new people in so many ads from yogurt to laundry soap and "imagine" is out there too much.

as an aside - i was so happy to hear the Rilo Kiley song "portions for foxes" in the first scene/first episode of grey's anatomy!

oh, and i am kind of in a bubble in a sense - as i don't watch a lot of tv shows in their alloted times and almost never see the ads...so don't get sick of certain songs because they are in ads.

oh, and i am kind of in a bubble in a sense - as i don't watch a lot of tv shows in their alloted times and almost never see the ads...so don't get sick of certain songs because they are in ads.

wow, on the spin cover already?!

backlash & hype happens all the time. the shins, arcade fire, arctic monkeys, etc. it does annoy me to a certain extent but bands who work hard and write good music deserve credit (i.e.: wilco in a vw commerical, i don't consider that "selling out") i don't need mtv to tell me what to listen to because that's corporate america pushing awful tunes down our throats. eh, no matter what there is always going to be backlash.