Photo tip via #guerilla vs bro twitt accnt
Sometimes I wonder how ‘mainstream’ a formerly independent artist can go. I feel like there are ‘levels of going mainstream’ which inspire an escalating amount of resentment/’backlash’ against u, depending on how mainstream your music/personal brand goes. I think it is ‘important for a band to try to go mainstream’ so that they can setup college funds for their kids. But when a band/artist ‘goes mainstream’, we can’t help but feel a lil bit like ‘h8 u.’
Here is a list of escalating microevents which make u feel like ‘fuck… they r going mainstream’:
- Having ur music used in a commercial
- Getting a mainstream record deal where u have 2 make 6 albums and only get like 3% of sales
- Your CDs are in a mainstream store like Best Buy
- Playing live at a Late Show
- Playing live on a Late Show
- Being played in the background of an MTV show/promo spot
- Having ur song be the theme song to ‘The Hills’
- A legacy ‘artist’ like David Byrne saying that ‘ur music is rlly authentic.’
- Some free spirited cunt saying that she ‘listens 2 ur band all the time’ in a magazine interview (like Natalie Portman in her prime)
- One of those authentic male actors ’saying that ur music is good’ and ‘being in attendance at ur concert’ (like Ryan Gosling showing up at a Grizzly Bear concert, then getting blurbed about being there)
- U r ‘blurbed about’ as ‘the next big thing’ in some notable magazine that will go out of business next year
- Having a rapper sing over ur catchiest song
- Kanye West nonsensically raps over ur song just cuz it is ’so kewl’
- Being nominated for a Grammy but losing to a pop star/rap star
- Winning a grammy
- Ur music is used by a political campaign since the message is so generic and welcoming, and the song is pretty catchy/uplifting
- Lindsay Lohan going 2 ur concert/DJ Set
- A ‘very famous’ like Bono/Thom Yorke saying that ‘ur band is rlly good.’
- Getting ur picture taken with Oprah
- Barry Obama lists u as an artist on his iPod
- Marrying some1 richer/famouser/more influential than u
- You play in some shitty ‘live collab’ where u sing an old song with an old artist, like singing “Brown Eyed Girl” in some shitty duet with Van Morrison
- Having Oprah ‘perform a sexual favor’ on u
- God puts ur music on his playlist in his iTunes library
Can yall think of any other events within the alternative artist product lifecycle where u ‘find urself cringing’ and saying ‘fuck… we lost them…. think they are mainstream now’? Has there ever been a particular artist that u stopped liking after they ‘fucking sold out’ by being involved in one of the above circumstances? R u worried about M.I.A.’s next album, and the ‘hype backlash’?
Sort of wish Oprah would use her massive platform to ‘do something good’ instead of just being snarky and causing health scares across the nation. Tired of her being some1 who ‘tells middle america’ about emerging trends/weight loss techniques/technologies. Wish we could build them a ‘website 4 stupid people’ or something.
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IAmCarles.com
32 Comments
furst
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//////////Reply by drip.blip
//////////Posted May 9th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
@authentanick, is
m.EYE.a considered blippyslashblalt.?
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secund yall
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//////////Reply by yazmin
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 10:12 am
@alttweenbro, thurd
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i sure do like the way u say ‘Playing live at a Late Show’ but then u say ‘Playing live on a Late Show’ because they are like the same thing but one has ‘at’ and the other has ‘on’ so i guess its funny or something the way its repeated and stuff. right?
i get more upset when an authentic band like abe vigoda gets a 7.____ review on p4k and then sells out to a more p4k -friendly sound for a 8.22222332 rating and a ‘best new music’ blurb even though it just sounds like the arcade fire
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//////////Reply by anony
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
@neuroticsterrunoff, Sounds like les savy fav; I’m not sure I can tell the difference….one has clearer vocals? I don’t even know who came first; that’s how much I care.
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//////////Reply by daffy
//////////Posted May 11th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
@anony, eww LA bands
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r.i.p. lykke li :[
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But don’t you think indie bands that play “your” songs are mainstream, in a different sense? Sure, the avg. person hasn’t heard of the band, but all your alt. friends & the alt. community have, b/c they were reviewed on Pitchfork or whatever. Is the band truly “authentic,” or just in the early stages of achieving fame?
An example can be seen in the trance music scene. While your mum, best friend, & everybody else in your social circle haven’t heard of popular DJs like Markus Schulz, Armin Van Buuren, etc., “authentic” trance listeners regard them as “mainstream” as their compilation albums are the most sold, their radio shows are most widely played, etc.
Except for the pop stars that are “made” w/ commercialization strictly in mind, I don’t get the whole “hate-this-band-because-they-are-popular-now” ethos. I think people are just jealous/elitists at best. If listening to “authentic” bands that nobody has heard of is so important to you, why not just stick to the local indie scene?
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//////////Reply by truth
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
@NDN(Indian)ALT, i agree whole-heartedly. but being an elitist in music is good, since there really is plenty of shitty music. if you can’t be elitist anywhere else, why not let musical elitism survive?
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//////////Reply by NDN(Indian)ALT
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
@truth, Fair enough mate, I think the notion goes into all areas of life nowadays, since there are just too much content online (yes, I’m aware the inherent irony). For me, the better approach would be not to be an elitist, but be someone who can create value for others & the economy.
Study hard and come up with new engineering solutions; Be a founder of a startup company if you have ideas that can change the world; Teach art to less-privileged children; etc.
Well, who am I to say these things, sitting on my arse all day front of the PC. So an obligatory hypocrite alert there.
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//////////Reply by Jenny Haniver
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
@NDN(Indian)ALT, yeah just stay bitter and ‘above it all’. mmhmm
//////////Reply by anony
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
@NDN(Indian)ALT, I actually agree with you fundamentally but when I asked myself who I should help create “value” for the answer turned out to be more important than I expected. Maybe it’s not so important that it be “good” but well aligned to your personal brand. Nobody wants to be associated with crap. If you can record and mix a decent album and not make it sound like it came from your basement (even if it did) then that’s half the battle.
passion pit getting their own iphone app?
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//////////Reply by Henderson (real nme)
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
@danny., iphone apps are not mainstream
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//////////Reply by Jenny Haniver
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
@danny., fuck passion pit
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//////////Reply by daffy
//////////Posted May 11th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
@Jenny Haniver, <3 u
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-opens 4/goes on tour with msntrm band like Bono and the u2s.
-writes a catchy song so people will download it on iTunes and not listen 2 n e other songs by the band.
-get mentioned in HRO.
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//////////Reply by NDN(Indian)ALT
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
@brobro, lol @ get mentioned in HRO.
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first
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Once Carles’ EP drops he’s gonna sell out to an iTunes commercial.
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wtf is in that lil red wagon? chips and salsa?
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//////////Reply by HappyinAmAppy
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
@HappyinAmAppy, o nvm mind its 67 lbs of animal fat
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//////////Reply by drip.blip
//////////Posted May 9th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
@HappyinAmAppy,
*human
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More suggestions, according to 2k9 trends:
-Custom band iPhone apps (as Carles has already covered)
-Bands tracking Twitter followers
-”Share this on Facebook/Technorati/Flickr/ StumbleUpon/Delicious/Your Blog!” buttons on their web content
-Viral flash dance/T-Mobile commercial types of videos on YouTube (has to be set in London)
-N. American bands coming to the UK to get on BBC programs
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//////////Reply by 999
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
@NDN(Indian)ALT, via grizzly bear on l8r with jools holland?
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//////////Reply by Jenny Haniver
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
@999, i fucking love jools holland. he’s so tiny and weird and amazing at piano
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//////////Reply by NDN(Indian)ALT
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
@999, hmm, more like the J-Ross Show… I think many bands that come on Jools Holland are pretty good. What do you guys think?
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//////////Reply by 999
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
@NDN(Indian)ALT, yeah, i mean if it had to be any, jools holland because its mostly ‘real muzik fans’ that watch it, he still sometimes mixes good shit with bad shit on there though
yeah totally hate how the ‘free spirited’ bitch talks about bands like fleet foxes. and then talking about the ‘rain on your skin’ chick
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when u get featured on myspace music.
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some drippy mainstream adult that is always asking you if you consider yourself “alt”///that you not so secretly hate but try to be nice to so you don’t seem like just another altbag mentions a formerly band/a band as an example of how they are actually cool despite unironic use of athletic footwear and that everyone would realize this if they just stopped judging books by their covers and started judging them by their ipods
but it’s a moot point because their very awareness of the band negates their altdom
because this kid is drippy
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bitter:sweet (although not alt enuff 4 here was kute as fk) ftd on a 2008 New Years Korbel champagne ad. RIP. Lemon Jelly ftd in a Friskies cat food cmmrcl. Boo RIP. Royksopp 4-eva RIP gngbngd by; Apple, Geico, KLRU, BBC World, T-Mobile, ACL & Fifa ‘06.
+more
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I may or may not have fucked opera in the ass
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yes, opera
as in the entire musical genre
hey, FUCK YOU
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//////////Reply by Princess Jazzy Gems
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 1:57 am
@aw, fukk,
Which do you think is tighter…
Opera or Oprah?
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//////////Reply by aw, fukk
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 2:01 am
@Princess Jazzy Gems,
theyre both sluts bro
s0 fckuin loose
ugh
had to pretend it was tao lin just so i cud cum
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maybe mainstream if there is a ’special edition Nike shoe’ of your single. really need T-pain edition airforce1s
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i’m so mainstream, you guys. i’m so typical, you guys. so predictable. i just want to play Oregon Trail and live with Carmen San Diego. i just want to live in a little box and say things like ‘you’re gay’ or ‘tight’. maybe i should trade all of my vinyl and newbalance snkrz for steel-toed boots and Magic cards.
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when people actually start debating if your authentic or not because it really does not matter.
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im not mainstream
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/6/l_90833b204bd04c79ae5d988b450b23a3.jpg
(im in the am appy headband)
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//////////Reply by a.
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
@le CEECEE, srsly?
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//////////Reply by megatitz
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
@le CEECEE, is you mother and/or father a rabbit?
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//////////Reply by wolvesarepeopletoo
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
@le CEECEE, LOLZ! man, that is one ugly chick! and as for being alt… im sure you’re an alternative to something…
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//////////Reply by le CEECEE
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
@wolvesarepeopletoo, SRSLY FK YOU how could you say something so rediculous? i am lyke the hottest gril in my core group of freinds
http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/16/l_ac5e9a70d70e4106a750fc214135a290.jpg
GNO 2K9: YR OF LE CEECEE
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//////////Reply by BK
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 12:16 am
@le CEECEE, what the fuck is that? a group of horses???
//////////Reply by Princess Jazzy Gems
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 2:05 am
@le CEECEE,
I CANT TELL IF Ur JKing.
WANA TRUST U
WANA KNO U
do ppl like u xist in ‘real lyfe’?
//////////Reply by le CEECEE
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 2:37 am
@
lol u r sillie, i can see why you didndt think i am real or not bc i am so alt i am hard to believe im real
its okay tho i exisisting at a higher lvl o alt ness
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/12/l_745027d5418e47a9916a08f0cca2f35b.jpg
im so alt i luv morrissey and u dont evne know who he is
2k9 altarchy: Le CEECEE>carles>Carltonbro>HRO COMMENTERS
//////////Reply by BK
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
@le CEECEE, did you buy that morrissey shirt at kmart clearance rack?
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//////////Reply by anony
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
@le CEECEE, Talk about throwing chum to the sharks.
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Hey look, I’m like so authentic! As a tween who listens to Jos-Bros., Ashley Tinsdale, Miley Cirus & Lady Gaga, I don’t get Carles supposed hatred for *mainstream* stuff. I think they are very authentic individuals! Just look at their fashion on Hollywood celebrity photo blogs, very nicely dressed people, aren’t they?? My favorite musical genres are like pop punk and that Basshunter techno-ish type of stuff.
My life is also consumed by watching American Idol, going to Hollister stores w/ my friends in the mall, and loving Ryan Gosling. I think Ellen DeGeneres is the new Oprah.
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//////////Reply by brobro
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
@Authentic, irony=alt/mnstrm
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//////////Reply by Authentic
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
@brobro, damn, I lose @ this game.
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//////////Reply by anony
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
@brobro, post ironic remains alt.
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//////////Reply by Jenny Haniver
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
@Authentic, i love you
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//////////Reply by Authentic
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
@Jenny Haniver, thanks for your kind words! This girl at school who always makes fun of me told me to come to this site, because she thinks I’m like the typical obsessed tween or whatever. She wears Urban Outfitters and stuff, and wears the same Converse shoes all time, ugh. She always tells me the music I listen to is “so gay”, think she listens to MGMT and whoever is similar.
Tbh, I don’t get most of stuff on this site, and my daddy doesn’t want me to look at it, b/c it has a lot of pics of naked girls… disgusting!
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//////////Reply by Switters
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
@Authentic, wow, s0 authentic.
I’m really impressed. srsly. U R MEMETASTIC
Carles, is that you?
//////////Reply by Jenny Haniver
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 1:42 am
@Authentic, i’m only here to sell this dick cologne to D&G, but no one seems to be catching on. fucking gross. keep living the dream.
love,
Jenny
WHOA i didn’t know oprah was ever skinny. jesus christ.
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knida feel like mainstram cultre births the counterculture. they just eat/ feed off of each other. myspace is the only reason “unknown altbands” have any followers, and that shit’s owned by rupert murdoch, the biggest mainstremer of them all. the wall street journal/”corporate media” is yr band. yr art is the “financial crisis”/”the end of the world.” get kinda sad when bands think theyre ’stickin it to the man’ and they’re really just jerkin him off.
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//////////Reply by LordPancreas
//////////Posted May 7th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
@emle, cryin atm
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//////////Reply by anony
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
@emle, So what’s your point?
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//////////Reply by emle
//////////Posted May 10th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
that i get sad when a song i like is in a shitty beer commercial/ sponsored by fox news and that there’s no alternative to the mainstream
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Carles I know your upset about AnCo playing Letterman tonight cause i am too. but be happy, cause they will truly never be mainstream. and even if they start getting mainstream, theyll make sure to scare all those mainstream fucks away with pos Merriweather stuff. at least i hope : ( anco please dont go mainstream
Love you carles…
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I heard a Matt & Kim song in a mainstream liquor tv commercial last night.
I wonder if they are going to ’sell out’?
Really worried…
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//////////Reply by anony
//////////Posted May 8th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
@Jonny R, Lots of bands have sold out and you don’t even know it.
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When getting close with Oprah u still havent reached the point where you actually leave your band behind to perform the titletrack for a James Bond flick.
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so bad. oprah??? doesnt do anything good with her platform? wow. da da. i dont watch it but i believe she is pretty well documented on what she has done with her platform. she bugs the shit out of me but i hate to tell you the world is a better place because of what she has done. da da da da. unreal.
dont you think “alts” just might not get that sumtimes bands, people and other things succeed to a mainstream level? Ever think the artists are pumped? ever thin indie artists are waiting for there big break? getting indie cred then eventually getting signed? ever think people who use the erm “sold out” might not seek first to understand? sumtimes peeple amaze me.
ross
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mainstreem sux cuz its vaccuos and whatnot, rite? and alt is alt bcuz itz zo meaningful so if alt goz totally mainstreem thn mainstreem wont suck anymore and will b meaninful. rite? y so much bitching, altfags?
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we are all on god’s itunes playlist.
mhm, let that one soak in.
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How insincere is it to judge music based on its popularity? Very insincere and greedy. This attitude towards music sucks. If you don’t like a song simply because it’s mainstream first of all you’re a fucking liar and secondly being strickly non-mainstream is oxymoronic. get over it posers
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oh and by the way we all jerk off for the man cause we need to survive. I sure as hell don’t know any hipster farmers
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