# Mainstream



## Armaetus (Mar 16, 2007)

Yay or Nay?

Nay for me, I don't feed the corporate radio controllers and stick to lesser known groups and labels. F the RIAA.


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## Hanazawa (Mar 16, 2007)

I listen to what I like, regardless of where it falls in the "stream".


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## quark (Mar 16, 2007)

Hanazawa said:
			
		

> I listen to what I like, regardless of where it falls in the "stream".



Agreed.  When I was a kid, I'd always bitch and moan about mainstream stuff. Now, it's like "Who cares, it sounds good, and it makes me want to boogie, so I will"


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## WelcomeTheCollapse (Mar 16, 2007)

mrchris said:
			
		

> F the RIAA.



QFT.

My opinion is that most "mainstream" stuff today is undeserving of its fame. The only problem is that the only music that a lot of people know is what they hear on the radio and "M"TV. I know that that was my problem until about the 9th grade.


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## Horrorshow (Mar 17, 2007)

Hanazawa said:
			
		

> I listen to what I like, regardless of where it falls in the "stream".



As annoying as acronym posts are, IAWTP.
D:>


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## Ylm (Mar 18, 2007)

I have no idea what is mainstream nowadays, I don't listen to the radio.


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## Bokracroc (Mar 18, 2007)

I'll listen to what I like, mainstream or not. However, mainstream Rap is crap, go Indie!


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## nobuyuki (Mar 18, 2007)

*nay*. 

and now's a good time for me to plug my radio station for no reason.

(edit:  it's full of independent artists, seriously.  Even a few guys from FA)


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## capthavoc123 (Mar 18, 2007)

I listen to what sounds good, and I'm not about to discount a band just because some fool classifies it as "mainstream."

Pitchfork.com gave Jet's first album something like a 3 out of 10 () and when they reviewed their second album, they didn't even post a score, just a YouTube video of a monkey pissing in its own mouth.

That's the attitude of most indie supporters. It seems like if a band is "mainstream" they are automatically considered to be crap. Music doesn't have to sound different to sound good.


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## Rhainor (Mar 18, 2007)

I don't go looking for new music.  Ever.  If I happen to run across something that I like, I'll download it, and I may look for more by the same artist/group/what-have-you.

As such, most of my music is from movie soundtracks and such, or stuff I heard over at a friend's house or something.


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## kitetsu (Mar 19, 2007)

Rhainor said:
			
		

> I don't go looking for new music.  Ever.  If I happen to run across something that I like, I'll download it, and I may look for more by the same artist/group/what-have-you.
> 
> As such, most of my music is from movie soundtracks and such, or stuff I heard over at a friend's house or something.



Oh... dude... That's just... painful.

New music doesn't necessarily mean shit music, you know. :<


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## capthavoc123 (Mar 19, 2007)

kitetsu said:
			
		

> Oh... dude... That's just... painful.
> 
> New music doesn't necessarily mean shit music, you know. :<


I don't think that's what was meant by "new music".


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## Rhainor (Mar 19, 2007)

kitetsu said:
			
		

> Oh... dude... That's just... painful.
> 
> New music doesn't necessarily mean shit music, you know. :<



Meh.



			
				capthavoc123 said:
			
		

> I don't think that's what was meant by "new music".



Indeed.  By "new", I merely meant "new to me", regardless of when it was created.


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## Armaetus (Mar 19, 2007)

I speak about the latest metalcore, pop punk, rap from the "Big Five" record labels. I do have a tiny amount of mainstream among my somewhat obscure playlist (early Metallica and some Black Sabbath).

Would you even support the music cartels and their partners when they pull crap like this?

(Ascending to descending order)

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/82375
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/82207
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/82025
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/82145
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/82056
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/81950
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/81838
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/81798
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/81679
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/81537
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/45741


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## capthavoc123 (Mar 19, 2007)

You're completely right about the entries that talk about the music industry trying to force their pricing demands on radio stations, but remove the entries that talk about them trying to penalize people for downloading music, if you want to be credible. No matter what you believe about the RIAA, that IS stealing, and lumping them in with the stuff about price extortion is a ridiculous way to try to prove your point.


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## Wolf-Bone (Mar 19, 2007)

capthavoc123, you've got to admit, charging $20 or more for an album that might only have one or two songs on it you really want is low, and the recording industry was pretty slow to take advantage of the internet instead of trying to stamp it out (which ultimately fails). I've been burned so many times that I just said screw it, I'll pay for the songs I want instead of helping an album I don't like go platinum.

I like whatever I like, whether it's "mainstream" or not. All the hip-hop I like, I liked before it was mainstream, and guess what, most of the rappers I like still aren't mainstream. There's always a few exceptions, like Notorious B.I.G, 2pac and Eminem who find a fanbse beyond mainstream or underground or even their genre. But ask most of these kids in junior high who's Bone thugs n harmony, KRS One, Big Daddy Kane or Public Enemy are, and they can't tell you. Well, they might know Flava Flav and Ice T because of their reality shows, but that doesn't really count.

Bone did their own thing, it was like nothing else in hip-hop, and Tha Crossroads helped them win a grammy and go something like 7X platinum. Not because it was "mainstream", because frankly it was the best song they ever did. And when not every new song sounded like Tha Crossroads, well they weren't mainstream anymore, which I guess is why they're obscure now. Now they're trying to go mainstream again by working with people I don't even want to mention here. Will it be worth it? We'll see. All I can say is thank God for bittorrent so I can drop $20 AFTER I know I like the new shit.


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## DavidN (Mar 19, 2007)

You know, I was really impressed with Noise Records a while ago, which instead of releasing singles, provided one or two tracks from each of the albums they owned as free downloads - along with CD tray inserts and covers so that you could manufacture a "proper" case at home. In this way it was rather like shareware music, and it was a pretty effective way of using the Internet to distribute music rather than condemning it outright - by providing a couple of freely available downloads it decreased the likelihood that you'd hunt down the whole album as MP3s. (Well, it worked on me.)

"Mainstream" is an unfortunate term... it does often seem that the musical credibility of something is inversely proportional to the chart position it gains, but that implies that everything that becomes popular is terrible, which can't be true.


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## Rouge2 (Mar 19, 2007)

Mainstream Country is OK, but not anything else.


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## Armaetus (Mar 20, 2007)

Let's see....downloading an MP3 is equalvent to going into a store and shoplifiting a couple of things? The latter is being deprived of items being physically lost while the original CD where the MP3s came from are NOT. The correct term is copyright infringement.

I'm also not saying everything mainstream is crap, but it seems people pushing out all the latest pop princess or punk band care more about the almighty dollar rather than giving them a fair cut from CD sales.


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## capthavoc123 (Mar 20, 2007)

mrchris said:
			
		

> Let's see....downloading an MP3 is equalvent to going into a store and shoplifiting a couple of things? The latter is being deprived of items being physically lost while the original CD where the MP3s came from are NOT. The correct term is copyright infringement.
> 
> I'm also not saying everything mainstream is crap, but it seems people pushing out all the latest pop princess or punk band care more about the almighty dollar rather than giving them a fair cut from CD sales.


The legal term is actually piracy. Copyright infringement is slightly different. If you download a CD, are you REALLY gonna go buy it later? I doubt it.


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## Mortane (Mar 20, 2007)

I'm one of the ones that only really listens to the radio; it's a heck of a lot cheaper that way, and I don't really have an income at this point.

I think I'm gonna ask my older friends for CDs for my next birthday, though; I know daggone well there's a heck of a lot more to oldies and classic rock than what I'm hearing. Â Â Sort of wish I were born a few decades earlier so I could see it first hand, but hey, next best thing. *shrug*


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## Hanazawa (Mar 20, 2007)

My view on downloading MP3s?

Ask the artist.

Some bands, even ones signed with the RIAA!, don't mind or worry about MP3 downloads. Even if the RIAA is trying to milk the consumer for every cent, some musicians are more progressive and understand that MP3s can bring them more money in the long run.

Chris Hall (Stabbing Westward/The Dreaming, I know I'm a fangirl ) has said he doesn't mind bootlegs of things like live performances, for example. He still wants you to buy his albums (obviously) but none of this inane "COPYRIGHTCOPYRIGHT" bullcrap about things that aren't ever going to see official releases. And honestly, I think that's a fair policy.

(I also don't believe that all downloaded MP3s are lost sales... I buy what I think is worth paying for even if I can d/l it somewhere)


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## Wolf-Bone (Mar 20, 2007)

capthavoc123 said:
			
		

> If you download a CD, are you REALLY gonna go buy it later? I doubt it.



I have. MP3s are fine for your iPod or whatever but not quite CD quality. Maybe some people can't tell the difference, but I can cuz I'm a leet p-shifter with wolf hearing. As for downloading the ACTUAL CD files (.AIFFs I think they're called), I've never found them on any filesharing program or torrent site. Only on rare occassions when someone with connections posts them on their little-known personal sites have I ever seen CD quality tracks. And even then it's usually for shit that was never officially released.


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## XeNoX (Mar 20, 2007)

capthavoc123 said:
			
		

> If you download a CD, are you REALLY gonna go buy it later? I doubt it.



two words: DIGI PACKS ;3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



			
				Hanazawa said:
			
		

> Ask the artist.
> 
> Some bands, even ones signed with the RIAA!, don't mind or worry about MP3 downloads.



Some bands encourage their fans to record everything they get can a hold of and post it on the internet. <3
Or gained popularity without any CDs whatsoever


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## elementseven (Mar 20, 2007)

You *sheeple* disgust me with your uniform tastes in music and culture!

If it has more than 5,000 listens on Audioscrobbler, I don't listen to it~


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## elementseven (Mar 20, 2007)

PS. MC Chris is not a real musician and nerdcore is not a real genre of music.

Please stop saying otherwise; the music community shudders to think nerdcore as a valid form of expression, let alone an avenue of music.


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## TeeGee (Mar 20, 2007)

I listen to what I enjoy. By only listening to things that have 5,000 listeners on Audioscrobbler, you are depriving yourself of great musicians just because you want to be an elitist. 

If you are talking about such artists as Red Hot Chili Peppers and the like, I could understand. But when you say that an artist such as Saul William is terrible and I am a sheeple for listening to him *solely* because he has more than 5000 listeners, that's just naive.


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## capthavoc123 (Mar 20, 2007)

elementseven said:
			
		

> PS. MC Chris is not a real musician and nerdcore is not a real genre of music.
> 
> Please stop saying otherwise; the music community shudders to think nerdcore as a valid form of expression, let alone an avenue of music.





			
				The1960s said:
			
		

> PS. The Beatles are not real musicians and rock and roll is not a real genre of music.
> 
> Please stop saying otherwise; the music community shudders to think rock and roll is a valid form of expression, let alone an avenue of music.


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## Armaetus (Mar 20, 2007)

capthavoc123 said:
			
		

> mrchris said:
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I have, 3 times o.o Dark Tranquillity's "Damage Done", Hypocrisy's "The Arrival" and Soilwork's "Stabbing the Drama (which I sold).



			
				elementseven said:
			
		

> You *sheeple* disgust me with your uniform tastes in music and culture!
> 
> If it has more than 5,000 listens on Audioscrobbler, I don't listen to it~



lol, that's being supremely elitist. I used to go around making fun of the losers listening to Korn and Slipknot on my old account but I stopped with the new one (argonianslave).

I am pretty much above the typical radio listener and popculture "metal" and "alternative" stuff listeners out there, well IMO that is. 

Hardcore is not death metal and metalcore certainly isn't the fuck DM.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VIJs1lONd3o


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## TeeGee (Mar 20, 2007)

mrchris said:
			
		

> capthavoc123 said:
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I like to think that I have an extremely diverse taste in music (I believe the term is "eclectic", or the more elitist title "musical connoisseur"). Having a bit of everything is the spice of life, no?


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## imnohbody (Mar 20, 2007)

mrchris said:
			
		

> elementseven said:
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ITYM "being an attention-whoring snob".


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## Bokracroc (Mar 21, 2007)

lol at joke.
_flys straight over heads_


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## Hanazawa (Mar 21, 2007)

if it doesn't have 5,000 plays on audioscrobbler, then I will have to listen to it *five thousand times*

or, perhaps

"Hey, elementseven, what does Audioscrobbler say about its listener level?"

"*IT'S OVER FIVE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAAAND*"


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## elementseven (Mar 21, 2007)

capthavoc123 said:
			
		

> elementseven said:
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Next time, if you're going to make a cohesive argument, be sure to use a vague offshoot of music rather than a mainstream one; were you to have compared my criticism of nerdcore to that of psychadelic folk or noise at that time, your comeback would have worked.

Learn your genres and make a valid point or just don't make any point at all; it's that simple~


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## elementseven (Mar 21, 2007)

mrchris said:
			
		

> lol, that's being supremely elitist. I used to go around making fun of the losers listening to Korn and Slipknot on my old account but I stopped with the new one (argonianslave).
> 
> I am pretty much above the typical radio listener and popculture "metal" and "alternative" stuff listeners out there, well IMO that is.
> 
> ...



I *am* supremely elitist when it comes to music, and I do happen to know more than the average schmuck about what is artistically tasteful and what's atrociously tasteless in culture. It just so happens that tasteful music in the mainstream has been in decline over the last twenty years, and with it, so has that ability to appreciate what is good and what is bad in the mainstream.

Simply put, nerdcore is a _content-genre_, which is not a valid form of music categorization. It's the same as saying a piece of music is *Anglophile* if it praises English customs or *Star Trek-based* if it's themed around Star Trek.

Music genres classify by sound, not content.

(PS. Black metal is the purest of all metal; metalcore VACATE~)


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## Bokracroc (Mar 21, 2007)

Just WTF is 'Metalcore' anyway? Metal but with more Core or something???


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## Silver R. Wolfe (Mar 21, 2007)

elementseven said:
			
		

> mrchris said:
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This is such an inane argument that you're putting up here.  I'm all for listening to what you want to listen to, even if you're only listening to it to be a snob (there's nothing elite about that), but pretending to be some sort of authority in knowing what's tasteful (apparently less than 5000 listens on some music site) and what's not is just dumb, especially when you go out of your way (post-script) to put that entire "taste-less" genre down.

People have different tastes, plain and simple.  You're the expert on your tastes, while I'm an expert on mine.  Personally, I hate metal and I find most of it to be pretty taste-less.  Obviously, you'd disagree because you have different tastes (though at this point I think you'd just disagree to be more "elite").

Point being, I don't go about saying that the music I listen to is the best.  I know it's not gonna be for everyone, and I'm fine with that.  I enjoy it, and that's all that matters.  Berating and putting down other genres is simply being close-minded and crass (even when you try to use big words to do it).

There is nothing here for you to prove.  But I doubt that's gonna stop you from climbing back atop that little soap box every intarweb user is entitled, even if they're not deserving.


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## capthavoc123 (Mar 21, 2007)

elementseven said:
			
		

> Next time, if you're going to make a cohesive argument, be sure to use a vague offshoot of music rather than a mainstream one; were you to have compared my criticism of nerdcore to that of psychadelic folk or noise at that time, your comeback would have worked.
> 
> Learn your genres and make a valid point or just don't make any point at all; it's that simple~


That was the fucking point, dipshit. Rock and roll _wasn't_ mainstream in the 1960s. Get an education and learn you some history.

My point was that music becomes mainstream regardless of idiots like you who discourage novelty and originality.


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## DavidN (Mar 21, 2007)

Bokracroc said:
			
		

> Just WTF is 'Metalcore' anyway? Metal but with more Core or something???



Metalcore is sort of... harder, more aggressive and punk-like. Although it's pretty difficult to describe in what is, after all, a ludicrously subdivided genre anyway.


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## imnohbody (Mar 21, 2007)

silverwolfe said:
			
		

> This is such an inane argument that you're putting up here.  I'm all for listening to what you want to listen to, even if you're only listening to it to be a snob (there's nothing elite about that), but pretending to be some sort of authority in knowing what's tasteful (apparently less than 5000 listens on some music site) and what's not is just dumb, especially when you go out of your way (post-script) to put that entire "taste-less" genre down.
> 
> People have different tastes, plain and simple.  You're the expert on your tastes, while I'm an expert on mine.  Personally, I hate metal and I find most of it to be pretty taste-less.  Obviously, you'd disagree because you have different tastes (though at this point I think you'd just disagree to be more "elite").
> 
> ...



QFT


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## Wolf-Bone (Mar 21, 2007)

I still don't know what the hell rock is/isn't. It seems to transcend categorization.

BTW, is there something wrong with me for liking skinhead music, if nothing else for it's REAL anger and not the whiney, attempt at sounding angry I percieve in post/pop punk?


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## TeeGee (Mar 21, 2007)

According to Wikipedia, there are 26 genres of metal. Why? D:


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## Armaetus (Mar 21, 2007)

Bokracroc said:
			
		

> Just WTF is 'Metalcore' anyway? Metal but with more Core or something???



Metal music with hardcore influences/additions. Where have you been these days in music? Have you been huddled too long by the radio stuff? 



			
				TeeGee said:
			
		

> According to Wikipedia, there are 26 genres of metal. Why? D:



Variations make things interesting. The main genres are heavy, death, black, folk and thrash.

Nu-metal (IE Korn, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit) is not metal, imo. 



			
				Wolf-Bone said:
			
		

> I still don't know what the hell rock is/isn't. It seems to transcend categorization.
> 
> BTW, is there something wrong with me for liking skinhead music, if nothing else for it's REAL anger and not the whiney, attempt at sounding angry I percieve in post/pop punk?



Nothing wrong with national socialist music, but the latter you speak of is the label's attempts to rake in money with crappy bands.

Anyhow, to the main topic on mainstreamage..


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## imnohbody (Mar 21, 2007)

Y'all do realize that skinhead isn't necessarily neo-nazi, right?

Sure, there are neo-nazi skinheads, but that _some_ are skinheads doesn't mean _all_ skinheads are neonazis, or vice-versa.


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## Wolf-Bone (Mar 21, 2007)

imnohbody said:
			
		

> Y'all do realize that skinhead isn't necessarily neo-nazi, right?
> 
> Sure, there are neo-nazi skinheads, but that _some_ are skinheads doesn't mean _all_ skinheads are neonazis, or vice-versa.



Of course. Anyone who does a little research on skinheads soon finds out that the movement originally had nothing to do with race. In fact the progenitors of the skinheads were Jamaican (the same culture that spawned Rastafari, how ironic is that?!). But since most of my experience with that genre of music is from what's featured in Romper Stomper and American History X, that's what I was thinking of.


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## TeeGee (Mar 22, 2007)

mrchris said:
			
		

> TeeGee said:
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I was speaking more on the fact that people have cut up "metal" into so many pieces, same goes with rock. Power metal, speed metal, who cares? Metal is metal. (With the exception of the obvious abysmal bands, 'course.)


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