This is of course a rhetorical question. But really, has anyone ever totally been diehards for a band? All of your friends love said band. Then suddenly, that band changes, matures, has grown from hating the world to falling in love, settling down and get married and you can see, hear and feel that change in their music? I know I have seen it quite a bit. But, what I find so amusing is that those same people that put so much into that band suddenly start talking shit and complaining about that change. What drives me crazy, what I have witnessed so many times of my many years, as I turned into the grumpy, older punk guy that I am, is that when bands change, over the course of 5 years, 10 years whatever, is that as soon as a band starts getting noticed by bigger labels, bigger audiences, when a band writes about their passions, which DO CHANGE over time, people get all up in arms and hate on bands just because they are not 15 years old and writing songs about the government or about war, or eating meat or whatever.
People change, bands change, focuses in life change. Yesterday and today, over at Brendan Kelly's blog there have been debates and rants going on and on about Against Me! Here is my belief in it, if I was still doing everything exactly the same as I was doing, say 5 years ago, I would be stuck and unhappy and just going along with the flow refusing to keep striving for something more. Against Me! wrote some awesome songs about how fucked up our government was and is and about war and equality and everything, but every 4 years, the US let's their people vote. The government has the ability to change completely much as it did here recently. Well, so what? The former regime that Against Me! so strongly voiced their unhappiness about has been replaced. Does that mean that they have to suddenly start hating everything they were hoping for in the past, just so they can keep making the same songs to satisfy the same people? No, they shouldn't.
Now, that is a very heavy handed example and kind of a lame example, but it truly is the most simple way I can get my point across. We all change. Does that mean we are sell-outs? If you move from your shitty bedroom in your parents house because you finally got a new job or a raise or whatever, does that mean you are selling-out? Of course not. I think the people that spend the most time bitching and moaning about how a band is a sellout just because they grew up a little or because their priorities changed or because they want to keep making music because they love it, those people that shit their opinions the loudest are probably more jealous, or envious or just plain focused on "what could have been" that they do not realize what exactly has changed. Maybe they changed. Maybe their tastes have changed. These same people that complain their "favorite" band are sellouts are doing exactly what that band might have been and still are fighting for. They are labeling things, people, music that does not fit their ideal. They are mad that they have to go work at an office, get too many taxes taken out of their pay, go home, pay bills and get drunk until they pass out and do it again the next day. Just because you are not doing what you love everyday and a band is working hard to continue to be able to do what they love, that does not make them sellouts. That makes them passionate.
Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people and bands out there that are the definition of a sellout. Those are the people that do things for the sake of being famous or just for the money. Those are all of the musicians and bands out there that decide to play music a certain way or dress a certain way, not because they love it, but because they know it is popular right now, it is going to make people like them. I tend to call these people hipsters, but dumbasses, dipshits, annoying, trendy etc are all acceptable terms.
I think that having opinions is great. Just don't shove it down my throat. If you don't like something, that's cool. If I do, that is cool too. If you can explain why you do or do not like something that is even better. You don't have to kill something just because you are against it. There could be others out there that absolutely love it more than anything. You have a choice to stop doing that thing, no one is making you buy their new album. Just move on to the next thing or try something new. But if you are going to just sit there and puke your opinions at everyone, tell them how wrong they are for something. If you are going to make sure that you tell each and every person you can how fucking smart you are and how dumb the rest of us are. Maybe you are the one that really needs to be criticized.
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