if i bent like you said was best, would it change a thing?
This is the first part of a three part series of blogs about bands, fans, and attitudes.
If I were writing a paper on this, I suppose it could be called ‘a working model of band, fans, and attitudes.’ That is, if i wasn’t trying to use song lyrics for titles.
If you’ve at all been reading the DMB fan boards, you’ve probably seen a little bit of discussion about Dave and his attitude towards the ‘hardcore’ fans, who are often very ‘bitch-moan-gimme-gimme-mine-mine’ about the band. Dave even made a comment at red rocks to the fans chanting ‘Last Stop’ that the band would pretty much play whatever the hell they want, and some of the hardcore fans have expressed a dislike for that attitude.
So it goes something like this: The hardcore fans bitch and moan that the band does’t play what THEY want. They complain about the band and how misaligned their priorities are, and that the band should cater to the people who put them where they are today. When the band doesn’t do this, they’ve ‘become too commercial,’ ’sold out,’ or ‘have really gone downhill.’
The opposite of this, of course, are the ‘loyalists.’ These are the people who will blindly follow and listen to anything the band produces regardless of quality or content, and continually slam the ‘hardcore’ fans who piss and moan about everything the band does – ‘you’re not a TRUE fan,’ ‘the band isn’t indie enough for you,’ ‘this album is better than 99% of the stuff on the shelves right now.’
Left in the middle are a group of people I like to call ‘the voice of reason.’ The voice of reason tends to enjoy the band, but without ballwashing. They are capable of finding good things to like and enjoy even on albums that are sub-par for the band, but when the time is right, they are also capable of realizing that the band has laid a turd in the punch bowl.
This is true of any band with a respectably sized fanbase, not DMB specifically, although the model certainly applies to them. There’s certainly no right or wrong in terms of what group you should belong to, but as with most things in life, a little moderation is often best. Being the superfan doesn’t leave much room for reality, but bitching and moaning doesn’t seem to leave much room for fun or enjoyment.
Coming up next, Part two: Philosophies of making (and enjoying) music