Hype killeth the fan

I used to believe that your love of a band is largely dependent on your personal attachment to music. I suppose it has happened to anyone who has fell in love with a band. You hear a guitar riff, a lyric stings you, the drumming is so tight, you fall in love.. and there it is, just you and the music.

The story varies somewhat if a band is only just emerging from the ranks. At the beginning you do your best to promote the band as best you can. You make mixed tapes, lovingly brag about them to friends, crossing your fingers they'll finally make it down to Australia. You know they will be huge. You know if only people knew about them, they could think about them in the same way you do.

Although it is frustrating to a degree, there is occasionally a moment where you embrace the idea of a band being largely your own. It can be a personal entity. The band can look to their small mixed collective of fans. There would be a feeling of requited excitement when an extremely oblique reference is cited in the commercial music press. You are proud because they deserve it. You are proud because you found them "first".

Then something changes. Your band is everywhere, somehow. In supermarkets. Clothes stores. Their songs are played twice, sometimes three times when you go out. They become so common and unspecial. People know about them and your space is somehow invaded. You notice a change within the band too. A feeling of jaded complacency in their performance. A sense of arrogance in their interviews. An impression that they really couldn't give a damn anymore.

Is it not strange that such an affinity should change upon worldwide exposure? In the end, it's just you and the music, isn't it? Perhaps the love of a band extends far beyond what you listen to in your bedroom. It is the entire appeal of a band, it is their image. Their attitude and approach towards music and performance. It's difficult to ascertain why a band's appeal would be cheapened upon wider recognition. Maybe it's just ironic that the love for your band would ultimately be crushed by the masses of teens who claim to feel the same as you do.

EG

Arctic Monkeys - From Ritz to Rubble
The Faint - Worked up So Sexual
The White Stripes - My Doorbell (videoclip)