Otherwise Cool Bands Ruined By Their Irritating Fans

there are other bands that this has happened to for me, but mostly it's been a result of specific people i dislike turning on to these bands, and not shutting up about them in the most idiotic of fashions. (of course, i wrote about this in bitchy, passive-aggressive ways.)

what do you all think of the term 'cultural vampire' for this sort of fun-sucking fan?

Most fans I dislike I dislike because they like bands I think are overrated, or blatantly fraudulent and bogus. I could smugly say Belle And Sebastian but I'm even starting to like the *fans*. I think a lot of avant-garde music is spoiled by fans getting off on the avant-garde rather than the music.

Did someone say The Sims?

Umm...I'd go to Sebadoh concerts or Lou Barlow solo thingies and realize that the rank-and-file sensitive brigade irritated the living fuck out of me, since I was clearly one of them. But I don't know if I would characterize Sebadog as "cool," especially now.

Oh, and Tom - you LIKE Belle & Sebastian fans now? Lord have mercy.

Tom, I know your heart's in the right place, but I worry about you sometimes ... :).

But that said I've not had bad experiences with the B & S fans I've met, much less so than - say - Smiths fans back in the day. They've seemed mostly friendly, charming and intelligent people, and I'm never going to judge people by how 'eclectic' their music taste is, because it doesn't work. As Maura rightly said in some other thread, listening to cardigan music doesn't make you sensitive, but it doesn't make you an idiot either.

Something else that strikes me about it is how little people actually reveal about themselves and how short their posts are, compared to most contributions to the Sinister list, which were intensely personal and like short essays and dissertations - in one month I learnt everything about where the people on the list had grown up, what job they did, the utter predictabilities and mundanities of their daily routine, and of course which other bands they liked apart from B&S, and what they *didn't* like. Nonetheless, I was being a bit cruel on it - I encountered some very friendly and sympathetic people on that list. I think the Sinisterines always revealed themselves as more interesting, diverse people when talking offlist, away from the constraints of its formulae, free to express their social or ideological views, or even to say that they liked Timbaland or Ghostface Killah, say, without fearing the indie boys' uprising in response.

Yes, Tom, you're right. B&S fans are often much more outward-looking and less obsessed with themselves than Morrissey fans had become by the early 90s (not so sure about Smiths days, though), although there's always the neo-conservative joker in the pack, and such people would be more likely to be drawn to B&S because of the band's essential parochial nostalgia and yearnings for a more inward, closed world (which to me actually makes them much more interesting, their utter denial of all the metropolitan trappings of the Blair era).

I'll put forth that, judging on mailing lists, the worst fans are Madonna fans. If they aren't bitch slapping each other verbally in a race to see who is most "Madonna-like", they're trashing Mariah Carey. It's ridiculous. And god forbid that you don't like, say, American Pie (bar none the stupidest thing Madonna ever did). You're then obviously an infidel trying to break the unity of the list. Gah. Screw all of 'em.

I've noticed a peculiar tendency, as well, to pick apart each other's grasp of English on mailing lists. I mean, heavens, I have a million times the grasp of grammar and usage that these people have, but I don't jump on them if they misspell a word. I see it all the time though. That's one of the main reason I stopped doing the list thing - who needs a mailbox full of rants about how so-and-so put the i after the e? I used to reply to the ranters, "Well, you put the comma in the wrong place, and BY THE WAY, you need to put an s after the apostrophe if you're talking about a singular object, whether or not the object's name ends in an s", but alas, they hated it.

Sundar is just trying to make you feel better. You are, in fact, the only person in the world who liked "American Pie". :)

It had me wondering whether I'd still hate the original as much as I do were it not for the negative connotations it has of pop music sinking into nostalgia for the first time, giving into the Nixon / Heath era. I suspect I'd loathe Maclean's droan whatever, but this was the first time I realised that there was *possibly* something good lurking beneath.

-- np: Piano Magic, "Dark Secrets Look For Light"

"Human Nature" is a FANTASTIC song. Absolutely. Not only is it a great song, it's one of the best singles she's ever released.

"Nothing Really Matters" is somewhat generic, but is still uplifting house goodness.

"You Must Love Me" is, well... fucking horrible. I guess you win on that one.

American Pie is terrible because the original is a terrible song, the production is the exact same thing Orbit had been doing over and over (and did once more on Amazing, to better effect), and the delivery is dead. I gave the song a decent score (5? 6?) on the last focus group for one reason and one reason alone: the completely bizarro inclusion of Rupert Everett. However, this awful novelty has worn off and just become awful, and now I completely hate it, instead of slightly hate it. And the original is the worst song ever, without any exception.

Well, except Abraham, Martin & John, but that's a completely different saga.

Re: MacArthur Park: the only even decent version of this song is Donna Summers. Next. ;P

Just to show that I'm not a musical retard that has had no exposure to great music outside of Radiohead, some other artists that I love:

Muse
Can
Aphex Twin
Autechre
Boards of Canada
The Pavement
Nick Drake
Steven Malkimus
The Velvet Underground
Some of Lou Reed's solo shit
The Smashing Pumpkins (Adore is nearly as good as Kid A)
Sonic Youth
Faust
REM
Pink Floyd
Elliott Smith
Porcupine Tree
Tortoise
Portishead
Neu
The Smith's (Morrisey's solo stuff is shite though)
Godspeed you black emperor
Explosion's in the sky

No overrated garbage like The Clash, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Arcade Fire or Bob Dylan for me. Ok, Bowie's not garbage but he is overrated."

The Pavement.

point taken.

Actually, right after the post I quoted above, a few superfanz immediately criticized him for not giving The Bends the props it deserved.

see also: NIRVANA

But they are incredibly fanatical, and are the kind of fans who don't only see Rush personally as the most important thing that has ever happened, but they also believe most people think the same way.

See also Kiss, Guns'n'Roses and Marillion. (And Beatles - except they are right, in that The Beatles are considered the most important band ever)

A radiohead fan myself, these "this band belongs to ME, if a song of theirs charts they have sold out and I must die" minded fans drive me nuts. (See also: Modest Mouse ca. Float On on radio scandal!)

I might even have a chance of liking them if it wasn't for their annoying fans who stormed in and stood right in front of me, and then proceeded to keep poking me with their elbows.

radiohead fan quote upthread is perfect

surprised no one mentioned Tool.

ween