Major Labels, Sell-out and Scenesters.
Yesterday a friend sent me an article describing the process of how a small band which is currently doing fine on some indie-label gets signed by a major. Interesting read, although a little bit scary. Well, it’s all about the money, and if the bucks are that big (which they are actually not), you can fully understand why there’s a total lack of, well, thinking on the band’s part.
When Against Me! signed to a major some time ago, one opinion I read was as follows: “I don’t need to spend my spare time watching other people working.” Although the last record has been released for some time now, I have yet to listen to it, so I can’t really decide wether or not the switch had negative impact on the music. Besides that, I don’t really care. Assuming those guys are all grown-ups, they probably know what they’re doing, and who am I to judge. And they can’t force me to buy their records anyway.
In all honesty, I guess one of the main reasons that your Punk- or Indie – or whatever “scene” or “undergroud”-listening Jane has such strong feelings about this topic is the fact, that the band will probably be recognized by a much larger audience which will result in Jane not longer being Punk or Indie or whatever. All the lame kids will start listening to it and even MTV puts it on heavy rotation..
At the same time, this elitist behavior of those scenesters is actually killing the scene. Have you been to a hardcore-show recently? All this tough-guy attitude is hardly bearable. If one wasn’t so scared by all those hardcore-hipsters, one would probably have to laugh out loud. If you’re not vegan/straight edge/whatever else those people are into right now, you’re not part of that scene. If you’re not 110% politically correct (which for example can be wearing an Ignite-shirt on a 25-ta-life concert) you’re not part of that scene. If you dare to smile every now and then, you’re not part of that scene. So, who actually wants to be part of that scene? There’s an EP of Dillinger Escape Plan with Mike Patton called “Irony is a Dead Scene”. Point made.