The Mainstream

[Cyco_Reborn]

Nice metaphor, it puts the music industry in a pretty good perspective, but once again someones failed to notice the Music, movies and tv board. Well done!!! #-o

 

 

 

 

 

Are you serious? This is about culture in general, not just music. Once again someone failed to read the whole post. Well done!!! #-o

 

I never said it was just about music, I commented from a musical point of view, the one which applies to me the most. Once again someone failed to read my post carefully and decide an appropriate response. Well done!!! #-o

 

 

 

Anyway, I think the OP made a valid point, a lot of people these days can hardly think for themselves.

[AdioLovesSquall]

the Shepard of the sheep. :) its like that karl marx quote with mainstream subculture instead of religion....its needed for people to escape from their oh so terrible lives and bring their minds into a happiness high!

[Da Pirates]

Anyone who says "tl;dr" needs to stop being a lazy [puncture] or get back to whatever image board they came from. This is a forum ffs. There's actually reading involved here #-o

 

 

 

But he wrote like 5 paragraphs..

[aquariusman]

Then read the whole damn thing.

 

 

 

This really should go into MM&T. Yes, this doesn't just apply do those things, but it's what will most be talked about. The first thing I think about when I hear "mainstream" is music. I tend to listen to everything. I will generally not listen to mainstream as often because it is overplayed in my opinion. Also, I like punk, so it's hard for me to find mainstream stuff. I would love it if Streetlight Manifesto, or NOFX, or The Flatliners became "mainstream". I would be able to talk to people about the music I listen to, whereas right now, I only have one or two people that listen to the same type of music as me.

 

 

 

Mainstream means nothing to me. I just find that I prefer indie bands over mainstream, because I find that they tend to focus more on the lyrics, and putting in metaphors. I would like to point to a small selection of NOFX songs.

[Jernlov]

Warning: This is full of oceanic metaphors, If you hate, are indifferent or are scared of them please leave.

 

 

In the vast sea of music there are sea creatures from great blue whalesa huge animal which makes its presence knownto tiny plankton residing in isolated areas and out of sight of most sea explorers plane of sight.

 

 

 

That there is, there's such a vast spectrum of musical genres that nobody can "like everything".

 

 

 

Many of us sea explorers prefer these gargantuan creatures because of obvious reasons; our media spotlights these whales more than other creatures, we might lack knowledge of other creatures or simply because they find these creatures far superior and we have maintained our life to have a very narrow spectrum of variety.

 

 

 

Most of my family prefer these gargantuan creatures. None of them are particularly into media, but when they do, they'll watch/listen/read something that's been in the mainstream out of the fact that they'll probably like it, it will be friendly, it will be inoffensive and easy to handle. But they like that stuff, so I don't see why I should go downstairs and, for example, play a progressive metal CD at full volume to try and get them to like what I like. That's unnecessary.

 

 

 

On the other hand, many of us prefer small sea-creatures. These explorers like seeking out and discovering new kinds of plankton, or might breed our own plankton to share with the other explorers. Many of these explorers people feel that the whale and other big creatures are too massive, and because of this their motivations might to be only bigger than before, and in doing so this might impair the quality of their output and the true colors might begin to taint.

 

 

 

Personally, I like both mainstream and non-mainstream things. I'm an avid listener of progressive metal, an avid watcher of anime (certainly not a usual thing here) and an avid reader of quite "difficult to digest" novels. However, sometimes I feel like listening/watching/reading something a bit more "normal", so to speak. I'm not going to hate something because it has a fair few fans; that's got to be one of the most pointless things ever.

 

 

 

However, I do agree with you on when musicians/directors/writers hit on a "money-making formula". Bands sometimes release a few solid albums and then totally change the direction of their sound, usually out of money rather than to please the fans. They release toned-down albums that just aren't living up to their former strength. This applies to directors too; sometimes they start off a film/series with something absolutely stellar, but any sequels are really shoddy and haphazard, a bit like they've been rushed just for the sake of making a quick few million from ticket sales, royalties, et cetera. This also applies to some writers; they'll piece together a literary masterpiece and then water down their later works for money and mainstream appeal. However, I've only ever found a few writers that have done that, so I'm not really entitled to an opinion there.

 

 

 

It doesn't mean to say that the more mainstream things aren't any good. They're usually very good, but not as good as they were before. Maybe it's just some sort of natural progression as things age. No idea.

 

 

 

We are stuck in the midst of it all, left to decide which sea creature we fancy the most. Many of us might have the delusion of the chosen the medium; to not let our political or social views to get in the way of our perceptional senses and simply go along in our lives "blindly" liking the creature which we personally find to be best, disregarding these likeability-variables and making non-biased decisions that our purely based on our own enjoyability. Although this may be the idealistic way to choose our favorite sea-creatures, is it really true? Do you honestly believe that just because the blue whale is the biggest and most recognized sea creature in the oceanic kingdom that it is best?

 

 

 

No, bigger != better. Discovery is a big part of peoples' lives and I don't think they should be governed in their entirety by what's being pushed around us. Variety and choice are important parts of life (at least in the developed world) and I think that it helps us develop into more cultured and informed individuals if we select from many different slices of pie.

 

 

 

Try to reflect this onto yourself and the culture you live in. Does your cultures' acceptance or disapproval towards a sea creature determine its size? I believe so, and this is not only true in music but in politics, literature, religion and media of any kind.

 

 

 

I agree, it certainly does.

 

 

 

We must look past this size factor and see the true side of the many sea creatures which are parts of our lives. Incase you havent noticed this isnt a marine biology thread, but rather the affect that culture has on us, and the extreme difficultly many humans obviously have with having their own self-influenced opinions.

 

 

 

Yes, but you can't really avoid being influenced by others unless you basically completely isolate yourself from the outside world, which isn't good for anyone.

Spot the responses!

 

 

 

Excellent post, very insightful.

[AdioLovesSquall]

i dunno prog rock/metal is pretty "easy" and popular. moreso than a lot of chart toppers.

[Jernlov]

i dunno prog rock/metal is pretty "easy" and popular. moreso than a lot of chart toppers.

But in comparison to the music scene here (no idea of what it's like in Portugal), which is made up of Brit-indie rock and pop, prog rock/metal isn't considered "mainstream" if we're talking about the respective cultures and such.

 

 

 

But on a global scale, and most importantly, in the long-term, the prog rock/metal bands are more popular due to the fact that they maintain a steady listener base, versus the "one-hit wonder" chart toppers that often die out after a while.

 

 

 

There's Internet mainstream and real-life mainstream also - what's popular on here isn't usually spoken about at all in real life unless you know people that are into that sort of music.