Lasereth

I just joined another forum and realized how fucking idiotic some people are. I now know why I joined TFP and have stayed with it.

After joining the forum, I was immediately bombarded about how stupid my avatar was and how immensely stupid putting "-Lasereth" at the end of my posts were. I asked if usual newcomers to the forum were treated like this, and what did I get? That's right, ur a fag. I can't fucking stand when people use the term fag, or when people use the term gay for the wrong reasons. I've since argued with these forum members why using the term "fag" is stupid. They say that they have nothing against people because of their race or sexual preference, just that they hate niggers and fags.

I did some research on the forum, and I found out that it is composed mainly of high-school "indie" kids. Apparently, "indie" is a label that is put on people that listen to a certain type of music. These forum members say that once a band makes it to the air, they "suck." If they make more than one album, they "suck." If they are on the radio period, "they suck." The ONLY good bands are those that I had personally never heard of. Not only did they say that they hate conformists and communists (ha ha), but they said that they do NOT label people because of the music they listen to. Ok, they say they're indie because they listen to indie music. See my point?

I've become overly enraged at this forum and simply quit it the same day I started it. It was the most absolutely ridiculous thing I've ever taken part in. Are all indie high-schoolers as bad as these idiots? Is calling someone a fag every single sentence neat? Why are they so hell-bent on not conforming to society, yet they are inversely related to it 100% by not listening to a band because society in general likes it?

Please, please tell me that not all of the people that listen to these indie bands are like this. Anyone care to comment?

-Lasereth

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motdakasha

Ah, the irony of my friend's nickname, conform. He listens to indie/emo stuff and only buys vinyl. No, they are not all dumbasses, rest assured.

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Sledge

I was thinking about this... I don't have the statistics, but the mean age of TPF members is probably way way higher than that of most other message boards, which tend to be populated by bored high school students/disaffected collegiates. There are a LOT of posters here who are married, have been working for years and years, have children, have learned how not to be an asshole...

filtherton

As a dissaffected collegiate i am both deeply offended and agree completely.

Cynthetiq

AHAHAHAHHA ... these are the same counter culture of people that deemed alternative alternative... until it wasn't alternative anymore....

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Nefir

Yep, thats an ugly manifestation of the teenage drive to be different, just like all their peers. The internet only lets them get away with it without their parents watching. Combined with the fact that they sound like total assclowns in general, this makes me want to chuck some chlorine into the gene pool.

Still, be happy that you can step away, shake your head, and chuckle at their behavior instead of being crushed and depressed by it, as some are prone to do.

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Lebell

It's not 'counter-culture' you're describing,

it's 'teenaged angst and ennui"

and one of the symptoms is that each new generation of teenagers MUST believe that they invented it.

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Redlemon

Reel Big Fish said this best. Not only was their first single title "Sell Out", but their song "We Care" trashes the indie mentality:

World's King

Some people need to be tar and feathered.

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Kyo

Other people just need good old-fashioned discipline. Parents that can carefully tread the line between punishment and child abuse. Kids do too many things with impunity, because the punishment is always something that can be circumvented. For example, foul language could be punished by no TV - but there are an infinite number of ways to get around this. You can't circumvent dad and his whooping stick. No sir.

Teenagers just want to be different, like everybody else.

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Sledge

Me too, actually.

twotimesadingo

Ahh, the disaffected collegiate, and angry high-school, population...

Sadly, I've got to call them peers.

Not much to say other than "I agree," Lasereth, but don't heap it all on us youngsters.
Many of those unoriginal, antagonistic teenagers grow up to be unoriginal and antagonistic adults. Getting older doesn't necessary mean you develop an intellect, or a clue, for that matter.

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Flesh

heh, tfp 4 lyfe

Mael

wurd 2 yo mutha

rainheart

Yeah, can't disagree with you.

The internet is really just a heaping mass of shit now that the general population has a hold on it. Mostly.

The greatest thing about the internet is that you can be looked down upon ala elitism but the people who look down on you are actually waaaaaaaay below you! Ishn't dat veird?

Averett

I hate music elitism.

I am a scary big Dashboard Confessional fan. I check out their little message board, and it's just insane. Ever since their new song has been on the radio and on TRL (omg, the horror!) the people on there have been flipping out. Its insane...

And they're all pissed off that the shows are now in bigger arenas, and there are more fans. Um, shouldnt you be happy that the artist that you life is getting successful? Success does not make you a sellout.


Ranting... sorry.

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Mael

you would think so, wouldn't you? but when the little indie band that you (general you, not specific you) love hits mainstream, that feeling of "oh i found this amazing band, and i feel this special connection to them because i love them now and nobody else knows about them" turns into "eh, i liked them before they got big. now they're sellouts." it's like a stupid immature feeling of betrayal (sp?) because they feel like they've been abandoned for the big time or something like that.

i hate music elitism too. but if you don't like the music i like, you must suck.

costello

i personally like it when bands get bigger. one that comes to recent memory is thrice. i was listening to them my junior year of high school (4 years ago by the way) and nobody knew who the hell they were. now just yesterday on jimmy kimmel they preformed and everyone loves em. my favorite thing is just the snicker i give them at a show when they say "psh ive been listening to them for like a year, im so much more awesome then you." personal satisfation is the greatest.

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mystmarimatt

Forks, this is a really good point, it got me thinking, i know people who are exactly like that, and it doesn't endear them to anyone. One girl in particular, started listening to Ben Kweller after this mutual friend of ours, who is gigantic music connosieur (yet manages not to be pompus about it) and even more, just a great lover of music, started suggesting to basically everyone of us that we ought check Kweller out (he has the innate ability to pick out really great songs that everyone else he suggests them to end up really enjoying the songs and they tend to catch like a fever), and now we're all hooked, yet this girl went around saying what posers the rest of us are, Ben Kweller is "hers" and nobody else should be able to listen to him, even though she only heard of Ben Kweller through our friend.

On a funny note, those people who do so often act superior in regards to almost any sense also almost always are insecure enough to be annoyed and hurt when they DO find someone whose knowledge and depth is greater than theirs, and that can be interesting to see, if you ever catch a glimpse a clash of egos like that.

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NeumannU87

As someone who used to be a musical elitist in high school, I can definitely say that these "indie" kids are definitley full of themselves, as I was when I was younger. Fortunately, I realized that I didn't have to hate Oasis just because they were super-rock stars. (Sure, they're complete asses, but their songs are fucking incredible) If I would have continued on my path, there is no way that I would have ever started listening to half of the music I listen to now.

And just because something is popular doesn't mean it's not indie. There are tons of indie labels out their that are putting shit on MTV. When the Offspring and Rancid exploded in '94, Epitaph Records, their label, came to be the most successful indie label of all time. I think it's incredible that Rancid still, to this day, releases their stuff on Epitaph. It doesn't hurt their sales one bit, and they still maintain the punk, or indie spirit. Same thing with NOFX. And even Dashboard Confessional is still on an indie label, Vagrant. Hell, they even put out an MTV Unplugged album out on that label.

Labels like Vagrant, Epitaph, Fat Wreck Chords, etc. and the bands on them totally deserve respect for what they did. They said "fuck you" to the major labels and all thier shitty little subsidiary labels and DIY'ed it to success. That's what the indie spirit is about.

numist_net

I'm 18, but trust me, I am not an indie-kid, but they do, overall, fit the demographic you have painted. Although this is a stereotype, it fits as such. There are variations within that typography, and there are some indie-people that are quite decent people, but it seems that in forums, people in my age group become one and the same with 11 year olds on the internet, using pointless concatenations (sp?) of words like 'u r a fag' and are otherwise completely offensive.

The only forums that I belong to have a mean age of between 20-something and 40, for the most part, and I find them to be accepting of a whippersnapper like myself as long as I behave.

And besides, I love my mix of music, I dont know where I would be without my classical, and alternately without my metal.

Its all perspective, really.... Its just that some take it too far and lose sight of themselves.

wry1

Success doesn't necessarily make anybody a sellout. Taking yourself too seriously, and believing that you were put on this planet to enlighten others does, however.....so I guess that these elitist little "indie" twerps are the real sellouts here.

Selling-out means giving up on what makes you unique - or expecting others to conform to your beliefs....but that's just my opinion, of course. The minute you start to have a "common" or "cult" mentality, you've given away the only right you truly have: the right to be yourself. Don't call it finding kindred souls or hanging with the crowd....it's just becoming another one of the sheep.

Lasereth, it appears you have a fully-functioning brain sitting atop those shoulders; I, for one, am truly thrilled that you not only used it in dumping those mindless hordes but that you also were willing to share the experience with the rest of us.

Thank you.

skysooner

The older you get, the more you realize that everything just repeats itself. Every generation thinks the one just in front of it is too conformist, etc. I learned early on not to pay attention to people's labels.

jimk

how 'bout it? i watch the 3rd (or is it 4th?) wave of punk pass me by & it makes me curl up on the couch with my tattered london calling cd........

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