Fame, Glory... and Fans
By: Alex Lee Thomson
Anybody that visits this here site of Rockfeedback will undoubtedly have a proverbial finger on the pulse of what is happening in music and will be inescapably ahead of the curve. This is a brilliant, privileged and bugger of a place to be as we will all see bands rise from playing local pubs and small capacity venues to brighter and higher accolades of grandeur and along the way as they shift from being 'the lads down the road' to 'the band on the telly' aided by hype, talent and more often than not, commercial radio. Most recently we've seen Klaxons do just that and within months of their initial underground / MySpace success they've catapulted to mainstream play-listed, Friday Night Project backing, T4 adored superstars with their album being advertised on every tube line from Bakerloo to Manchester's Metro.
Don't get us wrong, success is a great thing and although the 'indie crowd' does have somewhat of a bad image as lil' bitches when it comes to despising anything resembling fame, we stand behind anybody with talent and praise evolution and triumph. Kaiser Chiefs recently pointed out in a magazine interview that there's a difference between selling out and selling records, which is an honest and massively true statement. We don't hate growth, and to say we do, is dumb... quite frankly. Success is the ultimate goal of most bands worth their salt, but where we seem to be feeling less than happy is when our beloved bands achieve a level of fame that puts them in an unnatural position and awards that ultimate of honour, the celebrity status.
When we hear something new and exciting we'll tell anybody who'll listen and when enough people are saying the same thing we lay back in comfort, spouting to passers by that we liked them first. Then things turn sour... the songs that used to be fresh, thrilling and ravenous become mundane, advert backdrops and victims of overplay. Then the bands start playing bigger venues and charge twice as much for tickets which become increasingly harder to get a hold of, and eventually we're scouring eBay trying to find a ticket to the Academy to get even a glimpse of the guys that two months before were buying rounds at Fibbers or the Sugarmill for any fans that fancied a chat. It snowballs and we see our once loved heroes plastered across tabloid magazines and being made fun of on Buzzcocks (albeit in a humorous and well constructed manner) until the people that we previously craved to be near become objects of gossip, ridicule and fabrication.
This aside, we all know the impact all this has on the music. If a band is picked up on too early and enjoys aforementioned play-list glory prior to even recording a debut album, they're swayed into making something inevitably more commercial than they would have otherwise. A daring and raw approach quickly becomes safe and bland, playing into their sound that's already been categorised. The Klaxons, The View and Arctic Monkeys have all fallen victim to this and although the albums were good, they weren't as mind-blowing as their initial explosion that grasped our attention in the beginning. We find it harder and harder to relate to what we're hearing and at some point we just stop caring. We allow the mainstream to take over and watch artists go through the 6 month cycle of commercial accomplishment, losing just that little bit more heart until one day we wake up and we simply don't care, never again allowing ourselves to fall in love with a musician.
OK, OK, all a little melodramatic we know, but it's a tragically real problem that's facing the iPod, MySpace and download generation where independent labels rule and artists gain a following based on sheer talent alone. We try so hard to keep the bands we admire close to home, grounded and honest, but to believe we can hijack performers and keep them under lock and key in a selfish manner is naïve. The people we see on the MTV2 radar today will be tomorrows Popworld wonders and there's nothing we can do about it. We know it's going to happen, and though we prey it doesn't, if the person you're so graciously following is half as good as you think they are, it's gonna happen... it just is.
As a fan it's horrible, knowing that you'll never get to be in the same airspace as somebody who once chatted up your sister, and at points you want to shout to the world once again that you liked them first and demand that you're treated with a little more respect. The best we can hope for (and this goes out to all band members) is that although conquest sets in, publicity thriving fame does not. By all means, tour the world, make some money and enjoy your music and increasing fan base, but don't take yourself too seriously and sell your soul for a five day spell on Celebrity Big Brother... or music's doomed forever. Real music thrives on the honesty of its purveyors and if we allow all our stars to become 'Preston' then all we'll have left in ten years is a whitewash of insipid caricatures of musicians. Something we think you'll agree would be unthinkable for all concerned.
The thing to remember about fame is that it's only as big as we allow it to be. Nobody forces us to buy an album or go to a show, and on the flip side, nothing stops us from loving a band that's headlined festivals and appeared on Jonathan Ross. We're allowed to listen to whatever the feck we like, such is the joy of a free world, but at the same time it's unfair that we're left at the sidelines while the guys we supported, when nobody else did, suddenly become too big to associate themselves with us, tainting their music with a dishonest cover. Some groups maintain a level of respect for their fans, namely The Futureheads, who have somehow never lost touch with their admirers, but for every one band that strides to the top of the charts linking arms with their supporters, there's a hundred that forget all to quickly who put them there.
Fame's a funny old thing. We all crave it and wish it on others yet when the effects settle into place we're left feeling empty and abandoned. It's great that all who stroke the pages of Rockfeedback have something of an independent mind and passion for music, but it's our love of new music that eventually leads to our disappointment for whatever reason. If we could offer just one piece of advice it would be to enjoy every second you spend with the music you adore as it could all end at any moment or be transformed into something worthless or unrecognisable. Music has the power to change lives and if you find something that speaks to you, relish in the joy that it brings and for God's sake don't get too attached as fame and glory doesn't necessarily walk hand in hand with fans as individuals.