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Hi, I was more just making an argument to understand why bands like SP are reviled as 'sellouts'...
And I tried to explain (in a couple hundred words you chose to ignore) that selling out has nothing to do with success, and is not why people disliked the Smashing Pumpkins in the first place.
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just because they were good enough and good at the game, and didn't mind making a nice living.
It is a ridiculous straw man (and a common one among apologists for mainstream culture) that independent-minded people are against success, and that we see something inherently wrong with making money, being well-liked, etc. I will say it again here (and for the 10,000th time in my life in identical discussions with people who are misrepresenting this position):
Nobody thinks success is a bad thing, nobody thinks less of a band just because they are successful, and nobody faults a band for wanting to make money. All of those things are embraced by the independent/underground culture. My band is reasonably popular. My bands have all turned a healthy profit. My bands' tours are all profitable. My bands have all sold a lot of records. I am glad it is so, and I have never wished that it was otherwise.
What is rejected is the bulldozer of corporate intrusion, the enforced group-think of the mass culture and the herd-of-sheep mentality that makes it possible. When someone embraces all those things, we are within our rights to notice and form an opinion of that embrace, and the person performing it.
I cannot say it any more clearly: Nobody has a problem with success. We have a problem with an oppressive, monolithic culture being thrust on us at every juncture, and those who would help it along using the excuse that they "just want to be successful."
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I am totally fine and understand just doin it for fun and enjoyment, I don't think those are the people that take it seriously enough to produce something fantastic that reaches a ton of people.
You are apparently ignorant of the careers of the many independent bands who have made "fantastic" records that have changed lives. How many people is a "ton?" Is a million enough? I can name you a dozen independent bands who have reached that many people and more.
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Is it wrong to seek commercial success if you think you're good enough and palatable enough for broad consumption?
The way you pose the question makes the answer obvious: No, of course not. That's also not what anybody is complaining about. "Seeking success" can be done without joining forces with the most destructive elements of the business and culture, and
that's what you're excusing by reducing the discussion to a simpleton's level; "they just want to be successful." This is in keeping with the way the outfit excuses torching a restaurant and threatening the family of the proprietor, "it's just business."