F.U.D. yourself [Re: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt]

[LstatShaft at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/22/2003 5:54:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Ysobelle at aol.com writes:

> I'm specifically debating the idea 
> that any band who can pull in more than 1500 people to one gig must 
> automatically suck. Is it inconceivable that just perhaps there could be 
> several thousand people who enjoy a particular band? Does every musical 
> act have to be so esoteric they limit their own audience? And if they 
> find they do have popular appeal, should they then, in your world, change 
> their style so they alienate just enough people to return to the "proper" 
> size venues? Isn't that just as artificial?
> 
No, no, it's not artificial, it's hip.  See, as soon as too many people get 
to like a band, it's not hip anymore.  If you want to stay hip, you want to 
avoid popularity like the clap because as soon as you're popular, the elitist 
hipsters won't like you anymore, and you'll have to stop living in a squat and 
spending all your nights bumming smokes at the coffee shop because you'll 
actually be able to pay your bills and make a career of your art, and god forbid 
that would ever happen.

It's just like being a doctor.  If you open your practice in your mom's 
basement using borrowed surgical equipment and operating without a license, that's 
hip!  But as soon as you sell out and get an office and a license and start 
sterilizing your equipment and paying for malpractice insurance and saving lives 
and stuff like that, you've completely lost your integrity, because then it's 
not about the SURGERY anymore, it's about the MONEY, man.

[P]




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Cop: "Are you okay, mister?"
Man: "I don't know; I'm pretty fucked up in general so it's hard to gauge."