Do they owe us a living?

People, including me, seem to nag about how bands are continuously following the crowd and moving more towards the mainstream genres, instead of keeping it underground and just making music like they used to – a term known as “selling out”. But in our increasingly greedy, torrent-driven society, with its ever expanding pool of artists, is it any wonder that bands are almost forced to move in this direction?

How are artists expected to keep making underground music when the demographic for this sort of appeal is so small, and the few people that do listen to it don’t seem to want to spend any money on actually supporting them?

Is it selfish for a band to take the initiative to move in a direction where they can actually make enough money to live on, instead of living on a tour bus, making only enough money to eat fast food and pay for fuel? Don’t you think they would prefer sticking to the music they love to play, if they could afford it?

I mean, here we are, possibly leaving our childhood dreams behind and modeling our lives around getting enough money to actually support a family one day or buying a Porsche 911. Is it really any wonder that some of these artists actually want the same thing? And that they may have to sacrifice a little bit of their taste by actually “selling out” a little to make a bit of extra cash?

Is it really our position to judge whether a band has done the wrong thing, as we sit back and do the same in our lives with our career paths? I know people, including many friends, who complain endlessly about this and then go onto their computers, with their libraries of hundreds of gigabytes of music (most of which exist just to add to the collection and rot), stacked up nicely into lines of folders. All of which was downloaded illegally!

Is it really our position to judge whether a band has done the wrong thing, as we sit back and do the same in our lives with our career paths?

I’m sorry, but if you are going to do that, then you can’t complain. It’s the equivalent of going into your favourite restaurant, which serves some luxury food you love, eating there and making a run for it without paying. Then the next time you go, the owner knows what you intend to do, but for some reason he still gives you some food, because cooking is what he loves to do (I know, not quite the same, but you get the point), which may not be as nice; and you still don’t pay. Then you go home and have a fit about it to your friends.

Being in a band for over 5 years now, and pursuing the dream of being signed by some indie record label that also has bands that we listened to daily – such as This Will Destroy You or Moving Mountains (no, not the song by Usher) – has made me realise how tough it really is.

The dream started to deteriorate as we realised how many obstacles stand in the way of underground bands – the limited amount of fans, the money you just don’t have, and the fact that the record deals just suck anyway, really.

You have to comprehend that you are either going to start becoming a little more commercial or you’re going to end up letting go of all that to register at some university like Imperial College London, studying a degree like EEE, ending up with a career at the end of it that might actually get you something better than a wall full of your merch because no one else bought it; and then close your mouth when you see some of your favourite bands do what you were tempted to do years ago.

All I’m saying is that maybe we should cut these bands some slack, because when it comes down to it, they’re also just trying to make a living, and they’ll either have to adapt (even if it does mean that they expand their fan base to 14-year-old girls) or simply quit.