Delta Male wrote
Plus, another thing, it's easy for people to say "don't hate someone because you it makes you seem jealous.." Well sorry, but all of us like or listen to BIG artists. Not everyone likes the same, but these artists all have millions of fans, then if it were jealousy, why not hate all musicians with millions of followers?
Because we like those other guys?
Not that they all have millions of fans. I know that there are folks out there who keep count of how many times I mention certain acts, so I know that people will have noticed me mentioning the Carolina Chocolate Drops recently. Do you think they have millions of fans? I'll bet that they do not. I'll bet that most recording musicians do not.
I don't keep good records myself, but I know that somebody will know how many times I've said "Martin Simpson" recently. Now for those who don't know, that guy is a fabulous musician. I saw him live in September. He had to man his own merchandise desk at half time and played to less than 100 people. Martin Simpson does not have millions of fans.
I'm expecting (hoping) to get some Mary Gauthier CDs in my Christmas stocking. I'll bet she doesn't have millions of fans.
I've got some discs at home by Terry Lee Hale, he makes a living out of music, but he doesn't fill stadiums or even the sort of ball room sized venues that Robert Plant chooses to play these days, Hale makes his living in little clubs in France and Belgium and Eastern Europe.
Etc etc. Y'all will all have good examples in your record collections (or else you're just running dog lackeys of whatever it is that fools people into equating "sells lots of CDs" with "is really very good").
So the dynamic is this: It burns (or it can if you let it) to see guys that you know are jaw droppingly good living a less lavish life, playing to smaller crowds and having to hawk their own CDs when guys making banal pop music are rolling in money. Or it burns to see somebody who you perceive as playing banal pop music and having everything (including his off-stage image) carefully manufactured for him when Angus Young did it by the sweat if his own brow and plays proper/real music. (I'll argue that Young's image is carefully calculated, that he's better known for wearing a school boy's uniform than for laying down monster riffs, that his best selling CDs were full of carefully contrived hooks that a hired super star producer sprinkled over the recordings, and that Bieber works about as hard as Angus Young anyway - maybe harder, because he has to learn choreography whilst Angus just rolls around.)
Come to think of it, it's weird that we don't see the same jealousy of Angus Young as we do for Justin Bieber. After all, that ain't working... he'll maybe get a blister on his little finger, the poor thing. Angus Young gets his money for nothing and his chicks (that word again) for free. Why the hell aren't we jealous?
