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+--- Thread: Mainstream. A Philosophical Discovery. (/Thread-Mainstream-A-Philosophical-Discovery)
Mainstream. A Philosophical Discovery. - Reverence - 03-06-2012
NOTE: Yes, the origin of this thread was my dislike in people who suddenly dislike Dubstep because it is popular.
As I was bored in math class, I came to a peculiar subject: Why does someone that can be so immersed in something suddenly have a change in perspective when the thing that he was so immersed in becomes widely-popular.
By widely popular I mean something that which people jokingly stupefy those who lack knowledge of it.
I think this is because once someone has developed an interest in something so unique and endearing in their perspective, they believe that this interest has a role in shaping their individuality and as a means of which distinction can be easily spotted. However, the mistake that people make is that they treat this interest as if it is a "secret" and that only the dedicated can share the interest.
Those people being discussed, seem to be so against what is widely-popular that the action of rebelling against what is widely-popular itself becomes widely-popular. In other words, those that are nonconformist are simply trying too hard (Eg. Jackets when it's cold? Too mainstream) That to be nonconformists and thus this nonconformity eventually evolves and molds itself into conformity.
To make us understand this subject clearly, I will use the Genre of Dubstep as an example (I think this a perfect example, because this is what gave me the idea in the first place). Let's start with the information that Dubstep is now becoming widely-popular. As it becomes mainstream, those that have been listening to it gradually stop listening to it, why? Because Dubstep to them was a part of their individuality, but however, when others start listening to it, it suddenly becomes too well-known to actually create a sense of uniqueness that the person once had. To simplify this, people that listened to Dubstep practically think that Dubstep is some kind of secret that if revealed it loses it's quality.
What's my position on this? Well, I dislike the idea. Think about it, does something becoming so popular actually reduce it's quality? Well of course not. Dubstep, will always be Dubstep (except for the slight variations of even more sub-genres such as brostep), no matter how popular it gets. A counterargument could be "but what if the music gets worse? That changes the quality right?", well, yes. But popularity doesn't play a role. Whether it is popular or not, that certain song wasn't created because of popularity.. There will always be good and bad quality Dubstep, regardless of popularity.
Generally speaking, something becoming widely-popular shouldn't influence a change of perspective in someone's interests.
Thoughts?
RE: Mainstream. A Philosophical Discovery. - Frooxius - 03-06-2012
Nicely written, I have too noticed how some people systematically like (well, rather claim to like) only things that are obscure and unknown and dislike anything that's popular and/or mainstream.
Question is, what actually fits their image? Is it the dubstep itself or rather liking something that's currently unknown? If it's the latter, then it fits their style that they abandon it and look for something else, they move on, it's not the specific style (dubsteb in this example) that defines them, but rather its uniqueness, so from this viewpoint, one could argue that they do not conform, as they keep they style, but then again, they do conform to this style, so can someone truly be non-conformer? Because even when you're non-conformer, you conform to the idea of non-conforming, a bit of a paradox, although it depends on your definition of word "conform".
It might be a bit similar principle like... you imagine that a good quality program would work fine and have as least bugs as possible. But... what if your goal was to make a crappy program with many bugs? Then such good quality program would be suddenly low quality one, because it would have to few bugs (and yes, it is done practically, often when you need to test various automated tests that try to find bugs and problems in your code). It just depends on the viewpoint and your criteria.
I myself think that it's best to listen/like whatever you feel like, regardless of how popular it is, if you like the music really for the music itself, therefore, if you like dubstep for being dubstep and you feel that the dubsteb is your style, I think you'll continue listening to it no matter what. But if you like only things that are unknown and obscure, if liking unknown things is your style, then you'll stop liking it once it looses this quality and you move to something else. Yes, there are people like that, you can think of them as shallow, or call them whatever you want, but then again, it's their style and they have every right for it, no matter how stupid you find it.
RE: Mainstream. A Philosophical Discovery. - Reverence - 03-06-2012
Hmm... I get where you're coming from. But do you really think that someone can develop a passion for something just because of it's arcane qualities? That is what I find unreasonable. I can understand someone pretending to enjoy something because of it's obscurity, but the idea that someone can develop true dedication to something just because it is recondite comes off to me as nonsensical.
RE: Mainstream. A Philosophical Discovery. - Frooxius - 03-06-2012
Yes I think it's possible, in fact, I think that's why some people leave something, once it becomes popular, they simply care only about it being unknown, that's what makes it attractive to them, whether they do it knowingly or not. If they didn't care about that, they wouldn't leave it based on the popularity.
It might be difficult to understand why other people are different or why they do things differently or why do they even like some things that you yourself don't, but that's just the way it is, you're different than them, so you might not understand that feeling. For example, I'm left-handed and I just don't understand how people can write with their right hand. I just can't do it, it's terrible no matter how much I try, so it seems quite weird to me when I think about it, because being right-handed is a feeling that I never had and never will. And analogously, it's same in your case.
RE: Mainstream. A Philosophical Discovery. - Reverence - 03-07-2012
(03-06-2012, 05:14 AM)Frooxius Wrote: Yes I think it's possible, in fact, I think that's why some people leave something, once it becomes popular, they simply care only about it being unknown, that's what makes it attractive to them, whether they do it knowingly or not. If they didn't care about that, they wouldn't leave it based on the popularity.
It might be difficult to understand why other people are different or why they do things differently or why do they even like some things that you yourself don't, but that's just the way it is, you're different than them, so you might not understand that feeling. For example, I'm left-handed and I just don't understand how people can write with their right hand. I just can't do it, it's terrible no matter how much I try, so it seems quite weird to me when I think about it, because being right-handed is a feeling that I never had and never will. And analogously, it's same in your case.
I see. I guess in the end it all comes down to perspective.