The Dictionary.com definition of mainstream reads as follows: “belonging to or characteristic of a principal, dominant, or widely accepted group, movement, style, etc.” The condensed Urbandictionary.com definition of mainstream has a different take on things: “a gigantic brainwashing cover that the media and the government use(s) to blindly mislead people into all going the same way. Mainstream should die. I hate people nowadays because they are all the same: same trend, same bland-as-pigshit personalities, and same prejudice (sic).” I can see it now: some are vigorously nodding their dread-locked, non-conformist heads in agreement with the latter definition, some are fidgeting in their Toms (you bought them for charity, but you really bought them so you would match the rest of the undergraduate population) and have paused their dubstep-and-Rihanna-filled iPods in offense, and the last quarter are indifferently stoned or nursing last weekend’s hangover and PRAYING THAT THE WRITER DOESN’T SHOUT AT THEM IN ALL CAPS.
We all have a friend, or we are that friend, who is the first of their social circle to rave about the latest EP from their favorite Icelandic Nu metal disco grindcore band and who feels gratified by the blank stares they receive from their tawdry conventional companions in return. This type of friend is also the first to scoff at any mention of a band that you recently discovered but that their pioneering selves discovered in 2007 B.C. “Have you heard the new song from Foster the People? That’s my jam when I’m getting ready for a night out!” “You and your popular music; how droll. Leave me to meditate while I ponder the abstract wavelengths created by the music of my favorite bossa nova industrial opera group.” For this society-rejecting miscreant, mainstream is lamestream and nothing less than a band that has been heard of by negative one percent of the population will fulfill their auditory whims. You have to ask yourself whether this person is a revolutionary that will one day victoriously dance upon the grave of MTV and all of its associated artists, or whether they’re just another pretentious punk who has an insatiable need for unorthodox music and ideology. Originality is never a bad thing, but feeling entitled because of it makes you look like more of an arrogant jerk than a beacon of individuality. So, what’s the better option: to go with the crowd and to enjoy each trend as it comes, or to seek out the next big thing and enjoy it until the media takes hold of it and “ruins” it for you and your hipster friends?
It depends on who you ask. Countless times I have heard people express their disgust that an unworthy acquaintance had downloaded their favorite band’s latest tracks. Countless times I have done the same, bemoaning the loss of my assumed innovation. The eventual bestowal of the pleasure that an eclectic taste in music can bring, and the accrual of a few extra brain cells, changed my ways. In contrast to these dissenters of all things standard and popular, there lay your everyday KIIS FM aficionados. The types who worship at the altar of Wiz Khalifa and Katy Perry. To these two distinct species of music enthusiasts, I encourage you to broaden your horizons. What’s wrong with mixing Lady Gaga with a bit of that underground Siberian rockabilly funk? Why not listen to both Al Green and Deadmau5?
In music, novelty is prized, but diversity never hurts.
