Fun Stuff > BAND
Although this place hates being like Pitchfork...
Johnny C:
Gold in Canada is 50,000 records, and here the Arcade Fire aren't even as popular as the Tragically Hip. They're popular but to suggest that they're a household name is preposterous.
Johnny C:
Like, what is the metric that we're using for "mainstream"? We're all aware here that there is an actual, real mainstream, with people who are rich as fuck from millions of record sales and they sell out shows to millions of people across North America, Europe and Asia, right? That's crazy big. Akon has sold more records than the Arcade Fire will probably ever press. Kanye West and Lady Gaga were going to tour, and they were probably going to play to more people than the ten best-attended Broken Social Scene shows put together.
People in the independent music community have this really bad habit of developing blinders when it comes to defining "popular." A million listeners? Like I said, The Tragically Hip have more listeners than that in Canada alone, and they've definitely sold more records than the Arcade Fire. I'm not going to dispute that a lot of people like the Arcade Fire, and I'm not going to dispute that, in their niche, they are a powerhouse. But a big niche is still a niche.
a pack of wolves:
There is a difference between mainstream and megastar though. With people like Akon, Kanye West and Lady Gaga you're talking about the very biggest sellers. By the measure of the top 40 Arcade Fire are surely mainstream, Neon Bible spent months in the UK top 40 albums and debuted at number 2 (several places above new entries by Cascada and Russell Watson, hardly indie fare). Sure, they've never done better than a top 20 single but they're not the kind of band that shifts singles hugely anyway these days, so the big marketing push will be for the album. And it was big, I can still remember being surprised by the massive ads in Virgin since I thought they weren't all that big a band.
Coincidentally Neon Bible also debuted above The Very Best of Dolly Parton, one can only hope because most people have sense enough to own Jolene at least already. Either that or we're doomed as a species.
Inlander:
As long as people still (A) play "I Will Always Love You" at weddings, and (B) favour Whitney Houston's version over Dolly's pretty much perfect original, we're fucked.
doombilly:
Was wondering what y'all thought were the best online review sites for teh indie rock?
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