I've seen a trend in the world, especially the "hardcore" world. With hardcore I don't mean the style hardcore, but more like, the people who like just a specific type of music. Most often this trend applies to the metal scene though.

What I've seen kind of disturbs me. It seems that people find that once a band goes mainstream it sucks.

I can be short about it. I love music. In fact, I don't care about mainstream or alternative or whatever. As long as it's music. Okay, so most Elvis songs I happen to love never made it to the mainstream, but my point still stands. Who doesn't know *NSYNC's Pop or I Drive Myself Crazy? Who hasn't heard about Linkin Park's In The End or Hoobastank's The Reason? And who didn't at least hear something from the group Earth, Wind and Fire? I love them all, but does that make me a lesser music lover?

It also seems like people nowadays don't appreciate the pop music. They go like, "blech, Christina Aguilera, more like, Christina Uglylera", or "I don't like Linkin Park, because it's mainstream". It makes me wonder if they really do love music, or if they only listen to this alternative music just because it isn't mainstream. Sure, most think Queen is the bomb, or the Rolling Stones or whatever, but they mostly forget icons like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, those people, and more. There are a lot of artists today which are as iconic, which define '90, some even the new millennium. But they don't get recognized, just because they don't listen to these kinds of music, just because, well, they're not open to them.

Point is, some people want to think outside boxes. But by just going for one specific music style, they're putting themselves in boxes. That's why I feel like I'm outside any box. And really, it's the only way. If you really want to think outside boxes, don't put yourself restrictions. Especially not on music. :angry:

Does it make you a lesser music lover? Yes, but not because they're "too mainstream" but because they're just not very good.

The artists you've named all massively outsell the vastest majority of artists in existence however - is their popularity really suffering for their being mainstream?

(If it did, would they even be so?)

Most people only listen to certain types of music because that's the type they like. I mean, what's the point of listening to different music to "put yourself out of the box" if you don't like that kind of music? Essentially, it's just as bad as what you're arguing against; that is, people who don't listen to certain music because of its image.