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Nekr0s1s

Does everything popular sucks?

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it's like everything that hit it big and become successful, be it music, games, moves and such take a massive nosedive in quality. it gets so dumbed down you feel insulted of being treated like a retard. but then again, the things we like were popular at one point, and we didn't care if it was "soulless".

does everything popular sucks? are there any exceptions that actually deserve the success it boasts?

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There is a correlation between accessible art and popular art, which you'd except: the more accessible it is, the less niche, so can appeal to more people, and therefore it's considered popular. But it's also less challenging.

 

But that isn't a universal rule. Some things are popular simply because they're good, not because they're accessible.  Look at massively popular musical artists like The Beatles, The Stones or Led Zep. Look at TV shows like Breaking Bad, Planet Earth or Game of Thrones.  Look at books like the works of Dickens, Austen or C. S. Lewis. All hugely popular, all exceptionally good.

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We literally had this exact same discussion a few weeks ago. It's a very cynical and narrowminded way of looking at things. 

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Everything popular sucks, fellow poster on 

 

checks notes

 

Doomworld, a forum for an extremely popular videogame. 

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There was a pop singer that explained in an interview when she was an up and comer everyone loved her. Then when she made it big she got a lot of hate. She explained you'll never know how big you are until you have a demographic of people that hate you, because you're so popular that everyone has heard of you, even the people that will always hate you for existing.

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4 hours ago, Nekr0s1s said:

like everything that hit it big and become successful, be it music, games, moves and such take a massive nosedive in quality.

 

Drum and bass in 1995:

Drum and bass in 2007:


Drum and bass in 2011:


Drum and bass in 2018:


Genre stayed alive for about as long as classic Doom, and it doesn't seem like it's getting "worse". I can do pretty much the same thing with any other genre that is still being enjoyed and produced for these days, for that matter. Mind that everything is a matter of taste to begin with, so just because a tune is newer it doesn't mean I like it more or less than something that is older.

 

Look at Eminem's new album for example, I find it vastly better than the previous two, to give another example:

See how rap didn't get worse just because of "gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang" :P

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There's many so factors into what you're describing as "popular."  Doom is obviously very popular, would you say *it* is nosediving in quality? 

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For something to be called "popular", it had to be popular before it sucked. Doesn't really work the other way around.

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4 hours ago, Mr. Freeze said:

Everything popular sucks, fellow poster on 

 

checks notes

 

Doomworld, a forum for an extremely popular videogame. 

 

I thought it was quite popular. Not Fortnite levels but still popular.

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7 hours ago, Bauul said:

There is a correlation between accessible art and popular art, which you'd except: the more accessible it is, the less niche, so can appeal to more people, and therefore it's considered popular. But it's also less challenging.

 

Bingo.

 

Usually, in order for something to become a hit or something it has to look kinda soulless, accessible, watered down, easy to digest and so on, otherwise it won't be appealling to the masses, which in turn makes more niche stuff fascinating because that's not concerned with such petty matters.

 

Of course, that isn't always the case. Some things are popular because they are truly good, while others enjoy this state only temporary because there's nothing more to it. Video games and music are a good example, what's of real quality is remembered forever and usually popular in a way or another, while everything else is inevitably burried by time and dust (well, didn't want that to be a Mayhem reference but whatever).

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The less popular stuff tends to suck more reliably, in my opinion. Especially if you're digging back more than a few years. This holds true for any medium.

 

The only medium that I would tend to agree with popular stuff sucking is music, because what gets the most radio play is always some of the least complex stuff out there. Simplicity and repetitiveness have been "in" for a long, long time. Relative popularity in genres that aren't mainstream is still a decent metric of accessible quality, though, I'd say. A heavy metal band that can play to full shows for an entire tour won't have anywhere near the fan-base of BTS (the O2 arena hosted them recently and the place was swamped with tweens and their parents) or Taylor Swift, for example, but they got that following amongst metal heads based on quality or broad appeal (sometimes both), so they'll probably be better for you than somebody that nobody has ever heard of and few will ever hear. Of course, the problem then is that you need to catch them at the right album or era... Or when they're old and every tour is basically a greatest hits tour, as few bands stay consistent.

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accessibility is a questionable word - if you find something "accessible" then maybe yr standing in full blast of the demographic hose

people liked the Melvins when they were on a record label and when they vanished no-one ever talked about them again

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In my experience, popularity and quality don't necessarily go hand in hand. There are some popular things out there I find myself liking, and it applies vice versa as well - some not-so-popular (and even downright obscure) things I grow to dislike.

 

It's a very subjective matter.

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12 hours ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

Look at Eminem's new albumfor example, I find it vastly better than the previous two, to give another example:

See how rap didn't get worse just because of "gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang gucci gang" :P

7

 

I really want to like Eminem's newer material, but I feel that he's gotten soft and doesn't exude the same level of creativity and passion as he once did. Maybe that's just my perception, though. There really aren't many modern rap artists that impress me all that much. I'm baffled as to what people see in Childish Gambino and Kendrick Lamar. 

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i'm 29 years old, actually. and this feeling of skepticism has been following me since the last decade. i used to listen to the radio quite a lot when i was young. there were a couple of artists i used to be a fan of, but when i tried to listening to their old songs recently, i couldn't stand doing so because of the awful and generic lyrics. too many people have been singing about the same thing for too long, with some minor variations. i'm sick and tired of listening someone say "ohhh... i can't live without you" for the millionth time. so many topics they could be talking about, yet it's the same subject matter over and over.

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