What is termed as "mainstream"?

Hochiminh · 05-07-2007, 02:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkprinny

Quote:
A gigantic brainwashing cover that the media and the government uses 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 predjudice. Rap is known for influencing mainstream. So is Hip-Hop.
Mainstream should die.

I wonder who wrote that one?

Urbandictionary...the only dictionary site I know of is Wiki, but this one is pretty cool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiired

Quote: Incorrect. It's also a Hip-Hop term :] in hip-hop, mainstream is classed as artists who release singles/albums publically, such as Outkast and 50 Cent (god I hate him). But then there's those who are not mainstream, and are classed as Underground, such as Little Brother and J-Live (who I doubt almost anyone on this site has heard of :]) who don't have their music played on TV, and though they release albums and singles, they're not made as public - usually just to the people around the area in which they live. woopwoop.

Underground to me is a loose term. Some people may see that this rock/metal/hip hop band is underground, but some may say its mainstream.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper

Quote: People still listen to the radio? lol I would have never thought.

We live in a civilized world with civilized things...ah, what am I saying? I totally agree with you. I sure wish I had a studio so I could play obscure bands, none of this mainstream shenanigans.

blueradio · 05-07-2007, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hochiminh

Here's my thought about what's mainstream and what's not.

I would consider mainstream as a band that has at least a few hits on the radio and is well known, such as:
-Incubus
-Red Hot Chili Peppers
-STP
-Pearl Jam
-REM
-U2
-Fuel
-Seether
-Chevelle
-almost every 60's, 70's, and 80's band

I would consider bands that have hardly any hits but are known by quite a few people as a term I like to call semi-mainstream, such as:
-Mushroomhead
-Slipknot (they don't play radio hits much)
-In Flames
-Shadows Fall
-Thousand Foot Krutch
-From Zero
-Ra

I would consider bands that play next to zero radio hits and are not well known as not mainstream, such as:
-Drill
-Mad At Gravity
-Lifer
-Injected
-Vulgar Pigeons
-Nullset
-Sugarcoma
-and local bands

Of course, I'm not including country, hip-hop, or anything else because I don't listen to them, so counting those would be naive.

So what are your views on this? Agree/disagree. Hopefully no flaming.

All of those bands are metal or some kind of metal.
Besides RHCP and REM there isn't a single band worth a shit.

Next, mainstream is just a term to describe MTV's and FUSE's impact on the music world.
i.e; Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Avenged Sevenfold, and mostly all rap.

To be honest not all bands that have made it big are bad. They have just made it big, which makes it hard on the true fan.
When a 10 year old girl wearing Hollister goes around with her iPod Nano listening to a band that you have liked since they began, it makes it difficult for someone to like them.
This can be seen with the RCHP, U2, KISS in the 70's at the height of their popularity. Although, that's the more factual scene.

On a personal note,
at my school, every girl in 7th grade likes the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Sublime.
Two bands I've listened to since their starts. Especially Sublime, I grew up with them since I was about 2 years old.
The YYY's are more recent, but once something hits MTV it's all over the place. It can't be helped. What I'm trying to say is, Mainstream either causes the band's sound to change or the fan base to falter.

Also, to state that local bands are not mainstream is blatently obvious, and no really knows or cares about what band or who they are.

Hochiminh · 05-09-2007, 02:37 AM

Mainstream isn't bad, it's just that their songs are monotonously played over the air. But I do like plenty of songs that the mainstream bands don't play on the radio, like Evanescence "Taking Over Me", REM "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight", Smile Empty Soul "Therapy", and U2 "So Cruel". But the variety has to change.

But saying that, I heard three new songs on the air:

-Red "Breathe Into Me"
-Stone Sour "Made of Scars"
-the new Rage Against the Machine song

All truly awesome...that is, until they are overplayed...

Brawny · 05-09-2007, 02:43 AM

In response to Blueradio's post. Basically, the "type" of music doesn't matter, as long as it's not what more than 50% of the population likes...

That's kinda what this whole thread is saying.

Hochiminh · 05-09-2007, 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brawny

In response to Blueradio's post. Basically, the "type" of music doesn't matter, as long as it's not what more than 50% of the population likes...

That's kinda what this whole thread is saying.

It's an opinion...everyone's got different views on what mainstream is, via types of music or music in a genre. Technically, you can consider rap, rock, metal, and country mainstream, and you can consider 50 Cent, U2, Disturbed, and Karie Underwood as mainstream too.

I do agree that any kind of genre can have mainstream material, even reggae (Bob Marley) and new age (Yanni) have their common place.