When does something "SELL OUT"/ When do the POSERS step in

[Bouncing Ferret FIlm]

Basically with anything small and independent, what exactly separates the POSERS from the FANS? Where does that line get drawn from the "independents" to the "sellouts"

For me, i'd have to say that (while i don't necessarily believe it) the FANS are people who (Doomsday Arcade for example) have come across it by chance floating around on the net OR being a part of THE ESCAPIST. Other NEW fans are accepted into this FAN circle when a FAN already IN the DA Fan circle invite the New Fan Into the circle. This is done by sharing this link with them because The FAN knows that the soon to be NEW FAN will get the humor and references found in Doomsday Arcade. Then that NEW FAN becomes an accepted FAN of D.A.

But at some point there has to be a LINE, When do the POSERS come in?

DEFINITION POSER: n. someone who pretends to belong to a group only by affecting the attributes of the group.

SOOO what separates the FANS who generally likes it from the POSERS?!

Personally, for me, I think its more or less HOW they find out about the independent item in question. The D.A. POSERS will "pop out of the wood work" when D.A. gets such recognition that they have a T.V. Spot.... Like Sanctuary.
Sanctuary was an independent series available for download from the website FOR FREE, they got enough recognition and got picked up by SCIFI, NOW its on TV. So I think the line is drawn at the moment something becomes "main stream" if you will. Anyone who gets on board AFTER that will be labeled a POSER, regardless if they genuinely like it, mainstream or not.

Personally I think this is B.S.
FIrst off, POSERS exist PERIOD! It doesn't matter how small it is or how big it is, someone WILL pretend to like it just to fit in to the small group or single person who already likes it.

Second, ANY fan SHOULD want whatever their a fan of to reach SUCESS! Tenacious D, Boondock Saints, Evil Dead, ETC. The fans SHOULD be happy that T-Shirts are being made ETC... Support = money = the people their a fan of being able to keep doing what the fans love. ANYTIME something becomes successful, there are some Fans who CRY SELLOUT!! WHY?!

Just because something awesome got picked up and got the recognition it deserves doesn't necessarily mean its a SELLOUT. Now it is true that at that point things get tricky... more fingers get into the POT and regardless of what success the show has on its own, there are going to be people who pick it up who feel they can DO IT BETTER! Sometimes that's true, other times its Uwe Boll.

So my question is, where do YOU draw the line between INdependent/sellout, Fan/poser?

 

[thrubeingcool13]

The line is nebulous.

 

[LiftYourSkinnyFists]

There will always be posers, hipsters, pretentious idiots and such... Just because somethings not mainstream doesn't make it "Not a Sell Out".

 

[setvak]

Not sure who you're ranting to. A lot of things in the pop culture mainstream have fans who could be considered "posers", but I'd rather just be sincere about it and not give a damn about what does/does not constitute a "poser."

You're much too worked up about this.

 

[Bouncing Ferret FIlm]

i gather that, but i'm asking YOU where YOU draw that line. or where you HAVE drawn that line in the past.

 

[Bouncing Ferret FIlm]

i'm not an elitist just opening the thread for those who have their opinions about such things to voice them.

 

[metalhead467]

WHY are you TYPING like THIS? You don't HAVE to EMPHASIZE every other WORD!

=P

But seriously though, I don't think there really is a concrete line. If you genuinely like something, you're a fan. If you pretend to like something, you're a poser.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Selling out is normally said when corporate sorts come in and take control of some grass roots thing. Especially when they come in and tell the band/haberdasher/soft fruit importer what they need to do to be as successful as the market leaders. This normally involves the independent being charmed by the corporate people and stopping doing things that people liked about them in the first place because the corporate ways are just "better."

Posers, I don't know. Many people pretend to know more about things than they really do. People seem to be more confident in their opinions the less they know about something.

 

[thublihnk]

I'm sorry you got called a poser.

...Would you like me to bake you a cake? It'll be authentic, and hardcore, and punk rock, and it'll be all your own! You'll be the trendsetter, just like those guys at school you want to fit in with so bad!!111

AbiTRARY CApitALIZation!

 

[A random person]

Things sell out the instant they're popular or do anything different, or at least that's the case for people who complain about that.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

Hmmm, I think selling out would be when you keep singing about the hood when you have a butler trained in Buckingham palace. A poser is somebody who is into the genre as a fashion statement. Like emo's who's greatest emotional turmoil is not being able to afford another CD.

I find that for me, it is the level of spectacle and pretension that defines the line of sellout and poser.

 

[Frenger]

Things sellout the very instant they are brought to the public eye, or make even the slightest amount of cash.

But then I do not understand what poser and hipster even mean.

 

[Guy32]

I think of being a poser as more of a fashion thing. I mean part of it is the music you listen to, but its much more what you wear. For example there are people that like Metallica and want to buy a shirt to support them, which is fine, but then there are the people that own like 7 Metallica shirts and wear them 6 days a week in an obvious attempt to get people to notice and hopefully establish a connection with them.

I guess that's sort of how it happens: A group of friends are fans of something and tend to talk about it. Someone else likes the people in the group, so he/she act like the most generic fan possible to fit in. Thus a poser is born.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

MOstly when something gets to a point that people who have never experience what the thing does see or use it once then think they know everything about it and that they are the ones who made it popular.