Why do people hate mainstream?

[742]

well, most people are stupid, things targeted at a mainstream audience sometimes go from being really cool when noone liked it, to stupid crap later. sometimes things stay smart, but generally no.

yes, liking things noone else likes is fun.

but for the record, i hated halo and dane cook before it was cool to do either.

 

[Vrex360]

Well I can understand the appeal of rebelling against it, besides a lot of what the masses like can often be called shit from a perspective viewpoint. But I just wish the people rebelling against mainstream would not act special about it, especially when they are only rebelling because that's cool and everyone else is doing it as that IS mainstream.

I'm both, I like independant arthouse movies more than the mainstream cinema, and I'm also a member of the 'Halo Nation'. I like to think my tastes are fairly balanced and it makes me less of an idiot and less pretentious.

 

[nolongerhere]

Well I can understand the appeal of rebelling against it, besides a lot of what the masses like can often be called shit from a perspective viewpoint. But I just wish the people rebelling against mainstream would not act special about it, especially when they are only rebelling because that's cool and everyone else is doing it as that IS mainstream.

I'm both, I like independant arthouse movies more than the mainstream cinema, and I'm also a member of the 'Halo Nation'. I like to think my tastes are fairly balanced and it makes me less of an idiot and less pretentious.

Couldn't put it better myself.

 

[MoganFreeman]

I don't hate Dane Cook because he is mainstream.

I hate him because he is a unfunny, sycophantic jack-ass with an egregious sense of unwarranted self-importance.

But on a more general note, people tend to dislike mainstream culture because mainstream culture tends to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

 

[Mozared]

People usually say "When something is popular, it's popular with a reason - it's good". I say that statement is 80% right. When something is popular, it's popular with a reason - most people like it. Considering that 'most people' are idiotic nitwits that only like stupid and horrible time fillers, I'm usually not a fan of anything mainstream.

 

[Khazoth]

Quality control, really.

I hate American Idol because.. Well.. Do I need to explain this one? They don't produce any fucking talent.

I hate Halo because its popular, yes, if something is mediocre and popular its going to tick me the fuck off. Its like an artist taking a dump on a canvas and being praised for his dramatic quality of art.

I hate Naruto because everything about the show.. (Fans, Voice Acting, Characters, Story, etc) are obnoxious on criminal levels.

I hate Final Fantasy mostly because of its popularity as well. I mean, they praise it as a great game. That is such bullocks, its a visual novel and if they just cut the "great game" part of the praise I wouldn't hate it as much.

I hate Dane Cook because he's mediocre. He does this unfunny, predictable observational humor and steals from OTHER predictable, unfunny observational comedians. Seriously there are about six people claiming he's stealing from them. Oh, and for the record? Look up the incident he had at Yuk-Yuk.

I hate Carlos Mencia because he's unfunny and predictable as well, only he does this bit where he's offensive not for humor, but to just be offensive. Its the same thing Rockstar does, controversy sells. That and he has this insanely cocky thing he does where if you don't laugh he either says its because he jokes are too edgy for you, or that your a retard.

I don't care about mainstream, I care about quality. It pisses me off and warrants hatred when mediocrity is rewarded. I have hated alot of things in my life but its only when that thing is popular despite its lack of quality that I cry foul.

But no, its because I have a James Dean fetish and want to be a rebel without a cause.

 

[Ignignoct]

I was watching Dane Cook (yes I'm a fan) and I began wondering why people suddenly began to hate him so much once he became mainstream.

The same with Halo. It was praised and then became really popular and people turned against it.

Same with music, anime, movies, tv shows. If people do like it they won't admit it to others, because they're... idk afraid of people's opinion of them?

Why are people so against mainstream? Please tell me your opinion!

Dane Cook's comedic formula works well initially and he burst onto the comedy scene with originality and energy.

Unfortunately, the cookies his comedy provides stale quickly, and you know the flavor, though the shape may change.

That's not too convoluted, is it? >XD

TL;DR I liked him a lot initially, but then his style got old and exhausting and content matter predictable.

 

[RyVal]

Because generally, when something becomes more mainstream, it does so by substituting what originally made it popular in its particular niche in favour of a more broad, generic approach (see for reference: Star Trek).

Also, how did Halo "become" mainstream?
It was already being over-hyped before it was even released.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

Partly elitism - feeling that they belong to a different, and hence better, group.

But there is some truth in saying that "mainstream is generally worse". And not because "most people are idiots" (see also "elitism"). I'd say there are two main reasons.

First, if something becomes mainstream after being little known for a while (often the case with music and comedians, sometimes also writers), then by the time it hits mainstream, it probably already lost a lot of its initial appeal. Being original can only take you so far.

Second, indie stuff occupies a specific niche and therefore caters for a specific audience. Since mainstream has a much broader audience, it has to be less focused. It's easier to make "intelligent humour" when you're indie, for example, because your audience has very similar tastes and experiences to you. When you go mainstream, you have to make sure that everyone gets your joke. A comedian catering for an SF fan audience can go miles on referencing "Flowers for Algernon" or the "Foundation" series. But a mainstream one has to stick to "The Da Vinci Code" and politics. Not because the mainstream audience is inherently dumber, but because more people know Dan Brown than Daniel Keyes.

 

[Grimm91]

I just think this way, only people make stuff main stream. So I don't care.

 

[slevin8989]

Being different makes them feel special.

Exactly everyone wants to fell that they're different and special and the irony is that that feeling just does the opposite makes everyone the same

 

[Daymo]

they often show blatant bias against certain consoles or just deny consoles good things in general, etc.

Would you like to take your pick?

Valve has done this with practicly everything they have realsed for console and yet people don't hate them. It seems like a case of double standards for mainstream and non-mainstream companies to me.

 

[sokka14]

Being different makes them feel special.

i'd add more to this if there was anything more to add

 

[Skeleon]

Because it's difficult to define your personality through something that is loved by all/most other people as well.
If you're more into indie stuff, it grants your personality more depth; at least that's what many shallow people believe.

 

[Flushfacker]

Generally; the more mainstream something goes, the more it tries to broaden itself out to a wider variety of people. Ergo; it's spreading itself thinner and thinner. The little independent quirks usually vanish from stuff that's outside of the mainstream that's then fitting in.

Of course, some of it is just hating the trend.

Yea pretty much this.
Things are mainstream for a reason, to appeal to the masses it must be inoffensive, simple, unoriginal. Also something cannot please everyone, therefore a mainstream product will have always been hated by some people, the more popular it gets the more people know about it and therefore, a growing number of people both like and hate it. Add to that the people that always hated it will now hate it even more intensely.

 

[Tiamat666]

First of all, what is mainstream? To me, mainstream is when people start liking something because everyone else does and it's cool to do so. I don't dislike everything that becomes mainstream (videogames have gone mainstream). But I do despise "mainstreamers" - people who don't have an opinion or taste on things and just try to fit into what's going on.

Mainstreamers have the uncanny ability to destroy the appeal of awesome things that go mainstream. They do so by infecting the previously pure community of people who genuinely liked something and had good and strong opinions on it with their ignorance and shallowness.

 

[Darkmaster127]

For the mostpart, i hate mainstream because 'mainstream' players don't want the same things from a game I do. COD4 continues to be the best example here, people want big explosions, and good graphics combined together to create constant chaos, personally that just pisses me off, ok war can, and is chaotic, but at Call of Duty rate the world would wipe itself out in a couple of weeks.

Same for films, 'mainstream' tends to me good special effects, with good looking actors. Whilst i would rather have a good storyline/characters/intresting camera work/direction, pretty much anything other than just special effects. The best recent example of this would be Wanted, which i still haven't seen, so can't judge too much, but it really does look awful.

This of course doesn't explain why i'd hate mainstream, only why i wouldn't like it. The reason i hate it is that everyone else won't shut up about things that i can see no value in, which obviously gets irritating, and makes me hate it.

 

[Nazulu]

Some mainstream things are good and some are terrible. The reason you hear so much more love and hate for them is because mainstream means popular so you see more of it.

I hate most of the music I hear on MTV or on Nova these days because they just suck! Music like Lady Gagas requires no talent what so ever.

I have played alot of better games back on the N64 compared to any game released on the Wii.

There are more interesting anime out there than Naruto and Bleach but somehow those became very popular.

Some movies are good but there has been alot of crap that has been released lately like Dragon Ball Evolution.

I will never understand why people like those reality shows like Big Brother when I can't even watch it for more than 1 minute!

Blah blah blah! You get my point.

 

[JenXXXJen]

It's always really annoyed me how people do that, you're the only one missing out if you avoid anything that's popular that just might be good. Purposfully only liking obscure music and such I find very pretentious and irritating, to be perfectly honest. Unless it's really personal preference rather than an idiot trying to look cool, just stop it. Nao plz.

Personally, I judge things on their own merits, mainstream and shit nobody's heard of

 

[resultsmayvary]

Back when I used to play WoW I was running a small 5 man instance with some buddies. We were talking on vent and got on the subject of movies. I starting saying that it took way too long for Brad Pitt to get recognized as a seriously talented actor because he was always just seen as a pretty boy. So my buddy starts on an "I hate Brad Pitt" tandem. When I asked him why he hated Brad Pitt his response was "He's just too popular for me".

I was literally violently angry about this for 2 days. That is by far the dumbest shit I've ever heard someone say.

It's the same as people who, when asked what music they like, start to ramble off bands that only 12 people in the known universe have ever heard of. Just to be "Different". News Flash: Being different for the sake of being different makes you just like every other emo hoser I meet daily on the interweb.