obscurity...

[sirdannytee]

A few years back a friend recommended i listen to an album from the 60's by a band i'd never heard of. The album was 'Forever Changes' by Love. I listened to the album and kind of fell in love with it. When i spoke to the friend who'd recommended it a few weeks later i asked why i'd never heard of it. He explained that the album hadn't really sold anything when it was released, and that whilst it was highly thought of by critics and avid music fans it had never really recieved any kind of mainstream recognition (unlike Love's L.A contemporaries the Doors).

I was perplexed to say the least. My friend told me that for him, the album's obscurity, kind of added to it's charm. after thinking about i kind of started to agree with him. I went through a spell of looking for similar 'lost classics' and refusing to listen that anything that was popular or had sold too many records.

To put a modern twist on it i was recently talking to a different friend about the scottish band Frightend Rabbit. I mentioned that i couldn't believe that they weren't more well known and i got a similar response from him that it made him like them more. the same friend told me that he refused to listen to the new Vaccines album because of all the hype surrounding it.

It got me thinking that is it just myself and my weird friends who have this outlook? does brilliance have to go hand in hand with obscurity?

[jimmystobo]

if anyone other than I buys the new antlers album i'll punch them in the balls.

[The Nal]

If its good, its good. Obscure or not. You usually have to go searching for the good stuff though.

Forever Changes is very famous by the way. Its Robert Plant and Whispering Bob Harris' favourite album.

Arthur Lee played the Acoustic Tent in 2004, one of the best gigs I've ever seen at Glasto.

[Messi30]

An album in the grammy hall of fame is obscure ?

[ggoon]

The first taste of glastonbury in 2004 started me off on a journey....of not necessarily only listening to mainstream music, whether indie, rock, metal but accepting and enjoying lesser known bands and singers. I now look forward to the line-up release so I can 'discover' more music.

I include Yuck, White Lies, and The Joy Formidable in those bands I'm new to this year....which is probably laughable to some of you, but I'd barely heard of them before.

And considering I came to see oasis and macca in 2004 , I've come a long way!

I love my music, mainstream or not. But does not every band/artist want to sing their music in front of an audiences of tens of thousands?

[ukslim]

There's loads of great music, and there's even more shit music, and music that's merely ordinary. Finding the great music among the rest is difficult, and you can't expect the mainstream to do it for you.

Especially since it's so subjective.

I saw a band in my local several years ago, called the Samurai Seven. Tuneful indie-pop John Peel fodder. I bought a CD off them. It's still one of the best CDs in my collection, definitely as good (to me) as anything in the top ten, but it will remain obscure.

Much more obscure than anything Love released!

[topmarksbri]

In some cases bands are successful and mainstream because they are good not in spite of. Music should be listened to in the same way regardless of how well it sells, if you're concious of how popular a band is before you first listen to them that might taint your opinion of them and so I try and listen to them regardless of context. But this is just me, music is subjective after all.

[spiky_simon]

Summed up for me in the Venn diagram on my favourite t-shirt: http://store.dieselsweeties.com/products/elitism

[Badlands]

Potential for this thread to turn into a my music is more obscure than yours thread. Seeds have been sown.

Love will be relatively obscure to a lot of people, young uns, those without their heads constantly in Uncut or Music Blogs, my Mam.....

As mentioned before, if its good its good.

I happen to think Forever Changes is a tad overrated as it happens.

[ukslim]

Potential for this thread to turn into a my music is more obscure than yours thread. Seeds have been sown.

[ukslim]

One more point -- the more obscure a band is, the more likely you are to be able to see them in a small venue. This is a big plus in my opinion.

[Taikonaut]

I make my own music and only let myself listen to it, I don't think it's possible to get more obscure and indie than that.

I try hard not to care but sometimes and I can't explain it, it's a little annoying when you love a little band and then suddenly everybody loves them. Makes no sense and it's wrong but I imagine a lot of people feel that.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Frightend Rabbit