In the past couple of months,I have grown to learn and began to love a band known as Death Cab For Cutie. For those of you who are not familiar with the band, they have just released their sixth album (Narrow Stairs) and tend to play a variety of Indie-Pop and Rock.
The band, in general, are far more popular in the USA than they are here in the UK and to be honest, this contributes largely to my attraction towards them. I have found a band that although are incredibly talented (their success in the USA proves this), they are not the type of band who you would see on every television channel or hear on every radio station in the UK. That is until now...
I have to admit, even though I have only began to really appreciate them in the last 5 months at most, I was positively excited by the upcoming release of Narrow Stairs. This was until I began to see literally hundreds of posters and advertisements in every bus station, subway station and all over the internet. I even came across their picture on the main page of iTunes (which i consider to be an obvious marker of popularity), so it appears their popularity is growing rapidly.
I am of course pleased for the band, as they are coming closer to what I assume is one of every bands dreams,to send some kind of message to the whole world,however I am also just a little disappointed.
I am a huge music lover and part of the reason for this is that i believe that it genuinely can helps to escape from everything and anything because I have a completely unique taste which reminds me that I'm different from everyone else and that I don't necessarily follow the trends. I understand that Death Cab are a band that are in general very successful however, at least in my extended social circle, very little is known about them, so to some extent I have felt recently like I am in on some kind of amazing secret. Although now that feeling has disappeared because they are literally everywhere, the secret is out.
So after much thought I have decided that I am not going to listen to or buy the new album,at least for a couple of months because I believe being constantly surrounded by the music and advertising and having the feeling that I'm just following the crowd would mean that I would become sick of the album very quickly and not really be able to enjoy or appreciate it.
I hope that people understand that I am not simply some kind of 'stuck up wannabe indie-kid who simply refuses to conform' (that oh so well known phrase), because I'm genuinely not (at least I'm fairly sure I'm not), it just seems that there is less of an appeal because they are becoming "cool". I also hope that there are other people who feel like this about certain bands or else maybe authors or directors and that I am not just being incredibly stupid. Someone back me up?