Hey Ya?
I really liked it when it first came out, but yeah that one got real old, real quick, yet continued being over played for a real long time.
Back to the OP, I never really did, or rather at all, got into DMB, Coldplay, or Nickelback, however, I just felt the need to toss in U2 into that same grouping.
That’s IT! A new measure is now available on the Fan Douchiness ScaleTM.
Small Hen, as the originator of this scale - and the calibrator of it (who knew that MST3K’ers had an FDS rating of 20,000??) I recommend you start a new thread to elicit entries and FDS measurements!!!
I second the thread nomination but I suggest we recalibrate the scale so that Firefly fans are the apex instead of MST3K nerds. Even as a Browncoat, the fans of Firefly scare me.
Oh yeah, calibrating the FDS across different fan categories is where all the work is…
…I just love the fact that the scale shares its initials with another well-known douchy product…(drugstore.com link…)
Hrm, I haven’t known that many truly annoying *MST3K *or *Firefly *fans, but how about Monty Python? And it’s always some guy who hasn’t seen much more than Holy Grail, yet quotes from it incessantly.
I recommend using Tool fans to calibrate the upper end of the scale.
Tori Amos on my scale.
This is the crux. They are the type of band that, if you put a song or two you like on your playlist, you feel a slight twinge of fear that someone may observe you and associate you as being one of the lifestyle fans.
e.g. Phish comes up on your random playlist at a party, when suddenly someone approaches you:
“Dude, killer, did you make it to the Fresno 2001 campout? Man what a show, we drove 14 hours just to–”
“Umm…no…I, uh, don’t know how that came up on random…” frantically hits skip
This is funny, because I think DMB saturation was there around '95 or so, especially in college towns like Austin. I was all too aware of who Dave was and I had no interest in looking him up.
Before then, kids, it was a different ball game. I know that every kid in my building had a copy of the Eagles’ Greatest Hits and Journey. So if you went to any event that involved a boombox (volleyball, camping, moving kids into a dorm) you would hear “Desperado” or “Don’t Stop Believin’” at some point. Being this is Texas, we also had Garth Brooks for this purpose.
I think by '98, people weren’t listening to CDs as much, and instead were using these newfangled MP3 players to play DMB.
Norma Jean fans on my scale.
Your area must’ve been a damn sight ahead of mine, because in 1998 I’m sure I was the only person in my group of friends who knew mp3s existed, and I didn’t see a portable player for a few more years after that. The iPod wasn’t Windows compatible (the catalyst for its takeoff, I think) until mid-2002.
Can you explain how a person models his “entire existence” after DMB songs?
Hemp necklaces, birkenstocks, and mom’s Passat.
Because, bireknstocks, and mom’s Passat are mentioned in DMB songs?
This isn’t true. Most of the DMB fans aren’t really “hippies” - they don’t typically have anything in common with hippies other than liking to party. They’re just generic frat type guys, with white baseball caps turned backwards and khaki pants.
Younger college “Hippies” of the typical variety will listen to jerk-off jam bands like Phish, Widespread Panic and String Cheese Incident; the older and more traditional hippies will listen to older hippie music like Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Jefferson Airplane, and psychedelic rock; some of them will listen to folk music, of both the old school variety (Pete Seeger) and the new alt-folk (Devandra Banhart, etc.) But very few genuine hippies like Dave Matthews Band.
DMB is the domain of fratty beer-drinking college guys with flip flops, white baseball hats and over-tanned girlfriends with orange skin. These aren’t hippies, it’s a different subculture.
Wait-- hemp necklaces are? I’m just making shit up.
So, we should judge music not be listening to the music, but how you think about its fans. Very good reason.
Whether or not we should, the fact that people ARE judging a band by its fans is the reason why it’s now uncool to like the Dave Matthews Band. Well, uncool among the non-mainstream-college crowd, anyway.
We’re not allowed to think these douchey guys are douches? Yes we are, Mr. Though Police. Yes we are. There’s obviously something to it if people from all over the country have observed similar douchey traits in them. Now I like a few of DMB’s songs, especially when I’m drunk, and that’s ok-- but you will NOT see me holding a Corona, with a lime sticking out of the top, wearing a beat-up baseball cap backwards, a polo shirt, cargo shorts, and flip flops. That would be douchey. And I wouldn’t blame you for saying so. On a message board.
It’s two-fold. It’s the utter shock and disbelief they have when you tell them that you don’t think the DMB is that great. Or that Dave’s voice makes you want to throw up. So, yeah, for me it’s the fact that I think the DMB is utter “meh” AND how the fans act.