Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

[manny at telerama.com]

> What on earth does this mean? If a band can pull over 1500 people to one 
> gig they're instantly shite?

high probability of yes. mass appeal is generally not possible without
serious artistic compromise. and 1500 is big enough in Pgh to certainly
qualify as mass appeal. even the Juliana Theory is not that big here and
 they're from here. so imagine something worse than Juliana and there you
have the standard at that level pretty much.

it is inarguable. i'm not saying that the artists are bad necessarily -
certainly Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen have their merits per se - just
that it's not something we need to worry about, any more than we need to
worry about buying copies of Entertainment Weekly. let the corporations
worry about it. it's their job.

> And for someone who waves his DIY flag into everyone's eye, how can you 
> justify saying we collectively shouldn't care about filling a venue void?

a 1500 capacity venue is not a DIY void. it is a market void.

however,
with way goth has mass appeal nowadays in every facet of youth culture
i am not surprised you would try to defend the merit of mass appeal.