I've been a true music fan since my early teenage years. Before that, I was listening to a lot of punk and a bit of indie, I think I was about 10 or something. As I get older, my musical taste expands, broadens and diversify as I get into more bands and more different type of genres. But that's not what I wanna talk about right now. What I do wanna talk about is the relationship between bands and their haters.
For those of you who have no idea what a 'hater' is, I'll explain. There's no real definition of 'haters' found in Wikipedia due to the fact that the word could mean anything or point to anything or anyone. I'm talking about haters within the music scene. These haters, aren't exactly music haters, quite the opposite actually. They are avid listeners to music in general, defining whatever kind of music they listen to. They only have one certain characteristic that makes them stand out of the rest of the music-loving crowd; THEIR HATRED FOR CERTAIN BANDS, ARTISTS AND MUSICIANS.
Here's an example; there's this super-hot band right, they're growing popular with every album release, they tour extensively in support of each of their albums which at the same time gaining them international recognition and hype. That band are on top of the world, and yet there are those who will always get out of their own way to cut that band down. Their tactics include the usual rumor-spreading, talking crap online about said band and etc...etc... Sometimes, they'd go to that band's show and taunt them and throwing stuff at them onstage (trust me, I've seen this shit happen a lot at shows). And yet, these music 'outlaws' are still on the run and causing inter-band conflicts and situations, which are quite rare and still quite possible.
Most of the bands that I truly like a lot (Bring Me The Horizon, A Day To Remember, Four Year Strong, The Devil Wears Prada etc...) are suffering from these diseases, most haters target new and upcoming bands. Yet, most bands just wade through these haters and there are also bands who take their haters as inspiration, like A Day To Remember. There are a lot of reasons to why the haters keep on hating. Sometimes, it's due to the fact that some bands look bloody awful (Escape The Fate, Black Veil Brides), and sometimes it's due to the fact that that band is very successful. No matter what, each new band has gotta at least have a group of dudes hating on their music, their image and their ethics.
I can't really explain further upon this matter because It's a diverse type of thing, a lot of reasons, factors and whatnot. I just wrote this blog trying to explain what I know about these haters (maybe there are other blogs that explain a lot more on the subject). I just find it very unbelievable sometimes that these haters spread their hate and rumors about a certain band or artist, not to mention annoying. Every time I read a music magazine, especially in the letter sections, I would accidentally stumble upon a letter with sayings like, "oh that band sucks ass", or "oh I hate them so much! They look like fags!" by some tough guy dude who thinks his musical taste are far greater than others when said dude only listens to some lame-ass hair metal or glam metal. Seriously, grow up! Only little kids tend to do the whole 'name-calling thing'. Most of the bands that I'm into are actually good musicians (if not good, then they're great). Some of them are very successful because all their hard work and all the heart they've put into their craft. It's their passion. Yet, no matter how much cotton bud we stuff into our ears, the haters will always be there to ruin and bitter our moods. That's why we must strengthen our love for our beloved bands.
