A couple of months ago, it was coming up to the Blink 182 show in Manchester. Someone asked me who I was going to see and I told her. When she heard the name of the band she screwed up her face and replied with, "I used to like them, before they sold out and started making pop music." (Ok, maybe that wasn't exactly what she said, but you get the gist.) Unfortunately, she was one of my friends, so I restrained myself from using physical violence, but it made me think.

So what really pisses me off? People who use the phrase 'sell outs' all the time. People who actually use that phrase as a reason for not liking a band. (Ok, I know there are worse reasons, but just go with me for a minute.)

Let's take an example. Let's look at those cheeky-chappies-now-turned-mature-men Blink 182. When people first heard of them they LOVED them. They thought their videos were funny and their style was cool. Then what happened? They started getting popular. Really popular. Even your Great Gran had heard of them. And because of their new found popularity the band started making money. A lot of money, I would imagine. Great for them! But for a lot of their fan base, this could only be a bad thing. More people knew who they were, more people actually LIKED them, and somehow this made them 'less cool'. With appearances on MTV and their songs finding their way into the charts, the people who had made them so popular were now labelling them 'sell outs'. The same people who had previously thought they were an amazing band that deserved to get recognised now couldn't believe how 'mainstream' the band had let themselves become.

If you're one of those 'fans', let me ask you this: what the hell is wrong with going 'mainstream'? It's still the same people, still the same music (believe it or not); but now a lot more people are hearing them. I know some people have issues with how much 'bigger' bands charge for their shows, but that's usually the way it has to be because of the size of the venue. They're making money for themselves, which means they can carry on doing what they love; making music for people who love listening to it. Isn't that what it's all about, anyway? If I hear a song and I like it, I find out more about the band, maybe even buy their album. I don't care if they're multi-millionaires living in an LA mansion or a small-time, club playing band who still live with their parents. If I like the music, I like the music.

I know a lot of people like to feel 'special' if they're fans of a band that no one's heard of, so they can go to intimate shows with 20 people in the crowd and maybe meet the band members afterwards. And that's great. But if you were really a fan of that band, you wouldn't complain when they started appearing in music magazines or started selling records for the first time. You have to remember that bands don't make a lot of money; they make hardly any money. What little money they do get from playing 30-date tours only goes back into funding the next tour, or the next recording session. Even 'big' bands with years of experience and Record Company funding only really make their money from selling their merchandise (and even that's going down since people started downloading whole albums or buying 'fake' merchandise.) I know that if I were in a band and was given the opportunity to make a bit of extra cash, I'd take it, regardless of whether my 'fans' were calling me a sell out or not.

So if you're one of these people who like a band, then as soon as they get popular you deny you ever owned all their albums and had their posters on your wall, or if you've ever deliberately told people your favourite band is some obscure, unknown group just to 'keep it underground', then I urge you to stop being such a big loser. Listen to what you like, it doesn't matter (or shouldn't matter) what everyone else thinks or what everyone else likes. I'll leave you with the immortal words of Less than Jake; "Johnny Quest thinks we're Sellouts" - Well, Johnny Quest can just go the f*** away.