So there's this big controversy on the internet about Bon Iver turning down the opportunity to perform live at the Grammy awards. They had good reasons, which I won't get into, but criticism from internet commenters seems to boil down to:
"Wah, I have hundreds of fans and don't want to have thousands of fans, wah".
"Well if these guys want to continue playing in their garage, that's their problem".
"Good luck continuing to be complete unknowns".
"I want to give them this advice: you gotta play things like that to be seen by Industry People, man! You'll never get known if you aren't seen by the Execs!"
"This guy will be sorry next year, when he's working in an IT department and realizes he missed his Big Break!"
You get the point.
And I'm not a Bon Iver fan (nor do I have anything against them). But seriously? Bon Iver is doing quite well for themselves without the help of the Grammy-watching masses. They sell out 6000 seat stadiums. They make a living playing music. Though (obviously) not a household name in the mainstream, they are at the top of the heap in the indie music world. They don't have hundreds of fans, nor thousands - they have hundreds of thousands of fans. They don't need to pick up fans who are tuning in for Nicki Minaj and Katie Perry. They're not going to be working in IT next year because they've made a good living for several years, just touring, selling albums, and (most likely) having their music placed in films and tv. And yet these idiots on the internet always equate "band I've never heard of" with "band nobody else has ever heard of". It's funny, but also a little maddening.
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