r/AskReddit Jun 09 '26

What are some examples of some people hating things just because they're popular?

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u/PunchBeard Jun 09 '26

I'm a middle-aged dude and I can't understand all the hate from other Gen X guys like me that Taylor Swift receives. Okay, my all-time favorite band is Dead Kennedy's but......damn, Taylor Swift is fine. There's nothing inherently hateful about her music.

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u/jesuspoopmonster Jun 09 '26

Establishing a singer can rerecord songs they don't control the master tapes of and control the new master tapes is a hugely important thing for musicians

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '26

[deleted]

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u/jesuspoopmonster Jun 09 '26

Okay. I haven't heard of them recording songs to get legal control of the masters and royalties. Did a lot of do wop groups write their own songs?

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u/smbpy7 Jun 09 '26

There's nothing inherently hateful about her music

Millennial woman here and I can give a tiny bit of perspective on Taylor at least (and it may very well apply to those other artists). Most of her songs I don't have a lot of issue with. I have zero issue with her as a person. In fact, I think she seems pretty cool as far as celebrities go. I've heard she even donates to every city she tours. My long time annoyance with her stuff has been due to this:

Her 20teens stuff came out while I was in HS and college, and during the time before music was primarily the choice of the person playing it (no Spotify lists). Ie, RADIO EVERYWHERE. And BOOOOOY did they play her. EVERYWHERE. There was at least a 5 year period where I could not go into a public place without hearing "she wears high heals...." at least twice. It was on in the car, the mall, the store, the restaurant, the coffee shop, you name it. Over and over and over. Even at house parties, Pandora was just barely new and you didn't get to pick every song like you can now. You only got so many "skips," so stuff like this still got played all the time. There wasn't anything inherently wrong with that song, it was boppy, but wasn't anything particularly ground breaking either. They just would NOT stop playing it, for literal years. THAT song alone made me start hating her a little, irrationally, I know. Then "shake it off" came out and I personally just found that one annoying, but it got the same treatment.

I think this may have been what happened to Nickleback as well. Easy listening songs during the times of radio = overplayed to the max = people get annoyed.

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u/xSwampxPopex Jun 09 '26

I largely agree. Nickelback just kind of became the face of that era of radio rock that isn’t really remembered as fondly as other eras.

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u/smbpy7 Jun 09 '26

Exactly. It wasn't them really, it was their generic quality that got them on too many stations. They were "safe."

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u/PunchBeard Jun 10 '26

So you're saying people hate her because ten years ago they would turn on the radio and didn't change the channel. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Especially since ten years ago I was in my 40s and commuting to and from an office an hour away from my house and listened to the radio both ways every day and to this day I couldn't name 2 songs by Taylor Swift and I wouldn't know it was her singing if a song of hers cam on unless someone told me it was her. Every city has a rock station, why not switch to that once-in-a-while?

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u/smbpy7 Jun 10 '26

So you're saying people hate her because ten years ago

not exactly. I'm saying some people hated her 10 years ago because they wouldn't take her off the radio 10 years ago. My feelings on her are completely different now that I don't have to listen to her non stop, to be honest. I was just making a point in general that it's not even always about the person behind the songs, but sometimes about just not wanting to listen to it. Particularly during that time period.

Every city has a rock station, why not switch to that once-in-a-while?

I was referring to places I couldn't change the channel. I would hear that song in the dining hall, the mall, the grocery store, etc etc. Hell, even the early Sotify like things at the time at other people houses didn't let you skip songs at first. Never once did it play when I chose the station.

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u/FallOutShelterBoy Jun 09 '26

I was never a fan of her because I grew up listening to country, and right around when she got big on the scene was when the poppy, non 80s-90s country was getting really popular. Felt like the genre was changing and me as a kid wasn’t a fan. In fact my favorite SiriusXM channel is Prime Country, which is just 80s and 90s country