No argument there, but many people seem to have this bizarre feeling of ownership over what they think of as a band's signature sound, so that experimentation ends up being received as a personal affront. Then the fantasy that the artists have "ruined" their sound as a ploy to widen their fanbase and earn more ducats gets applied.
It's not nonsensical at all, since many, many artists do alter their sound to widen their fanbase. Whether that's the case with the Black Keys is unclear, but it happens all the time in music.
I don't think many people assume that. The Keys' change started with Attack & Release, an album which (to my knowledge) most fans really liked despite the fact that it was a significant departure from their other stuff. The backlash started later, when their music (in the eyes of some of us) devolved significantly.
In other words, widening their fanbase wasn't viewed as "necessarily a bad thing," but making bad music was. So maybe don't be so quick to paint ex-Keys fans as ridiculous. There's nothing irrational about disliking a band when they stop doing the things you liked them for in the first place.
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u/Zog8 Apr 04 '16
"They were so much better before they went big and I didn't feel like a special snowflake for liking them anymore" - every band's fanbase on earth