When did the concept of obscure music being better start?

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Isn't Peel in the category of trying to make things more popular than they are? Beefheart and the Fall would have done anything to get a wider audience.

I think the "I liked the earlier stuff" paradigm specifically has to do with the fact that so many indie bands ate shit when they signed to a major, either out of pressure to sell or just naturally running out of steam when its the third or fourth record. For every Jawbox or Nirvana there are dozens of useless, formulaic records of fart guitars and bom diddy bom rhythms. So naturally more obscure stuff got a mystique if it sounded like Zen Arcade not Wonderwall.

In the case of indie, the more obscure stuff is often poppier too because the pressure for maturity was away from pop. If you think stodgy 90s REM is catchy then Harbourcoat is going to wreck you.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

The internet seems to have only given obscurity more mystique, with the popular of iceberg memes and all.

[idunnosomename]

death n' roll should only be six feet under the water level

[Video Game Fan 2000]

The real obscure music genres are Barrymore Cringe, Nicky Nacky Noo and Page 3 Crossovers.

[willbo]

death n' roll should only be six feet under the water level

even i know death n roll is like Entombed, later Carcass. And I knew that as a teen... who wasn't that into extreme metal...

[monkfromhavana]

Where is Chip Shop, Fungle, Turbo Folk and Tartan Techno on that meme instead of all that bloody pop music?

[Brundle-Fly]

I think it's fair enough to be a bit elitist and be discerning about your own personal taste in music, but if you use the term 'sell out' after you hit forty, then it gets slightly pathetic.

[thecuriousorange]

Jesus, and the other prophets

Yeah the New Testament was a real "year zero" moment for many. Changed everything for discerning theologians and there was no going back once that line had been drawn in the sand.

[Goldentony]

I dare you to name them.

Live It Up by Mental as Anything, Do The Hucklebuck by Coast To Coast and Midnight Dynamos by Matchbox