Mods, don't worry, I'm not starting sh*t. I think this is an interesting topic, and we see it every second on these forums. I find it hilarious.

People have their favorite artists. In this forum, people are drawn to the ladies -- you know, Madonna, Mariah, Beyonce, Alicia, Ashanti, Rihanna, Janet, Britney, Christina, Mary, Leona, Fergie, Nelly Furtado, etc, etc.

I don't know what it is, but there seems to be this intrinsic desire for us to want our favorites to be on top. Why is this?? Is this the "diva" mentality? That there can be one and only one artist that is supreme? Be it the better entertainer, the better singer, the most successful, the one that made the most impact. There are constant wars between people who support one artist (i.e. Christina) and those who support another artist (i.e. Britney). It's almost IMPOSSIBLE to support them both equally. Many will claim to have equal respect (and I suppose many people will do so here), but there's always one people seem to support more than the other.

This support is often taken to an extreme, and thus we enter "fanboy" territory. That's almost a derogatory word around here, but there are a lot of fanboys here -- especially the ones who claim otherwise. I don't think these people are unintelligent or have bad taste in music, but there is this need and desire to defend their favorite artist from any kind of negativity, especially from "haters" -- another derogatory term. "Haters", by my definition, are not people who dislike an artist; you can like an artist and be a hater toward them. A hater is someone who finds it necessary to constantly put down an artist or take jabs at an artist because of some biased predisposition, even if they are a fan. In many cases, they put down an artist to make another artist (typically their favorite) look better. For instance, some people will attack a Madonna album because there's a Mariah album out; there's almost this battle for supremacy; who has the better album? It's the kind of obsessive loyalty you see in sports; if you are a fan of one franchise, the rival is evil and bad and must be destroyed. So, is it just natural to fanatically love and ignorantly hate?

By the way, I'm not claiming that I'm not a fanboy or a hater -- let's just get that straight. I'm not trying to fool any of you, the same way most of you aren't fooling any of us. I just think it's interesting to see the dynamics on the boards.

What do you guys think?

I love you for starting this thread, F4J!

I think a lot of this fanboy v. hater nonsense stems from the fact that a lot of the posters on this forum are young and a little immature and possibly have too much time on their hands. As you get older, trust me...your music tastes will change and you won't feel the need to pit artists against each other. I'd hope that some of you posters would come to realize that music is meant to be eclectic. Different artists can be great for different reasons.

Ok let me hop off of this soapbox now.

Well, if you take a look at the threads (which I don't even view anymore), it has nothing to do with the artist's music. People post all the tabloid-gossip pointless sh*t about artists that I could care less about and get into debates about it.

I really wish this forum was totally about music. But it's not.

I've definitely noticed this on this board, more than many other industry-related sites I've been to. What I find interesting is that many of the people I've seen calling others "haters" are the same exact people who are constantly making jabs at other artists, so there's a bit of hypocrisy there. If you have to defend every little thing, I think that only reveals insecurity about whether those things are true about the artist. If someone says "Beyonce is over! She'll never have another hit!" and you know that's not true, then why even acknowledge it?

I think the diva mentality is one aspect of this, but I also think that fans are particularly protective of the female artists they like. It might be because the media likes to see cat fights and pit people against each other and it becomes a snowball where the fans are attacking the other artist's fans. In some cases, if there's a rivalry it's because both artists are on the same level artistically or commercially. Mariah and Madonna are obvious examples. You're never going to see a flame war over Britney and Madonna. But with Mariah, I think Madonna fans get a little threatened because of Mariah's success, particularly since Madonna was around first. It makes sense that they get defensive. It's like defending your crown. Mariah fans, on the other hand, seem to be jealous of Madonna's status as an artist and the fact that she gets more respect.

You don't see this with other kinds of artists. You're never going to see fans of Jeff Buckley trashing John Mayer fans. Maybe it's because they're men or maybe it's because they're nowhere near as popular.

Wow I was just thinking about a topic similar to this.

I think the problem is BOTH the fanboys and the haters.The fanboys cant accept the fact that everyone might not like their favorite female artist and they feel that it's necessary to defend them even when it's not.The Haters cant accept the fact that just because they dislike a certain female artist doesnt mean that other people have to dislike them too.The haters always go to threads about an artist they dont like and they will leave negative comments and that just sends the fanboys off.Why would you go to a thread that's about an artist that you dont like? It doesnt make sense to devote your time and energy to someone your clearly not interested in.Like Rihanna for example.If you all see a topic with her name on it and you cant stand the girl why even look in the post?If your not a fan of Rihanna then go make a topic of someone you do like and leave her alone.It's as simple as that.

I really wonder why Male Artists like Usher,Justin Timberlake,and Chris Brown never endure these type of things on these boards.It's always Female Artists,which is basically all everyone ever talks about on the forum.

Yeah I was always intrigued by the fact that posters are less defensive about male artists. I have seen heated exchanges over John Legend or John Mayer, but nowhere near the wars that erupt over the mention of Divas and Divas in Training. The only example that I can think of where there the hate/love was as strong (if not stronger) for a male artist was the Tupac/Biggie episode. Man, I have seen dudes come to blows and friends question loyalty over that debate. LOL.

I cant think of any other fanboy love over male artists. Maybe Justin Timberlake or Insync vs Backstreet Boys.

It depends on the circles that you're apart of at times. Here, discussion 98% of the time revolves around female artists. Therefore, that's what the debates are all about.

I come from a place where there's ALWAYS a debate over which emcee is the greatest. You have the Biggie v. Tupac debate that's popular; Nas v. Jay-Z; Kanye v. 50 Cent.

Here, you're bound to run into some Mariah v. Madonna debates; Christina v. Beyonce; Christina v. Britney; Mary v. Mariah; Beyonce v. Rihanna, etc. That's because of what most discussion around here is centered on.

Me? I used to be the MAIN person on this site that would pounce on anyone that dare dissed Beyonce, and I admit that wholeheartedly. But I'm older, and some things just aren't worth arguing about. I like so many artists that I don't even tend to like playing the "pit" game anymore where you try and place one against the other to see which is better. It's pointless. There's more in music to discuss than to argue about who is better than whom. Plus, I know that Beyonce is the hottest chick in the game and that nobody is taking her position as the key female artist of this decade.

Sorry, but I just had to throw that in.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MrTalented,

quote:

Originally posted by DoubleD:
I love you for starting this thread, F4J!

I think a lot of this fanboy v. hater nonsense stems from the fact that a lot of the posters on this forum are young and a little immature and possibly have too much time on their hands. As you get older, trust me...your music tastes will change and you won't feel the need to pit artists against each other. I'd hope that some of you posters would come to realize that music is meant to be eclectic. Different artists can be great for different reasons.

Ok let me hop off of this soapbox now.

Not only your music taste may change, you will learn to find it very tedious and a complete waste of your time to argue over foolishness.
Things you found time to debate/squabble about before, you'll want to devote to other things you find much more important.

How old are most people at Gold Derby?

quote:

Kanye v. 50 Cent.

Those two don't even deserve to be in the same breath as the other 4 emcees you mentioned, more-or-less compared to each other. Who's debating this?? lol

quote:

Originally posted by backstabbing girlfriend:
How old are most people at Gold Derby?

I say Late Teens Early 20's!

quote:

Originally posted by DoubleD:
I think a lot of this fanboy v. hater nonsense stems from the fact that a lot of the posters on this forum are young and a little immature and possibly have too much time on their hands.

Ok let me hop off of this soapbox now.

Those were no soapbox comments. You're right.

GoldDerby didn't always used to be this way. Some WAR ZONE between the Female Artist fans. Back in the day, we used to have some good, articulate and deep conversations about all different kinds of music and musicians. Of course back then, GD was just created and not a lot of people knew about us.

Now everytime I click on this board it's all about the same female artist. Over and over again. I'm not knocking it but there used to be so much more here. It's sad. But that's what happens when you go from a little board to a big board.

Of course I don't need to remind you DD. You were there.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Prettier than Pink!,

Good job in starting this thread F4J. It was needed. lol

quote:

Originally posted by Fighting4Justice:

quote:

Kanye v. 50 Cent.

Those two don't even deserve to be in the same breath as the other 4 emcees you mentioned, more-or-less compared to each other. Who's debating this?? lol

I respect both artists, but they aren't even comparable. Both are different type of rap artists, whereas, the other four were comparable.

I don't know why but everywhere I post, there's always some kind of controversy when Christina is brought to the table... It seems like everyone has a strong opinion about the girl, either supportive or negative and everyone feels the need to compare her to one of her peers (Beyonce, Mariah, Alicia, Justin and of course Britney)...

oh man, good thread, although I've been scared to say anything.

I think the best part of this thread is about those that bring others down when it's absolutely not warranted. I really don't get when one person is being discussed, and all of a sudden a new artist is brought into the conversation. It really just makes people ****ed off.

Oh, and when No Doubt FINALLY release a new cd, be ready for a fanboy like you've never seen before

yeah i've noticed this too. It's almost impossible to post a thread about Mariah, Whitney, Christina or Janet w/out it turning into a discussion about Beyonce and who she's supposedly a superior artist. It does get annoying but i try to just ignore it.

quote:

Originally posted by Classof2006:
I really wonder why Male Artists like Usher,Justin Timberlake,and Chris Brown never endure these type of things on these boards.It's always Female Artists,which is basically all everyone ever talks about on the forum.

Because most of the posters here are gay men, who tend to be drawn to divas and female singers overall, whether they admit it ot not, now i'm not saying that every gay guy is this way, but most of them are.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Reelflickbuff,

quote:

Originally posted by DoubleD:
I love you for starting this thread, F4J!

I think a lot of this fanboy v. hater nonsense stems from the fact that a lot of the posters on this forum are young and a little immature and possibly have too much time on their hands. As you get older, trust me...your music tastes will change and you won't feel the need to pit artists against each other. I'd hope that some of you posters would come to realize that music is meant to be eclectic. Different artists can be great for different reasons.

Ok let me hop off of this soapbox now.

Sorry to bring this thread from the dead, I haven't seen a lot of threads in a while but anyway funny you say that.

Truthfully, I have grown old of Miss You Know Who even though she's not a diva (thanks goodness) at all. She's still cool in my books (I still try to stay updated on her I guess) but she's on the scale as everyone else now.

But I find the whatever you call them funny ass hell. Its very entertaining to me.