Kings of Leon: An Observation

In the forthcoming issue of Spin Magazine, the band, Kings of Leon are profiled and Caleb Followill drops some interesting science on the commoners.  “We definitely got bigger than we wanted to be,” Caleb tells SPIN. “You feel like you’ve done something wrong. That woman in mom jeans who’d never let me date her daughter? She likes my music. That’s f*ing not cool. You almost start doing damage control: When people ask you to do stuff, you’re like, ‘No, because I can already tell this record is going to get to a level where people will f*ing hate us.’”

The irony here is that his statement has already started to make people hate them (check SPIN’s comment section).  The backlash from the not-cool-enough masses are already planning to not support their future endeavors because the band doesn’t seem to appreciate them.  Commenter O’ the day:

Posted By Andrea

12.04.09 12:49 AM

Well said, Typical Jack! That’s exactly what I was thinking when I read that: “So, your fan base must meet your criteria, and at the same time you are essentially saying that you don’t appreciate your fans if they don’t fit into your ‘cool’ mold.” Well, to me, that makes HIM uncool!!

The questions that come to my mind are:  As an artist or band decides to put their music out for the public, is it right for them  to only embrace certain types of fans?  Do you want to support an artist that doesn’t want you supporting them?  Is this a another symptom of what drives people to steal music?

What do you think?

Check out the SPIN featurette here: Kings of Leon: “Bigger Than We Wanted to Be”