When extolling the virtues of an unknown or "underground" band, it's only a matter of time before somebody calls it "underrated." People will complain about how none of these great bands get any mainstream success, whenever they can, ranting about how people need to stop listening to shitty pop music and listen to <insert band name here>. Hell, I've even done it myself a number of times.
The moment such a band does make it into the limelight, something funny happens. The moment a group does get noticed and picked up by a major record label, suddenly they get summarily dismissed as "sell-outs," and "overrated." It doesn't even matter if they actually changed their music at all, in the eyes of the former devotees they are now just another terrible "mainstream" band. In other words, these people don't actually wish these bands to succeed, they don't want the masses to listen to their favourite underground bands, they just want to complain.
It's really redolent of a lot of so-called "nerd culture" in its exclusivity. They just want to band together with a small group of people and complain about how these bands don't succeed, without the group ever succeeding. The moment a large number of people discover it, the fun's over. Complaining that a band is "overrated' is simply a way of saying you can't (or won't) enjoy anything that other people like.
Saying this doesn't make you sound cool, it sounds puerile and ridiculous. When most people hear you say that, they likely think you're kind of a douche, they are simply too polite to actually say it. So, don't be that guy, don't put on your your hipster hat whenever you talk about music. It's unpleasantly disingenuous, and it makes the people around you cringe.
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