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It's Popular, Now it Sucks
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alt title(s): Its Popular Now It Sucks 
Do you think that they're too cool now, That being popular is lame? You're the ones who made them popular, All the songs are still the same!
— Five Iron Frenzy, Handbook for the Sellout.
Thou shalt not stop liking a band simply because they've become popular.
I was uncool before uncool was cool.
Without exception, everything that is popular and famous now started off obscure. For some fans, however, the success of their favourite artists isn’t something to be celebrated; to a large segment of modern youth, and to the eternal critic, a wide fanbase does not mean the media in question appeals to a lot of people, but rather that it is low-IQ trash with No Soul that has Become Commercial and Sold Out, possibly to the Marketing Machine or even Satan Himself. This results in a subsection of Fan Dumb and an extreme form of the Unpleasable Fanbase.
In some cases, this isn’t an entirely unreasonable objection; some artists are so desperate for success (and the benefits — such as wealth and the interest of the opposite gender — that tend to come with it) that they will end up sacrificing their talent and diluting what made them interesting in the first place in order to appeal to the Lowest Common Denominator, or will begin Pandering To The Base rather than expanding themselves as artists. Some artists also become a Small Name Big Ego upon achieving success who believe that they can treat their fans like dirt and don’t need to listen to their editors. In these cases, the fans have something valid to complain about, since an artist who sacrifices creativity and quality for popularity and financial reward is hardly fulfilling their basic duty to the audience.
However, in many cases, the cry of “ It’s Popular Now, It Sucks!” has more elitist origins on part of the fans. Everyone likes to feel like they belong to something special, and when something’s obscure, it’s easy for its fans to feel like part of an exclusive little club. Opening up membership to everyone dilutes that feeling and begins to make these original fans feel less special, and if the new fans don’t particularly feel like congratulating the old fans on how they were special enough to be there first, the old fans may decide to take it out on the artist. Alternately, criticizing a popular product brings a lot of attention on the critic, and plenty of critics enjoy feeling superior about being the only ones capable of possessing the high standards not to “follow the herd”.
In either case, this elitist tendency essentially turns fandom into a speculations market — if you like it before it's popular, or if you hate something because it’s popular, only then does your profit margin in coolness points amount to anything when you fling away your shares in the fandom in horror of the masses. Of course, if it never Sells Out, no one will get the name recognition when you say “I liked X before it was popular.” For further irony value, these snobs often claim to be X's original and/or true fans — but, in dropping X like a hot potato after X becomes popular, they actually reveal themselves to be fair weather fans (or, if you prefer, foul weather fans), since if they truly were a fan of X, then they would be supportive of X becoming popular.
This attitude perhaps stems from a belief that artists should work and create art solely for the sake of art (or perhaps more accurately, solely for the sake of the gratification and ego of it’s audience) and that no other motivation is good enough, which is perhaps related to the myth of the Struggling Artist living in poverty yet eagerly toiling away to create True Art without thought towards anything so uncouth as financial reward or recognition. Whilst very romantic and appealing, this myth tends to overlook the fact that artists by and large are no more eager to be struggling and impoverished than anyone else; lofty pretensions are all very well, but they don’t tend to pay the rent, put food on the table or do any of the many other things that an artist like anyone else needs money to do. Furthermore, everyone likes to be recognized for doing what they love well, and most artists would rather receive this recognition before death, thank you very much. Artists who have large fan-bases supporting them are also often consequently able to devote more time, energy and resources into their art than they would have if they had to support themselves with second jobs, meaning greater freedom to improve and experiment. Money and fame aren't the only concerns an artist should have, but they aren't invalid ones either.
Differs from Hype Aversion in that it's not so much fear of crazy fans as it is scorn for the proles. Compare with Three Chords And The Truth. For the online person who defines him/her self by this philosophy, see Die Internet. Lowest Common Denominator is related. If this backlash is due to actual deterioration after hitting it big rather than pretentiousness, see Protection From Editors. Often overlaps with They Changed It Now It Sucks. A subsection of Fan Dumb.
Don't worry, though, because The Man Is Sticking It To The Man.
Compare Ruined FOREVER.
Examples
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- Death Note fans are not too thrilled about the dub, not so much out of fear of the dub's alterations (as there are very few) as fear that the series will be ruined by an influx of *shudder* people who watch Adult Swim .
- When the Naruto anime was licensed mass panic occured with some arguing that it would be Bowdlerized while others started a petition demanding that Viz unlicense Naruto. It could be justified by the fact that they didn't care that it was popular but now they would have to buy it.
- They would have to buy it? No, the reason was because they could no longer justify the fact they weren't buying it with the (incredibly incorrect) "It's not illegal if it hasn't been licensed in your region" excuse. It still didn't stop them from downloading fansubs.
- Well, guess what? Now it's available in Japanese with English subtitles online
 just a short time after the episode aired in Japan. Legally. Officially. FOR FREE. There are no excuses.
- Many a FanHater has bashed the entirety of anime only because they've seen (in some cases heard about) one episode of Naruto and didn't like it. Assuming that if Naruto is so famous any opinions of anime as a whole could be based on it.
- It's likely that most of the hate Neon Genesis Evangelion gets from online anime fans comes from this trope. The hate that isn't Hype Backlash, anyway.
- Anime itself is becoming this to some people. That's right, disowning an entire medium/genre because it's popular.
- Something Awful is known for flaming and banning whoever likes anime.
- Which also tends to segue into a fairly virulent hatred of Japan and her people as well. A baffling phenomenon, since casual racism of other races tends to get you banned there. This is also prevalent on, of all place, 4chan, a site that owes its entire existence to Japanese fan culture.
- More of don't treat it as holy gospel. Sadly some of them missed the point...Guilt By Association is not fun for 4chan anime population.
- Many contributers to 4chan have a hateon for otakus such as these, who threaten to dump a series because the underage girl they were pining over had a previous boyfriend, or these, who want legal marriage of fictional characters, and the weeaboos who want to be like them. Anime itself is not an issue. Any other impression given is likely an intentional exaggeration by trolls trolling trolls and people having good, clean, internet fun.
Comic Books
- Some Watchmen fans (and possibly Alan Moore himself) are now sneering at the thought of someone reading the comic because of the movie. And it happened as the trailer's apparently caused the comic to recently become a top-seller. Which is, say it with us now, a good thing.
- In Alan Moore's defense, the comic's continued popularity has long been a curse for him. All the rights to the Watchmen will revert to him only if the graphic novel is out of print for two years. Since its still a landmark graphic novel and is one of the few comic books to have fame outside of comic book geeks (even before the movie), this is likely to never happen. For once, an example of this trope that really does suck...but only for Alan Moore.
Fan Fic
- One Fritz Fraundorf's Fan Fic parodies this tendency in music, with a music store clerk who only likes unpopular bands. The instant one band he's been promoting is talked about on the radio in the store, he begins to trash them.
- Certain parts of Transformers fandom, over the year or so before the release of the 2007 live-action movie, preemptively expressed the sentiment that "It's going to be popular! That sucks!" Everyone else was rather confused.
- Some fans have accused Kevin Smith of being a sell out, a label he has no problem with.
- The Dark Knight has suffered this recently. Considering it's the fourth highest grossing movie of all time, it seems that the higher the popularity, the higher the suck.
- Austin Powers is this combined with a bit of Hype Backlash too, as surely you'd be annoyed that EVERYONE was reciting the catchphrases by the time the second movie came out.
- A Christmas Story suffers this due to over-exposure by constant 24-hour marathons around Christmas time.
- Donnie Darko, when it suddenly went from being a brilliant-but-weird movie that was buried in obscurity after 9/11, to a massive cult phenomenon that every teenager has seen, complete with merchandise at Hot Topic. Somewhat ironic, in that it mostly became popular via word-of-mouth and Vindicated By Cable.
- This Onion News Network video pretty accurately reflects the attitude of a certain type of Star Trek fan towards the new movie.
- Titanic actually got a decent amount of public and critical acclaim. The backlash set in both after it was clear it was going to make hundreds of millions and the loads of Oscar nominations it got.
- Happened to Harry Potter with the massive turnout for Order of the Phoenix - many "fans" assumed the author could get away with writing absolute crap from then on. However, they didn't so much drop the fandom as stick around to complain about everything, thus proving their worth as True Fans.
- Happened to a lesser extent with the influx of new fans the film brought, but the fact that most of them read the books anyway reassured the original fanbase somewhat.
- As stated below, a lot of long-time The Lord of the Rings book fans were unhappy with the calibre of fans introduced to LotR by the movie trilogy. Many "old-school" fans consider the movie lovers shallow and frivolous, even if said movie lovers were subsequently turned on to the books by the movies.
- Some - not all, of course - people dislike the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer merely because of how insanely popular the books are between young girls... and much older ones as well. Squick.
- Has a lot to do with fans of traditional horror yelling "Your Vampires Suck!" Since the series is essentially just a love story featuring vampires, fans of real vampire stories see it as using filet mignon to make Sloppy Joes.
- Another significant part of the hatedom comes from a combination of the popularity and the incredibly Unfortunate Implications of Bella and Edward's relationship... it tends to glamorise emotional abuse, particularly in the second and third books.
Live Action TV
- There seems to be a substantial backlash of this sort to anything by Monty Python (especially, however, Monty Python And The Holy Grail). Some people might just be sick of the inevitable quotations, since so many people know the quotes and love them. Others have different objections.
- This seems to be happening to The Mighty Boosh — many original fans have complained the latest series is too mainstream and lacking in invention. Whether there's been an actual drop in quality is debatable.
- Doctor Who presents something of an interesting example of this; the classic series was for a long time very popular, becoming something of a national institution in its home country. By the time of its cancellation, however, it had for numerous reasons become something of a cult show, something which only intensified with the development of the largely fan-driven Expanded Universe media. When the new series came along and restored the show to its former popularity a certain subsection of these fans, having apparently forgotten that its period of being a cult was the exception rather than the intention, seemed to be convinced that the show's newfound popularity was a bad thing and that it should have remained the cult relic cherished only by a few fans and mocked by everyone else. To be fair, it's not just this trope that is the motivation; the new show is quite different in tone to the old show, even when it was at its former heights, which can provoke a bit of dissonance.
- For many people, the decline of The X Files began with its move to Sundays from Fridays and its attempt to be more "accessible" to Fox viewers.
- The success of the show Chaser's War On Everything practically relies on the cast remaining anonymous. Of course, as the show increased in popularity they have needed to do more of their farcical stunts overseas, where they are not so well known. As a result of this, many of their older fans are getting bored of them and jumping ship, so to speak.
- Happened to Pink Floyd after Dark Side of the Moon.
- A lot of people found John Henry, They Might Be Giants's first album with a full band, to be selling out.
- God only knows what these people think of the band's three (so far) children's albums.
- Goth bands are particular targets of this as a band cannot represent the demographic if they go mainstream.
- The most well-known goth examples of this trope are Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation. They both got torched by fans after releasing Karmacode and The Silent Force, respectively.
- Perhaps a more valid example is in some of the subculture's icons being looked down upon by elitists. Bauhaus, Christian Death, and Alien Sex Fiend may not be mainstream, but they certainly aren't underground anymore.
- A relatively true example of "selling out", whatever you think of their music, would be The Goo Goo Dolls after their album A Boy Named Goo, when they drastically changed their sound from high-tempo rock/punk to the mellower soft rock they're famous for today after the success of their single Name. It's a good thing they didn't go with the original planned name for the band, The Sex Maggots.
- Word Of God says they were going to do this anyway, because they were tired of being labeled as ripoffs of The Replacements.
- When Evanescence began to take off, fans were in denial that the band had hit the Lycos 50, even though their only album before Fallen was Origin, a glorified demo tape.
- The band actually wrote more songs before Fallen than were present in the album itself. Most people just don't know about them, which is a pity since many of those who do consider them superior, if less impressive from a technical point of view.
- The hip-hop music genre as a whole is going through this, mostly because the core fanbase (Blacks and Latinos) feel that the artists are pandering to white suburban teens by constantly making popish ringtone songs and club anthems. Not only that, but rappers caused an even further disconnection from their base by being solely money-oriented, or very capitalistic with their subject matter (making songs about cars and money rather than sociopolitical issues and "the struggle" of inner-city life), essentially going from being against the system and establishment to becoming the establishment. This, of course, is a highly contentious and bitterly divisive topic among hip-hop fans.
- Further complaints also stem from the perceived lack of creativity, but when there is creativity it can also lead to "crossing over", thus bringing us to this very trope...cruel irony.
- Metallica received an incredible amount of hate for their self titled album, which was the most mainstream of Metallica's album. It provided them a lot of success, but now they get criticized for selling out.
- And those who weren't alienated by the black album were pissed off when they went after Napster...
- Like the previously mentioned Metallica, Megadeth received a lot of hatred because they too made their sound more mainstream in the early nineties with the Countdown to Extinction album. Megadeth has moved back to their traditional style, so they don't receive many accusations of selling out anymore.
- KISS to some extent, though the real irony is that the band's entire reason for existence was to sell a look and style on the road and not so much their songs.
- Some people believe that Kurt Cobain of Nirvana killed himself as a result of his fear of this trope.
- Norwegian singer Lene Marlin had a huge success in Italy and Japan (of all places!) with her first album, Playing my game. Released with little fanfare, the album was not technically exquisite, but most fans loved it anyway and thought of it as simple yet made with passion - music for the sake of itself, rather than in the pursuit of the holy dollar. As a result it was a surprise hit, and good times were had by all. Then year 2003 came along, and with it the highly anticipated release of the second album, Another day. Cue many of the fans (the most outspoken ones, usually) lamenting sore disappointment that Lene had sold out, that while the quality of the music had improved that of the lyrics had plummeted, that the album had been written to cash in on the success of her name, Blah Blah Blah. The third album, Lost in a moment, was unsurprisingly met with even more bashing.
- Fourth album's now out, Twist the truth. An experimental album, it was unsurprisingly met with cries of "it's too different!" by the same people who used to complain that Lene's music was always the same.
- Tool had something very loud(and quite a CMOA it was) to say about this phenomenon, and it came in the form of a song called Hooker With A Penis
And in between/Sips of coke/He told me that
He thought/We were sellin out,/Layin down,
Suckin up/To the man.
Well now Ive got some/A-dvice for you, little buddy.
Before you point the finger/You should know that
Im the man,/And if Im the man,
Then youre the man, and/Hes the man as well so you can
Point that fuckin finger up your ass.
All you know about me is what Ive sold you,/Dumb fuck.
I sold out long before you ever heard my name.
I sold my soul to make a record,
Dip shit,/And you bought one.
- Weezer did this on purpose, as an "f you" to, well, everyone. Their debut Blue Album was both very good and very popular. The follow-up, Pinkerton, received great reviews, but sold poorly because it didn't have enough catchy pop hooks. Every other album has sold very well by being intentionally derivative of what made the Blue Album popular, and they aren't very subtle about it.
- Until recently, this was the MO of the underground music scene. However, recently this has sort of changed. It is no longer necessary for a band to be popular in any real sense of the term; as long as they are widely revered by "cool" people, they count as popular even if 99.9% of people have never heard of them. This leads to a sort of cycle: a band becomes "popular", at which point liking them becomes lame and so they become unpopular, at which point no-one likes them so liking them becomes "cool" again. Thanks to the internet, this can often happen over the course of a single month, even with no change whatsoever from the band themselves. Factor in that this happens on several levels (with individual artists, genres, and even with awareness of this very trope), and that bands often drastically change their sounds and attitudes (usually partially due to fan reaction and, again, awareness of this trope), and you get a consensus attitude that is very confusing and difficult to get a read on.
- The video game series Guitar Hero has elicited this reaction from elitist music fans complaining that players who became fans of a certain band after hearing a song on Guitar Hero are shallow commercial junkies who don't really count as fans, and/or that the band has "sold out" by letting their songs be in the game at all, and that the song or songs being used in the game is just mainstream tripe that "real" fans know is trash compared to the band's still-unheard, great songs. It really doesn't matter which Guitar Hero-featured band you pick, anyone from Aerosmith to Yeah Yeah Yeahs seems to spark the exact same outrage among its fan base. As others have pointed out in the resulting flame wars, this only raises the question of exactly why a video game is any less legitimate a music venue than radio, television, online services, or CDs, and why finding out about a band via Guitar Hero is less "honorable" than any other way.
- The Beatles are one of the few artists to be both massively popular and adored by critics. Yet even they are an example of this trope; the band's Liverpool fans felt very betrayed when the band hit it big and moved to London.
- The Arctic Monkeys titled an EP "Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys" specifically in order to stop it falling victim to this trope by minimising its exposure on mainstream radio.
- Australian band Regurgitator put out a song called "I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff" parodying fan reaction to their album 'Unit', which was seen by many as mainstreaming away a lot of the bands earlier originality.
Musicals
- Sweeney Todd, when it was made into a movie (by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp of all people), succumbed to this trope (although it certainly didn't help that many people didn't know there was a musical to begin with).
- Rent also received this treatment with the movie version, as fans of the 3 hour stage musical (many of whom can sing it start to finish from memory) were annoyed that people were now allowed to experience the story in half the time, with a female lead who CAN'T SING THE SONGS without the musical director lowering the key. Never mind that it put the AIDS crisis back in the limelight for a while, after it had been relegated to "that disease that kills African people".
Professional Wrestling
- Pro wrestler C.M. Punk was a Smart Mark darling on the independent scene, with the fans hailing him as quite possibly the best wrestler in America (or at the very least, the best wrestler in Ring of Honor, which is kind of synonymous these days). Then he signed with WWE, and became the centerpiece of its ECW revival, and now all of a sudden you can't go into a wrestling forum without hearing about how Punk is overrated and a sloppy wrestler. Some of this might be spillover anger from the fact that the ECW revival has been the definition of So Bad Its Horrible, but Punk was one of the few bright spots of the show, and yet he seems to get the most criticism. And, now that he's moved away from ECW onto Raw and become world champ, the criticisms have only gotten worse.
- Partially due to Hype Backlash - a lot of SmartMarks kept hearing how great Punk was from ROHbots when he was working long main event matches, against top level opponents, with free reign over his character and promos. Five minute extended squashes over Justin Credible didn't quite match up...
- Heck, this happens ALL THE TIME in wrestling. Especially in the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community). There were a lot more haters of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock when they turned face than when they originally found their footing as "bad guys." (Look at some of the reactions Rock got on rec.sport.pro-wrestling between 1999-2000, for instance!) Granted, the fan favorite versions of both, and others, tended to pick up a bit of "Austin Powers Syndrome" in that their characters became catchphrase machines.
- Heck, the IWC once LOVED John Cena at one point!
- ...and Triple H, probably before all the political stories came to light.
- That is, if the dirtsheets are to be believed...
- And something happened to Kurt Angle between WWE and TNA, as he came there minus the IWC fans who called him one of the best workers in the world, instead ridiculing his delusional radio interviews and etc. and his past refusals to address supposed drug problems.
Close Professional Wrestling
Tabletop Games
In truth, Mot B has also earned its success, having once published the sort of hopelessly and unsellably niche-market books that Industry pundits immediately label as brilliant, but of course, no one sees them that way anymore, because they've "sold out," which means "become profitable."
Video Games
- Now that Video gaming reaches a wider audience, people look towards games today as being "Too easy" and that "Casual gamers calling themselves gamers are destroying gaming". Never mind of course that overtime mechanics were removed and were actually CRITICIZED by gamers and reviewrs alike, that game developers no longer want you to continuously shovel coins into the machine; and that naturally the market would expand so more genres and more people would need to be targeted to remain profitable.
- This also happens with other genres as well. According to most "MMORPG True Fans", World Of Warcraft has killed the MMORPG... by removing stuff like Endless grinds, repetitive gameplay, fetch quests, and other things the MMORPG genre was criticized for.
- AND YET WORLD OF WARCRAFT STILL GETS CRITICIZED FOR THOSE EXACT THINGS!!!
- Some argue that, with the additional installments to the story, the Final Fantasy VII franchise is starting to plummet. They argue that the fun factor of the game is relinquished for the sake of pleasing the fanboys and fangirls, sacrificing the deep integrated storyline that made the original RPG such an amazing game for the sake of indulging in characters such as Sephiroth and Zack.
- Ever since Final Fantasy VII came out, the Final Fantasy fanbase appears to have gone from being mildly cult to borderline psychotic, hanging around to bash each and every successive entry that wasn't the identical twin of their favorite game in the series.
- Oddly enough, fans just don't seem to be able to grasp the concept that Final Fantasy VII was popular for two reasons: it was the first RPG to receive major advertising, and it was the first RPG to actively sell itself to the mainstream through said advertising. Neither of which makes it a bad game at all, but don't try to convince someone who hates it of that.
- Many RPG fans just plain hate Final Fantasy because their preferred series isn't selling as much. The stupidest argument being a Disgaea (which is by all means a good RPG series) fanboy talking about how much better Disgaea 3 (released this year) was than Final Fantasy Tactics (a game released a whopping 13 years ago).
- Final Fantasy VII itself tends to catch a lot of crap from older series fans due to it bringing the series into the mainstream.
- This seems to have happened within The Elder Scrolls fanbase with the release of Oblivion.
- Possibly aided by spilled bile from a certain violently gun-shy fandom Bethesda reluctantly bought the attention of in a package deal.
- It goes back further than that. Prior to Oblivion coming out, it was Morrowind that was the symbol of all the bad trends in the industry. And mostly for the same alleged reason: "dumbing down" for console players.
- The Nintendo Wii went from internet darling to antichrist when it occurred to gamers that Nintendo was actually popular again. Conversely, the PS3 did the reverse when it quickly became the apparent underdog of the current generation. Telltale signs of a complete and total assha- er, fan like this are usage of the phrases "Casual Gamers" and "Hardcore Gamers". For an in-depth view at this phenomenon, read this article.
- Most of the antagonism among Wii fans comes from fears about it being propped up solely by 1st/2nd-party titles and falling to the same fate as its predecessors. 3rd-party developers so far have ignored the system's capacity for innovation in lieu of simply flooding its library with minigame collections and gimmicky ports. Of course, people who mock it on this basis would do well to realize that Sturgeons Law applies equally to Wii and their own favorite horse in the race.
- Not to mention that third parties weren't that important anyway until Sony started using them wisely to make the Play Station the number one.
- Not even actual reality - Gamasutra already proved that first-party and third-party titles sell equally on the Wii, yet the Hatedom still whines that the Wii is supported solely by people buying only Nintendo titles. Which is truly ironic Fan Dumb considering how many people used to proudly proclaim their support of the Game Cube because of all the first-party titles it had. Naturally, now that other people play Zelda too, Nintendo should cancel all their franchises and cease all first-party software development because they're not making "real" games.
- Also, it appears that these fans also loved the Sega Saturn and Sega Dreamcast, so they are fans of stuff that's Too Good To Last.
- But it truly fits this trope when the hate is the thought of all the non-gamers flooding in due to the Wii.
- Except, of course, that NPD has stated that 70% of Wii owners owned a PS2.
- Defying typical industry behavior, Macintosh game developer Bungie Software's next title after their hit PID was Marathon instead of a PID sequel, but after Marathon, they made Marathon 2. "Oh no, they've sold out!", said the fans. "No we haven't," said Bungie, later revealing work on the genre-founding RTT game Myth. Next, Marathon 2 was ported to become Bungie's first non-Mac release. "Oh no, they've sold out!", the fans said again. "No we haven't," said Bungie, "We're still doing our own thing making innovative work" pointing to pioneering Beat Em Up/shooter Oni and Sandbox guerilla warfare game Halo. After that, Bungie sold out to Microsoft and slashed Halo into a dumbed down Marathon clone. "Holy @#$!, they've sold out!". "No we haven't," said Bungie.
- They're not lying. While they did get Microsoft to publish Halo, that didn't make the game's quality suffer.
- Plus, they re-bought rights to future I Ps, splitting from Microsoft. They are DEDICATED to messing up any and all selling out related discussions (pro and con), it seems.
- The System Shock series was beloved but never commercially successful. In 2007, Bio Shock, a Spiritual Successor, was released, and actually managed to become successful, becoming a commercial success even while competing with giants like Halo 3. Bio Shock was very much like System Shock 2, but with significantly improved graphics, better developed setting, stronger characterization, some actual literary merit, a revamped system of RPG Elements that is streamlined but arguably just as deep and, unfortunately, a very similar plot and a relatively clunky interface for the PC version. Guess what the System Shock 2 fans focused on.
- SS2's other Spiritual Successor, Deus Ex, was lauded with universal acclaim. Its sequel had what was widely viewed as excessive consolization. Combined with the game's lessened scope, it created such a tidal wave of pure bile and hatred toward Warren Spector that he hasn't been seen since the next year's (much better received) Thief 3.
- A sequel has been announced, involving none of the original team. Time to get out your asbestos keycaps.
- Some of this may stem from bitterness that there will never be a System Shock 3, or more recently, that there will be one that won't even try to live up to its predecessor.
- Parodied in The World Ends With You's bonus chapter. "I'll be off listening to bands you kids have never even heard of! And then... when they go major... I'll be there to complain about how they sold out!"
- Would you believe that Shin Megami Tensei is starting to show signs of this? Persona 3 was well-received, bringing in newcomers to the series. Which of course leads to people complaining that Atlus has "sold out", leaning more towards making their games tailored to the mainstream. Of course, complaints like this are tinged with a hint of irony, as the whole reason the Persona spinoff series was created in the first place was to make a Mega Ten game that was tailored to the mainstream. These complaints are intensifying with the popularity of Persona 4 and the upcoming PSP remake is similarly getting trashed for proof that Atlus is "selling out."
- Now that the Mother 3 translation has finally been released and is receiving attention, there seem to be a lot of people who want to make clear to everyone that they always thought that the entire Mother/EarthBound series was overrated tripe. At the time of this edit, the translation was released yesterday. New record?
- Any of Nintendo's' popular franchises like Pokémon, Super Mario Bros, The Legend Of Zelda, etc. are always bashed as being "overrated" with very little explanation as to why.
- The Resident Evil series after the release of Resident Evil 4. The style change, while making the series more popular, has caused many fans of the series's original style to feel betrayed, cheated, and forgotten. The same fans that until Resident Evil 4 released were complaining that the series had grown repetitive and stagnant.
- Video Games in general. Most notably, PC gamers consider "consolization" to be simultaneous with "complete destruction of the series" (just look at this list!), and everyone hates casual gamers.
- Some video game genres are being dubbed as full of suck due to gaining massive popularity. With Final Fantasy making RPG games more popular and the popularity of FPS games increasing, people are now saying how those genres suck just because they got popular with the masses.
- Pokémon before the Trading Card game. No, really.
- The Pokémon anime still gets a lot of hate, and a lot of it comes from fans of the game series.
Web Animation
- Mocked in the Red Vs Blue PSA about "Ten Things We've Never Seen Posted on an Internet Forum." The first being someone that liked a band before they were popular and being happy about it.
Sarge: Now they've gotten so popular, we get to see them in huge arenas all over the Country, and their songs are on the radio all the time. It's great! I'm really happy for them, and for all their success.
- Indie Pete of Diesel Sweeties is the extreme version of this trope - indeed, he goes so far as to that he only liked bands "before they released any music".
- Playing on this theme, Richard Stevens also released a t-shirt design using a Venn diagram. On the left: "Music I Like". On the right: "Music You Like". In the overlap: "Music I Used To Like."
- Questionable Content discusses this as it relates to Indie bands, resulting in the Theory of Hipster Relativity.
- And as it relates to tattoos. At least Dora recognizes when she gets caught in it.
- Mentioned for a laugh in #653, concerning Coffee of Doom itself.
- This xkcd strip places an interesting spin on the trope; apparently, there's more than one reason why Somewhere A Palaeontologist Is Crying.
- Arguably, xkcd itself is falling victim to this trope. There's an entire blog about it.
- Dorm Dorks uses the trope here.
- Mentioned in VG Cats #269 concerning the complete and total assha- er, "hardcore gamers".
- Wondermark gets in on the act here
Web Original
- This has been the reaction of some veteran members of Survival Of The Fittest following a surge of newcomers to the site.
- Mitadake High has a lot of the old players retreating from the scene due to an influx of newbies [[Scrub who don't know how to roleplay.]]
Western Animation
- Parodied on South Park: "If you work in the entertainment industry, and you make money, you're a sellout."
Other
- The TV Tropes Wiki.
Recursive trope!
- Almost any comedian who makes the transition from relative obscurity on the stand-up circuit to increased fame and public profile (most usually through the television) will lose part of her / his fanbase who will be quick to bemoan the fact that s/he is now a 'sell-out'. Apparently, some jokes become less funny the more people who are laughing at them.
- Polish Demoscene. When the Polish videogame agazine, CD-Action, began publishing a series about the hitherto rather hermetic demoscene, many old sceners claimed that it ruined the demoscene forever, caused an influx of talentless newbies, and were angry that while they had to go to great lengths to learn about the community in the first place, all those new youngsters know everything by just reading a magazine.
- This editor sort of feels this way about the way Synchro Monsters are treated in Yu-Gi-Oh! online game Duel Monsters Unlimited; before Synchros were actually released, the cards existed and were playable on this game with translated effects from a particular news site, and this editor was literally the first person to have a working dedicated Synchro deck (that focused on Synchro monsters as a type in and of themselves, rather than splashing them into other decktypes). Now Synchros are considered overpowered (by people who play Dark-Armed Dragon and Light Sworns) or crap depending on who you talk to and every other idiot is running one and this editor catches ten tons of flak for being unoriginal. Thank god for the Roleplaying Server.
- Every widely known social networking site (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.) ever.
- One of the recurring mottoes of The Dreaded 4chan, for a surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) long time. You can imagine their reaction when the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade incorporated a rickroll.
- Also, mentioning anything related to Project Chanology (the Scientology protests) on most chan boards will now get you flamed, banned, and, possibly, your IP address posted.
- The coins for Styx's ferryman are already on the Rickroll's eyes, and it now lies on the pyre. All that waits now is the torch. Good night, sweet prince...at least, according to 4chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica.
- This even applies to their memes; pretty much every article on ED about a given meme complains how it got popular and is now unfunny. Logically, the ones that didn't catch on wouldn't have an article at all.
- A rare justified example: Beautiful secluded beaches. When only you and maybe a few friends know about the location of a secluded beach, its a wonderful thing but if the wrong people find out about it, before long the word spreads around and lots of people start visiting it which means that the formerly beautiful secluded beach turns into just another busy tourist trap.
- Two words: Bruce Campbell. Fans want him to be successful and more than a B-movie star, but at the same time they want to keep him all to themselves and hope he never gets that A-listing he deserves, because then a lot of what makes him cool will simply vanish and he'd be just another Hollywood star.
- Honda is sometimes hit with this. They used to make comparatively tiny that were practical, fuel efficient, and sporty, all at the same time. Now the Accord is a veritable land-yacht and the Civic is barely a compact car, and they're not particularly fun to drive. The fanboys cry that Honda has abandoned them, nevermind that Honda is a publicly traded company with a duty to maximize profits, and it's very hard to make a business case for targeting specifically a very small section of the market to the exclusion of the rest. The kicker is the Honda Fit, which is pretty much everything Honda used to stand for, all in a modern, safe package.
- The game of baseball - not so much any rise in popularity in itself, but the reason why it does. When home run and scoring numbers skyrocket, more people flock to the ballpark - much to the chagrin of purists, who insist that "pitcher's duels" are the best type of games.
- Some people have claimed that this has happened to Bionicle, despite the fact that the line is only marginally more successful than when it started. This stems from the belief that the repetitive design of their recent sets is because they're pandering to their, newer, younger audience, even though these claims come from people in their late teens, early twenties while the series is labeled as ages 7-16. You will constantly see topics like "Is Bionicle Selling Out?" on the forums for popular fansite BZ Power.com, which are constantly getting squished out by the, thankfully, more intelligent majority.
- Ubuntu has made Linux more user-friendly and easier for newbies. A few long-time users are annoyed that the newbies seem more interested in getting actual work done than hacking the kernel.
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