Fandom Rivalry / Music

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Classical

• In classical music, there's early music fans ("after Bach, it all sucks") vs. those who prefer the classical/romantic "canon" ("after Brahms/Strauss/Wagner, it all sucks") vs. 20th/21st century music fans ("but there's a lot of really good classical music being written today! and composers have more freedom now!") And within contemporary classical music, there's the debate between fans of the more atonal genres (such as serialism), the more tonal genres (minimalism and neo-Romanticism), and those who fall between the two extremes.
  • In the 20th century, much of the avant-garde vs. neoclassical debate was heavily focused on politics, with the left-wing Frankfurt School being a major champion of the former. In the USSR, avant-garde styles were shunned and sometimes banned as not fitting in with the "socialist realism" of the Stalin regime, which created much consternation between composers and government officials. Dimitri Shostakovich managed to walk a tightrope between the avant-garde and the traditionalist by making his grand symphonies in a Stalin-pleasing style and his chamber works in a more adventurous, dissonant style. (More information on Shostakovich can be found here).
  • Much of the animosity betweeen different camps in the classical sphere comes down to tensions between European countries in the 19th century. French composers hated the German style to the point where Georges Bizet was heavily criticized for incorporating Wagnerian influences into Carmen (which is now viewed as a masterpiece).
  • Nowadays, there is controversy in the classical sphere over whether German composers are overrated, especially since the Germans themselves wrote most of the literature which placed Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach on a pedestal. Combined with controversy in the 21st Century over the underrepresentation of non-white composers, the field of classical music can be very volatile indeed.
  • The controversy over minimalism in modern classical circles rages on almost half a century after the style's heyday. Noted avant-garde composer Elliott Carter once compared the style to fascist speeches because of its repetition, and its popularity in the mainstream because of composers such as Phillip Glass has led many to scream It's Popular, So It Sucks!.
• Most fans of "serious" classical music dislike traditional film scores and the attention they receive from symphonies around the world (often at the expense of modern composers). Saying that you like John Williams or Hans Zimmer in a circle of classical musicians is a great way to get laughed at.
  • This often extends to the composers who influenced film scores, such as Tchaikovsky and Aaron Copeland. Their styles are often seen as middle-of-the-road and uninteresting by detractors, while supporters consider them to be brilliant melody writers.
  • Modern, avant-garde scores tend to get more respect from classical audiences, though. Bonus points if they're written by actual modern classical composers.
• Opera fans can get into Real Life arguments that make internet-based Flame Wars seem polite. Some examples:
  • The biggest split is pro-Richard Wagner vs. anti-Richard Wagner. Wagner fans cite his operas as being magnificently orchestrated, highly expressive, having intricate plots, and push the limits of singing ability to the max. Anti-Wagnerists claim that his operas are overly bombastic, histrionic, needlessly complex in terms of both singing and plot, and JUST TOO DAMN LONG.
    • The Wagner controversy, it must be mentioned, is not a new thing. It started and has been ongoing since quite early on in Wagner's career, with absolutely no sign of losing momentum. The Viennese critic and philosopher Edouard Hanslick was the original leader of the anti-Wagner camp.
    • Wagnerian controversy, like much classical music of the 19th century, has aspects of nationalism pushing it forward. French and Italian fans tend to prefer their nation's brand of opera (both of which have lengthy traditions before Wagner and dislike that he influenced later works by their composers). A large portion of the anti-Wagner crowd criticizes the racism present in many of his operas, citing anti-Semitism in Parsifal and the Ring cycle.
  • When it comes to individual singers, you are not allowed to like both Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi. The only thing that can unite the respective fanbases is mutual contempt for Montserrát Caballé.
  • You are similarly not allowed to like both Mario Lanza and Jussi Björling.
• This trope is Older Than Steam. In the early 1770s, Paris was a warzone between fans of two composers, the German Christoph Gluck and the Italian Niccolo Piccini. It went so far that people would introduce themselves with their preferred composer's name rather than their own, and street fights between Gluckists and Piccininists were common. Ironically, Gluck and Piccini were good friends. Benjamin Franklin, who was in Paris at the time, wrote home:
  How righteous and just and mild must the French rulers be, if the greatest cause of heated emotions among their subjects are the relative merits of two foreign composers!
• Ludwig van Beethoven was extremely controversial in his time to the point where even many great composers spoke poorly of him. Nowadays, you are unlikely to find someone who dislikes Beethoven outside of a Vocal Minority.

Country

• Newer country music fans who would like to see their genre have a return to public prominence if it means shedding some old bonds, versus traditional country music fans who would like to see Taylor Swift's head on a stake. Taylor's clean sweep of the CMAs and AMAs in the fall of 2009, combined with the outpouring of support from the Kanye West incident and a critically praised Saturday Night Live hosting, have led to a massive backlash from the country music community at Taylor's media oversaturation.
• In the 2010s, a highly controversial style known as "Bro-Country" took over the charts, with a focus on partying, trucks, and attracting women in a way which many perceived as sexist. Fans of neo-traditional country despise bro-country with a passion, claiming that it ruined the genre and that newer artists managed to modernize the traditions of the genre in a far more respectful and thoughtful manner. Bro-country fans, on the other hand, see traditional country fans as overly old-fashioned and stuck-up.
  • It's gotten to the point where pop country fans, who previously found themselves under the ire of the traditionalists, ally themselves against bro-country, which is seen by both as much worse.
• In 2019, the song "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X opened up a can of worms surrounding the genre. Though initially listed on the country charts, it was removed by Billboard after a few weeks of being the most popular song in America. Supporters of this change thought that it was essentially a rap song with some banjo, while opponents considered it to be a genre fusion worthy of being considered in both categories and decried the removal of the song as racially charged. They also cited the fact that "bro-country" was even more different to traditional country by lacking any traditional country instrumentation or lyricism, as opposed to "Old Town Road" which was about riding a horse.
• Alt-Country/Americana fans and Nashville country fans tend to be remarkably different audiences. The latter category considers the former to not be "real country" because of having a completely different fanbase mostly made up of former alt-rockers. Alt-country fans, on the contrary, deride Nashville for being too traditional, though like with pop-country, both are willing to unite in opposition of bro-country.

Electronic

• Aphex Twin vs. Skrillex, which is odd because Skrillex is a huge fan of and influenced by Aphex Twin, who has also stated that he respects and enjoys the more mainstream side of electronic music.
  • Deadmau5 vs. Skrillex, which is also odd because the two are Vitriolic Best Buds in real life.
  • In the wake of "Dirty Vibe" a collab with Skrillex, Diplo, CL of 2NE1 and G-Dragon of Big Bang, K-Pop fans seem to have started butting heads with Skrillex fans now. Diplo fans are sort of a non-presence here, strangely.
• Dubstep fans vs. fans of every other EDM subgenre.
  • And within the dubstep fandom, chillstep (e.g. Cahb, Benga, Burial) vs. brostep (e.g. Flux Pavilion, Excision, Nero).
    • Let's just put this out of the way: the dubstep fandom is shattered in ways nobody can imagine.
• Tangerine Dream vs Jerry Goldsmith for the soundtrack of Legend (1985). Tangerine Dream fans argue that TG gives the film a surreal dreamlike quality that makes the film unique and unlike other fantasy genre films. Goldsmith fans pan the pop/synth sensibilities of TG and feel that the Goldsmith score gives it the epic atmosphere that it should have. Notably, fans of the TG version see nothing to dislike about the Goldsmith score. They simply state that his score is too generic for this type of film.
• The "Trance Family" has very intense rivalries with the House Music, Drum and Bass (especially during The '90s) and Dubstep fandoms, and the rivalry is largely mutual (the Friendly Fandoms members notwithstanding). Not helping matters is that some of the scenes' DJs themselves have had feuds with one another.
  • Within the trance fandom itself, there's the fans that prefer the weird, trippy and often darker-in-tone psychedelic trance (Astrix, Infected Mushroom, Liquid Soul) vs. those that prefer the angelic and light uplifting trance (Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Aly & Fila). In fact, trance's Broken Base may well make dubstep's broken fandom look mild by comparison.
• Armin Van Buuren fans vs. David Guetta fans (which mainly stems from the latter dethroning the former in the "Word's Number 1 DJ" poll in 2011). For the most part however, neither DJ seems to bear any ill will towards the other.
• Underground Raves and Free Parties vs. Clubs and Festivals.

Hip Hop

• Gangsta Rap Fans/Alternative Rap Fans/Hardcore Hip-Hop Fans/Political Rap Fans vs. Pure Mainstream Rap fans of Glam Rap, Swag Rap, and eventually the highly toxic and volatile Mumble Rap of The New '10s. Is also an example of a Broken Base. There's also other deeper socio-cultural issues involved.
  • Nas fans vs. Jay-Z fans is arguably a microcosm of this rivalry.
  • Likewise with KRS-One fans vs. Nelly fans.
  • The rivalry between the East Coast (eg. NYC) and West Coast (eg. LA) rap scenes is legendary, to the point where people got shot over it. It seems to have quieted down now that several rap legends of the 90s were murdered, showing how petty and dangerous these beefs are.
• Tupac Shakur fans vs. The Notorious B.I.G. fans, A.K.A. the main driving force of the aforementioned East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry. Which is weird considering how different their music is. One's a Rebellious quasi-political activist, The latter's a New York mafioso. It's like comparing Huey P. Newton to Al Capone.
  • They became Friendly Fandoms years later, when Dead Artists Are Better took effect.
• Ludacris or T.I.
• Eminem has quite a few:
  • Insane Clown Posse fans vs. Eminem fans, which sparked in the late 90s due to a murky dispute over a local show when both acts were still very much Detroit phenomena. According to Eminem, they actually squashed any personal beef they had as of 2013, with Eminem even shouting out Violent J on Marshall Mathers LP 2. Compare to the first MMLP, where a skit had both members of ICP giving oral sex to Ken Kaniff.
  • For a while (about 2002-2004), Eminem vs. Ja Rule, which was an extension of the fandom rivalry between 50 Cent and Ja Rule.
  • In the 2000s, Eminem fans hated Lil Wayne, even though Eminem and Lil Wayne have collaborated on multiple occasions, both gush over the other's rapping ability, and there's no indication of any bad blood whatsoever between the two.
  • Amy Winehouse fans despise Eminem. This is completely one sided on their part however. Eminem attacked Amy for her looks and mental health issues in multiple songs in 2009 when Amy was suffering from anorexia and bulimia both of which would contribute to her death. The fact that Eminem was a bigger star at the time, and that the media was attacking Amy caused many people, including even Eminem's own fans, to see it as a nasty case of punching down. Part of this was due to people misunderstanding Eminem's act — he was, in fact, a huge fan of Amy and wrote to her about his love of her music and how much he related to her struggles with addiction and abusive relationships. He wanted her to sing the hook on "We Made You" — the song making fun of her — which she only turned down because she was so sick at the time she would have been unable.
  • Mariah Carey fans loathe Eminem over their infamous Did They or Didn't They? scandal — Eminem says they did, Mariah said they didn't — and the resulting Diss Tracks they wrote about each other.
  • Eminem fans and Kanye West fans have had a longstanding rivalry due to them being two of the most popular rappers, with Kanye's fans hating Eminem fans for being unsophisticated and corny while Eminem fans hate Kanye fans for being pretentious and incapable of admitting their idol's faults. The political rupture that emerged between the two fanbases in the Trump years also caused problems, with Kanye alienating his liberal audience by supporting Trump and, later, making white supremacist and homophobic statements, while Eminem shed much of his largely rural-conservative audience by supporting Black Lives Matter, gun control and abortion access, and vowing to stop using homophobic slurs in his songs as well as supporting one of his children coming out as nonbinary. This resulted in a number of fans switching over to support the rapper who followed their political outlook and turning on the rapper who betrayed them.
  • Eminem fans absolutely hate Machine Gun Kelly fans as the result of the beef between the two. A few of them even vandalised MGK's tour bus with homophobic slurs.
• Bone Thugs-n-Harmony fans vs. fans of every other Midwestern rapper with a similar style as bone. Particularly Twista, Do or Die, and Crucial Conflict. Most of this started because bone was dissed by the aforementioned groups. The artists themselves has killed the rivalry, but some of the fans are still kinda sore about it. Interestingly enough the aforementioned groups more or less shared the same fan base.
  • In The New '10s it's Bone fans vs. "Mumble Rapper" fans. Whom critics noted are obviously inspired by Bone. But Hip-Hop fans dispute the argument that Bone themselves are mumble rappers, which some critics seem to imply. With fans noting that Bone actually have bars, and you can actually understand what they say despite rapping with a supersonic flow. Which of course is the cause of the tention between Bone and said "mumble rappers".
  • Also online publication Vox pointed out on social media that the mumble style is actually Older Than They Think. But Hip-Hop heads believe it was better utilized by better emcees back then. Which of course caused ANOTHER rivalry and flame war with mumble rap fans.
• The Notorious B.I.G. fans vs. Jay-Z fans. which got over shadowed by the 2Pac vs. Biggie situation.
• Death Row Records fans vs. Ruthless Records fans
• Similarly No Limit Records fans vs. Cashmoney Records fans. They were both from New Orleans, but musically different. No limit had a military/Gangsta Rap motif, where as Cashmoney helped usher in the whole materialistic Glam Rap thing with a type 2 variant of Gangsta Rap.
• Drake fans vs. Common fans, though the bad blood between the two rappers have since ended. Also, to a lesser degree, Drake fans vs. Chris Brown fans, not helped by the fact that they both dated Rihanna. This one allegedly sparked an actual fight between the two at a New York nightclub.
  • Parodied in a skit when Drake hosted the ESPYs in 2014. He is about to have surgery, looks up and the surgeon is Blake Griffin. He's obviously upset until Blake says that the actual surgeon is Chris Brown, at which point Drake is horrified.
  • Drake and Kanye fans do not get along. some Drake fans are also antagonistic towards Kendrick Lamar and his fans.
• Lil' Kim vs. Nicki Minaj. Two years after they wrote each other "Reason You Suck" Speech /songs, their fans are still debating who's "fake"/"jealous"/"a sell out". To put it delicately.
• NBA Youngboy fans are agresive against Lil Durk fans, but also everyone else in general, and "youngboy better" comments have become a meme in an of itself.
• Gangsta Rap fans are divided on the importance of the artists street credibility. Does a rapper have to rap about things they have really seen and done, or is doing so provoking further violence and self snitching? A further complication comes from racial politics, as some find it very distatestful for white rap fans to treat gang violence like a spectator sport.

Jazz

• Back in The '30s and Forties, it was Jazz Benny Goodman fans vs. Artie Shaw fans. They were both talented clarinetists who led big bands and made an effort to undermine the segregation in the music industry. Goodman was the "King of Swing" while Shaw was the "King of the Clarinet" (amusingly enough, Shaw thought it should be the other way around. He believed that Goodman was a better player but was limited by his use of arrangements rather than original compositions).
• For over a century, there has been a tension between fans of white and black jazz musicians. It began when Paul Whiteman became the most famous big band leader in The Roaring '20s, outselling African-American musicians such as Duke Ellington and becoming accepted throughout America, which was still heavily segregated at the time. There are still many people who express concern about jazz becoming gentrified and losing touch with its black roots.
• In the 1950s, the west coast "cool" jazz school and the east coast "hard bop" school often argued over which style was superior. Since then, both have been considered absolutely quintessential to the genre's sound to the point where young jazz musicians will cast both aside for newer, hipper styles.
• Free jazz has remained controversial despite being over 60 years old. Proponents believe it's a highly unique form of musical expression, while opponents consider it to be just noise. Some even blame free jazz for the genre's decline in the mainstream.
• In the 1960s and 70s, there was a serious debate between acoustic jazz and electric fusion. The debate reached its peak when Miles Davis released Bitches Brew and On the Corner, two albums which marked a shift towards rock and funk. In the 1980s, both of them reconciled against a new enemy, Smooth Jazz.
• The main division in jazz post-1970s has been that between neo-traditionalists such as Wynton Marsalis and younger musicians who incorporate eclectic influences from Rock, Hip-Hop, and Electronic Music. The former camp tends to think of the latter as "not even jazz" due to drifting significantly from the genre's traditional structure and harmony. Meanwhile, younger musicians complain that the older ones are "killing jazz" by preventing it from changing. The fact that both camps have their own high-profile defenders in academia means that the gulf only grows wider each year.
• Since his career first took off, Kenny G has been criticized by fans of classic jazz for being (while technically proficient) too vanilla to justify being one of the all-time bestsellers of the genre. In recent years, many (white) fans of jazz have expressed hatred simply because they claim a white artist has no right to perform jazz. Again, it's white fans saying white artists should be banned from jazz.

Metal

• Judas Priest vs. Iron Maiden. The Reality Subtext helped (Steve Harris and co. are fans of Judas Priest; however, a tour where they opened for Rob Halford's cronies had their idols becoming hostile feeling the guests were overshadowing them).
• Marilyn Manson and The Spooky Kids fans vs. Marilyn Manson fans vs. fans of certain eras. And you have the ones that just want Manson to make more albums like Antichrist Superstar. Daisy Berkowitz himself, the epicenter for the Spooky Kids vs. Manson fight, is much more relaxed on the subject, since it's 20 years old now. Manson doesn't talk about it at all. The main fan forum before Provider Module, which was The Heriophant, had to be shut down due to Cease and Decist orders because of the multitude of hate and death threats being posted against Manson for his changing style and look. This was the fan forum. Oddly enough, there's not much fighting between Nine Inch Nails fans and Manson fans, although Trent and Manson still bitch about each other occasionally. Dita Von Teese and Evan Rachel-Wood are hated in part of the fandom due to the ex thing, though this has largely died down after Evan's testimony on Manson in 2020. And Motionless in White is the most hated of all by all the fans, as well as by longtime allies, the Rammstein fans.
• Galneryus vs. DragonForce Nearly EVERY Galneryus video will have comments either accusing the band of being a bad copy or some sort of debate over whether Galneryus or DragonForce is better just because both bands play a fast paced form of power metal.
  • YAMA-B VS. Ono can light a flamewar up pretty fast. Original vocalist from the beginning vs. Replacement Scrappy with a love for Auto-Tune.
  • Old Galneryus vs. New Galneryus.
• Try finding ANY power metal video with a decent number of views and without an argument between people who dislike DragonForce (generally displaying a level of ignorance that belies a complete lack of knowledge of them past having played Guitar Hero) and fans.
• Korn fans vs. Deftones fans. This one has a lot of history behind it. They're the two most influential bands in the Nu Metal genre, with the former being the Trope Maker while the latter places a comfortable second. However, while Korn continued their style throughout their entire career, Deftones became artsier and more experimental from their third album onward while essentially abandoning the genre they pioneered. What really set it off however was when Deftones frontman Chino Moreno infamously dissed Korn frontman Jonathan Davis in an interview, and it caused a bit of a feud between them. However, the two have a long history as friends, even recording a song together (a cover of "Wicked"), and have toured with each other in the past. They since patched things up and remained friends, but it's not uncommon for fans to insult the other's band and get into flame wars. That said, there's a good number of people who enjoy both bands.
• Metalheads vs. ANY Metal offshoot.
  • Be it Nu Metal, Metalcore, Deathcore or Djent, almost all modern, popular metal bands have this in their fanbase amongst each other (Slipknot, Disturbed, Avenged Sevenfold, Lamb of God, Mastodon, Killswitch Engage, etc.) usually fighting over who has the best guitarist/bassist/drummer/singer/band. Considering the persecution they get from the "true" metalheads, you'd think they're learn to stick together (also most of these bands are friends).
  • Metalheads vs. rappers. Although it's slightly one sided, as most rap fans either don't know much about metal or aren't too concerned with the rivalry. But type "metal vs rap" on YouTube, and you'll get tons of videos of mostly one sided debates of why metal is better than rap. The artists themselves don't seem to bicker as much as their fandoms, however, considering the cross-pollination between the two genres and numerous collaborations.
  • Metalheads vs. pop fans. The former claim pop is talentness, shallow, and sacharrine while disingenuous and may as well just be mindless noise, while popheads think metal is also just lowbrow noise if not also satanic.
  • In Bulgaria, there is metalheads vs. 'chalga'^note  a local variant of Pop Folk, known for romantic, but sometimes very vulgar and sexual lyrics. fans. Chalga fans claim metalheads are primitives and lack fun, while metalheads claim chalga fans are bunch of rape apologist and have no intelligence.
  • Metalheads vs. progheads (progressive rock fans), with both parties arguing over which genre requires and features the most instrumental and songwriting talent (both genres are known for the extremely intricate complexity of the music).
  • And before that there was punk vs prog, particularly with The Sex Pistols themselves starting it with the "I Hate Pink Floyd" schtick....funny thing is they were essentially Trolling and admit that they at least owe a few things to them such as Sid Vicious's stage name coming from Syd Barrett.
    • Metalheads vs. pretty much everyone else, really, including other metalheads.
    • Metal fans vs. "Internet Metal Nerds"^note people who don't actually go to shows or do anything of value and just sit around starting fights online with random strangers about mundane genre-related things while just generally having overwhelmingly strong opinions and a tendency to be exceedingly vocal with them and hessians^note your stereotypical slovenly, unwashed metal fans who continually engage in needless "us against the world" posturing and care about absolutely nothing other than metal while proclaiming its superiority over everything.
  • A particularly strange "rivalry"^note which is admittedly far more common in internet circles than it is in Real Life is "Metalheads vs. Christians." Yes, some metalheads believe there can be absolutely no overlap between metal fandom and Christian belief, even though many metal musicians are themselves Christians.
• Bizarrely and hilariously, German Tokio Hotel fans versus French Tokio Hotel fans. Severe internet-based catfighting is involved.
• Megadeth fans vs. Metallica fans. The longest feud in the history of Heavy Metal.
  • This stems from the fact that early on in Mustaine's career he genuinely despised the other band as they kicked him out without warning, they always overshadowed his accomplishments, and he believes the majority of their first two albums are his work. They've mellowed out over the years, even touring briefly together in the 90's but Mustaine still feels somewhat bitter about not getting a second chance.
    • And now, the bands are touring together... with Slayer and Anthrax.
    • And while we're on that subject of Anthrax, don't get the fans started on Joey Belladonna vs John Bush.
• On par with the Metallica vs. Megadeth feud... We have a clash of two entire metal genres: Death Metal vs. Black Metal. Fans of the former say black metal is only known for its bone-chilling controversies and not for its artistic merits; black metal fans reply with the fact that death metal is too well-known in the mainstream and never take their lyrics seriously as most black metal artists do.
  • Oh and, please, please don't put Grindcore into the equation. Death metal fans say that grindcore is basically metalcore turned up to eleven, although that isn't really the case; black metal fans instead say that grindcore is sometimes not too serious. Grindcore fans, in turn, say that death metal puts too much emphasis on straightforward overwhelmingness and black metal takes its satanism very seriously.
  • And that's not even getting into the subgenre wars inside Death Metal. It's not at all hard to find fans of most every sub-genre who have a beef with every other sub-genre simultaneously (for example, Brutal Death Metal fans who think Melodic Death Metal is too close to the mainstream be a legitimate sub-genre, while Melodeath fans tend to think Brutal fans are too obsessed with their bands sounding as abrasive as possible to actually care about the musicianship; throwing Technical Death Metal fans into the mix is likely to draw complaints of pretentious noodling and formless song-writing from both of the aforementioned parties, while Tech fans tend to look down on Melodeath as too commercial and Brutal as being too simplistic and childish^note excluding the bands, and there are many, who combine Brutal and Technical, which tend to be nuclei of Friendly Fandoms instead). About the only thing most other Death Metal fans will agree on is that Slam and Deathcore are sewage genres full of idiot wiggers and whiny Emo Teens. Slam and Deathcore fans, for their part, hate the rest of the death metal community due to that attitude.
  • Within Black Metal, there is a highly contentious battle between supporters of the second wave of Norwegian black metal and bands with a left-wing political stance in a movement known as RABM (red and anarchist black metal). That is where we'll leave it.
  • Also within black metal, there is Satanic black metal vs Pagan black metal vs. Christian (un)black metal vs. Neo-Nazi black metal fans.
  • First wave black metal fans vs. second wave black metal fans.
  • Greek black metal fans vs. Norwegian black metal fans.
  • Andorran technical black metal fans vs. Luxembourgish technical black metal fans. No joke. This rivalry is vicious, and has led flame wars and meet ups for Rumbles!
  • Similarly, there is contention between fans of "true black metal" and newer bands with shoegaze and post-rock influences, sometimes derisively referred to as "hipster metal". The highest-profile argument happened when the band Deafheaven released their 2013 album Sunbather to immense popularity and critical reception by generally non-black-metal critics and audiences.
• The Dillinger Escape Plan vs. Ion Dissonance. The "Metallica vs. Megadeth" of metalcore.
• Gojira vs. Meshuggah. The "Metallica vs. Megadeth" of technical death metal.
• Slipknot fans vs. Mushroomhead fans, due to fans perceiving a similarity between the two bands' respective images. Although, both bands have said that there's no bad blood between each other.
• On the note of Limp Bizkit, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society outright despises Durst. In BLS's live album Alcohol Fueled Brewtality, Wylde shouts in the middle of the intro for Super Terrorizer "Limp Bizkit sucks dick!". In the Ozzfest 2001 live album, he shouts in the middle of the song's guitar solo "Limp Bizkit still sucks dick!".
• Mastodon fans vs. Dream Theater fans vs. Symphony X fans.
  • Occasionally Opeth fans have been known to get into the fray as well.
• Helloween vs. Gamma Ray
• Post-2005 Nightwish or Tarja Turunen's solo career. You aren't allowed to like both.
  • This has not calmed down in anyway since Floor Jansen joined the band can.
  • Nightwish has also seen tension with other genres of metal, mostly due to its atypical style compared to the typical "metal" band. Unfortunately, a large portion of hate comes from misogynistic macho-metalheads who think that female vocalists don't belong in a metal group.
• Ensiferum vs. Wintersun. Started when Jari Mäenpää parted ways with the former to focus on the latter, kept going as Petri Lindroos has been seen as a Replacement Scrappy, and appropriately peaked when Wintersun finally released their much-hyped Time I after years of Development Hell, while Unsung Heroes has been criticized for being a bit lackluster performance. All of this despite Jari himself stating that there's no bad blood between the bands, he's basically BFF's with Ensiferum's Markus Toivonen, and some Ensiferum members even made guest vocals on Time I.
• Queensrÿche Official fans vs Geoff Tate's Queensryche fans. So, so much. If certain members of these factions were to meet up in real life, the end result would likely involve several squadrons of riot police.
• Cannibal Corpse vs. Six Feet Under, for the simple reason that the former band's vocalist, Chris Barnes, left it to form SFU. The two bands are also quite different stylistically, with Cannibal Corpse having a more straightforward death metal sound and becoming infamous for their horrific, over-the-top Gorn imagery and lyrics, and Six Feet Under having a far groovier, Pantera-tinged sound and more socially charged lyrics.
• Asking Alexandria vs. We Are Harlot is a similar scenario, as both bands share their vocalist, Danny Worsnop, but couldn't be any more different musically - Asking Alexandria is a metalcore band with heavy use of electronic instruments, while We Are Harlot are a Genre Throwback to '80s Hard Rock and Hair Metal. The fact that Worsnop temporarily left AA to focus on We are Harlot only adds more fuel to the fire.
• Within the Suffocation fandom, fans of Terrance Hobbs versus fans of Mike Smith. Hobbs fans see Smith as an arrogant, toxic bully who was only in Suffocation for the sake of his own (enormous) ego and who desperately needed to go before he completely destroyed their ability to function as a band. Smith fans, meanwhile, see Hobbs as a drunken manchild who treats Suffocation as one giant party that he's turned into a Franchise Zombie and who has to hire a bunch of people young enough to be his kids because he stopped aging mentally in his early twenties and doesn't want to grow up.
• Similar to the Suffocation example, the Morbid Angel fandom has fans of David Vincent versus fans of Steve Tucker. Vincent fans see Tucker as a completely generic frontman with no distinctive identity or personality and feel that Vincent, washed-up and clearly not into death metal as he may be, is still the rightful frontman and that his absence from Morbid Angel is as good a sign as any that Trey should just hang it up and call it a day. Tucker fans, meanwhile, see Vincent as a once-great frontman who fell from grace, returned to Morbid Angel as a grotesque parody of himself for all the wrong reasons, and then proceeded to almost destroy the band before Trey let him go for their own mutual good, and they see Tucker as someone who wasn't given a fair chance the first time around who has more than proven his worth as a frontman with the new lineup.
• Fans of The Agonist versus fans of Alissa White-Gluz. Fans of Alissa see her old bandmates as fairweather friends who threw her under the bus the minute that she became inconvenient and then attempted to sully her name with a heavily revised retelling of events as retaliation for her calling them out, while fans of The Agonist see her as a pompous, egomaniacal asshole who treated the band like it was a solo project, used it as a ticket to personal gain, firmly showed where her priorities were when she hopped on the gravy train that was Arch Enemy and then decided that she wanted to have her cake and eat it too in a way that jeopardized The Agonist's survival, and then had the nerve to play the victim when her old bandmates cut her loose for the sake of their own survival.
• InExtremo vs SubwayToSally over who was the first Medieval Metal band
  • It all started, when In Extremo played as opener for Subway To Sally and the latter made a comment about how much bigger as a band they are. Since then, there has been constant pickering among the bands, which has somewhat leaked into the fandoms, while there a still many fans who like both bands or just prefer one over the other without hating anybody.
  • When In Extremo made a Metal-version of the poem "Erdbeermund"^note Strawberry mouth, which Subway To Sally have already played 8 years earlier as a ballad, the latter made some comment about it and later mentioned it in their song song "Das Rätsel II", where the lyrics say "Wer hat zuerst den Erdbeermund geküsst"^note Who kissed the strawberry mouth first.
  • In Extremo made their own comment in their song "Sängerkrieg"^note Singer's war, which is about the constant rivalry between musicians in the middle ages and today, showing themselves as the winner of the war because of their better mainstream success.
  • If asked about the other band in interviews, both bands tend to deny any rivalries.

Pop

• Michael Jackson fans vs. Prince fans. Many of Michael Jackson's more "mainstream" fans decry Prince as a vulgar womanizer, while many of Prince's more hardcore fans view Michael as a formidable singer and dancer, but an overly commercialized one who relied too much on other musicians for writing, playing, and producing.
  • If discussions under news articles about him are any indication, Jackson fans also are embroiled in nasty rivalries with fans of Elvis Presley and/or The Beatles with regards to the title of Greatest Musician(s) of All Time. Jackson fans call Presley a thief of black music who didn't even write his own material, and they claim that The Beatles are both dated and less talented than Jackson, since they didn't dance or put on giant stage shows. They also claim that the press has unduly favored these acts and been willing to overlook their many personal flaws because they were white. Even Jackson himself suggested that the industry picked on him for becoming more popular than these two acts in 2002. Jackson fans also like to argue that everyone in the world knows his music. On the flip side, Beatles fans resent that Jackson made and spent quite a bit of money off of the band's work once he acquired the rights to the ATV song catalog in The '80s — which actually ruined his friendship with Paul McCartney — and (similar to the Prince rivalry) did far less of his own writing/playing. It's easy to dance onstage, after all, if one isn't playing an instrument or even doing their own singing, as Jackson did a lot of lip-synching from The '90s onward. That both Presley and The Beatles were far more prolific than Jackson (and in a much shorter time frame than him in the case of the latter) doesn't help. Fans of almost every major black artist — Chuck Berry, The Isley Brothers, James Brown, etc. — have the same criticisms of Presley, The Beatles, and even Led Zeppelin but the Jackson fandom is the highest-profile of the lot.
• During The '80s there was Madonna vs. Cyndi Lauper vs. Janet Jackson vs. Paula Abdul vs. Jody Watley vs...
  • Madonna fans vs. Michael Jackson fans sometimes too.
• New Kids on the Block vs. New Edition.
• Backstreet Boys vs. *NSYNC was one for the ages. How bad did it get? When the Backstreet Boys' 1999 album Millennium went Platinum in its first week and became the fastest-selling album in history at the time, *NSYNC fans were determined to beat that record by buying multiple copies of their next album No Strings Attached. Even to this day there are fans on the internet arguing over which group was better. What made this such a classic rivalry is that the two groups were similar enough to appeal to the same demographic (teenage girls), but different enough that listeners strongly preferred one over the other; the Backstreet Boys are more soft rock while *NSYNC was more urban. Ironically, the two bands were anything but rivals in real life. Not only are they all friends, but they were signed to the same record label, had the same management, and worked with many of the same producers. In fact, they wanted to work together but the label kept them apart and milked their "feud" for all it was worth. After all, idiot teenagers were willing to buy three copies of the same album just to break an arbitrary sales record.
• K-pop vs. J-pop in general, but Johhny's Entertainment vs. SM Entertainment in particular. Basically, a extended, wanky debate over which boyband has more talent.
  • In Australia, some Asian music fans feel radio station and weekly TV show SBS PopAsia plays too much K-Pop and should play more Japanese/Chinese/etc music, while K-Pop fans counter that K-Pop is the most popular and requested music (which may be self-perpetuating).
• The famous New Wave rivalry was Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, even though there wasn't really a great amount of enmity between the bands themselves.
• Kate Bush fans vs. Toriphiles. It's normally one-sided. Most Tori fans respect Bush, but Bush fans often bitch about Tori being a "rip-off" of her.
• Britney Spears fans vs. Christina Aguilera fans. It has gotten so bad that some Britney fans attacked Sia directly on Twitter simply because she collaborated with Christina. Christina fans retaliated by trolling Britney forums thoroughly.
  • Or both fandoms versus the Little Monsters.
• FKA twigs fans vs. Banks fans play both this trope and Friendly Fandoms. While it's easy to find people who like both artists within their fandoms, it really isn't a good idea asking them who's better between the two. Twigs fans accuse Banks of essentially being a dumbed-down copy of Twigs, while Banks fans think that Twigs' material can be far too difficult for first-time listeners to understand.
• Lady Gaga fans vs. Madonna fans. It's odd, considering that Gaga & Madonna are friends in real life.
  • At this point it seems like every musical fandom versus Lady Gaga's.
• Little Monsters Vs Cheetolings
  • Which is strange because both Britney and Gaga love each other and have worked together three times in the past. Both are inspired by each other and Gaga is Gaga due to Britney in some part.
• Cheetolings VS Everyone
  • With complete disregard of how Britney has never said anything bad about anyone outside of the year 2003 and 2004, about Christina Aguilera after years of hassling and mud slinging from her and her fans...and even then it was polite.
• If YouTube comments are believed, Justin Bieber fans and fans of every other music genre.
  • Though Justin Bieber fans ("Beliebers") and Jonas Brothers fans have a particularly nasty rivalry going.
    • And now that the Jonas Brothers have lost mainstream popularity, Beliebers are now rivals with One Direction fans ("Directioners"). At least until Bieber's own popularity plummeted.
• East 17 versus Take That (Band). The main rivals for the title of top British Boy Band in the 1990s, East 17 were London hard-boys (their name comes from the postcode for Walthamstow) with mild R'N'B overtones, while Take That were northerners but seen as boys-next-door with a more traditional pop style. Curiously paralleled the Beatles Vs. Stones rivalry in sixties rock.
• Many Miley Cyrus fans tend to take a dig at Selena Gomez. Ironically enough, Selena played Hannah Montana's arch-rival, Mikayla, in some episodes, prior to Wizards of Waverly Place.
• Taylor Swift:
  • Taylor fans vs. Adele fans — watch as Swifties cite Adele's music as being one-tone and Adele's fans accuse Swift's lyrics of being immature.
  • A rivalry has also developed between Taylor fans and Kacey Musgraves fans. This isn't getting any better when Kacey has stated numerous times that she dislikes how Taylor's success influenced country radio.
  • Given the song "Bad Blood" fuelled rumours of a feud between Swift and Katy Perry, Swifties vs. Kitty Kats.
  • Taylor's fans do not get along with Kanye West fans due to Kanye having infamously interrupted Taylor's MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech to say Beyoncé should have won instead. It doesn't help that the drama between them persisted after they appeared to have made up in 2015.
• Fans of Kelly Clarkson vs. fans of Carrie Underwood argue on who is the greatest winner off of American Idol. The rivalry got even more heated with pop singer Kelly's small forays into Country Music, Carrie's genre.
• Korean Pop Music is notorious for its extremely heated fan wars. These are the most notable:
  • An example in K-pop used to be EXO vs. B.A.P. To add fuel to the fire, both groups were candidates for the MAMA 2012 rookie award. Neither group won, which resulted in both fandoms having a rivalry with fans of the indie group Busker Busker, for a few months. The rivalry didn't really last because most of Busker Busker's fans are Korean, while the EXO and BAP fans who are at war are foreign.
  • Nowadays it is BTS fandom that EXO fandom have a bad relationship with. After BTS started to rise in 2015, the fandoms began a rivalry because the two groups are compared. The fact that the two groups are always nominated for the same awards doesn't help.
  • Given that BTS is one of the only k-pop acts to reach international megastardom, there is a "BTS vs. pretty much everyone else" fandom rivalry going on. A notable fan war is with fans of the girl group BLACKPINK. When Blackpink started to blow up internationally, some circles hyped them up as the Distaff Counterpart to BTS, which other circles did not appreciate. It doesn't help that, despite being the most popular Girl Group in K-pop, Blackpink is perpetually in second place (behind BTS) when it comes to popularity in the industry as a whole.
  • Fans of BLACKPINK, the most popular girl group internationally, vs. fans of TWICE, the second most popular. It boils down to the groups having near-polar opposite styles (Blackpink being generally Darker and Edgier; Twice being generally Lighter and Softer) and Twice being one of the only girl groups who can stand a chance competing with Blackpink to become the most popular due to Twice having been dubbed the Nation's Girl Group relatively early in their career.
  • In general, any new group that debuts around the same time that another group from the same company starts to fall apart (Red Velvet vs. f(x); BLACKPINK vs. 2NE1) will be subject to this. Same goes for any new group that gets a lot of unsolicited comparisons to an established group like Girls' Generation.
  • The rivalry between fans of H.O.T. and Sechs Kies, two groups popular in The '90s, is one of the earliest and most infamous instances of discord between K-pop fandoms. Reportedly, the clash began when fans of Sechs Kies cursed out H.O.T. during a performance. This event would start a chain of both fan groups fighting each other both on the internet and in Real Life. At its peak, the conflict was so intense that over 10 fans of both groups got into a physical fight outside of a broadcasting station where an awards ceremony was being held. The fighting eventually cooled down after Sechs Kies disbanded in 2000, where H.O.T. fans expressed empathy towards fans of the broken-up group.
• Lana Del Rey fans vs. Florence + the Machine fans. Which seems quite odd since the two are friends and Florence even defended Lana's style and music in an interview, stating she loved it as well as the song "Video Games".
• One Direction have a few. For example The Wanted. Members of the two boy bands got into a fight on Twitter once. This led to a fight between the Directioners and TW Fanmily. It was pretty one-sided though, as the Directioners trounced over their rivals due to being much larger.
  • Directioners vs. Swifties: When Harry started dating Taylor Swift, the couple was downright hated by the Directioners. Even though the couple only lasted a few months, Directioners still show animosity to both Swift and her fans.
  • Directioners vs. Rushers: The two boy bands were pitted against one another for a Kids' Choice Award, and while One Direction was always the favorite, Big Time Rush was dominating the votes. One Direction still won, and Nick tweeted they got 63% of the vote. When 1D won, the top trend on twitter was the Directioners celebrating their victory, with the Rushers' trend stuck in second place.
  • Directioners vs. Beliebers: The Beliebers are pretty much the only stan base at an equal level to the Directioners, so their fandom rivalry is probably the most legit.
• Katy Perry fans vs. Lady Gaga fans: This rivalry has been expanded in 2013, when both singers released "Roar" and "Applause" on the same week respectively. Ironically, both singers are good friends, with the latter defending Perry's geisha- inspired performance at the 2013 American Music Awards, which sparked controversy as some critics accused the performance as racist and cultural appropriation.
• Skyhooks vs Sherbert - as the two biggest Australian pop bands of the 70s, it's natural that there would be some sort of fandom rivalry, although it's questionable how much was genuine and how much was the media beating things up and egging fans on.
• Bay City Rollers vs. Slik. The latter even trying to annoy the former by "renaming" to City Slickers. ^note It's entirely possible that the whole rivalry only happened on the pages of teenie mags, given that they had the same songwriters. And you probably are not old enough to even having heard about Slik...Maybe Midge Ure rings a bell?

Rock

• The Beatles fans vs. The Rolling Stones fans. More rabid feuders are often surprised to find out that the two bands were actually close friends with one another and would occasionally drop in on the others' recording sessions. At least two tracks, the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" and the Stones' "We Love You", featured members of the other group providing background vocals.
  • In fact, the Rolling Stones were signed because George Harrison recommended them to Dick Rowe (infamously the man who passed on signing the Beatles), and even gave them a song they wrote, "I Wanna Be Your Man", which the Beatles recorded later.
  • Also between Stones fans who prefer the Brian Jones years or the Mick Taylor years.
  • There's a bit of this between fans of The Beatles and fans of The Beach Boys as well, in part because the two bands themselves had something of a friendly rivalry during the 1960s where they kept trying to top each other's records.
• Guns N' Roses vs. Stone Temple Pilots tends to breed epic level shitstorms among a certain portion of the Velvet Revolver fanbase. The GnR camp tends to be filled with Purists, Willfully Blind, and Strawstuffers who view the original Guns 'n' Roses as gods and see Scott as an overly-hammy, Ambiguously Gay Replacement Scrappy for Axl and blame Scott for Velvet Revolver not being the same as the old GnR (despite the fact that Slash wanted someone who was different). STP fans are usually Toxic Geniuses, Highbrow Elitists, or Misplaced Champions that instantly retaliate with similar insults at Axl and will attack Guns n Roses as overblown hair metal crap that remains popular solely due to the 12 year-olds that only know of Slash from Guitar Hero, and will go on about how there's no appreciation for Scott because STP is too sophisticated for GnR fanboys.
  • It's to be expected when a grunge singer joins a band with members of a Hard Rock group.
    • Similarly, in the 90s, metal fans hated grunge for coming out of nowhere and eclipsing the success of their genre to become the dominant rock subgenre of the 90s, though ironically grunge musicians like Kurt Cobain didn't have anything against metal and even were fans of it (Nirvana chose Nevermind mixer Andy Wallace because they liked his work with Slayer, for instance...), but only hated hair metal for being cheesy and lacking substance, which fans of traditional metal would no doubt agree with.
  • This doesn't even take into account the fandom rivalries that exist for literally every musician to ever pass through GNR. The main one, of course, is Axl fans vs Slash fans, but there also exists indivdual fandom rivalries between every guitar player (the biggest being Slash fans vs Buckethead fans), every drummer (still mostly revolving around Adler fans vs Sorum fans, even though most will admit there have been some incredible replacements for both men), Duff fans vs Tommy Stinson fans (which is probably the least vitriolic of any), pre-1991 fans vs post-1991 fans, pre-Slash fans vs post-Slash fans 2001/2 fans vs 2006 fans, 2006 fans vs current (2011) fans...and on and on and on and on...
• Jimi Hendrix fans vs. Eddie Hazel/Ernie Isley fans.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers fans vs. Faith No More fans. A good deal of this stems over a longstanding dispute between Kiedis and Patton that started over something extremely petty and resulted in incredibly childish behavior from both sides, but you've still got RHCP fans who think of FNM as a two-hit wonder that otherwise plays a bunch of pretentious drivel, along with FNM fans who think of RHCP as overplayed fratboy date-rape alt-rock that was a poor man's FNM at their best.
  • Though not as big as the above, there's also Wolfmother fans vs. fans of pretty much any Mike Patton project: It can all be traced back to one interview with Patton.
  • Whilst the bands both have considerable shared fans, there is something of a rivalry between Faith No More fans and Mr. Bungle fans. Mr. Bungle fans often say Mr. Bungle's progressive structures and genre mixing represents the true genius of Mike Patton, and that Faith No More are a dumbed down poppy equivalent. Conversely, there are Faith No More fans who say that Mr. Bungle's frequent switching of genres in song is a gimmick that hides the fact they can't write complete songs, and feel that Faith No More's songwriting is catchier and more focused in comparison. Fans of both do tend to like the FNM album "King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime", since it features Mr. Bungle's Trey Spruance on guitar and features the most varied selection of genres the band produced.
  • In the Faith No More fanbase there are Mike Patton vs Chuck Mosley fans. Most people who like Chuck like Patton too, but a lot of people who like Patton tend to talk about how much Chuck sucks. This is not the only fanbase where something like this is the case though; many Iron Maiden fans who like Paul Di'Anno are frustrated by the Bruce Dickinson fans who post how much better Bruce is on every Youtube video of a Paul-era song.
• Alice in Chains fans vs. Nirvana fans. Which is odd because the former was predominantly metal-influenced while the latter was mainly influenced by Hardcore Punk.
  • And to a lesser extent, Alice in Chains fans vs. Soundgarden fans.
  • Hell, Alice in Chains fans vs. fans of any other Grunge band.
    • Most of it seems to come from the metalheads that are common in AIC's fanbase, who resent grunge and the fact that the band is associated with the genre. Most of them also tend to enjoy Soundgarden though.
• Blur fans vs. Oasis fans. It even caused marriages to break up. Or so the British tabloids would have us believe. Ironically enough, the main players in the rivalry between the two - Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn - are now friends, with Gallagher collaborating with Albarn's other big musical project a number of times, and both seem to dislike talking about it. ^note Gallagher's hatred now seems to be reserved for Blur's drummer Dave Rowntree, who, in his own words is "A public school bullshitter who believes he has the right to talk down to us and run our lives. Well, he can fuck right off!"
• Radiohead fans vs. Muse fans vs. Coldplay fans, one of the most famous tri-rivalries that still goes on after over twenty years. Radiohead fans think that both of the other groups are only famous because they copied the two poles of Radiohead's pre-Kid A style (Muse copying the rockier songs, Coldplay the ballads) after Radiohead stopped making mainstream rock (and on top of that are The Theme Park Version of them made for the mainstream). Some fans of Muse dislike the slowness of many Coldplay and Radiohead songs, while some Coldplay fans dislike the metally heaviness of many Radiohead and Muse songs. Finding a person who admits to liking all three bands is almost like finding a needle in a haystack.
• The "Mods vs Rockers" youth subculture rivalry in early-1960s Britain was based both on lifestyle and musical choice. The macho leather-and-denim-clad rockers enjoyed rock and roll from artists such as Elvis Presley, while the sophisticated suit-wearing Mods followed soul music and more artistically-ambitious rock such as The Who. Clashes between gangs of mods and rockers became quite notorious during their heyday, especially at Brighton Beach. This was perhaps most memorably portrayed in The Who's rock opera and film Quadrophenia.
  • None other than The Beatles spoofed the rivalry in their film A Hard Day's Night, when a reporter asks Ringo if he is a mod or a rocker. Ringo answers, "I'm a mocker."
• Sex Pistols vs. The Ramones. Or The Damned, The Clash, Crass or Stiff Little Fingers
  • Crass had a rivalry with The Clash, both being heavily political minded bands, but Crass came froma very DIY Anarchist scene and saw The Clash as a commercial product. Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, there was a split between The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers with one point of disagreement being the use of The Troubles as a topic in songs (SLF sang about it and the Undertones didn't), and the New York scene was split between CBGB's and Max's Kansas City regulars.
  • common infights in the punk scene include DIY vs. record label acts, those disagreeing wherther Punk's politics should be positive social change or anti-social nihilism, wherther punk spaces should be Straight Edge, Vegan, or even Vegan Straight Edge, as well as squabbles about feminism and anti-racism.
• Punk vs. Metal, or Punk vs. Prog Rock, which was more vitriolic.
• Buckethead vs. Slash, due to Buckethead taking Slash's position in Guns N' Roses. The general assumption made is that while Buckethead has more technical skill, his music has 'no emotion'. Of course, those people haven't ever really listened to Buckethead.
• Since Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead toured together in 1987 there has been some uneasiness between their fans. Deadheads generally like Dylan, but many Dylan fans considered the Grateful Dead and their fans to be pathetic hippies jumping on a legend's bandwagon. A lot of this has been defused since Dylan himself acknowledged that performing with the Grateful Dead helped rejuvenate him artistically, he's covered Dead songs in concert, he's adopted their "never play the same setlist twice" concert format, and he co-wrote the songs on his Together Through Life album with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.
• There is frequently a tension between Bob Dylan fans and progressive/art rock fans, mostly coming from the latter camp, which sees Dylan's songwriting style as overly rambling and not musically interesting enough.
  • Within Dylan's fanbase, there are schisms between fans of his earlier folk material, his rock era, his country/roots era, and everything that came afterwards. Going through so much Genre Shift over the course of a 60-year career will do that.
• The Who vs. Led Zeppelin. Generally boils down to which individual members were the "Greatest of All Time" on their respective instruments. Other issues include which band was more influential and who was truly the best live.
  • Probably stems from Keith Moon and John Entwistle declining Jimmy Page in recreating The Yardbirds as a supergroup before Led Zeppelin was even around.
• Mostly within the Genesis fandom, Peter Gabriel vs. Phil Collins. Quite the case of Fan Dumb, as both are friends, respect each other greatly as artists and continued to work together for years after Peter Gabriel left Genesis, with Collins contributing spectacular drumwork on many of Gabriel's solo albums (and being stunned by the quality in the process, joking Gabriel had been holding back his best material for his solo career) and Gabriel himself stating that Collins sings Genesis's songs better than he did. (Objectively, Collins does have a better vocal range, though Gabriel is more creative and experimental, so it balances out.)
• The fandoms of The Protomen and The Megas seem to have a somewhat heated rivalry, despite the two bands getting along fairly well. Most likely due to the fact they share the same base inspiration, even if they go in two wildly different directions.
• Underground/indie emo (Rites of Spring, Sunny Day Real Estate, etc.) fans vs. mainstream 'emo' fans. This one also tends to overlap with Unknown Rival, as the genre's mainstream fan base are very often unaware of its actual history. Meanwhile, fans of underground emo tend to view most mainstream emo as essentially bastardizing a respected indie music scene into an annoying fad for naive overly-trendy teenagers. It doesn't help that, even after the mainstream wave eventually came and went and the genre's indie days have been getting a solid amount of attention in The New '10s and New '20s, the emo image of the mid-to-late 2000s is still deeply entrenched into the general public's idea of what emo is.
  • Generally, fans of underground/indie emo don't even consider most mainstream 'emo' to really be emo at all because it's perceived to be so far removed from it sonically. Other titles, like Pop Punk and Post-Hardcore, are more often used (that is, if they're not calling it by the much more derogatory 'mall emo'). The same debate rages on about the "screamo" subgenre. On the one hand, you have bands like Circle Takes the Square, Saetia, and Hot Cross. On the other, Underoath and (at least) early Hawthorne Heights.
• In the avant-rock community, there's Frank Zappa vs. Captain Beefheart. Doesn't help that the two had a love/hate friendship while they were still alive.
• Garbage vs. Curve, though mainly it exists solely on the Curve side. Fans of Curve absolutely hate Garbage, thinking of them as "manufactured" and a revenge plot cooked up by Butch Vig after the group rejected an offer by Vig (who was a fan of the group BTW) to work with them on an album.
• In general, Grunge fans vs Hair Metal fans. According to a sizable group of fans from both genres, you're not allowed to like both — even though active rock stations typically play both. Although, both groups are in agreement over not liking Post-Grunge.
  • This was a pretty natural extension of the '80s Alternative Rock vs. hair band rivalry, though until the former started to crossover with bands such as R.E.M., their fans were more Unknown Rivals.
• If you're a fan of Van Halen, you MUST prefer either David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar. Liking both, or expressing no preference, is not an option!
  • DLR fans will tell you that he's the ultimate showman and really brings the fun and passion, Van Hagar fans will say that Sammy has a better vocal range.
• Post-punk and its cousin New Wave versus progressive rock from the late 70s onward. Prog rock fans hated those genres for bringing back simpler, more radio-friendly song structures while new wave fans disavowed prog for its pretentiousness and long-winded songwriting. Some artists like David Bowie, Yes, King Crimson and Peter Gabriel simply dabbled in both.
  • The rivalry even goes back to the embryonic stages of the genres: was the symphonic psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Psychedelia/Prog) the defining moment of late 1960s rock and roll, or was it the gritty minimalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico (Punk/New Wave)?
  • There also tends to be a division between hardcore post-punk fans and new wave fans, with the former group thinking that the latter sold out. It should be noted that both genres originated in many of the same scenes.
  • Post-punk fans also seem to be divided between the earlier, experimental material from artists like Pere Ubu, Wire, This Heat, and The Pop Group, and the later styles which were primarily influenced by Joy Division. Some will consider 80s post-punk and goth rock to just be a bunch of JD clones.
  • A further layer to this applies between fans of classic post-punk and the post-punk revival which peaked in the early-to-mid 2000s. A lot of people consider bands like Interpol and Franz Ferdinand to be either indie rock bands with little punk influence or mere copycats of the post-punk style of ages past who aren't doing anything new with the genre other than polishing it up for Apple commercials. Fans of classic post-punk tend to prefer modern bands with more of an avant-garde edge, such as Protomartyr, Preoccupations, Idles, and the scene coming out of South London in The New '10s.
• The Smiths vs. The Cure. You could always Take a Third Option - The Chameleons or even The Go Betweens.
• With the long history of Fleetwood Mac, there's a certain amount of Fandom Rivalry going on between devotees of various incarnations of the band (not to mention individual musicians); the biggest distinction generally tends to be between fans of the early, hard-core British Blues Mac featuring Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, and the post-1975 lineup featuring Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Paradoxically, given the long and fraught personal history between Buckingham and Nicks, there's very little serious Fandom Rivalry between the two; fans of one generally tend to like and appreciate the other (in contrast to professional rock critics, who in the 1970's and 1980's tended to line up in the Buckingham camp) simply because of the fact that both brought out the best of the other (musically, that is—personally, they were a mess).
• The Birthday Massacre fans vs. Black Veil Brides fans. See TBM's page for the explanation.
• Pink Floyd: Roger Waters vs. David Gilmour vs. Syd Barrett. All three men are crucial figures in the band's history, but all three brought wildly different sounds during their respective stints as bandleader, and all of them have fans rushing to praise them for very different reasons. Barrett was essentially the band's founder, and he made their later successes possible, but Waters was the driving creative force behind their two most widely beloved albums, and Gilmour is arguably the most musically talented of the three.
• Simple Minds vs. U2. People generally like to overlook the fact that Simple Minds' singer Jim Kerr and U2 singer Bono are actually good friends, and have even performed together.
• Indie fans and everyone. Including each other. It really depends on just how indie you are.
• In the AC/DC fandom there's fans of Bon Scott vs. fans of Brian Johnson. However there's a large amount of fans that love both.
• LCD Soundsystem vs. Death from Above 1979. This rivalry started because DFA Records (full name Death from Above Records), the label of LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, forced Death from Above 1979 (which had Death from Above as its name) to change its name. This battle can be defined as a draw, a result influenced by the fact that exist fans of both LCD Soundsystem and Death from Above 1979 and also by the Song Association: both bands appeared in the soundtracks of Project Gotham Racing 3 and Saints Row 2.
• Danzig vs. Jerry Only. Danzig fans insist that Glenn should own The Misfits even though he officially quit the band in 1983 and refuses to work with them. Jerry Only fans are glad that Danzig is out of the picture and the band has actual production values in their current form. Danzig fans insist that Jerry is a total jerk, whereas on the flipside, Glenn has been caught lying in interviews, and his only recent blip in the media is getting punched out by the singer of another band.
  • The video of that incident, which is floating around online, shows Glenn provoking the fight and throwing the first punch- which is the opposite of what Glenn claims happened. Going by Glenn's version, he was punched for no reason, however the actual footage show shim using a racial slur and throwing a sucker punch, only to get punched back in self defense.
• Imagine Dragons and Queens of the Stone Age fans have grown rather spiteful towards each other ever since Imagine Dragons took the 2014 Best Rock Performance Grammy away from QOTSA. It goes beyond that though, Josh Homme himself insulted the band during a live performance.
  • Just listen to they way his fans boo when he so much as mentions Imagine Dragons. That really cements this as a hardcore rivalry.
  • Though recently, the rivalry has been in Imagine Dragons' favour.
• A rivalry that was actually encouraged by the artists in their respective scenes is the Britpop vs. Grunge rivalry. Britpop was largely formed as a bouncier and more energetic form of music in reaction against the darker cynicism of grunge, with Damon Albarn of Blur being especially vocal in his disdain for the genre despite admitting to having a genuine respect for Nirvana's work. In return, most Americans generally wrote off and ignored Britpop.
• The rivalry between the fandoms of New Model Army and The Levellers is bitter, nasty and has been going on for close on 35 years now, with NMA fans accusing The Levellers of stealing their Folk Metal style, and Levellers fans accusing NMA of being stuck in the mud, unhygienic crusties. The actual bands like each other, but freely admit that they don't always respect each other.

R&B

• Since Nielsen SoundScan classifies hip-hop/R&B as being the same genre (some think the classification is racist), this tends to cause some resentment between the two bases R&B and Hip-Hop. Both sides thinking the other is watering down the other.
  • Janet Jackson tends to be an exception even though her siblings generally aren't. She embraced hip-hop early on in her career, and as a result was frequently respected by rappers and received features from people like Q-Tip in the late 90s.
• TLC fans vs. SWV fans, superficially similar in that they were 2 trios of urban/R&B singers. Though TLC was/is considered more edgy, and more popular.
  • On occasion people (specifically VIBE magazine) would throw in the group Jade for good measure. Which was basically a Hotter and Sexier version of the two aforementioned groups. They lasted only 2 albums though.
• Sade fans vs. Anita Baker fans.
• Mariah Carey fans vs. Whitney Houston fans. Ironically, Mariah and Whitney both highly respected each other and denied any rumors of a feud. In 1998, they collaborated on the hit "When You Believe" for The Prince of Egypt.
• Motown vs STAX/VOLT. One was more poppy and successful, the other was funkier and more raw.
• Funk vs. Disco tends to be a fairly contentious one. Funk fans consider disco to be watered-down or having removed all the black aspects of the genre in favor of reaching a larger, predominantly white audience. Disco fans tend to highlight that disco actually united the black and LGBTQ communities and acted as a safe space for those who were part of both. This division is generally not reserved to House, which tends to be seen as Electronic Dance Music rather than a type of disco (also because house frequently features soul/funk samples).
• The Four Tops fans vs. The Temptations fans. Of course, both bands were actually good friends, even when David Ruffin said that Levi Stubbs "overcooked" the vocal on "Bernadette", mainly because Levi agreed with him!
• Fans of R&B/Pop stars vs fans of more "pure" and "mature" R&B/Soul vocalists artists. This goes as far back as the Motown vs. STAX/Volt rivalry of The '70s. The modern version of that rivalry basically boils down to fans of artists like Rihanna, Kristina Debarge, Mya, Nicole Scherzinger, Christina Milian, Ashanti, Chris Brown, Kerri Hilson, etc vs. fans of artists like Anthony Hamilton, Leela James, Amel Larrieux, Kem, Conya Doss, Vivian Green, Jill Scott, Angie Stone, Goapale etc. The fans of the former group of artists thinks the latter artists' style is outdated and boring, and their fans are a bunch of out of touch elitist. The latter usually calls the former group of artists "Industry Whores" whom along with the record companies are impeding the success of the latter, as far as fans of the former group goes the latter don't think much of them at all, usually because they think they're all a bunch of prepubescent dumb girls. If some of the former group of fans happens to be actually older (basically 20 to 30 somethings), then the latter fans' opinion of them is even lower.
  • Artists like Alicia Keys, and Mary J. Blige can be kinda dicey as to what group they fall into. Most believe their work falls somewhere in between. Especially Alicia, her last two albums seems to be intentionally straddling the fence. Going from R&B/Soul to Power pop ballads, which eventually led to her base breaking.
  • In some cases the fans of the "mature artists" think that the pop stars are only where they are because of colorism, because many of the pop stars (e.g. Beyonce, Rihanna) are lighter skinned. For example, India.Arie fans feel that Alicia Keys won the Grammy over Arie in 2002 because of her skin color.
  • Neo-Soul had a unique rivalry with Contemporary R&B in the 90s, which was especially odd since artists like Maxwell made music which fit into both genres. Hip hop fans disliked Contemporary R&B, but gravitated to Neo-Soul due to its funk influence, which resulted in a large number of crossover albums at the turn of the 21st century.
• White British R&B/Soul singer Lisa Stansfield fans vs her American counterpart Taylor Dayne. Likely due to the fact that both have a somewhat similar vocal style and range. And secondly for being the only 2 white women to do R&B/Soul at the time.
• Played with by 90's R&B princesses Brandy and Monica, who were often pitted against each other by fans and the media. Since they both respected each other in real life, they had some fun with their perceived rivalry and recorded a song together, "The Boy Is Mine," a Betty and Veronica duet. The song became a smash hit, the biggest-selling single of 1998, and one of the most famous duets of all time.

Visual Kei

• X Japan vs. COLOR / Dynamite Tommy. The bands themselves were rival bands, and though the drama mostly died down between them, the fans still sometimes won't let it die.
• X Japan vs. Dir en grey is a bit more modern of one, with some Diru fans becoming vocal Fan Haters toward X fans.
  • And Dir en grey fans vs. Kuroyume fans. Their respective fanbases argue about which band was really responsible for kickstarting the Eroguro kei sub-movement and popularizing Avant-Garde Metal in Visual Kei. Some Kuroyume fans even go as far as claiming that Dir en grey copied their aesthetics, sound, and manner of performance, while Dir fans deny these facts and even claim that they perfected Eroguro by themselves.
    • Bonus points for referencing the Pantera vs. Exhorder Fandom Rivalry or explicitly throwing it in. ^note  Just like with Pantera and Exhorder, the members of Kuroyume and Dir en grey are friends.
• X Japan has a few of these internally as well. The longest-running had been hide vs. Toshi. Various factors somehow joined in a confluence. Shippers had long seen hide and Toshi as rivals, some unofficial information hinted that they had some sort of rivalry or hate toward each other, and once the band broke up it entirely exploded. Some hide fans blame Toshi for breaking up X Japan in 1997 due to his joining a new religious movement, and some Toshi fans do as well - but the hide fans who believe so believe the breakup and loss of success contributed, in some way, to hide's downward spiral into alcoholism and eventual death. Cue much hatred for Toshi among hardcore hide fans. Considering that some hardcore Toshi fans and/or Yoshiki/Toshi shippers blamed hide for the band's breakup, saw hide as an intruder on Toshi and Yoshiki, and believe him to have who intentionally suicided to make Yoshiki hurt... you can just imagine what happens when these groups meet up. There's a reason it's called the Legendary Flame War, and a reason why mentioning certain claims (e.g. calling Toshi a brainwashed cult member until 2010 when he admitted he had been, saying hide's death was intentional suicide aimed at punishing Yoshiki) will lead to sane fans piling on to quench backlash. This Flame War got possibly the best dousing any Flame War could, though, once Toshi did leave HomeOfHeart and confessed to having been brainwashed for over 10 years - and rekindled his friendship/relationship with Yoshiki. Occasionally one side will still try to start drama from it related to their still-ongoing hatred of hide and the rumors about him, but it's pretty much out now for very good reason.
  • Taiji vs. Heath for best bassist. This can get a YouTube comment section on FIRE. That said, it somewhat lessened as Taiji can't replace Heath anymore., then picked up again when Dead Artists Are Better began to take effect for Taiji.
  • Another X one sprouted from the Broken Base that happened as a result of 2008 Cancelwank. A small contingent of enraged X fans suddenly hated Yoshiki and began to bash him, instead announcing their support for ex-bassist Taiji and saying the band ended in 1992, who they held up as some kind of hero of rock and roll who "knew how bad Yoshiki was all along.". Unfortunately, these fans forgot that Taiji and Yoshiki have somewhat reconciled. This one has gotten a fresh shot of gasoline due to Never Speak Ill of the Dead related to Taiji.
  • Old fans vs. new fans, homophobes who somehow got into the band anyway vs. Yaoi Fangirls.... this fandom has enough internal rivalries to keep the flames roasting for years.

Other

• Yoko Kanno vs. Yuki Kajiura, both among the most acclaimed composers for Japanese anime and Japanese films and both have their dedicated followers. Kanno fans argue a vast and versatile style and a strong work resume of shows is what makes Kanno a great composer, while Kajiura's iconic style and hit-and-miss history of not-so-great-shows makes her a weak composer. On the flip side some fans who love Kajiura's savvy style will tell you Kanno is nothing more than a plagiarist.
  • But of course, both sides have a healthy appreciation for both women.
• While many fans enjoy both performers, there is a growing rivalry between fans of Professor Elemental and fans of Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer. It’s become pretty obvious that this was deliberately started by the Prof simply to boost both their profiles as he’s Genre Savvy enough to know that you can’t beat a good beef to get fans attention. Since the result was them performing together on numerous occasions and making guest appearances on each other’s songs, it’s obvious it was never a real feud to start with.
• Spanish Reggae vs. Reggaeton.
• It was reported in Wired magazine's website that fans of Doctor Steel were planning an "attack" on Dr. Horrible, by attending the Dr. Horrible panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego and openly asking questions on the floor of the panel about Dr. Steel, and spamming Dr. Horrible reviews and sites with links to Dr. Steel's website. No known reprisal was ever recorded.
• Viga of Idols of Anime has referred to the 2010s as the "Idol Sengoku Jidai", which encompasses both RL (Morning Musume, AKB48, Momoiro Clover Z, etc) and anime/game (The Idolmaster, Love Live!, Aikatsu!, PriPara) idol groups.
• Vocaloid and UTAU fandoms fighting over which one is the best singing voice synthesizer. VOCALOID fans claim that UTAU produces lower quality results, is for "amateurs" and is a nest of poorly-recorded voicebanks and bad (when not outright plagiarized) avatars. UTAU fans, in turn, claim that VOCALOID sounds flat and robotic, that the amateur recordings provide more expressive and flexible results, and that UTAU is an overall better option due to the variety, price (the software itself is free), and the possibility of making your own vocals. Of course, many people still appreciate and use both.
• Juniel with IU's fans back at the former's debut where the two were constantly compared. IU fans weren't particular impressed by her vocals and didn't feel she was worthy of being the Second IU, while Juniel fans bragged about Juniel being superior due to playing guitar and writing her own music (which is futile since IU also writes her own music and plays guitar). This is even though the girls were friend pre-debut before losing contact. The comparisons as well as the rivalry has died down since then.
• FT Island and CN Blue are the two most popular idol rock bands in South Korea and are under FNC Entertainment. Thus many fans are sensitive about their bias band's reputation and success compared to the other as well as who gets treated better/worst. Fans are also quick to blame the opposing band for their bias' downfalls even though it's solely their CEO who's responsible for mistreating them and his bad decision-making that affects them. The hate sadly doesn't stop despite the two being quite close and genuinely proud of each other, and both bands literally only being here today because of each other (FTI started off FNC's success which allowed CNB to also have a bright future, and CNB saved FNC from debt which would had otherwise put FTI out of business and not have them achieve their later success).
• Guitarists vs. synthesizer players. Guitarists think synth players have no soul or technique, just twiddling knobs or using their computers for everything, while synth players think guitarists are stuck-up elitists trapped in the '70s. This is only gotten worse as EDM has overtaken rock in the popular imagination.
  • a similar debate exsists between fans of DJ's that play and live mix with vinyls and those who use digital tracks, and those who play pre-mixed digital tracks.
• A couple appear in local markets, e. g. in Germany.
  • While "mainstream punk" bands Die Ärzte and Die toten Hosen get along quite well, their respective fandoms don't, with the latter accusing the former of immature teenie music and the former claiming the latter "sold out".
  • In the niche genre of a capella music with humorous lyrics, two bands emerged from the city of Cologne almost at the same time during the 1990s, Wise Guys and Basta, leading to a lot of arguments about every conceivable quality, from singing to humor and/or intelligence of lyrics. It got a bit one sided after Wise Guys made it big. Again, as so often, the bands themselves got along quite well.
• Festivals and concerts aren't free from this either.
  • A rivalry exists between fans of Coachella and fans of other festivals, especially Electric Daisy Carnival, Bonaroo and Lollapalooza. Fans of the latter festivals generally hold a great deal of disdain for the former, calling it a pretentious gathering of fake hipster douchebags listening to overrated pop artists. Coachella fans will fire back by pointing out the fact that the latter festivals have their own fair share of douchebags too.
• Rock Fans vs. Disco was a big deal towards the end of the 70's as rock fans saw several radio stations switch their programming over, and more and more live venues close down in favor of discotechques.

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