It's Popular, Now It Sucks: Difference between revisions

[[File:nydncartoon.jpg|link=Star Trek (Filmfilm)|frame|The appropriate [[Star Trek: theThe Original Series|Trekkie]] response to [[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|the 2009 reboot]]. [[No True Scotsman|You're not a real fan]] [[Fan Dumb|if you liked it.]]]]

{{quote|''"Poseurs! I hated Zoidberg before it was cool."''|'''Bender''', ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]''}}

In some cases, it's not an unreasonable complaint if the quality of the work begins to suffer as a result of the artist's popularity. If the artist begins to squander their talent or water down what made it interesting to make it acceptable to the [[Lowest Common Denominator]], or [[Pandering to Thethe Base]] rather than expanding themselves as artists in the process, then it's not unreasonable that the fans might start crying foul. Likewise, if the artist becomes a [[Small Name, Big Ego|raging egomaniacal tool]] who believes that they can [[Fan Disillusionment|treat their fans like dirt]] and [[Protection From Editors|don't need to listen to their editors]], things might go downhill fast. Perhaps their fame will rise [[Artist Disillusionment|beyond a level they can cope with]]. On another, more subjective note, the popularity and acclaim of an actually solid artist or work may rise to hyperbolic, unwarranted heights, which can have a negative effect if [[Hype Backlash|the hype cannot possibly match the reality]]. Where live performances are involved, larger, less intimate venues will generally be required - perhaps a situation in which the performers don’t come across so well -- and audience demographics may change, the newcomers behaving differently to the older fans, causing an overall change in atmosphere. And finally, some things ''are'' better in small doses, in which case the last thing you want is to be over-exposed to it.

However, in too many cases, the cry of "It's Popular, Now It Sucks!" is more about snobbery than anything else. When the artist was a small name or a cult favorite, being one of their fans felt like being in an exclusive little club, but now membership has been opened up to the 'sheep', the original fans may feel a lot less special. Alternatively, some critics seem to enjoy the attention that comes from criticizing something popular, or feeling more intelligent and superior about being the only ones capable of possessing the high standards not to "follow the herd". Some also seem to believe that artists should work and create art [[Doing It for Thethe Art|solely for the sake of art]], without consideration of anything so uncouth as critical, popular or especially [[Money, Dear Boy|financial reward -- forgetting (or perhaps not even realizing) artists still need to put food on the table and pay rent]]. In these cases, it might be more accurate to say that when these fans say the creator should create art "for the sake of art", what they actually mean is that the creator should create art "for the sake of my ego".

A variant of this trope is the cry that "It's Popular, '''so''' it Sucks". To these people, the only way a work can become popular is by being [[Lowest Common Denominator|dumb, "safe" and middle-of-the-road]], and therefore mediocre. (Sometimes however, lesser known works are prone to criticism for some people simply by virtue of obscurity, believing that anything that isn't mainstream is "too weird". [[Quality Byby Popular Vote|However that's another story entirely]].)

Related to [[Newbie Boom]] and [[Lowest Common Denominator]]. A subtrope of [[Fan Dumb]] and [[Hate Dumb]]. Often overlaps with [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]], [[Ruined FOREVER (Darth Wiki)|Ruined FOREVER]], and [[Hype Backlash]]. Compare with [[Three Chords and Thethe Truth]] and [[Opinion Myopia]]. Contrast with [[Quality Byby Popular Vote]]. If this backlash is due to actual deterioration after hitting it big rather than pretentiousness, see [[Protection From Editors]]. [[Japandering]] is sometimes done when the artist is specifically trying to avoid this. When musicians hold this opinion for one of their own songs, it's a [[Black Sheep Hit]]. Differs from [[Hype Aversion]] in that it's not so much fear of crazy fans as it is scorn for the proles.

Don't worry, though, because [[The Man Is Sticking It to Thethe Man]]. And let's not forget that [[Fan Dumb|according to these folks]], Popular Art is not "[[True Art]]".

* If you wish to invoke this trope, ask around on any forum, even one dedicated to Manga and Anime what the worst they've ''ever'' read or seen was. Your responses will ''very very rarely'' mention an anime/manga that wasn't popular or well received even in Japan like ''[[Bakugan (Anime)|Bakugan]]'', or the stuff that was actually ''canceled'' before it could be localized like ''[[Bakugan]]'' was. At least nine out of ten responses will name stuff like ''[[Bleach (Manga)|Bleach]]'', ''[[Code Geass (Anime)|Code Geass]]'', ''[[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Dragon Ball]] Z'', ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'', ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (Animeanime)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', ''[[Gundam (Anime)|Gundam]]'', ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]'', ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion (Anime)|Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', ''[[Inuyasha (Manga)|Inuyasha]]'', ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'', ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]''...notice a pattern? Yep. Stuff that is popular in Japan, ''and'' outside of Japan.

* You have people insisting that all anime sucks nowadays whereas the stuff in [[The Eighties]] and [[The Nineties|Nineties]] was good. This is pretty much [[Nostalgia Filter]] meets this - there were ''plenty'' of anime series in the 1980s and 1990s that weren't very good, especially considering that it was much more difficult to import more shows because of the [[Animation Age Ghetto]] being ''very'' strong at the time. (Even [[Steven Spielberg]] said that ''[[Akira (Manga)|Akira]]'' wasn't marketable.)

* ''[[Akira (Manga)|Akira]]'' has managed to avoid this fate, despite that most people are actually familiar with the old dub ([http://canaaadaaaa.ytmnd.com/ "KA-NAY-DAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!"]) that, strangely, neither Otomo or Macek themselves agreed with. If anything, the only [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks]] that Akira is getting is the [[I Liked It Better When It Sucked|2001 redub]], which you would ironically ''think'' would be better received. (More thorough translation, they actually ''know'' how to pronounce Kaneda's name, and the fact that the 80s dub got a PG-13 rating thanks in part to the [[Animation Age Ghetto]] while the 2001 redub is rated R...)

* Many fans of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia (Manga)|Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' were displeased by the [[Newbie Boom|influx of ''many'' new fans]] brought by the successful anime adaptation. (Funnily enough most of them started complaining when the fandom was already ''huge''.)

* ''[[Bleach (Manga)|Bleach]]''. There was once a time when it was a niche shonen series, and was only known by people who read scanlations from a popular scanlation site. Back then, pretty much any and all feedback were about how frickin' awesome it was, and how it's a shame that it's so obscure and no-named. And ''then'', it got big. It's amazing how many countless people (including the fans who liked it back when it was small) have changed their tone to "I hate ''Bleach'', it sucks because it's popular."

* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' fans are not too thrilled about their series being dubbed, not so much out of fear of the dub's alterations [[Translation Style Choices|(as there are very few)]] as fear that the series will be ruined by an influx of * shudder* people who watch [[Adult Swim]].

** Dub argument aside, ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' in general has fallen victim to this. Back when it was new, ''Death Note'' was the greatest series in years, all the cool kids liked it, and making references to ''Death Note'' was the best way to flaunt your otaku elitism. Then the anime came along and ''Death Note'' became super-popular, and so now the trendy thing among the otaku elite is, of course, bashing it and making fun of all the stupid ''Death Note'' fanspawn.

* ''[[Dragon Ball (Manga)|Dragon Ball]] Z'' befell this wonderful fate during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Arguably one of the things that got anime into the mainstream, within five years or so it was very popular to bash it horribly. Some would argue that ''[[Naruto (Manga)|Naruto]]'' is basically the same thing -- massively popular until it overplayed its welcome, and then is met with a thousand fiery hells.

* Some fans of the ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya (Light Novel)|Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' [[Light Novel|light novels]] did not take it kindly when their semi-obscure books were gonna be adapted into an anime and bring in new fans who never even heard of the books. Some of those fans also got pissed when it became a surprise hit and a [[Cash Cow Franchise]].

* There was once a time in which ''[[Inuyasha (Manga)|Inuyasha]]''; as well as pretty much every [[Rumiko Takahashi]] series, had a fanbase that was free to exist in public. But then, they became popular - Immediately, saying you like a Takahashi series nowadays, ''especially'' ''[[Inuyasha (Manga)|Inuyasha]]'' is tantamount to [[Suicide Byby Cop]].

* ''[[Sailor Moon (Manga)|Sailor Moon]]'' was once considered a gateway anime in the 90s and an icon of feminism and girl power. Then when people realized everyone was watching it (especially the dubbed version), it became trendy to bash it for being "kiddie" or [[Real Women Never Wear Dresses|sexist]]. Furthermore, despite the fact that many men used to be proud to claim themselves as fans, you're pretty much required to call it gay now if you're a dude.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Anime)|Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' is starting to head this way thanks to extreme [[Hype Backlash]].

* ''[[Vampire Knight (Manga)|Vampire Knight]]'' started as a modest shoujo manga about teenage vampires, until it [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|inexplicably became one of the most popular manga in America]]. Now many fans of modest shoujo avoid it like the plague due to its rampant popularity.

* Ask an art historian what s/he thinks of [[Leonardo Dada Vinci]] or any other [[The Renaissance|Renaissance]] master.

** ''[[The Dark Knight Saga (Film)|The Dark Knight Saga]]'''s explosive popularity caused [[Batman]] to become a more popular cultural icon than ever. Many long-time Batman fans feel spited by the Bat's new-found mainstream status, resorting to the [[It's Popular, Now It Sucks]] mantra. They must be extremely good at holding grudges for decades on end though, since Batman has been a "mainstream" cultural icon since the 60s.

** In-universe example. ''[[Batman]]: Fortunate Son''. One of the main characters was a famous musician who applied this trope to himself, feeling that his fame prevented him from keeping it "real". This didn't work too well; in his typically savage review of the comic, [[Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|Linkara]] had some choice things to say about this trope in general.

* ''[[Deadpool]]'' has been gaining lots of popularity ever since Wade Wilson's short appearance in ''[[X Men Origins: Wolverine (Film)|X Men Origins Wolverine]]'', so popular he has 5 running series currently, and was featured on almost every variant cover for the week of 27th Feb 2010. Of course, the original fans are not happy about having Deadpool [[Wolverine Publicity|being whored out by Marvel and having him shoved down everyone's throat]].

* Just about every fan of [[Jhonen Vasquez]]'s comics (like [[Johnny the Homicidal Maniac]]) from "back in the day" seems to hate and look down on fans who found out about Jhonen's work through his cartoon show, ''[[Invader Zim (Animation)|Invader Zim]]'', a show that -- being a cartoon on a big name children's cable channel -- was accessible to a ''much'' larger and more varied audience than his early comics.

* Some fans of ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' (and possibly [[Alan Moore]] [[Creator Backlash|himself]]) began sneering at the thought of someone reading the comic because of [[Watchmen (Filmfilm)|the movie]]. And it happened as the trailers apparently caused the comic to recently become a top-seller. Which is, say it with us now, a ''good'' thing.

* ''[[Hellblazer (Comic Book)|Hellblazer]]'' was mostly sheltered from this due to the adaptation being titled ''[[Constantine (Film)|Constantine]]'', confusing potential fans seeking out a John Constantine that wouldn't exist in the books anyway. This complaint arose around the movie from the time [[Keanu Reeves]] was attached, but abandoning the entire character in favor of the safest bankable mainstream star came across as a deliberate snub of the pre-existing market for the movie ("We don't need your money, you losers, we got our moneymaker right here!")

* Let's just start off by saying this: If a movie [[Epic Movie|rakes in a lot of dough]] ([[wikipedia:List of highest-grossing films|especially if the film ends up on this list]]), it's sure to be labeled as a [[Cliché Storm]] filled movie with nothing but "Mindless" Action and/or "Mindless" [[Fan Service]] that isn't [[True Art]] and made for the [[Lowest Common Denominator]]...[[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch|Even if they didn't actually watch the movie.]] Almost no exceptions (you won't find many people making said complaints about ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (Film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' or ''[[The Godfather (Film)|The Godfather]]'').

* It's not just amongst fans either. People have noticed that in most recent years, the majority of [[Academy Award|Oscar]] winners and nominees for best picture have been both low budget and low box-office. It was the exclusion of well-received successes such as ''[[WALL-E]]'' and ''[[The Dark Knight Saga (Film)|The Dark Knight Saga]]'' that caused the Academy to expand the pool of nominees from 5 to 10.

** And it has started with Academy Award films as well. Just look at the reception ''[[Juno]]'', ''[[American Beauty]]'', and ''[[Little Miss Sunshine (Film)|Little Miss Sunshine]]'' received after all their nominations

* [[The Remake|Remakes]] get this treatment in droves. Even if the movie was just as good if not better than the previous film, you wouldn't know that from all the people screeching in message boards: "[[Ruined FOREVER]]" and "[[I Liked It Better When It Sucked]]". It's hard to distinguish remakes that were good compared to remakes that actually did suck because of this. In particular, this is especially true with American remakes of foreign films... Prepare yourself for ''[[The Millennium Trilogy (Literature)|The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo]]''...

* Many actors that star in blockbuster films suffer from this, including [[Seth Rogen]] and [[Shia La BeoufLaBeouf]].

* ''[[The Dark Knight Saga (Film)|The Dark Knight Saga]]'' has suffered this recently. Considering it's the 8th highest-grossing movie of all time, it seems that [[Analogy Backfire|the higher the popularity, the higher the suck.]]

* The original ''[[Batman (Filmfilm)|Batman]]'' (1989) managed to avoid this, if only because [[Tim Burton]]'s movie was so massively hyped and generated so much controversy that it was bound to attract the interest of just about everyone, whether they liked it or not. As near as one can tell, ''Batman'' energized three very large, vocal and/or influential sectors of the viewing public: young adults, who delighted in Burton's "hipster" aesthetic and edgy humor; film critics (most of them older people) who were offended or even outraged by that same edginess and only watched the movie because it was so huge they just couldn't ignore it; and hardcore Batman fans, who were just so thrilled to finally get to see a true cinematic treatment of their hero that they didn't really care (or at least didn't care too much) that Burton's take was so radically different. (Incidentally, ''Batman'' ended up attracting a surprise fourth demographic: children, many of whom thought the movie was a lot of fun [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?|even though it was intended primarily for adults]].) Generally, It's Popular Now It Sucks only applies to works that enjoy a ''moderately'' high level of popularity. If a work becomes ''insanely'' popular, as ''Batman'' did in '89, it turns into a phenomenon so awesome that no amount of backlash can truly hurt it.

* ''[[Donnie Darko (Film)|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. Somewhat ironic, in that it mostly became popular [[Cult Classic|via word-of-mouth]] and [[Vindicated Byby Cable]].

* ''[[Halloween (Filmfilm)|Halloween]] H20: Twenty Years Later'', which is seen as the "sell out" of the series, by some.

* After ''[[The Dark Knight Saga (Film)|The Dark Knight Saga]]'', [[Christopher Nolan]]'s next film ''[[Inception (Film)|Inception]]'' received a similar treatment. After the initial wave of glowing praise, the film garnered its fair share of detractors. The main reasons given by viewers who dislike the film are one or more of the following: it's too complex, it's not as complex as everyone makes it out to be, it plays with an idea but doesn't develop it, there are (or seem to be) contradictions within the film regarding the "rules" of dreaming and that it attempts to pander to an action film fanbase with its spectacle, slighting fans of serious cyber punk science fiction and psychological thriller films.

** ''[[Titanic (Film)|Titanic]]'' at first 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, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time until Avatar came out, and the loads of [[Academy Award|Oscar nominations and wins]] it got.

** When ''[[Avatar (Filmfilm)|Avatar]]'' came out, it had a skyrocket of public acclaim and defining the standard of the [[3D Movie]], with many proclaiming 'Oh man, Avatar was awesome!', only for about a few months later when it became the highest-grossing film of all time, a huge hatedom came out and proclaimed it as one of the worst films of all time while quite a few of it's fandom changed their mind and stated 'Yeah, it's just ''[[Pocahontas (Disney)|Pocahontas]]'' [[Recycled in Space|in space]]'. Conversely, ''[[The Hurt Locker]]''; which was directed by Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, was [[Left for Dead]] as a box office flop until somehow, it came out of nowhere around awards time to huge critical acclaim, with many proclaiming, '''Avatar'' is Lame. This is Best Picture right here'. Its momentum would be enough to upset and punch out ''Avatar'' at the Oscars and the BAFTAs, including the Best Picture award for both (and making it the lowest-grossing film of all time to win Best Picture), leaving ''Avatar'' to only beat ''Hurt Locker'' in the Golden Globes.

* ''[[The Artist (Film)|The Artist]]'' suddenly got this. Despite winning over 13 Best Picture awards from various critics groups, the Golden Globes, the BAFTA, and the Oscars, plus of course a 97% [[Rotten Tomatoes]] score, the film is now considered as overrated and not the best film of the year by some people.

* [[Kevin Smith]]. Some fans have accused him of being a sell out, a label he has no problem with. Most recently, people accuse Smith of being a sellout because he directed ''[[Cop Out (Film)|Cop Out]]'' for a studio from a script he didn't write. This, despite the fact that he [[Doing It for Thethe Art|took a significant pay ''cut'' to ensure the film could have the R-rating he thought it deserved.]]

* ''[[The Matrix (Film)|The Matrix]]'' [[Limited Special Collectors Ultimate Edition|collector's edition]] contains a meta-example. The [[Alternate DVD Commentary|alternate commentaries]] in it are explained as existing because every other DVD commentary is always [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|the cast and crew commenting on the development of the film]], and a film like theirs deserves commentaries by college philosophers and movie critics instead.

* ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas (Film)|The Nightmare Before Christmas]]''. Some fans feel this way because of it becoming a [[Cash Cow Franchise]]. It doesn't help many buy Nightmare merch just to look Goth or Emo, not because they actually ''seen'' the movie. Then add the [[Hate Dumb]] that thinks the movie sucks because they've seen the merch but [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch|not actually seeing the movie]], and you get some pissed-off fans. Luckily, this is a [[Vocal Minority]].

* [[Peter Jackson]]. Full swing after making the movie adaptations of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)|The Lord of the Rings]]''. You'd be amazed at how many of his "[[Fan Dumb|fans]]" despise the fact he made a film that cost more than a million or so and look down on fans that were brought into the fold via ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Lord of the Rings]]''. Claims that he "sold out", "lost his touch", and "became a hack" are common in certain circles of his older fanbase.

* ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Film)|Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' was subject to an angry rant on a popular community discussing comics. The individual in question seemed to be incensed that Hollywood was actually making movies ''for'' geeks now, instead of mocking them. Not only did he hate the film itself, but he hated the people it was about, made by and for. The term "hipster" was thrown around willy-nilly. He got more and more vitriolic as he realized his was a minority opinion, and was eventually banned when he said something untoward.

* ''[[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|Star Trek]]'': [http://www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film This Onion News Network video] pretty accurately reflects the [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|attitude]] of a certain type of [[Star Trek]] fan towards [[Star Trek (Filmfilm)|the 2009 movie]]. They must be extremely good at holding grudges for decades on end, since [[Star Trek]] has been a cultural icon for decades. Luckily despite the stereotype, surprisingly otherwise averted by the Trek fanbase, as discussions and polls on the TrekBBS consistently show that about 80 to 90% of the fans like or love the new movie.

* Tim Burton. As with ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas (Film)|The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'' example above, you can expand this to pretty much anything done by him. Early in his career, he gained a cult following, most of his early films did good, but not huge numbers at the box office. However, as his films became more popular, the [[Hate Dumb]] grew and grew, in large part do to his popularity with the Goth and Emo crowd, and much because of this trope. It seems to be mostly due to the misconception that he and his movies are all [[Wangst|whiny, mopey, self-indulgent]] navel-gazers, missing the part where he's actually [[Deadpan Snarker|pretty funny]] and doesn't take himself that seriously at all. Just watch [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPrFec9rAwM this interview]. "Could you roll the I.V. in here? I'm feeling a bit...faint."

* Certain parts of the ''[[Transformers]]'' fandom, over the year or so before the release of [[Transformers (Filmfilm)|the 2007 live-action movie]], preemptively expressed the sentiment that "It's going to be popular! That sucks!" Everyone else was rather confused. It becomes very silly when people accuse ''Transformers'', a franchise that was created specifically [[Merchandise-Driven|to sell toys]], of selling out. <br /><br />Of course, this being ''[[Transformers]]'' fandom, a [[Broken Base]] if ever there was one, there's also a very vocal segment that runs counter to this trope, and cheered every time it topped charts. Transformers is somewhat a subversion as more fans were happy with the movies success as it made the franchise relevant again in the eyes of the public. More relevance means more plastic (and even better, more ''die-cast metal''), which has always made 'True Fans' happy even if they despised the related series.

** On the other hand, part of the reason why ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' purists hate the movies so much is because of their popularity; they're basically pissed that more people are familiar with the hyper-detailed CGI Transformers starring in big, dumb action movies than their original, not-very-detailed cartoon incarnations. (Fans of more widely praised incarnations such as ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', ''[[Transformers Animated (Animation)|Transformers Animated]]'', and ''[[Transformers Prime (Animation)|Transformers Prime]]'' also react this way if they dislike the movies).

* This happened to ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]'' with the massive turnout for ''[[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix|Order of the Phoenix]]'' -- many "fans" assumed [[JKJ. K. Rowling (Creator)|JK Rowling]] could get away with writing absolute crap from then on. However, they didn't so much drop the fandom as [[Unpleasable Fanbase|stick around to complain about everything]], thus proving their worth as True Fans.

** Happened to a lesser extent with the influx of new fans [[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|the film]] brought, but the fact that most of them read the books anyway reassured the original fanbase somewhat.

* A lot of long-time book fans of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Literature)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' were unhappy with the caliber of fans introduced to ''LotR'' by the movie trilogy. Many "old-school" fans consider the movie lovers shallow and frivolous, ''especially'' if said movie lovers were subsequently turned on to the books by the movies.

*** Fictional uber-geek Jason Fox in ''[[FoxTrot (Comic Strip)|FoxTrot]]'' once worried about the highly positive public reception of ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Lord of the Rings]]''. Although he is only concerned that enjoying Tolkien's trilogy will make it (gasp!) mainstream to be a nerd, therefore depriving people like himself of their "special" status.

* The ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'' series by [[Stephenie Meyer]] has gained a substantial hatedom merely because of how insanely popular the books are between young girls. This is especially true among fans of traditional horror stories and vampire stories, who will often yell "[[Your Vampires Suck]]!", especially since the story is more of a love story featuring vampires. While there are complaints that actually have legitimacy, naturally the former bunch tends to drown out the legitimate criticisms.

* ''[[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 [[Pandering to Thethe Base|for]] [[Continuity Lock Out|numerous]] [[Continuity Porn|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. Whilst the new series is significantly different in style and tone from the old series in many ways, thus generating plenty of legitimate criticism for numerous reasons, a significant portion of the critical response to the new version does seem to be comprised of people who are upset that it's not "theirs" anymore.

* ''[[Glee (TV)|Glee]]'' times a million. To be fair, the back nine episodes are quite uneven, but plenty of people were hating on it before the season even officially started because the pilot was shown at the beginning of the summer of 2009, kicking off an extremely aggressive and relentless ad campaign by Fox (the most amusing facet of which was when they came up with the term "Gleeks" and them tried to pretend that hardcore fans had christened themselves that).

* The first season of ''[[ICarly (TV)|I Carly]]'' was relatively low key, especially in the online fandom. It exploded in popularity in Season 2, and along with an increased emphasis on the [[Shipping]], lead many to quit watching.

* Kids TV shows tend to get this the most. Most likely a major cause of [[Hatedom]] and [[Periphery Hatedom]] towards shows such as ''[[Barney and Friends (TV)|Barney and Friends]]'' and ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]''.

* There seems to be a substantial backlash of this sort to anything by the legendary comic ''[[Monty Python]]'', (especially, however, ''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail (Film)|Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]''). Some people might just be [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|sick of the inevitable quotations]], since so many people know the quotes and love them. Others have different objections.

* For many people, the decline of ''[[The X-Files (TV)|The X-Files]]'' began with its move to Sundays from Fridays and its attempt to be more "accessible" to Fox viewers.

* In the ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'' episode "[[Community (TV)/Recap/S2 E09 Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design|Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design]]" an in-universe example occurs when their blanket fort makes the newspapers and inspires similar blanket forts in campuses across the country, Troy and Abed decide it must be destroyed.

* Musicians can get this treatment when they previously believed in this trope yet later loosen up about it. For example, [[Metallica (Music)|Metallica]] originally claimed they would never make a music video because doing so would be selling out, yet later on they decided it wasn't that big of a deal and started making them. Don't try to tell that to their original fans, though.

** While it had plenty of legit criticisms, this was a large reason behind the hate of [[Everythings Funkier With Disco|Disco music]] in the [[The Seventies|70's]]. It probably [[No Such Thing Asas Bad Publicity|would have died off a lot sooner]] without the "Disco Sucks" T-shirts and [[Stuff Blowing Up|Disco demolitions]].

** [[Heavy Metal (Music)|Heavy Metal]] musicians get the worst of this treatment. '''ANY''' metal singer or band that becomes commercially successful in the slightest will be accused of selling out, even if said band hasn't changed their musical or lyrical approach at all. Metal is [[Ruined FOREVER]] about once a week depending on who you ask.

*** Again, there have also been plenty of legit criticisms of metal's more mainstream sub-genres, but a lot of the hate stems from this. Fans of thrash would not have hated [[Glam Metal]] in [[The Eighties|the 80's]] nearly as much if it hadn't been as popular as it was. The same applies to the dislike of [[Nu Metal-metal]] in the 90's and 2000's.

** Pop music. Hell, it's in the name. While pop has plenty of legit criticisms, many, if not all, pop stars have substantial hatedoms solely because this is their genre of choice. Any new pop star ([[Miley Cyrus (Music)|Miley Cyrus]], [[Demi Lovato (Music)|Demi Lovato]], [[The Jonas Brothers (Music)|Jonas Brothers]], [[Britney Spears (Music)|Britney Spears]], [[Selena Gomez (Music)|Selena Gomez]], [[Justin Timberlake (Music)|Justin Timberlake]], [[Lady Gaga (Music)|Lady Gaga]], etc.) sucks because they are popular and [[Ruined FOREVER|ruins Pop forever]].

* Music Journalism. This sometimes happens here, most infamously with Rolling Stone magazine, who were unable to understand [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]]'s popularity. Later on, when the band became legacy artists (and especially [[Never Speak Ill of the Dead|after the death of John Bonham]]), Rolling Stone has since lauded them as one of the best bands of all time.

** Look up any [[YouTube]] video of any song that appeared in ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]: Black Ops'', such as "Fortunate Son" by [[Creedence Clearwater Revival (Music)|Creedence Clearwater Revival]] or "Sympathy For the Devil" by [[The Rolling Stones (Music)|The Rolling Stones]]. Take note of all the comments bashing people who have heard of the two songs through the game. For bonus stupidity points, ask yourself why they aren't going the same with, say, ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' for the former. (Then again, ''COD'' itself is a victim of this trope; see below.)

** Likewise with ''Celldweller'', ''[[Fallout 3 (Video Game)|Fallout 3]]'', and ''[[Dead Rising 2 (Video Game)|Dead Rising 2]]''. People had this complaint regarding the songs that appeared in these game.

** Games in the [[Rhythm Game]] genre like the ''[[Guitar Hero (Video Game)|Guitar Hero]]'' series [[Dueling Games|and]] the ''[[Rock Band]]'' series have elicited this reaction from elitist music fans complaining that players who became fans of a certain band after hearing a song on ''Guitar Hero'' or ''Rock Band'' 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.

* [[ABBA (Music)|ABBA]] This complaint arises in their fan community every time there is a major surge in interest, the latest being the success of ''[[Mamma Mia]]''. Interestingly, each wave of popularity leads to a status increase for past newcomers, to the point where "Goldies" (newcomers after the release of the "ABBA Gold" album), who were ridiculed on their arrival, are now praised as "true fans" by the older fans who criticized them. Many of these older fans ignore the fact that they first liked the band in the 1970's, at the all-time peak of their success and popularity.

* [[ACDC (Music)|ACDC]] has managed to avoid this for the most part, but there is still a portion of the fandom that believes the band was better before Brian Johnson replaced the deceased Bon Scott on vocals, simply because of the massive success of "Back in Black" (still the second best selling album of all time to this day) which was the first album to feature Johnson.

* [[Anthrax (Music)|Anthrax]] was accused of selling out when they chose John Bush as their new lead singer and with their more mainstream-sounding album, ''Sounds of White Noise''. The band's rhythm guitarist, Scott Ian, commented on this in an interview saying, "The bottom line is, everyone in this business is in it to make money. Myself included."

** They also got this treatment when they dared to commit the unforgivable crime of trying to give fans of different genres some common ground when they did a [[Rap Metal]] project with [[Public Enemy (Music)|Public Enemy]].

* [[The Beatles (Musicband)|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 and replaced drummer [[The Pete Best|Pete Best]] with [[Ringo Starr (Music)|Ringo Starr]]. Plus, their massive success and influence and having stood the test of time more than most musicians is used to claim that they are overrated. Additionally, a number of people find it cool to hate The Beatles by dismissing them as a 60s pop group. Y'know, not putting them in the context of the 60s and realising all the things they helped to make popular, not least the sheer timelessness of stuff like ''Rubber Soul'' and ''Revolver''.

*** And as [http://www.cracked.com/article_19061_5-artistic-geniuses-who-only-became-great-after-selling-out.html this article] from [[Cracked (Website).com|Cracked]] explains, even before that success, the band's image and musical style were a complete 180 from what they would later become famous for.

* [[Behemoth (Music)|Behemoth]] is given a lot of flak in the [[Heavy Metal (Music)|Heavy Metal]] underground for moving from [[Black Metal]] to [[Death Metal]] and signing with Nuclear Blast

* [[Black Eyed Peas (Music)|Black Eyed Peas]]: Happened after adding Fergie to their lineup and switching to a more pop oriented sound which made them commercially successful.

* [[Blue OysterÖyster Cult (Music)|Blue Oyster Cult]]. The popularity of their song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" as a result of it forming the centrepiece of the popular ''[[Saturday Night Live (TV)|Saturday Night Live]]'' skit "More Cowbell" has seen something of an injection of new fans based on this song -- much to the irritation of the existing fans, who feel that the band's other songs are being overlooked in the process.

* [[Bob Seger (Music)|Bob Seger]] after he allowed his song "Like a Rock" to be featured in Chevrolet commercials. Never mind the reason he did it; Chevrolet is owned by General Motors, which is headquartered in Seger's hometown of Detroit. They were on the brink of bankruptcy, and Seger had a lot of friends who worked for them. Not wanting those friends to be out of jobs, Seger allowed the song to be used, and it pretty much saved the company.

* [[Cradle of Filth (Music)|Cradle of Filth]]: ''Thornography'' apparently brought them mainstream. However mainstream extreme black metal can get.

* [[David Bowie (Music)|David Bowie]] usually falls victim to [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]] accusations due to his penchant for the [[New Sound Album]] trope, but the deliberately mainstream pop-rock of ''Let's Dance'' (1983) -- which resulted in the biggest-selling album of his career -- led to criticism along these lines as well. It got worse when his next two albums (''Tonight'' and ''Never Let Me Down'') followed in that vein to diminishing returns. In the end Bowie himself felt dissatisfied with his output and moved on, first to the unsuccessful [[Hard Rock]] group Tin Machine and then to solo work that was driven more by art than commerce.

* [[Dragonforce (Music)|DragonforceDragonForce]] shows you don't have to do much to get this treatment by allowing the use of "Through the Fire and Flames" as a bonus track for ''[[Guitar Hero (Video Game)|Guitar Hero]] III''. Fans at first praised its inclusion, and it would seem that this trope was averted. Then the game came out, and the cries of "Sellout!" came with it. Seriously, just go on to any video of the band on [[YouTube]], either their music videos, their live performances, or their interviews and count how many comments read along the lines of "I liked Dragon Force before ''Guitar Hero.''

* [[Evanescence (Music)|Evanescence]]. When they began to take off, fans were in denial that the band had hit the Lycos 50 (yes, you read right, ''[[Serious Business|search engine results]]''!), even though their only album before ''Fallen'' was ''Origin'', a glorified demo tape.

* [[Foo Fighters (Music)|Foo Fighters]]. Dave Grohl has gone on to achieve huge success since the end of Nirvana, now that he's the face of the band and not just the drummer. This has led to a lot of accusations of selling out.

* [[Genesis (Musicband)|Genesis]]. Thanks to a [[Broken Base]], they are a textbook example of this trope. If you want to see someone have an aneurysm, just ask a fan of the [[Peter Gabriel (Music)|Peter Gabriel]] era what he/she thinks of the ''Invisible Touch'' album. Even [[American Psycho|Wall Street psychopaths]] like that song.

* [[The Goo Goo Dolls (Music)|The Goo Goo Dolls]]. After their album ''A Boy Named Goo'', 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, [[Intentionally Awkward Title|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.

* [[Green Day (Music)|Green Day]] got this treatment with ''American Idiot'' which thrust them back into the limelight after nearly a decade in obscurity and brought them a new generation of fans, as well a new generation of older fans complaining about how they had sold out.

* [[Howard Shore]] got quite a bit of [[Hatedom]] from film score fans because of all of the notice he got for ''[[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|The Lord of the Rings]]'', which has led some people to claim he was never talented at all. Others could care less and enjoy all of his work.

* Famous [[Post-hardcore]] band Jawbox was signed by Atlantic Records in 1994, in the midst of the [[Nirvana (Music)|Nirvana]]-provoked [[Alternative Rock]] craze. Since they'd already had 5 years under their belt, they managed to score a very favourable record contract that allowed them control over their recordings and the ability to organise their own shows. Regardless, the [[Fan Dumb]] came fast and furious: one particularly psychotic fan wrote to the band '''wishing for their death in a fiery van accident'''.

* [[Justin Bieber (Music)|Justin Bieber]] started off as a [[YouTube]] sensation and would quickly and surprisingly find his way to the top of the music industry, [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|to much delight]] for [[Squee|a countless amount of Teenage Girls]]. Unfortunately for him and his fans, going mainstream won't get you the approval of the Internet, especially if you appeal to teenage girls and [[Hatedom|is highly regarded as one of the most hated individuals on the internet today]].

* [[KISS (Music)|KISS]] to some extent, though the real irony is that the band's [[Word of God|self-admitted,]] entire reason for existence [[Money, Dear Boy|was to sell a look and style on the road]] and not so much their ''songs''.

* [[Korn (Music)|Korn]] makes an example of this trope in their song, "Y'all Wanna Single."

* [[Linkin Park (Music)|Linkin Park]] got this treatment when "What I've Done" and "New Divide" were featured in the Michael Bay-directed [[Transformers]] movies. This is an especially bad instance of this phenomenon because [[Linkin Park]] was plenty popular ''before'' that happened, with ''Hybrid Theory'' and ''Meteora'' having achieved widespread success, [[Fridge Logic|yet this trope was not in force for those albums.]]

* [[Liz Phair (Music)|Liz Phair]].

* [[Megadeth (Music)|Megadeth]] received a lot of hatred because they too made their sound more mainstream in the early nineties with ''Countdown to Extinction''. Megadeth has moved back to their traditional style, so they don't receive many accusations of selling out anymore.

* [[Metallica (Music)|Metallica]], oh, good lord, Metallica. The most evident example is their 1991 self titled album, aka "The Black Album", which was the most mainstream of their albums at that point and also marked a change in their style from thrash to a more general metal sound. It provided them a lot of success, at the time making them the biggest metal band in the world but also gave them an incredible amount of hate and sellout accusations from their original fan base.

* [[Muse (Musicband)|Muse]] has suffered a lot of this since the release of ''Black Holes And Revelations'', and to a lesser extent since ''Absolution''. Muse were considered very cool when they were indie artists on their first two albums, ''Showbiz'' and ''Origin Of Symmetry'', and just about reached their peak when they hit the mainstream with ''Absolution''. By the time ''Black Holes'' came out, it was considered a disappointment because the singles released from it were pop songs rather than rock. This happens a lot, in fact, if an album is represented by the songs which are atypical for the album itself.

** Ever since "Supermassive Black Hole" was featured in the first ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'' series film, you can't go to a Muse video on [[YouTube]] without fanboys shrieking about ''Twilight'' fans liking Muse due to said song in movie. Sad, because while ''Twilight'' is a [[Love It or Hate It|polarizing]] series, almost everyone likes Muse.

* [[My Chemical Romance (Music)|My Chemical Romance]]. People have said this about all of their last three albums; ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,'' ''The Black Parade,'' and ''Danger Days.''

* [[Nickelback (Music)|Nickelback]]. For a band with such a vocal Hatedom, and that so [[Guilty Pleasure|few people claim to like publicly]], you'd think they'd get less airplay and make less money. A lot of their hatedom from [[Grunge]] fans stems solely from the fact that the band can fill stadiums and arenas.

* [[Nicki Minaj (Music)|Nicki Minaj]] has two forms of this: the set of people who believe she really became more pop-oriented in her debut album, ''Pink Friday'',(before that she had mixtapes) and people who thinks she was much better when she was completely in the underground.

* [[Nirvana (Music)|Nirvana]]. It's widely believed that frontman [[Kurt Cobain (Music)|Kurt Cobain]] killed himself as a result of his fear of this trope and even [[Creator Backlash|came to hate]] the band's signature song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (which was [[Poe's Law|supposed to be a parody]] of the [[Misaimed Fandom|same fans it started attracting]]) often refusing to play it live. Additionally, the band's popularity is often used to claim that they're overrated, and even some grunge fans don't like them solely because of it.

** Kurt Cobain often wrote pop songs to subvert this. Even ''Bleach'', their most abrasive and inaccessible release has "About A Girl" on it, which he wrote after listening to [[The Beatles (Musicband)|The Beatles]] all day. They followed up ''Nevermind'' with ''In Utero'', which is much sludgier than ''Nevermind'' but ultimately reaches a compromise: songs which were just about heavy enough for ''Bleach''/''Incesticide'' fans, but melodic enough for ''Nevermind'' fans. Of course, "In Bloom", from ''Nevermind'' points fun at the people who listened to Nirvana because they were popular and didn't understand the lyrics.

* [[No Doubt (Music)|No Doubt]] with ''Tragic Kingdom'' which put them on the charts with their hit singles, "Don't Speak" and "Just a Girl".

* [[Ozzy Osbourne (Music)|Ozzy Osbourne]] has never really gotten the full treatment of this, but his solo work being more popular and successful than his work with [[Black Sabbath (Music)|Black Sabbath]] is often the only basis snobbier fans use to claim the former isn't as good as the latter. He also got some minor claims of this with ''[[The Osbournes (TV)|The Osbournes]]'' reality show in the early 2000's, which brought him a whole new generation of fans.

* Paramore has gotten this treatment mainly because they did a song for the first ''[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|Twilight]]'' film and because they now have merchandise at Hot Topic. Unfortunate considering how talented they actually are.

* [[Pearl Jam (Music)|Pearl Jam]] actually kind of inverted this to turn less commercial, everything after ''Vs''. were [[New Sound Album|New Sound Albums]].

* [[Pink Floyd (Music)|Pink Floyd]]. Happened after ''[[The Dark Side of the Moon (Music)|The Dark Side of the Moon]]'' in the minds of some of their fans, [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|who preferred their old psychedelic music]] over the new [[Darker and Edgier|harder and darker]] material.

* [[Queen (Music)|Queen]], particularly in the years after Freddie Mercury's passing, where their most famous works skyrocketed in popularity with their use in films, commercials, sports events and random internet [[Memetic Mutation|memes]]. The trope, however, most likely began to take effect as early as 1974 when "Killer Queen" started climbing the charts.

* [[Randy Newman (Music)|Randy Newman]] parodied this on his 1999 ode to over-the-hill rock stars, "I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)."

* [[Red Hot Chili Peppers (Music)|Red Hot Chili Peppers]]' popularity became so high at the time of ''Stadium Arcadium'' and its singles overplayed that even they became exhausted by the fame, going on a 3 year hiatus after the tour finished. This caused their guitarist John Frusciante to leave the band for the second time, for exactly the same reason he left the first time (except that the previous time he was also a heroin addict).

* [[REM (Music)|REM]] fans felt this way about the band after they made the move to [[Warner Brothers]], and specifically in the wake of their surprise "Losing My Religion" hit.

* [[Rise Against (Music)|Rise Against]]. Many fans feel their first few albums were closer to hardcore punk, faster, and generally less melodic than their previous two. It doesn't help, then, that these were their two real 'mainstream' albums (though they had some success prior to them). While the subjects of the songs are much the same, older fans often feel that the albums are intentionally more accessible to non-punk fans.

* [[They Might Be Giants (Musicband)|They Might Be Giants]]. A lot of people found ''John Henry'', their first album with a full band, to be selling out. God only knows what these people think of the band's four (so far) children's albums.

* [[Tool (Music)|Tool]] produced an epic, [[Cluster F-Bomb]]-throwing response to this phenomenon with the song "Hooker With a Penis", where Maynard tells an [[Fan Dumb|OGT]] "Yeah, I sold out, fuck off."

* [[U 2 (Music)|U 2U2]]. Because of this trope, their fanbase is divided into two groups; pre-"Joshua Tree" and post "Joshua Tree".

* [[The Who (Music)|The Who]]. The band was always popular, but when they became international sensations with the release of ''Tommy'', fans of their earlier work thought they were becoming ''too'' popular. Not helped by the use of their songs in ''[[CSI (TV)|CSI]]''.

* Extreme sports in particular are targets of this. Skateboarding fans, for example, tend to complain to no end about the new fans that come with video games series like ''[[Tony Hawks Pro Skater (Video Game)|Tony Hawks Pro Skater]]''.

* Every edition of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' ever, save the first.

* Playwrights have this happen to them also. With John Patrick Shanley, it's ''[[Doubt (Theatretheatre)|Doubt]]''. For David Lindsay-Abaire, it's Rabbit Hole. In both cases, that individual play is much more universally popular than any other play they're done so they're seen as selling out with them (to be fair, they're more family-friendly than their other works).

** Shanley had also written ''[[Moonstruck]]'' and ''[[We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (Film)|Were Back a Dinosaurs Story]]''. The film adaptation of ''Doubt'' was ''Directed'' by him.

* ''[[Rent (Theatre)|Rent]]'' 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. 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".

** The [[Wii]] is a grand example of this. The Wii exploded in popularity with casual fans, causing the die hard [[Nintendo (Creator)|Nintendo]] fans to shun Nintendo for selling out to casual gamers.

** RPGs got this with the massive popularity of ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' and others like ''[[The Elder Scrolls (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls]]'' and ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]''.

** Sandbox games got this after the massive success of titles like ''[[Grand Theft Auto III (Video Game)|Grand Theft Auto III]]'' and ''[[Minecraft (Video Game)|Minecraft]]'' got other developers to start making more of them.

** Shooter games got this with the massive popularity of games like ''[[Halo (Video Gameseries)|Halo]]'' and ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]'', and now some gamers are screaming for the death of the genre just because they got popular with the masses.

* [[Bungie]]; in their early days a Macintosh game developer, decided that their next title after their hit ''[[Pathways Intointo Darkness|PID]]'' was ''[[Marathon (Video Game)Trilogy|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 Real Time Tactics 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]]/[[Third-Person Shooter|shooter]] ''[[Oni]]'' and [[Wide Open Sandbox|Sandbox]] guerrilla warfare game ''[[Halo (Video Gameseries)|Halo]]''. After that, Microsoft bought them, and turned ''Halo'' into a [[Killer App]] for the original Xbox. "They've sold out!" screamed the fans, and Bungie responded "No, we haven't." After they were finished with the Halo series,'Bung split up with Microsoft to create a new ip and signed a deal that it will be published by [[Activision (Creator)|Activision]]. Of course the fans said "They've sold out!" and of course Bungie responded with "No, we haven't."

* Some ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]'' fans were not too pleased when the ''[[ModernCall Warfareof (VideoDuty: Game)Modern Warfare|Modern Warfare]]'' franchise was introduced and turned out to be a hit. Possibly aided by the recent changes of ''Modern Warfare 2'' including the lack of [[PC vs. Console|dedicated servers in the PC version]], the [[Downloadable Content]], and most importantly; the [[Executive Meddling]] between [[Activision (Creator)|Activision]] and Infinity Ward, leading to many of Infinity Ward's crew defecting to [[Electronic Arts]]. Go to a gaming forum (especially one with a lot of PC users) and ask them what the best entry in the series is. Chances are, the answer will be United Offensive or ''Call of Duty 2''. Woe be it to the poor newbie that actually likes the newer games.

** For that matter, try saying you like ''[[Call of Duty]]'' in ''general''. The first few games enjoyed [[Sacred Cow]] status; even ''[[ModernCall Warfareof (VideoDuty: Game)Modern Warfare|Modern Warfare]]'' did because it was different (and because a certain [[Zero Punctuation (Web Animation)|internet critic]] praised it). Then it started to become popular. Nowadays if you say anything positive about ''[[Call of Duty (Video Game)|Call of Duty]]'', you'll be lucky if you aren't murdered in your sleep.

* The ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' series tends to get a lot of this. Many fans love to claim how a particular entry "ruined" the series. ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'' (for making the series too popular with the mainstream and making the characters in future games be more anime styled with big swords) and ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]'' (for introducing more frequent cut scenes and voice acting) tend to bear the bulk of it, but other games are not immune to these complaints; the series has been "ruined" about thirteen to sixteen times by now.

** Many RPG fans just plain hate ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' because their preferred series isn't selling as much. This inevitably leads to people like this complaining that the popularity of ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' is crowding out "better" games. Interestingly enough; this complaint is ''only'' lobbed at ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' games; and occasionally ''[[Halo (Video Gameseries)|Halo]]''; when any look through a gaming magazine can point out how many other games with big publishers or developers receive ''just'' as much advertising if not ''more'' than every game that [[Square Enix (Creator)|Square Enix]] and Bungie make. (''[[Dragon Quest IX (Video Game)|Dragon Quest IX]]'' only got such a budget because ''Nintendo'' published it outside of Japan.)

** ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' also got this treatment. With Part 7 starting to plummet in popularity, and crossovers such as ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Dissidia'', Part 8 has grown more in popularity, and just as soon as it did, the sudden hatedom with it. Possibly justified in that ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' was a very polarizing game even back in its prime, with [[Love It or Hate It|many praising it and many others considering it the worst in the series]].

*** ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' being unpopular or poorly received on a whole is a case of regional [[Fan Dumb]]. It did poorly in the North America and Europe because it confused players who were not aware that the games in the ''Final Fantasy'' series were not linked. Despite this, it has always been one of the best reviewed and highest selling games in the series. The ''Final Fantasy 8'' Hatedom was restricted to a fairly small, but very vocal segment of the fanbase.

* The ''[[Gears of War (Video Game)|Gears of War]]'' series has gotten popular enough to be alongside ''[[Halo]]'' as one of the "[[Killer App|faces]]" of the Xbox platform. Nevertheless, fans of previous [[Epic Games]] titles and [[Console Wars]] debaters don't really seem too pleased.

* Many RPG fans don't seem too pleased that the ''[[Mass Effect (Video Game)|Mass Effect]]'' series has become a hit, [[Action RPG|especially since they went towards a different game style]] [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|than the "traditional" RPG]].

** [[Conversational Troping|Conversed]] by Shepard in ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' during his/her conversation with Morinth. When asked about music:

* ''[[Minecraft (Video Game)|Minecraft]]'', now that Notch has received an interview in a popular PC magazine and been plugged on the ''[[Team Fortress 2 (Video Game)|Team Fortress 2]]'' blog, [http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=21336 some people] are calling the demise of the game. The cries of "Notch is a sellout!" became even more common among fans once he announced ''Minecraft'' would come to the [[Xbox 360]], which happened because of the game's huge success. To be fair, however, they appear to be a minority.

* ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]'', now that the 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]]'' series was overrated tripe.

* Nintendo. Any of their 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 (Video Game)|Part 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'' was released were complaining that [[It's the Same, Now It Sucks|the series had grown repetitive and stagnant]].

* ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' Would you believe that this series is starting to show signs of this? ''[[Persona 3 (Video Game)|Persona 3]]'' was well-received, bringing in newcomers to the series and thus making the entire ''[[Persona (Videovideo Gamegame)|Persona]]'' franchise eclipse the popularity of the main 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 ''[[Shin Megami Tensei|MegaTen]]'' game that was tailored to the mainstream. These complaints are intensifying with the popularity of ''[[Persona 4 (Video Game)|Persona 4]]'' and the upcoming PSP remake is similarly getting trashed for proof that Atlus is "selling out".

** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne (Video Game)|Nocturne]]'' is beginning to suffer from this, since it's the [[Sequel First|first main]] ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' [[Sequel First|game to be released outside of Japan]] and hence more people have played this one than the original two. There is also a mix of [[Hype Backlash]], as many ''Shin Megami Tensei'' fans have proclaimed this one of the best games ever while deriding the popularity of other games. The trolling can be a headache.

* The ''[[System Shock (Video Game)|System Shock]]'' series was beloved but never commercially successful. In 2007, ''[[Bioshock (Video Game)|Bioshock]]'', a [[Spiritual Successor]], was released, and actually managed to become successful, becoming a commercial success even while competing with giants like [[Halo 3]]. ''[[Bioshock (Video Game)|Bioshock]]'' was very much like ''[[System Shock (Video Game)|System Shock]] 2'' , unfortunately, a very similar plot <ref>although with the differences that [[SS 2]] is about the horror of being alone, while ''BioShock'' is about the horror of having zombies climbing all over the place. There are also some good points about Objectivism being made, but these tend to be glossed over.</ref> and a relatively clunky interface for the PC version as well (as well as the [[Copy Protection|DRM and technical issues]]) as well as a respawn mechanic that, unlike System Shocks, had no cost for use, removing any sense of difficulty. Guess what the ''[[System Shock (Video Game)|System Shock]]'' 2 fans focused on.

** ''SS2'''s other Spiritual Successor, ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|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''.

* ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' is starting to get this treatment. Word of mouth (plus high exposure due to being a ''huge'' RPG on the RPG-starved Gamecube) led to it being a big seller and award-winner, and for the first time a lot of gamers outside of Japan started looking into the series. Fast-forward six or seven years and now the ''[[Tales Series(series)]]'' has a ''lot'' of embittered older fans who are mad that the newer games in the series are bigger sellers and more popular than the pre-Symphonia cult classics that were the [[Tales of Destiny (Video Game)|early]] [[Tales of Eternia (Video Game)|games]]. And it's all blamed on ''Symphonia'''s breakout popularity.<!-- Destiny and Eternia were the only ones in English prior to Symphonia, thus they're the only ones linked to due to this being an English-language site -->

* ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]]'' has been getting this treatment since the PC games came out, arguably. Each successive release seems to garner louder hate, especially since the series creator almost continually adds [[Loads and Loads of Characters|new characters]] with each game instead of reusing the old, much more popular ones. When a news program highlighted a fan-made ''Touhou'' video. Nevermind that ''Touhou'' wasn't even ''mentioned'' (and in fact, the newspeople probably didn't even know that ''Touhou'' existed,) find a clip of that on [[YouTube]] and see how many people are complaining that ''Touhou'' is mainstream now, and thus is [[Ruined FOREVER|RUINED FOREVER!!1!]]

* ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]'' parodies this in its [[Extended Gameplay|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!"

* This is starting to happen to ''[[Dragon Quest (Video Game)|Dragon Quest]]''. There are people who scoff at you if you played ''[[Dragon Quest V (Video Game)|Dragon Quest V]]'' and ''[[Dragon Quest VI (Video Game)|Dragon Quest VI]]'' via the DS versions, or heard of the series through ''[[Dragon Quest VIII (Video Game)|Dragon Quest VIII]]'' or more recently, ''[[Dragon Quest IX (Video Game)|Dragon Quest IX]]'' after the ''massive'' marketing campaign. However, it can be hard to tell how much of this overlaps with the typical [[Square Enix (Creator)|Square Enix]] [[Hate Dumb]] given how many people hate ''[[Dragon Quest (Video Game)|Dragon Quest]]'' because it's got the Square-Enix logo and not much reason why.

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls]]''. ''Arena'' wasn't that well-known. Daggerfall a little moreso, but still panned due to its [[Obvious Beta]] status...but accepted as [[True Art]] and granted "[[Sacred Cow|Immunity to Criticism]]". Then came ''[[The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind (Video Game)|Morrowind]]'', which was received very well critically ''and'' commercially, ''still'' being sold in its "game of the year" package ''eight years after its release''. Until about 2006, [[Ruined FOREVER|you were NOT allowed to like it]]. [[Fan Hater|At ALL]]. It was derided as pure derivative homogenous garbage, the symbol of everything bad with the gaming industry. What happened when ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion (Video Game)|Oblivion]]'' came out years later, and likewise given "Game of the Year" awards all around? Mysteriously, the people who had nothing but hatred for ''Morrowind'' were nowhere to be found, having declared it a [[Sacred Cow]] and given it immunity to criticism.

** After the release of ''[[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim (Video Game)|Skyrim]]'', several "Game of the Year" awards for it, and the spawn of several [[Memetic Mutation|memes]] from it, several older fans of ''[[The Elder Scrolls (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls]]'' derided like they did with ''Morrowind'' and ''Oblivion.''

* ''[[Angry Birds (Video Game)|Angry Birds]]''. Mention it in a crowd of hardcore gamers, or mention that it's one of the best-selling games of all time and they'll go on some kind of rant about how it's a sign the gaming industry is in trouble, mentioning "Casual" games.

* ''[[Red vs. Blue (Machinima)|Red vs. Blue]]'' mocked this trope in a [[Public Service Announcement|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.

* Parodied in ''[[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|Homestar Runner]]'' on the Strong Bad E-Mail "geddup noise". Strong Sad was a fan of The Geddup Noise until it became a cultural sensation, after which he takes to wearing shirts that say "This Is Not A The Geddup Noise T-Shirt" and calling The Geddup Noise a sell-out.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by [[Zero Punctuation (Web Animation)|Yahtzee]] in his review of ''[[Amnesia: theThe Dark Descent (Video Game)|Amnesia the Dark Descent]]''.

* ''[[Questionable Content (Webcomic)|Questionable Content]]'' discusses this as it relates to Indie bands, resulting in the [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=126 Theory of Hipster Relativity].

* Mentioned in ''[[VG Cats (Webcomic)|VG Cats]]'' [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=280 #269] concerning the complete and total assha- er, "hardcore gamers".

* In [http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/2390.html this] ''[[Irregular Webcomic (Webcomic)|Irregular Webcomic]]'' strip, this is how Shakespeare feels about ''[[Harry Potter (Literaturenovel)|Harry Potter]]''.

* [http://xkcd.com/460/ This] [[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcd]] strip places an interesting spin on the trope; apparently, there's more than one reason why [[Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying]].

* ''[[Weregeek (Webcomic)|Weregeek]]'' [http://www.weregeek.com/2010/11/05/ mentioned] goth community being [[Broken Base|split]] on the whole "[[Twilight (Literaturenovel)|now-popular]] vampires" issue, comparing it to hipsters.

* Arguably ''[[MS Paint Adventures (Webcomic)|MS Paint Adventures]]''. Originally there was a suggestion box where readers could suggest commands for the characters. At some point in ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'', the author closed the suggestion box because there were just too many entries...and he would have picked the one that would advance the story the way he wanted to anyway.

* This has been the reaction of some veteran members of ''[[Survival of the Fittest (Roleplay)|Survival of the Fittest]]'' following a surge of newcomers to the site.

* In the [[Vocaloid (Music)|Vocaloid]] fandom, wowaka and his songs have been experiencing this for a while, especially after one of his songs, World's End Dancehall, debuted at the top of the Vocaloid weekly rankings with an astronomical]] ''1.5 million'' points and stayed on top for two weeks straight (a rarity on the rankings).

* Common among certain fans of [[That Guy With the Glasses (Website)|That Guy With theThe Glasses]]. While their concern is mainly with [[Fanfic|fanwriters]] focusing too much on the [[Hype Backlash|more popular reviewers]], they seem to forget that fandom is a hobby and people will [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|write whatever they feel like writing]].

** Especially noteworthy should be Brad Jones, better known as [[The Cinema Snob (Web Video)|The Cinema Snob]]. When you read the comments on his own website, every once in a while there as someone who claims he was so much better and funnier before he joined the TGWTG-Crew, and that he should stop making crossovers with the other contributors, because they all suck. Various other members of the site can get this treatment as well.

** This is true for a butt-load of reviewers, really. But especially regarding [[The Angry Video Game Nerd (Web Video)|AVGN]], when even his OWN fans are exceptionally vicious towards him when it comes to almost anything they can imagine. The hilarious thing is though, that the fanbase itself can't even agree on why he sucks now without contradicting themselves. i.e: He curses too much, he doesn't curse enough, the videos are too short now, the videos are too long now, he milks the AVGN persona too much, he keeps making things other than AVGN, there's too many poop jokes, there's not as many poop jokes as there used to be. And 99% percent of them are unable to pin down any specific reason why his videos suck now, often within their own lists of criticism, and begging him to "not suck anymore" for exceptionally vague reasons (if reasons are ever listed).

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' got this treatment after it skyrocketed in popularity during its second and third seasons. [[The Last Airbender|The live action movie]] certainly doesn't help matters.

* ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'' got this treatment when it was [[Uncanceled]] in 2005.

* ''[[Metalocalypse (Animation)|Metalocalypse]]'' In-universe, this comes up in the very first episode, "The Curse of Dethklok", when the band plays the "Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle" a reporter asks, "Is Dethklok selling out?" to which Nathan denies and insists that they're just trying to make coffee metal because they want to make everything metal.

** ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' parodied this in Season 2 Episode 09, "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" which focused on film snobbery about independent films being better simply because of the "independent" label: "If you work in the entertainment industry, and you make money, you're a sellout."

* In ''[[Sym-Bionic Titan (Animation)|Sym-Bionic Titan]]'' In-universe. Lance joins a band, then gets kicked off after his appearances draws a huge crowd.

* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' had this treatment as well. Due to its evergrowing popularity in the earlier seasons and the movie, they decided to create more episodes. The popularity might not be a good one, [[Seasonal Rot|since the newer episodes are labeled as being stale by many fans,]] although this is perhaps because the show has had a different director and production team since Season 4.

** A lot of Disney movies from the animated canon get this effect; while some of the most obscure and less popular movies ([[The Black Cauldron]], [[Treasure Planet]].. although [[Home Onon the Range]] is a general exception) are praised wildly, Disney's most popular films ([[The Lion King]] is a prime example) suddenly get bashed for their unevenness and plot issues. It (happily) seems to be a decreasing trend.

* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' got this treatment. The more rabid parts of the [[Hate Dumb]] accuses people who like the show as being either gay, autistic, a furry, a pedophile, or all of the above.

* The [[TV Tropes (Wiki)]].

* Every widely known social networking site ([[Face BookFacebook]], [[My Space]], [[Twitter]], etc.) '''''ever'''''. Specifically, for Facebook, the introduction of high school and regional networks was what [[Ruined FOREVER|ruined it FOREVER!]]

* This attitude ''pervades'' the ''[[Fur Affinity]]'' forums, as well as the site itself. Mention any popular trend in the ''[[Furry Fandom]]'' and you'll have at ''least'' three responses on why it sucks or is a stupid trend. Mention any popular TV show or anime, and for every response praising the show, you'll see at least three trashing it. Mention artstyles, and, if it's popular, will immediately be decried by the fanbase. The ''Video Games'' forum is also pretty much ''exactly'' this trope through and through. Mention ''any'' game that is popular, and the responses will consist of trashing it, saying they don't get why it's fun, saying it's overrated, and naming an obscure/retro/independent video game that is "vastly superior" in just about every way, complete with [[Fan Hater|Fan Haters]] keeping all the fans of ''[[The Elder Scrolls (Video Game)|The Elder Scrolls]]'' and any game from Japan away from the forums.<br /><br />Furries in general tend to react this way to certain fursonas, due to the assumption that people choose them out of a misguided desire to be cool rather than because they really identify with them. This happens most often with wolves, foxes, and ''especially'' dragons.

* One of Fametracker's main features was "The Fame Audit", a rather justified/averted form of this trope, where, [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|as the title suggests]], the evaluated the relative merits and demerits of various pop-culture figures, both famous and somewhat under-the-radar, and would determine whether they were getting the appropriate amount of fame, and whether or not for the right reasons. Notable nods included a then-under-the-radar Jon Stewart from when he was only a year into hosting ''[[The Daily Show (TV)|The Daily Show]]'', where they determined that he deserved even more fame. Cut to the Re-Audit four years later when he was already quite famous, and they not only still loved him, but wanted his fame to continue to grow. ([FT] may be gone, but the former editors are still clearly pleased with his current fame.) In spite of the clear cases where they feel are low-talent (Sharon Stone and [[John Travolta (Creator)]]) or on the wane ([[Michael Jackson (Music)|Michael Jackson]] circa the 2002 audit) among other things, they are rather objective in their assessments, sometimes choosing to either leave well enough alone or suggest a bump up in fame for people they might otherwise be ambivalent about who are nonetheless unpretentious and enjoyable enough to deserve some sort of extended presence. Beyond that, they have recommended that stars they have liked stay at their exact same spot of fame lest they become too overexposed or pushed into overly high-profile projects (see: [[Will Ferrell]] and Steven Soderbergh via their audits), or consequently a bump down for said cases either already beyond that point ([[Stephen Colbert]]'s audit) or simply in need of going away in order to refocus (Lisa Kudrow and [[Edward Norton]]).