From my time in the early jamband scene, I knew a lot of bands who were infuriated when people tagged them as being a jamband. And with good reason. It ghettoized them. They had trouble getting gigs or promotion (radio play, articles, etc.), because people, who did not know what the band was capable of, heard they were a jamband and never gave them another thought. It also limited the number of potential fans for many of the same reasons. Many of these bands ended up just breaking up, since they couldn’t escape the tag.

Personally, I think mc chris’ decision to keep the Nerdcore scene at arm’s length makes a lot of sense from a business stand point. It sucks, yeah, but this scene is a huge variable right now. And there are enough people out there who see it as nothing but a big joke, and so won’t give anyone involved any attention, that it could easily kill a career.

That’s part of what I was talking about. If the eventual definition of the Nerdcore label is that it is just a big joke, then 90% of the artists with real talent are going to do everything in their power to avoid the label like a plague. Nerdcore now is a celebration of the geek lifestyle. If Nerdcore becomes a liability though, then the people with talent, who would otherwise be pushing this scene to better itself, will stop celebrating that lifestyle because it will stand in the way of their dreams. What’s left of the scene after that happens, will eventually stagnate and then vanish as people loose interest in move on to other things.

They say image is king, but language defines image. We have to be careful of how we define our words or let others define our words for us.

There is a benefit from embracing a label, and there is a detriment. The first is that fans will find you easily, the second is that you will be constrained by that same label.

I actually don’t think it’s that big a deal (but then I’m not an NC artist) although MC Chris (who is) seems to have intiutited that.