Mainstream and Indie

When a band becomes popular do they become less credable are they seen as jerk-offs because they signed to a major label and are now on the radio in 42 states? THe analogy to jazz, I think it showed that time creates popular cultutre more than anything, so the meaning changes over decades and what may have been seen as the ,"poor man's devil music", is now seen as high class just listening to the symphony was in the 1920's. Just because something used to be "way cool" and now has "sold out" doesn't make it not art, it doesn't drop in value just because they appear on MTV to do an Album spot. Kurt Cobain's music in the early 1990's was everywhere, it was even a central character in a book written in england by Nick Hornby, then it was cool to be grunge untill everyone became grunge then there wasn't enough flannel to go around so the sub-culture died, but that doesnt mean that it lost its value if anything I would say more people listen to nirvana now than did in the early 1990's. The real question is what really is the span of time from when something between when something becomes unpopular when it was once popular, to when it gets picked up and used in a more high culture society. When does Nirvana go from the worlds sad music, to the hipsters sad music? The exclusivity is really what high culture is trying to hold over the head of popular culture, that anything they do is not exclusive enough and therefore is not worthy of their time and is assumed to be garbage.