Poll: "They just hate it because it's popular."

[ScoopMeister]

I hate things that are popular, but not because they are popular- I hate them because I hate them, not because I don't want to follow the crowd. I think it's important to make that distinction.
Having said that, the popularity of something does often make me skeptical as to whether it is actually good, or if people only like it because everyone else seems to. Even still, I never judge until I have actually experienced the thing that I'm judging.

 

[kurupt87]

Not entirely. Sometimes my hatred for something has been amplified by it being popular, simply because I don't get how something I despise could be so incredibly popular. But I've never gone out of my way to hate something purely because it is popular. Sometimes things are popular for a reason after all. But if something is really popular I tend to have higher expectations for it, which rarely ends well.

You've no doubt had this quoted before but...this. There are many many things in this world which I do not like but can just ignore.

Those things that I dislike that are also wildly popular are not only popular despite me thinking they're bad/terrible/etc and so not worth it but, I can't even ignore them; they're in my face. It's like dislike[sup]3[/sup].

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

For example, there was a recent thread about the worst movie you've ever seen. I saw more than a few 'Avatar' mentions.

I would bet serious money that these people would make no such claim if it wasn't so popular. They would pick a movie that was, you know, actually terrible.

I think there's a difference between terrible "bad", terrible "good" and terrible "overrated".

Avatar was a dreadfully contrived mismatch of plagiarised ideas, held together by atrocious acting, overblown special effects and some of the most invasive psychological tricks around.

It was terrible in that respect.

Manos: Hands of Fate is a god-awful movie that makes no sense apart from being laughed at - but doesn't have any of the bad bits of Avatar. (apart from the acting, which is worse)

It was terrible in that respect.

Plan 9 From Outer Space takes all the flaws of Avatar and Manos, and makes a surprisingly inviting film. Mainly because everyone there slogs their guts out on it.

It was terrible in many respects. But also much loved.

So...which one is the "most terrible"?

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

Avatar is popular but I hated it because of its shit story and characters, and lack luster action scenes. Justin Bieber is big, but I hate his singing style. I somewhat hate CoD because a new one comes out every year, but dammit they're fun to play. I make damn sure to always have a reason to hate something.

 

[Yosato]

I hate Call of Duty, but I also like Halo and I'm really into Gears of War so I think it's safe to say that I don't hate CoD just because it's popular.

 

[crop52]

well, hipsters never say that they're hipsters,
so, there are probably a bunch of people in here who have unknowingly hated on something because it's popular, and that includes me,

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I've never hated anything because it was popular, but it has coincidentally happened before. I used to love Call of Duty, but World at War was the last good one, MW2 and BLops suck. Halo, well, I never really saw what was so great about it. Rise Against was one of my favorite bands for a while, but then they started to get played on the radio and sold out shortly after that.

 

[Nazulu]

I started to hate that one Justin Beiber song because I heard it almost every day at school for a couple of months at the beginning of the year. I was just so sick of it, but I'm pretty sure if it was a song I liked from the beginning I would get sick of it too.

Also, I came close to hating Metallica's Black album because they completely changed their style after I fell in love with their previous work.

If that counts as hating a song because it's popular then I'm guilty

 

[lokun489]

I hate the fact that certain things are popular but no hate them because they're popular. If I end up hating something that's popular it's because i thought it sucked nothing more.

 

[silasbufu]

You have just defined a hipster

 

[Xanian]

In trying to be honest, I'll state that I might have hated some stuff because it was popular, but I think it boils down to my mind being confused as to why it is popular, less so than my actually just being elitist. Actually, I consider my self a loser in a bad way.

I still don't understand why Superbad, There's Something About Mary, and Napoleon Dynamite were so popular. I didn't really laugh, and the movies really just made me uncomfortable. Maybe they hit too close to home on some parts?

I also am completely boggled by Lady Gaga's popularity, as I feel her music is soulless and her music videos self-indulgent. I probably like her less because she is popular, and I haven't the foggiest why.

 

[Mr Thin]

self snip

snippy snip snip

Plagiarised ideas? Every movie is based on a book, or movie, or something. I admit, it was a dressed up Dances With Wolves, but that didn't affect my enjoyment of it. Lucky me, I guess.

Atrocious acting? Subjective. And I'm kind of mad at you for insulting Sigourney Weaver and Giovanni Ribisi. They're fantastic actors and I found no flaw in their performances.

Overblown special effects? Well, the movie was eye candy, and I for one had a feast. Are you saying the special effects were bad, or that there was just too much of them? If the first; bah, humbug. If the second; I can understand, even though I don't agree.

Invasive psychological tricks? Not really sure what you're referring to, but I'm sure you wouldn't have said it without reason.

Obviously I like the movie, and I won't tell you to like it, and I'm OK with you disliking it. I just think that anyone who considers it to be the worst piece of cinema they have ever seen - as in, ever, in their entire lives - can't have seen very many movies.

For the record, I saw Plan 9, it was firmly in the 'so bad it's good' category. Hilariously bad.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I hate the fact that the more recent CoD games are as popular as they are for the quality they are. They are the best selling video games, while being some of the most lazily designed. Christ, they're still running off the same engine as the first MW, re-using old art assets, the whole 9 yards.

I guess you have to cut corners like that if you want to make the yearly development cycle, money sucking Activision wants. It disgusts me that I know MW3 will be the best selling video game of all time.

I don't dislike it because it's popular, my dislike is just worse because of that.

(Disclaimer: I'm one of those who hates the new CoD games, because I loved the old ones, up until MW2, and even then, I kind of enjoyed that game. With the exception of WaW. Fuck WaW.)

 

[Thaliur]

Not entirely. Sometimes my hatred for something has been amplified by it being popular, simply because I don't get how something I despise could be so incredibly popular. But I've never gone out of my way to hate something purely because it is popular. Sometimes things are popular for a reason after all. But if something is really popular I tend to have higher expectations for it, which rarely ends well.

This is pretty much what I would want to say, too.

I hate, or rather reject, stuff mainly based on my dislike for it. The particular reason depends highly on the subject.

Rihanna: Annoying voice, stupid lyrics, mindnumbing music
Twilight: Passing badly-written teen romance off as a fantasy novel
Harry Potter: Unimaginatively named spells, bland world

I guess you get the idea. All this wouldn't be so bad if those things weren't so inexplicably popular. Just like flies. Probably you don't like flies, but that's ok if you don't meet them very often, but if one particular fly keeps trying to land in your ears, nose or eyes while you're trying to concentrate on something or sleep, that dislike for flies is increased by several orders of magnitude, turning what would have otherwise been blissful apathy into incurable rage.
That might well be the origin for the "you just hate it because it's popular" effect. You can just ignore things you are no fan of until they get shoved in your face all the time.

What do you think a hipster is? Sure, some people dislike popular things because they simply don't like them, but there are plenty of douchey hipsters who disregard anything if it's popular enough.

I just realised I feel a bit sorry for hipsters. For ages they've been praying to Steve Jobs and buying Apple products so they can "think different", and now Apple is selling more and more things to more and more people, Linux is spreading quickly (Mainly because it actually did become more accessible, in contrast to Macs), and they won't know where to turn, because their "hip and edgy" brand is now popular. Thinking about it, even general hipsterism seems to become popular in itself.
They're gonna have a really hard time seperating themselves from the crowd of uniform individualists.

 

[JWRosser]

I dislike things because I dislike them. The three examples you used are quite good ones actually:

Avatar: Great scenery, amazing in 3D, awful storyline.
CoD: They're pretty good but I get bored of them after a while.
Harry Potter: Overrated. Books aren't that amazingly written. Films are quite good but some of the acting is awful. Also, why does the universe seem to centre around Harry? But I can see the appeal.


My opinions on these things are my own, and have nothing to do with how popular they are.

 

[Firoth]

Yes, because it reminds me that some things become popular due to a large part of the population being stupid...Like Jersey Shore. Say what you want, but, in some places and circles it is truly popular and taken as a good thing to be emulated. This makes me sad.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I kind of got sick of the sight of Avatar when it was out. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in that. One time when i was like what 10 or 12 I pretended I liked the band Take That to be ''normal'' rofl.

I usually don't like things becuase of straight out disliking them, I think I'm kind of hard to please.

 

[flamingjimmy]

Wow, that's a lot of dishonest answers for an anonymous poll.