By Ethan Stanislawski | MOG Writer

The backlash against MIA in recent weeks has been rather fascinating to watch. The history of polemical musicians living in the comfort of wealth is a centuries-old phenomenon -- it used to be that only the wealthy could afford to be polemical -- but in the wake of punk, and especially in the wake of the unreasonable, confused standards of the internet, indie backlash is arguably more mainstream than the music.

The problem with backlash is that it has unfairly ruined the careers of some truly fantastic artists who have gone misunderstood. Some were prevented from long-term success by hipster backlash; others never even got the chance to be successful in the first place. This list is an example, with the powers of 20-20 hindsight, of great artists who in the past 20 years have fallen in and out of favor (and sometimes back in again) due to ridiculous demands.

1. The Fall

Mark E Smith may have a long history of running his mouth -- "The Classical" may be the most notorious fuck you in punk history -- but his accusations that Pavement were ripping him off right as inde rock and mainstream alternative were undergoing a schism was seen as a heresy. Instead, he could have kept quiet and had a Pixies-like revivial... though the benefits of hindsight and MP3s help show he wasn't all that far off

2. Cannibal Ox

The Cold Vein is one of the best albums of the aughts, a record that practically re-invented independent hip-hop. The problem, of course, is that applying the DIY standards of white kids to an impoverished urban musical culture that had nothing to do with that ethic is an inherently patronizing element in indie hip-hop. As Simon Reynolds frames the perspective of producer El-P in his profile of Cannibal Ox, in hip-hop "indie=fucked." The fact that Cannibal Ox wrote the definitive inner-city NYC album at the same time gentrification and 9/11 dominated the city didn't help. It's no wonder that they haven't released another studio album since.

3. Courtney Love

Live Through This may not hold up well when compared to similar works like Dig Me Out, Exile In Guyville, or Pussy-Whipped. But so what if riot grrl's greatest mainstream incarnation received a critical push due to Cobain's death, it doesn't dismiss the album's brilliance. Within days of Cobain's death, (well before an autopsy was performed), the narrative turned from Nirvana fighting the man to "that bitch killed him." (perhaps the best example of the delusional ability of trend-hoppers to become their own thought police). No matter how much Love's done to destroy herself since, the misogynist backlash was already built in.

4. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

This was, perhaps, the first internet made hype that the internet also destroyed. No one outside of a few clubgoers in Brooklyn had heard of CYHSY before their self-released, self-distributed, self-titled debut received a 9.0 on Pitchfork Media. Suddenly, they were the only reason anyone was going to see the National circa 2005. They were soon headlining and receiving national coverage due in part to the novelty of their internet-made success. When they were unable to create as joyous an album on 2007's Some Loud Thunder, the internet was done with them, and the band was thrown under a bus. Alec Ounsworth has recently started to reemerge with his solo work, but CYHSY was the first example of the dangers of internet hype: sometimes the internet feels like the stars it build owes it to them to succeed, and lose any interest at anything less than unmitigated success.

5. The Fratellis

Burned by placing their faith in Jet, the Vines, and others, indie music critics and their readers were not going to trust any band known mainly from an iPod ad, a campaign which, by 2007, was already in full backlash mode. That meant the success of The Fratellis following their wildly successful debut, Costello Music, was doomed from the start. No critics picked up that "Flathead" was a Kids in The Hall reference, almost all missed references to the Stone Roses and "blaggers." If posers are defined by not knowing when a song is making fun of them, The Fratellis' satirizing of blog culture meant almost everyone on the internet was a walking, talking, typing punch line. Thank god the band was smart enough to pull a "Song 2" and sell the hell out of "Chelsea Dagger;" if the Blackhawks can do to the Fratellis what the White Sox did to Journey, it'd only be karma.

6. Dead Kennedys

Jello Biafra joined many artists on the hipster chopping block following his endorsement of Nader in 2000, but his legacy was not as secure as fellow Nader supporters Pearl Jam and Patti Smith. In fact, Jello was the only musician of the bunch to have a legitimate personal beef with the Gores; Tipper's use of Frankenchrist as a test dummy for music parental advisory was a big factor in The Dead Kennedy's demise. Few got that the Dead Kennedys cover of "I Fought The Law" was a response to the exoneration of Dan White for murdering Harvey Milk. Even fewer got that the fallout from the lawsuit surrounding licensing "Holiday in Cambodia" for a jeans ad was the product of Jello's initial focus on intra-band democracy. Jello's Ethel Merman-like singing and propensity for outlandish antics is a product of his theatrical background-something hipsters will always hated by those who think rock music has to contrast with theater, but more to the point is that Biafra's polemics cause discomfort where there should be discomfort: his opposition to Obama for voting for FISA was consistent with his view that the bill never should have existed in the first place.

7. Bright Eyes

Conor Oberst is not Bob Dylan. I don't remember who created the hype, but no one should have believed it any more than they believe it when a novel is compared to Catcher in the Rye. Yet bloggers are, by definition, suckers for hype, and lately they've loved deserting artists as soon as they sniff overhype. Stick with Bright Eyed records, and they still feature some fantastic songwriting, some of which easily surpasses backlash-free work by Wilco and Sufjan Stevens.

8. The Strokes

With America's music press impoverished, this all-American New York band with all-American New York swagger was America's first crash-test dummy for NME-style hype. It turns out America couldn't really handle it. They rarely sounded as much like the Velvet Underground or Stooges as fans were led to believe; on their first two albums, which still hold up, they sound a lot more like Television. The first two tracks of First Impressions of Earth were arguably the best of their career; but apparently many people cared more about being cynical about the rest of the disappointing album.

9. The Darkness

Punks discovering they like Queen and Metal is about as old a punk itself; even a band with as much DIY cred as Fugazi bonded over their love of Queen. So the Darkness exposed the public secret with their fantastic 2003 album Permission To Land, and once out in the open, metal nostalgia was back in full force. But rather than reward Justin Hawkins for blowing open the doors, many turned to pseudo-ironic appreciation of Journey, Poison, Motley Crue, and other bands that caused people to turn away from Metal in the first place. Hawkins has done some fine work with both the Darkness and Hawkwind since, but he was more used and abused by fickle fans than appreciated.

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