it's always such a bummer to me when a more fringe artist makes an album that maybe takes a little more from like, pop or rnb or whatever and ppl immediately just assume they're going for "mainstream appeal". like, not only is that the most marketing-brained possible way to think about music but it also assumes that nobody is going to find anything valuable in more mainstream sounds except insofar as they're more profitable, and that's pretty disrespectful not only to the artist making the "crossover" or whatever but also to anyone working within popular music!
like, my go-to example for this phenomenon is Perfect Hair by Busdriver, 'cause i've seen a lot of people assume he went for the sound he chose on that album for mainstream appeal. and that never made sense to me, 'cause first of all why on earth would someone as niche and underground as Busdriver think there was anything to be gained for him within pop audiences from a marketing perspective, but also because the album is really good! it's his best album imo, and that's in large part because his attempts at incorporating pop elements into his style work really well. so it's just kind of obnoxious to see people assuming there could only be one possible reason for an artist to try out a more pop-oriented style, and it's not because there's anything interesting going on there musically.
