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Rush has a cult following?


Lorraine
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My husband keeps insisting to me that Rush has a cult following like The Grateful Dead and Fish (I know that's not the way they spell it but I don't have the patience right now to find out the correct spelling since the past few days this internet has been slower than normal). He is one of those men that once he has made up his mind that he's right, no amount of facts proving that he is wrong will move him.

 

I am wondering where and how this rumor began?

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Does he mean a group of people who follow the band around from concert to concert? I think Rush definitely has some of those fans (the Clockwork Angels shows I went to I kept meeting people from other states/countries), but certainly not as many as the Dead & Phish (?sp). Plus, our people smell better :LOL:
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Does he mean a group of people who follow the band around from concert to concert? I think Rush definitely has some of those fans (the Clockwork Angels shows I went to I kept meeting people from other states/countries), but certainly not as many as the Dead & Phish (?sp). Plus, our people smell better :LOL:

 

I don't know what he means really. If he means that a group of people follow them from concert to concert, or that Rush rules every aspect of every fan's life? I don't even know where he got the idea from, but nothing I say to him dislodges it from his stubborn and obstinate brain.

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Well didn't Geddy say himself that Rush was worlds biggest "cult band" or something to that effect?....
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He's right. They do. I know a guy who was at 35 shows just last tour. He's extreme but he's not alone.

 

That's not unusual though. I know a woman whose father died over forty years ago and she hasn't missed a Moody Blues concert, no matter where they play (even outside the USA), since then. She's not alone either.

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i guess that means dedicated fans :huh:

​but there's a lot of other bands with dedicated fans too so I really don't know.

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Well didn't Geddy say himself that Rush was worlds biggest "cult band" or something to that effect?....

 

But what does that mean - "cult band"? And do you find the people here cultish? I don't.

I guess I look at it this way. We are a large, seemingly finite group of folks who seem to know or "get" something that the mainstream do not. Is that a "cult" per say or just a large group of intelligent folks who just "get it"?
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Spaghetti, your picture won't load for me. Has the Westboro Baptist Church changed its sign again?

No but I wish it was. I like that one..... :)
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Yes, they have a cult following or at least did at one time. Seriously does no one here know what that means? Something that has a loyal dedicated fanbase that is outside the mainstream. Like a cult film. They may be too "mainstream" now to be considered a cult band but I still think they qualify. Their fanbase is very particular and loyal (and even obsessive). "Cult" in this case doesn't imply anything negative.
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Yes, they have a cult following or at least did at one time. Seriously does no one here know what that means? Something that has a loyal dedicated fanbase that is outside the mainstream. Like a cult film. They may be too "mainstream" now to be considered a cult band but I still think they qualify. Their fanbase is very particular and loyal (and even obsessive). "Cult" in this case doesn't imply anything negative.

 

I know all about cults - especially religious cults and cult films - and that is why I disagree with him because I haven't encountered cultish behavior in the majority of the people here.

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Do you mean my husband is right? For once. :cool:

Every squirrel gets a nut sometimes.....
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Well, if you want to get into literal meanings, cult comes from the Latin "cultus" (as does culture), which refers to normative religious customs or beliefs within a group (sometimes as large as a society). Rush seems to be a sort of religion, or way of life to many, so in that sense I think they qualify as a "cult" band (though to be fair, most of their fans don't fit that description, so its only partly true). In normal usage though, people seem to mean that a cult band is one that has a small, devoted following; a "seemingly finite group of folks who seem to know or "get" something that the mainstream do not" to quote Narpski. In that sense, I think they still do qualify as a cult band, though the world's largest, as Geddy explained.

 

IOW, I think your husband is mostly right on this, unless he means something else entirely.

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Well, if you want to get into literal meanings, cult comes from the Latin "cultus" (as does culture), which refers to normative religious customs or beliefs within a group (sometimes as large as a society). Rush seems to be a sort of religion, or way of life to many, so in that sense I think they qualify as a "cult" band (though to be fair, most of their fans don't fit that description, so its only partly true). In normal usage though, people seem to mean that a cult band is one that has a small, devoted following; a "seemingly finite group of folks who seem to know or "get" something that the mainstream do not" to quote Narpski. In that sense, I think they still do qualify as a cult band, though the world's largest, as Geddy explained.

 

IOW, I think your husband is mostly right on this, unless he means something else entirely.

:goodone: :)
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Just read last few posts before my last. "Religious cult" has negative connotations, obviously; the brain-washing, kool-aid drinking, handing out pamphlets from door to door dressed in funny clothes, subsuming your identity into a larger collective ... you get the idea. "Cult band" tends to have positive connotations in my experience, like its a band worth following despite a lack of popular recognition ... Modern Lovers, Pere Ubu, Phish (from what I understand), etc. Which one does your husband mean is the question. ?
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I thought that cult meant a really dedicated group of fans or followers. Almost like a religion. I have always thought that Rush is a cult band. This entire forum could really prove my point to be honest.

 

I don't think it means the fans that follow them to every concert, that's just the extreme ones.

 

Here's what Google thinks cult means:

 

a person or thing that is popular or fashionable among a particular group or section of society.

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Just read last few posts before my last. "Religious cult" has negative connotations, obviously; the brain-washing, kool-aid drinking, handing out pamphlets from door to door dressed in funny clothes, subsuming your identity into a larger collective ... you get the idea. "Cult band" tends to have positive connotations in my experience, like its a band worth following despite a lack of popular recognition ... Modern Lovers, Pere Ubu, Phish (from what I understand), etc. Which one does your husband mean is the question. ?

 

Well, I'm sure someone he spoke to told him that Rush is a cult band. My husband wouldn't know the positive connotation, only the negative one associated with religious cults, so that would be what he is thinking they are.

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