My name is Caity, I'm an avid fan of music, the way that it holds the power to change my mood in an instant, to make me smile, cry, laugh... how it inspires me, everything about music! I don't limit myself to a genre, I find inspiration and passion in everything and anything, and connecting with your music and finding my own feelings in your songs and words and melodies is one of the things that keeps me going through life.

Unfortunately it seems that quite a few of you have forgotten who exactly keeps you in the business of doing what you supposedly love to do. Let's play a guessing game... Record Companies? Nope. Label Execs? No. Producers? Don't think so. The dude that sold you that brand new Range Rover? Definitely not. Try again... your FANS. Without your fans, the producers won't return your phone calls, without your fans buying your albums, concert tickets, merch, you name it.... Label Execs and Record Companies would drop your ass, and you sure as hell can forget that Range Rover.

It's so unfortunate that some of you have overlooked the one thing that keeps you going and supports you, let's look at a few examples:

Abe, a man that has been through some severe hard times in his life found an outlet through your music, found strength in it to help him through rough times that would cripple most people. As he pulled himself back on his feet he found solace in the one constant in your music, knowing that it would always be there for him to turn to if he needed it. He spent money on all of your albums, went to your concerts, supported your band. When he got the chance to meet you, to thank you for helping him through the hardest times of his life, you cut him down, called him a "fag" and told him to get out of your face.

Are you kidding me? If it weren't for kids like Abe, your band wouldn't have gotten past playing to crowds of nine people and the bar staff at your local hole-in-the-ground venue and you turn around and treat him like scum on the bottom of your $500 shoes. It seems like you've lost vision of what's really important in your brand new fame-riddled universe.

How about Kennedy, a high school girl in the midwest. Your band quite literally kept her alive. After her parents divorced and her best friend died she spiraled into depression drugs and alcohol, attempting to kill herself several times until she discovered your band, your music picked her up out of her depression, gave her another chance at being happy. She connected with you, knowing that you had been through similar times, thinking that perhaps if you made it through that she could as well! She followed and supported your band for years, actually going so far as to get a second job so that she could have money to spend on merchandise and concert tickets and records.

When Kennedy entered a contest to have lunch with you, to her astonishment she won, and got the chance of a lifetime to talk to you and really connect with the people who had so drastically saved her life. When the day came for the lunch-date she was stood up because you couldn't be bothered to wake up and get out the door of the bus that was parked fifty meters away in the parking lot.

You see, bands, it's all well and good that you have found your passion and created something in your vision of your art, that's fantastic! But who is going to see that passion and vision if you don't have any fans? The most successful bands out there, and the ones with the best reputations are the bands who keep perspective on everything and realize that if they alienate their fans, or treat them with disrespect, they would have nothing but lame 9-5 jobs. There are plenty of artists and bands out there who are grateful for the opportunities that they have, and for the fact that their fans keep them going, and for those of you who don't recognize that... your time is coming, and quickly.

Now I'm not so disillusioned as to think that anyone that I'm talking about in this article is going to read it and have some form of epiphany and change their ways, but here's to hoping that somehow, someday they see the light and start treating their fans less like annoyances and with more respect that they deserve.

A fan, through and through,

Caity