ah...  more homework for me.  

well, it was exactly a request, as much as it was me pointing out that i neednt rant on the main page when we have a perfectly good forum for the purpose.  

and of course, youll have to wait about twelve hours..  but okay, i do that.  

Didn't The Great Milenko and The Amazing Jeckle Brothers both go platinum? Obviously there were people who bought multiple copies, but that's almost a million people who bought those albums. That was a fairly mainstream culture at the time, I would say.

I've never actually disliked something because it was "cool" or "mainstream" that just means I finally can talk to someone about it. I know like 2 people I can meaninfully talk about ICP with, and I don't see them too often.

so, here you go:  

theres a fuckton of things to consider [dont worry, i wont be considering all of them], in this case.  

for one thing, no two people seem to favor the same definition of what 'mainstream' means.  or 'underground'.  for me, i dont really like either term, since the lines are so unclear.  they are completely relative.  

then there is the definition of juggalo culture.  this is a little easier;  for now, assume it is 'everything about juggalo life that is outside of psychopathic records'.  or any record label, for that matter.  not discounting the musical aspects of the culture, mind you, just taking the industry-ness out of it.  take, leave, or alter this definition as you see fit; its also somewhat relative.  

has juggalo culture gone mainstream?  

i dont see it.  

there would have to be a much wider recognition of juggalos by those not involved in the culture, before i could even begin to think so.  after that, when you start to see things like major corporations marketing directly to us, to sell us nikes or budweiser [as opposed to face paint or faygo], then youre talkin about a mainstream culture, for sure.  

as big as the juggalo world has gotten, its still hopelessly swamped by the rest of the world.  at the absolute sunniest, the ratio of non-juggalos to juggalos is at minimum a thousand to one.  i figure it to be a lot higher.  

0.1% of anything shouldnt be called mainstream.  

beyond that, acceptance is the next important factor.  we are not especially accepted.  

i dont mean accepted in the sense of being appreciated and embraced, but in the sense of the outsiders respecting the fact that we exist, and living with it, without losing their rag.  that has clearly not happened yet.  [hell, the insiders are still routinely losing their rags over the littlest shit]

next, we juggalos gotta do some growing.  maturing.  evolving.  perfecting.  lots of other verbs.  

the model has always been that this 'problem' of going mainstream is a self-correcting one;  the juggalos are very resistant to change, all things considered.  and kinda lazy, as a group.  and way self-interested, amongst the go-getters, anyway.  those factors mitigate a bit against growth, popularity, prosperity, and all the prerequisites and perquisites of being mainstream.  

has insane clown posse gone mainstream?  

well, i said it was relative, so lets get relative.  

compared to twenty years ago?  fuck yeah.  no question, they are far more 'mainstream' now, than then.  

compared to ten years ago?  not really.  still roughly the same level, if there were such a thing as levels for this sorta comparison.  

is icp or juggalo culture going mainstream such a bad thing?  

eh, kinda, but not particularly.  

it does take a bit of the fun out of it, and a little of the individuality.  and obviously, its harder to feel connected to the clowns when the crowd is five times bigger.  

but juggalo culture is not limited to attaching yourself to j and shaggy.  thats an itty bitty piece of it.  bigger than that, is attaching yourself to other juggalos, and just doing shit.  uh, constructive shit, that is, not getting wasted or committing crimes or bitching about everything or what have you.  that shit is incidental, and ultimately irrelevant to the culture.  this is what i meant when i said that juggalos dont really do a lot of culturing.  the real culture-building is done by a smallish percentage of a group that is already a miniscule percentage of the whole.  

as i said, i do give fucks about the culture.  i live it, i like it, i want it to continue.  i want juggalos to have identity and unity, to accummulate, connect, and improve each others lives.  

being more 'mainstream' would likely make all that easier and more open, grant more avenues to explore;  all kinds of benefits.  

i cant tell you how many juggalos ive talked to over the years, who have told me that the first time they ever heard anything at all about icp, was through some mainstream outlet or another.  

wwf/wcw, mtv...  i myself first found them from a track on a movie soundtrack, for fucks sake.  

you know what?  appearing with the oddities probably brought them ten thousand more album sales, and ill bet that three thousand of those buyers are still down today.  and have long since bought the back catalog.  

more money for psychopathic, to start doing cool shit like gatherings.  more juggalos for the family.  neither of those things is inherently bad.  

what would happen if juggalo culture went mainstream?  

for specifics, no one can say;  thatd be more of that speculation.  

but what i can say is, 'people would get used to it.'   

us.  them.  that guy over there.  all of us would find some new equilibrium, and keep doing what we do.  

YayYay said  
see above.    

well, as i said before, its very relative.  so, yes, we are more mainstream now, than we were before.  

but still, not very much so when compared to the more legitimately 'mainstream' cultures.  

side note for the etymology buffs:  icp did not invent the idea of using 'ninja' as a form of address.  that had been goin on since at least the mid-eighties.  

they/we just ran with it, and nobody else did.