"The hipster conflict" is a misleadingly-titled theory, that states an indie band can only be so successful before being uncool. (In this case, it's not, as it may sound, an argument over which Flaming Lips Record Store Day release is the best.) A perfect example of a band straddling the cool/uncool line would be Muse. Muse were insanely cool to a large and loyal fanbase, for albums one to four(ish). As soon as they started drawing influence from stadium-rock, leasing their songs to the Twilight soundtracks and working on dubstep pieces though, they went down in the estimation of many. Muse is a rather extreme example, but it's true of a lot of bands; indie-rock fans tend to revel in the fact that their band aren't that famous, but if their band becomes really good, or deliberately goes "mainstream" of course they're going to attract more attention. This isn't quite so prevalent in rap. It's certainly not in pop, where the whole point is that you support them every step of their path to superstardom. Many indie-rock fans feel betrayed if their band becomes too big; is that limiting to them?