Several weeks ago, I stumbled upon the band Unknown Mortal Orchestra, a group that’s been around for the past five years. Like many others, my friends and I share music we “discover” with one another.

Upon texting a friend a few UMO song suggestions, her response was “Are you kidding me? I literally heard that four years ago.” Although it is doubtful that she “literally” heard the song exactly four years prior to the date, her sense of superiority for having gotten to the song first had no influence on my personal experience with the music.

Discovering music is a personal journey, and when and where you happen upon a new artist or song shouldn’t take away from how you appreciate it. If anything, it is new listeners that can keep an artist’s career thriving by re-hashing their older stuff. Plus, by the time a song has become widespread, no one is going to remember or care if you heard it first. By the end of 2015, anyone who says “I heard the Felix Jaehn remix of ‘Cheerleader’ back in 2014” is only going to be greeted with apathy, or, at best, a few eye rolls.

While it is pretty cool to be a fan of an artist on a smaller scale (especially because their concerts are likely smaller and more intimate), it’s even cooler, if you truly are a fan, to see their rise to success. Very few artists enter the industry thinking, “Hey, I want to have a very limited, niche fan base,” so if they broaden their fan base without losing the integrity and quality of their music, who are we as fans to judge?

Isha Damle is a junior television, radio, film major. She rarely knows the actual lyrics to songs, but is good at faking it until she makes it. Plus, her version is probably better. She can be reached at  idamle@syr.edu or on Twitter @ishadamle.