On Feb. 13, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Katy Perry, and Lady Antebellum all lost in the Album of the Year category at the Grammys to The Suburbs by Arcade Fire.

This news sent many indie kids into a frenzy while several people were left asking, “who the f*ck is the Arcade Fire?”

For those who felt the event was worth celebrating—don’t.  With their two wins, the Arcade Fire now have two more Grammys than Chuck Berry, The Clash, The Beach Boys, Neil Young, Bob Marley, Van Morrison, The Grateful Dead, Ramones, The Stooges, and Sleep [some of these people have been given Lifetime Achievement Awards, but that’s nothing more than an effort to save face].

They also have won fourteen less than Sting. Oh, and Train also won a Grammy this year. Train. The Grammys are not relevant and they’re certainly not worth celebrating ever.

The fact that people don’t know the Arcade Fire though is completely perplexing. I’ve been around long enough to understand that popularity is an elusive term to define.

So elusive in fact that even speculation is pretty pointless. But Neon Bible debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts when it came out in 2007 and The Suburbs was No. 1 in August. They’ve sold out Madison Square Garden. Headlined Lollapalooza, played Saturday Night Live twice. How have people not heard of this band?

At any other time in recent history, a band with credentials like the Arcade Fire’s would be one of the most popular bands in the world, which they sort of are, but what’s keeping them from becoming a household name? The easy answer is to say that pop culture is just plain dumb, which it is, but that seems redundant. This question becomes more of a query into what has changed about music itself in our culture.

What has been the most noticeable change in music over the past several years is the sharp decline in music being purchased. MP3s have changed the nature of the game and CDs are only a few years from becoming completely obsolete. The Suburbs sold 156,000 copies in its first week to take No. 1, compare that to March of 2000 when N'Sync sold 2.4 million copies of No Strings Attached.

Not that Arcade Fire will ever be as popular as N'Sync, but the point is still made. The percentage of people who still buy CDs is miniscule in our population today and while vinyl has made a resurgence among hapless losers and nerds, music is not being consumed through physical mediums anymore.

But what is the effect of people buying less? Music is still listened to right? Sort of.

The Internet has removed the need for people to invest in albums. Instant access to music, whether it’s done legally or illegally, has taken away the investment of purchasing a record, what is the incentive for someone to put time into something that doesn’t work on the first listen?

You download something for free, stream it on a band’s website, if you don’t like it, you move on without hesitation. Things are written off more quickly when some of the best things you’ll ever hear aren’t so immediate.

iTunes gives you the luxury of choosing singles outright. You don’t need to spend $10 on a Katy Perry album, for $.99 each you can own mp3 copies of any of her singles and have it on your iPod forever.

We spend money on iPods, but not on music and our pop stars exist as tabloid gossip as much as they do actual singers.

Music has become immediate in this era of iPhones, facebook, and Red Bull & vodkas. People download single songs and that’s all they need.

Spending $20 on a record doesn’t make sense to people and I get that but when it comes to an album like The Suburbs 16 songs with no standout singles, a record that took me four or five listens before I was really on board, well, pop culture doesn’t have time for it.

If you haven’t heard the Arcade Fire, I still remember minute details of the first time I heard Neighborhood #1 and Ready to Start is one of the better tracks from The Suburbs. If you like it, buy it, own it, it’s yours.