reaction formation and its effect on Live's career Options

[Existentialist]

One of the hallmarks of Freud's psychoanalytic theory is the existence of defense mechanisms, behaviors which arise in order to alleviate or prevent anxiety. A common defense mechanism is reaction formation, which involves behaving exactly opposite to the way you would like to when it becomes clear that behaving that way is not appropriate for the situation. The classic example is a closet child molester who goes on to lead a crusade against child molesters.

On to Live. It's hard to believe they were at the top of the music industry just twelve years ago. Millions of albums sold annually, huge arena tours and plastered all over MTV. Yet, after two commercially unfriendly releases in SS and TDTH, their popularity had severely diminished just a few years after their peak, almost falling off the radar by the turn of the century. Before that happened, Live was so unbelievably passionate about their music that it was awesome to listen to and see in concert.

How quickly that all changed. As soon as it became clear that their passionate music was just not selling like it used to, and their shows were not met with as much enthusiasm, Live began to change dramatically. It was near the end of the TDTH tour that Ed began to really play up how he's a cool, sexy yet intellectual rocker. We got the Eminem rap breakdown in the middle of I Alone, we got Dennis Rodman on stage with the band, we got V, with lyrics throughout that were borderline mocking how serious they had been in the past. In other words, it was the destruction of the old Live and the birth of the new "we don't like to be so serious, just like to have fun" Live that has persisted to this day.

I call it classic reaction formation. They started behaving like they weren't as serious about it anymore to avoid the anxiety of facing the fact that they were losing fans for other reasons, mainly just that their genre died. What's your take on this? Is Live's carefree nature and seemingly non existent shame just a very well constructed defense mechanism against their loss of fame?