Originally Posted by sleepy jack

He never really broke outside that demographic though. Ben Gibbard gave an interview when he talked about Elliott Smith and listening to him while he was at College. In the interview he talked about going to several of his shows and they were all attended by college kids like him - it really hasn't changed much in modern times anyway. Switch college kids with indie fans (and indie's popularity in general has expanded in the past few years) and you have his modern fanbase now. He isn't even that liked in indie circles - it's really only by a certain kind of indie fan but that's a different discussion.

Also how well received he is can be measured. You'd have to take dozens of reviews and figure out the gross amount (which I doubt either of us really wants to do) but it is something that can be objectively quantified.