The difference, though Ned, is that while Belle And Sebastian are overtly playing to and trying to foster some kind of clannish, fannish community, Eminem is virulently against his fans – in fact he spends vast tranches of The Marshall Mathers LP trying to verbally scrub himself clean of the popularity virus. Not that that’s why I like him. Not that that’s why I like them, either, for that matter.
(And of course the fan-hate thing isn’t anything new: check Cobain’s unpleasant attempts, circa “Come As You Are”, to patrol which guys should and shouldn’t be into his band, an attitude that some would say has tainted indie rock ever since.)