Irenicus said:
What you witnessed is envy, plain and simple.
'Haterz' is a stupid concept favoured by Narcissists as a way to avoid criticism, just or not, popularized by the Rap Community.
I've been involved in the music scene since 1985, heavily-from about 1987-2002, then on a more casual basis until about 2009. I very much function as a camera, even when I'm in the middle of the action I can view it as an outside observer, and, as such, 'record' everything I see.
The behavioural patterns of
Opportunists are obvious and predictable enough, that, by 1992, I'd already written a song for a female singer friend, that, in much the same manner Days of Broken Arrow wrote a provocative song for an all-female R&B group, she wasn't brave enough to sing.
The lyrical quality is about what you'd expect for a 21-year-old:
"Don't ask me baby, what would I do for fame?
Just ask what I wouldn't do
You're just a step to be slept with on my way to the top
Out of my way
I'm here to stay!"
One line still stands out to me:
"Courting controversy, I shock as much as is allowed."
All I meant in my clumsy 21-year-old way was that I'd already repeatedly-observed that Rebellion is
always Commodified, since any true rebellion is a threat to the Status Quo. Anything that rises up through the commercial marketplace is nothing but the outwards appearance of rebellion used to target a consumer market that responds to the perceived breaking of rules. (Such as Trump, although I know I'll get shit for saying that).
This is why I said ages go that Mike's appearance on Sixty Minutes was a soft hit piece,
and really functioned a validation of his brand.
I know exactly what that meant. As any number of ponytailed sleazebags with voices like Duffman from 'The Simpsons' said to me over the years: "One hand washes the other.
Promotion in motion."
I'm surprised people who claim to be socially-savvy can't see this kind of thing for what it is, or see the obvious Irony in a man who was condemning the hypocrisy of Games Journalists following obviously-dictated talking points from on high to sell a false narrative by writing twenty-four simultaneously-released articles then taking part in the exact same process two years later, during the Alt-Lite Swerve. Their spontaneous concern with 'Civic Nationalism' was simply 'Gamers Are Dead', let alone mentioning that, although they'd all previously-discussed the JQ, they never would again after that date.
Anyone who is a genuine threat to the status quo - Milo, Chuck Johnson, Roy Moore, the Alt-Right itself - will be quickly taken care of. Otherwise, their obedience simply requires paying the price on the ticket, and the Left will allow them to continue on its platforms because, well, one hand washes the other.
All I'm speaking of is
Integrity. Of looking at someone and knowing
you're getting exactly what you're seeing, which is probably one reason why so many of my closest friends over the years have been Sigma Personalities. I have a preference for people who don't tell me what I
want to hear, but what I
need to hear, and doing the latter is why I've formed such deep connections with women over the years, that have persisted long past our breakup.
The Nature of what is now knowing as 'Branding' doesn't allow this: some level of
playing a character for your audience will always be involved. Complexity is confusing to the majority of consumers, so anyone being sold this way must be sanded and polished down to a few core ideas, which is how you become Iconic.
Here's a very cynical song from 1989 that was speaking of this very concept before it entered the mass consciousness, (and, as such, was only a moderate hit).
Of course, now every Star and Singer has their own Brand Manager.
This 'sanding and polishing' process usually requires some level of denial of your past. I wrote years back how a group of Bisexual Satanists I knew rose out of the punk scene to be presented as Teen Pop Stars, which involved the Label going around the 'Zine scene and buying up all the old copies of the 'Zines where the lead singer had, say, discussed his love of sucking cock and the taste of semen. Silence of the publishers was bought -
and it's always bought - with the promise of access and free CD's for the label's releases.
So, when I'd eventually see the singing their hits on the Saturday Morning Kiddy Music Show, 'Video Hits', I understood the inherent falsity of the whole process whilst other people took it at face value: "Look at these kids and their catchy pop song."
So, when I first started calling out just how much the Alt-Lite had obviously-been bought, most people not only won't listen, but
can't listen, because they've been trained by the media to take everything they see at face value, and, particularly, are so wrapped up in the false presentation that they'll get angry with you for popping their bubble of comfort.
I heard someone on a Podcast recently saying "Well, I was initially-worried when Trump bombed Syria, but
it was only an abandoned airbase, and no-one was injured, and he warned them first."
To which I ask, as always, "Whomever put those thoughts in your head?" Why would you take anything the White House says at face value when it comes to War, particularly when it's obvious both sides are playing fast and loose with the Truth for the Purposes of Propaganda.
This is why Forney has since talked about hearing first hand about the Corporate Interests behind the Alt-Lite, where, say, Stefan Molenyeux will no longer talk to anyone whose Brand he considers 'on the wane'. :tard:
Heyyyy promotion in motion.... one hand washes the other.
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Aurini was speaking about me on a Podcast recently, saying that "[Bosch] was a Musician, but it never really happened for him." This vastly-undersells the complexity of my experience.
I knew exactly what it took to make it happen, and chose not to. I tried to always keep my integrity, so my audience would know I wasn't bullshitting them, because all I wanted was to keep releasing music rather than the hassle - and it is a hassle - fame: sell just enough to make another one. I didn't have the Screaming Void inside me I've noticed that all Fame Whores seem to possess, so I could objectively see each offer for what it was instead of common sense being drowned out by The Need.
If that meant not letting multiple people in the industry sexually exploit me in exchange for fame, so be it.
If that meant not letting a label suit's girlfriend charge a huge amount to my debt for 'styling the band', (buying trendy clothes and pocketing the rest), rather than just dressing normally, so be it.
If that meant taking less of an advance to not have to work with 'hot producers' who want to replace the drummer with drum machines, instantly-trapping the album in the year of release, so be it.
If that meant going with a cheap video instead of a pricier day-glo one aimed at 13-year-old kids, so be it, (which sunk multiple bands I knew, including one whom they always dressed in skivvies to hide his track marks).
If that keeping my songs complex rather than simple, despite then reaching a smaller audience, so be it.
Hell, if that meant far less sales for not gurning like an idiot whilst pretending to play non-plugged in instruments on a national television show where the Living Legend Host had a known-and-tolerated taste for underage boys, so be it.
I'm increasingly-thankful every day that I wasn't successful on a mass market level. I look at someone like Tom Hardy, constantly shilling for feminism and vocally-despising his own masculinity in interview after interview, sounding dead inside, and think "That could have been me, if I played the game." I could have gained the world and lost my soul.
And, in a way, I was successful on a more modest level. The sales regularly tick along, and the cheques keep coming in. There's still regularly, if modest, interest in what I did. I spoke to a band I knew back in the day who were commercially-successful but so tied to their time that, despite having multiple albums over a short period, it's only one song that generates any income for them.
In a way, I've also had the last laugh. I can create polished works at home and I've made enough contacts over the years that I can reliably-get, say, a String Quartet on a song, or a Drummer without needing label money to do it. Why? Because there's gravitas and integrity to what I do that offers collaborating musicians critical respect, at least until Identity Politics started destroying Music Criticism circa 2012.
I don't have anything like this horror in my past:
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Quintus wrote an interesting piece recently about Biondo Flavio's Travel Writing recently, where he inserts a seemingly out-of-place observation about watching a Boar taken down by a wolf.
https://qcurtius.com/2018/01/13/the-boar-and-the-wolf-of-sant-antonio/comment-page-1/
Quintus chose to see it as
Blood begets blood, which is a fair interpretation, whereas my read was more along the times that Power (including Fame) are transitory states, and no matter how in Control or Famous you think you are, there's always someone bigger than you waiting to feed on your corpse. Such knowledge keeps you humble.
I remember, early in my career, I went to a Wax Museum with a girlfriend, and got talking to a staff member, who explained the turnover of the figures and that most are transitory by nature, and barely last a couple of years before being melted down, with the wax being used to construct a new figure who's still in the public consciousness.
It seemed good knowledge to possess for someone dancing with the devil: in the end, we're all just wax waiting to be melted.
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So, having seen how people deliberately whore out their integrity for greater exposure, I've noticed there's certain signposts that Opportunists always walk past in the process of 'selling out'. A few I can think of:
- Firing the Drummer
If someone is threatening your brand or advancement to the next level, cut ties and get rid of them ASAP
- Erasing the Past
Such as the case of the Kiddy Band I knew hiding the Devil Worshipping and Cocksucking.
Or, I'm
Manosphere Gamergate Alt-Right Pro-Trump.
- Just A Regular Family Man
Wife and Kids are needed to show you're grounded, even if it involves Bearding, such as in the case of the two male actors on 'Sons Of Anarchy' who were Lovers, despite having a Wife and Girlfriend respectively, (I'd heard rumours, and an American Friend involved with the show confirmed it to me when I commented on the body language I'd repeatedly-observed between the two).
I don't know or care about Cernovich's sexual proclivities, just that as his brand crossed from Manosphere - sexual looseness - to Serious Journalist, he immediately settled down.
- Soft Condemnation by the Media as Validation of Arriving
Sixty Minutes. It's just Marilyn Manson being asked by an interviewer if his music influenced the Columbine Shooters. All easy drama for the cheap seats, and helps drive up interest in both brands.
- Reliably-Conforming to the Narrative (or Counter-Narrative), which is Audience-Dependent
This includes the sudden changing direction, as in a school of fish, where an ideas can contradict themselves in the space of a couple of days. What you're seeing is, functionally, someone whispering in their earpiece that such a topic is off-limits.
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Some of the men here have won my deep respect by simply refusing the offer to sell out when it came. RhymeorReason's rhetoric sounded like he wanted to take the Offer, until it actually came, then he instantly-understood artistic integrity was more important to him. Quintus handled his offer exactly the way I expected him to: he choose to keep plowing his smaller furrow for a higher-quality audience.
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To finish, I mentioned in another thread I had recently read a book on R.E.M., a band who was critically-considered to have kept their integrity, whilst obviously playing the game and jumping through the hoops. More likely, the aura of integrity was sold by journalists because they were reliably-shills for Leftist Causes.
Here's a section on the video for 'Near Wild Heaven' from 1991:
Although it does not pander to day-glo tackiness in the same way as 'Shiny Happy People', this video has its eye set even more calculatingly on mainstream acceptance. Shot in muted pastel washes by Jeff Preiss for Epoch Films, it features R.E.M. hangin' out in the 'hood'; specifically, relaxing in a sort of mythical rock'n'roll cafe with the kind of bohemian customers that only exist in advertising executives' dreams, while, outside, kids play in the spray from an open water hydrant. It is highly-reminiscent of then-current South Comfort and Levi's commercials, and fulfills the same function, screaming, in a laid back sort of way, 'Buy this product!' Having said that, it is highly-watchable, and even [guitar player and noted grump] Peter seems to be enjoying himself. Those Advertising Executives really know which buttons to press... Anyone who claims he or she would rather see 'Driver 8' is either fibbing or related to its directors.
However, one cannot help but be irritated by R.E.M.'s apparent hypocrisy. At the end of 1988, Peter told Newsday that people were always saying to him, 'You know if you do a video with pretty girls in it and you're all playing guitars and lip-synching, this record could sell two point eight million rather than one point three.' To which Peter would reply, 'Well, yeah, but I don't want to do this cookie-cutter thing. I don't want to look like every other band.' Just over two years later, here were R.E.M. lip-synching and playing instruments in a slick video packed with impossibly-attractive women - in other words, indulging in some all-out cookie-cutting. Which would be fair enough, if the band did not continue to insist in interviews that they had not compromised any of their beliefs.
Note that the album the video was from, ended up being their commercial breakthrough, and selling 18 million copies, and they only had one more universally-recognised as great album left in them after it. Even now, I'm noticing the lasting critical appraisal is starting to wane from their major label releases.
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So, no, I'm not remotely-jealous. I just see Bullshit for the Bullshit it is, which is frustrating when other people tell me through shit-stained lips that the Bullshit is Chocolate, and that - mmm - I should really have a taste.
Beat the Drum all you want, but when you find out you're not Ringo Starr, but Pete Best, and the band is going to the toppermost of the poppermost without you, don't expect sympathy.
