Grandpa, I know you've become pretty disillusioned in your old age, but a percentage of this group just committed a literal act of terrorism on the nation's capital. You gotta stop acting like this difference in political opinion is the same as you and Tony debating your favorite soups down at the bingo hall on Tuesdays.
The fact that they're trying to push this as an artist tool to distract from its intended purpose as a new way to crush creativity is hilariously transparent. No one's ever written a song and thought "Gee, I sure hope I'm not infringing on another artist's legally protected copyright."
Also, if we're truly at a point where artists need preemptive protection from copyright law.... maybe its time to admit copyright law doesn't serve artists.
"No one disputes that this is a tragedy, but sometimes our criminal law is inadequate to respond to a tragedy."
So, uh, maybe we should change it? These aren't some unbending universal truths, they're just some rules we made up.
Was anyone specifically calling for those episodes to be removed? From what I saw the vast majority of people thought it was a dumb move that solved nothing. A corporation overreacting because it doesn't actually understand the culture it exists in is not cancelling.
This is a bit besides the point because I generally agree with him (though, man, we gotta find better language than "PC" and "cancel culture"), but has there ever been any notable case of somebody getting "cancelled " in a way that both feels disproportionate to the offense, AND has had any sort of long lasting effect? Basically, is there any evidence that we are anywhere close to this totalitarian society that people seem to be worried about? It's a legitimate concern for the far future, and something people should keep in mind as they navigate this (necessary) societal shift, but in the moment it's hard to take a few hundred weirdos on twitter as a harbinger for the fate of the human race. Especially when even some of the highest profile cases of "cancelling" are still able to be rich and relatively successful.
I think about this a lot, it's interesting that music started as purely performative, but has now began to grow a recorded component as well. Personally I'd love to see the two branch off into separate artforms in the public's eye, with recorded music becoming its own thing separate from performance.
This is actually one of my main problems with streaming in general, it trains people to see recorded music as a simple commodity that should be available at little to no cost, despite the sometimes massive amount of time, energy, and money that goes into making it. I can't imagine working on an album for years, only to have someone say "I love this, but I expect you to now put even more time/energy/money into creating a compelling live version, and travel a large distance to my general location, if you want me to give you any money for it"
At this point, after listening to it something like 100 times in the last year or so, it's clear to me that I Am Easy to Find is actually my favorite National album. It just hits all the right parts of my brain in the right ways and I find it deeply comforting. It's a lonely hill to die on, but it's my hill at least.
"Band changes name to avoid racist connotations, then sues black woman who has been using their new name for decades" really does sound like the pitch for an Onion article.
If I'm reading this right I think he's saying that he never writes with the intention of making any direct points, and to suddenly do so would feel forced and "compromising". I think that's pretty reasonable, I don't see much value in musicians writing protest songs just because they feel they obligated to. Leave it to those that are good at it, you know?
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