I think the scene had one shot to redeem itself, and that was the emo revival of the mid-2010s, but as we've learned over the past few years, the scene doesn't deserve to have a platform anymore because whenever these artists get "big" (and I use that term loosely,) you've got a bunch of fucking horny nerds who had low self-esteem and probably not much attention from their respective preference suddenly juggling interest as well as "celebrity" in a capacity they can't handle.
The emo scene needs a reset. In the past few weeks, you've had...
- Slow Mass outed for abuse (the woman who the lead singer assaulted apparently has filed a lawsuit against her for defamation now that the band got kicked off their label, and she's still dealing with medical costs stemming from the incident . Her GoFundMe to pay for those bills got taken down.)
- There's this
- There's the whole thing with the guy from Origami Angel, but it's very messy because the accuser apparently has mental health issues and both sides are accusing the other of abuse. The guy who runs Counter Intuitive Records is also being dragged into it for allegedly protecting known abusers.
I think there's A LOT going on here, but I also think that emo is a toxic scene filled with very damaged younger people who find refuge in the music and the community because of their shared issues and they are not in healthy positions to be involved in healthy relationships. Add in the fact that most of these stories revolve around physical relationships that are vaguely defined and it doesn't seem like communicating between these people is done well, and it's a fucking mess. When a relationship goes south, out come the callouts that conflate actual abuse with having a shitty breakup that didn't go how you wanted.
Not really mentioned in the write-up nor his statement is how he allegedly turned the other cheek when an ex told him that the band's video director/upstairs neighbor sexually assaulted her.
There's also the line about guys who are afraid to take off their shirts in front of women, which is really weird coming out of Taylor's mouth considering her own struggles with body image and being body shamed documented in Miss Americana. Granted, Taylor didn't write this skit, she still signed on to take part in it and sing those words.
It really makes me wonder if the course-correcting of Taylor Swift over the years as the one who was wronged all along is really just a result of careful image manicuring to make her sound more woke and socially aware, when the reality is that these "jokes" may be a slip into what she actually does believe in.
Downvote me all you want, Swifties, but the reality is that if we're going to strive to be a culture of anti-slut shaming, then we need to be anti-virgin shaming as well. Besides, this joke that nerds are virgins is a pretty tired and played out one. Sign up for a feeld account, and you'll see a bunch of nerdy guys who are part of couples with beautiful partners, and they are some of the biggest sex freaks.
Also, I love Taylor's work and always have, but can you imagine how much poorly this skit would have gone over during her Reputation era when she she was being scrutinized for possibly being a Trump supporter and far right websites thought she was their white woman savior who was sending subliminal messages about alpha male superiority through her music?
That "Three Sad Virgins" sketch was not a good look. If it was just Pete, then sure, whatever, that's right along what I'd expect from his brand of humor, but when you add in Taylor Swift singing lines about how virgins are sad and dying alone, I really can't help but feel that even in jest, that sends a really bad shaming message from one of the biggest celebrities on the planet.
It begs the question: How long are people going to hold it over their heads at this point?
Given how we have seen cancel culture play out over the years, and while I do think whatever initially took place needed some form of accountability, I think what I've realized is that when you've got people like David Portnoy or most of the mainstream rap scene who do deserve to be cancelled and not getting cancelled, and a situation like Pinegrove's where the guy basically outed his own self for fucking up, it does cause you to look back at the whole thing and not feel like you endorsing predators by listening to their new music.
Also, it does offer some Nandi from Half Wait appears to be back in the fold here, and I do know Buck Meek of Big Thief opened for the band recently (and Phoebe Bridgers went to a Pinegrove) show, so I would say that the artists in the scene have moved on as well.
It's been pretty well known for awhile now that Demi is garbage and that they basically jump on whatever bandwagon can make them money. They did it with self care and mental health, and now they are doing it with conspiracy theory b.s. Demi doesn't care about anything beyond using their celebrity to exploit business opportunities.
Be it festivalgoers or showgoers. My most uncomfortable experience was at Coachella's main stage the year Bjork last headlined. I was watching Interpol in a fairly closer spot before her set, and while we had planned to watch Bjork afterward, what we didn't expect was that at the end of Interpol's set, we'd be swept forward by the crowd pushing forward to see Bjork trying to get up front. I couldn't move my arms, I couldn't move my body, and I was heating up quickly, and it's kind of a mind fucking situation when Bjork is up there singing "All Is Full of Love" and you feel like you might suffocate to death. I wriggled my way out of the crowd and left the set because it felt dangerous.
Secondly, I was at a small show this past weekend at a small venue. I was up front and the crowd vibe is always generally relaxed at that venue, but when the band started playing the songs that had more energy to them, all the younger people got rowdy and pushy, so I got pushed up against the barrier between the crowd and the stage. Luckily security came down and moved the barrier to give everyone more space, but this was on the same night at Astroworld, and when I woke up the next morning and read that news, I couldn't even imagine what conditions those people were in if I had a few brushes with uneasiness in the crowd at an indie rock show at a small independent venue.
Yeah, this is also one of those situations where it's also (and I hate to say it because it sounds terrible!) hard to have sympathy for the other party because you know they are terrible people, too. It's not surprising.
This guy has been awful for a long while, but you know, when you are conventionally hot, a celebrity, and with money, people never seem to believe it even when they show who they are. Sadly, I don't even think this will bring him down very far. Some other famous model/influencer will be dating him in no time.
My least favorite general admission venue in Boston is the House of Blues because of how big it is, so if it's capacity is 1,800 and you're telling me this venue has nearly double that, I can't imagine the experience being very good. It sounds like being at one of the non-main stages at something like Coachella.
We're all entitled to our own opinions on the matter then. I don't want to say anything more, but I've heard a lot more about the guy that made me uncomfortable, especially in his behavior.
He's lashed out at women music writers in the emo scene for simply having different opinions than him, and a couple weeks ago, he was repeatedly stirring up trouble about the band Speedy Ortiz (specifically the lead singer) because she made a comment about the safety of live shows right now. She put her Twitter on private because he kept directing needless hate toward her. The funniest part was when he baselessly accused her and the band of using industry connections to get press and publicity, not realizing he himself is an editor for a publication with a massive online following and influence that is a huge reason why anyone even pays attention to this own band.
A giant no thanks on this band, especially considering the guitarist has been creepy about bullying women online to the point that they've had to put their socials on lock because his followers then go and start harassing them, too.
You can always tell when the 'Gum staff knowingly is aware they're putting up a traffic-baiting listicle filled with obvious answers when nobody wants their name under the headline lol
“ For a while there, it seemed like the fall of 2021 was going to be pretty quiet before things really got back into gear in 2022.”
What timeline is this? I’ve felt like there has been way too much new music in new albums coming out atop of new songs being released from albums coming out in 2022. This has been one of the most absolute overwhelming fall music schedules ever to the point I’ll be catching up until end of yearZ
I know this probably sounds awful to say, but I think people have turned on her for two specific reasons:
1) The appropriation of Black culture when she wore the white woman cornrows. People are going to hold that one against as long as that photo exists on the Internet, which is forever.
2) She lost weight and people don't trust people who get all hot and know it afterward. The world preferred the old Adele as she was because they saw her as a non-conformist of body image standards and maybe more relatable, but now that she's just another wealthy celebrity who had the means to be able to shed the weight, nobody is having it when she goes out there flaunting the new figure and feeling herself.
Can we add dating apps to this list as well? I know for many of us (myself included,) they're a necessary evil to meet people, but are we really meeting people? And also, if you aren't successful or have bad experiences, it starts to make you feel like garbage. This past week, I'd been talking to a match from Hinge, and at first their attention in the form of texts and phone calls felt refreshing, but then I started to feel "trapped" inside my screen talking to the person to the point where if I didn't send a text during the day, she would send me a message saying, "I didn't hear from you today, and I thought I would." We'd planned to meet, but I decided not because it all felt like too much and I was starting to get stressed out thinking about what might happen down the line if we began dating, wondering if the expectation to always be texting and talking would grow.
I watched the performance and didn't even catch that she was sitting there nude with a guitar. Not sure if that says more about my brain or the performance...
Beyond an older generation of listeners, I don't think a younger generation would be very interested in a reunion anyway. Maybe during the Coachella reunion culture days of the late 2000s when 20somethings were clamoring to see the Smiths and Talking Heads reunite, there would have been a market for it, but nowadays, the "older" bands that younger indie listeners are aware of and interested in are more along the lines of My Chemical Romance at best. I don't even think there's interest in a White Stripes reunion at this stage.
Oh yeah, either of those two for sure. I was thinking Turnstile might get the edge, though, to go along with the narrative that it was a year where live music had to go through some shit to return, and bands like Turnstile were a visible part of that.
Just wondering what everyone thinks will be the year's top album on a site like this? At midyear. it was Fiddlehead leading the pack, which honestly is a great album but not sure if it suggested a great year in music. I really haven't felt that anything beyond Turnstile could challenge that, and don't know of anything else coming down the pipeline beyond maybe a surprise by someone like Kendrick that could easily challenge that.
Just an observational comment with no hate attached to it, but it really feels like indie rock went from "band with two to three conventionally attractive white hipster guys sporting mustaches and a conventionally attractive white woman vocalist" formula to the "band with two to three conventionally attractive white woman and one white hipster guy sporting a mustache" in the past year. I guess that's some progress...
I remember the song itself spawned many viral YouTube videos of people acting it out. It was like a TikTok meme way before it became a TikTok meme. My friend's sister's lacrosse team had one of the originals.
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