This…is one of the most ‘buh?’ pieces I’ve read in a dog’s age when it comes to the music industry. Unpacking exactly why would take a long thread, but read and be amazed. Might even be more off than any random Lefsetz spew.
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Does he believe employers approve health care claims submitted to employer-provided insurance? Because he states versions of that concept more than once....
"I know - I'll take what an artist I don't like and I harbour secret misogyny & condescension towards said VERY VERY literally and rip her a new one over it and make her look stupid! Go me!"
I don't particularly like Taylor Swift, and there's zillions of these shitty Music Journalism 101 articles I could write about her, but they'd all be snide shit. Let her play her game and earn and enjoy her bucks. She's not hurting anyone.
Mainstream music journalism is just the dying vinegar strokes of 90s "you can't like pop if you love alternative" snobbery. It's depressing to see how little* it's changed.
In this case, the guy is just an industry lifer who got prime real estate in an industry rag, even if he vaguely started as a writer once. So it's even worse, it's not 'journalism' at all, just a ranting op-ed!
this is the most infuriating piece i've read (well so far). i was also reading some comments on other social media that were calling her out for being successful and it's like did any of them actually listen to what she was saying? it's such weird misplaced criticism
ok i made the mistake of posting after only reading half. i went back and read more and this article literally has a "bill maher is right" section.....what the actual fuck
Calling out Prince to make *his* point is wild. If there is 1 thing we know about Prince, it is that he
not only embraced the Symbolic Act, he *literally embodied it.* Does this man think Prince's way was to shush until he could file his legal brief??
Thoughts while reading: “Is this still the same article? I’m still reading the same thing? Wow, what an arsehole. This is running longer than her speech and somehow less nuanced. No, still more arseholery…” etc
Less of a gotcha than you might think because that role also describes a good person I've known for years, Jason King. Who definitely would NOT write something like this.
Which, on the face of it, sounds deserved. (But yeah, it's definitely a rampant whine at work. Also it could be fairly asked, what exactly has THIS guy done re these issues?)
Amazing followup posted elsewhere in response to this: "Wow, talk about a piece that makes me want to make a birthday cake for Luigi and bake a saw into it"
more to the point though what is easily the single most infuriating thing about the piece is how pathologically lazy it is to blame a young artist for failing to solve one's pet peeve about the entire industry. it reads like a mad lib that he prewrote before he ever even heard of roan.
You’d think people of his ilk would see it as a plus! “Pink Pony Club” has the best guitar solo in a pop context in some while. Twice! And he’s the one invoking Prince!
a perfect reminder that people get rich in this industry by pretending that nothing ever happened in the past and nothing will ever happen in the future, a permanent right-now for the dumbest people ever
He lost me with the Gordy apologism the first paragraph. Say what? “Berry Gordy, received his fair share of criticism for Hitsville’s unprecedented success, but the artists were happy with their royalties and credits, right? Exactly.”
yeah man why isn't she (checks dude's bio) signing up for an e-course that "delivers transformational insights in a dynamically engaging format, cultivating new audiences and nurturing tomorrow's creative masters"
“the artists were happy with their royalties and credits, right?” every single recording artist asked about labels says the same thing: “they took my money”
the article also lectures her about owning her masters -- which, at least for "pink pony club" and some of the atlantic records-era singles, she does, and has spoken about in the past
I was in the music business program at NYU (not Clive Davis though, the other one, lol) and the best thing it did was expose me to guys like this and make me run far away from the industry
This is barely even related to Roan beyond the weirdly personal jabs at her legitimacy? A "Suck it up, snowflake!" screed doesn't require that level of specificity, Idk why he's chosen to complicate it this way.
Yeah I suppose I can too, it just feels so disingenuous to use her as a jumping off point for what sounds like a stream of complaints this guy was already grumbling about before she was born. It would be boring if it wasn't so red-hot with contempt. This could've been an email.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Rabhan
"I know - I'll take what an artist I don't like and I harbour secret misogyny & condescension towards said VERY VERY literally and rip her a new one over it and make her look stupid! Go me!"
*not at all
not only embraced the Symbolic Act, he *literally embodied it.* Does this man think Prince's way was to shush until he could file his legal brief??
Exceptions to every rule.