Posted by JackBox1971 on August 12, 19101 at 23:53:37:
In Reply to: observation. posted by pshyaaaa. on August 12, 19101 at 20:31:30:
I am sure what you have said has been said before but it bears reapeating. When I go to these shows or talk to fans I don't get the hostility or the anger. There is energy, there is good-natured goofing off, there's postitive politics, etc. I don't know who these people are who come to this and other BBSs with this streak of meanness and weirdly masked homophobia (everyone is 'gay' or a 'fag' - I can't believe that anyone who listens to punk, emo, ska, whathaveyou, would sink to such middle-school depths. I thought that's why they listened to bands like Fact to Face in the first place). They drop their little BBS grenades and sneak off to eat a hamster or something. There could really be something special here - the 'scene' I mean. I think it can transcend MTV, KROQ, and Rolling Stone. I think it actually is there - flowering in the lyrics of STD's 'Through Being Cool' and the beating heart of Chris Carrabba. As for the whole 'selling out' routine - I think you are correct but I do sympathize with the kids because there is something about a major label that tends to distance a band or an artist from the fans. Corporations cannot afford to treat people as anything other than commodity. The Offspring, Rancid or Green Day, they are still the bands they were once when you used to go down to the Troubadour to see them but the way their names get commodified, whored, and juxtaposed against a backdrop of beer commericals, sitcoms, and girls in bikinis dancing on stage for MTV - that's taken personally by the kid who just wants to find something real in a world were virtuality enrouches from all sides. It is really up to the artists themselves to keep close to the ground - to do small venues, visit KXLU (and the like) and watch how their image gets muddled by the mainstream. I think Face to Face has done a pretty good job of that (although it was weird seeing their faces on bus stop benches for while). I think Fugazi is a good model to follow, but obviously its not everyone's idea of development.