10 Ways Musicians Piss Off Their Fans
June 19th, 2008
We’ve all come in contact with that drunken guy at the party (hell, perhaps you’ve been that drunken guy) who corners you and makes you listen to a song that’s “changed his life.” Because music has this ability to really affect its listeners, the creators of said music are often worshipped or idolized. This fan worship can often go straight to the musicians’ heads, and can cause them to do things that are considered to be very schmuck-like by their fans. Frankly, these things have the ability to piss us right off and, to put it politely, can make us think uncharitable thoughts. Very uncharitable. Such as the recent incident at the Bonnaroo Music Festival where Kanye West didn’t play his set until 4:45 in the morning, making fans wait 2+ hours! Mmhmm - schmuck-like, indeed. (In response to this, one fan told Kanye to “S my D.”)
So what follows is a list of things that musicians have done that has caused outrage and scorn among listeners and, if you get right down to it, are pretty asshat things to do.
Canceling Shows
Listen, we get that crap happens, and that the odd show cancellation is unavoidable and completely understandable. But, if Kanye West can perform a show ONE WEEK after his mother died, we don’t want to hear any of your hangover/laziness excuses. (I’m looking at you Justin Timberlake. Clearly, the Smirnoff Ice has, once again, proven to be too much for you.) Anyway, if your fans take the time out of their schedules to buy tickets to your show, the profits of which helps support you and your cool rock star lifestyle, and you can’t even bother to show up, well, you can just colour them not pleased.
See also: Avril Lavigne
Refusing to Play Old Hits
There’s a reason that you’re popular, and it’s because you’ve written some songs that make the people’s hearts sing. So, really, most of us don’t care how many times you’ve sung that same old song, if we want to hear Like A Virgin, then dammit Madonna, you best be playing it.
See also: Radiohead - Creep
Letting Record Distributors Conduct Pissing Wars with Your Music
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is content protection software used to lock up digital media. Basically, what this means is that if you buy CDs from certain labels, they won’t work on your iTunes. Instead of stopping pirated copies, it interferes with the legal usage of your purchased music. So, really, although this isn’t technically the artists’ fault, the only losers in the whole scenario are the fans. If we want to have the CD and the mp3 we have to buy the music twice. Screw that noise. Musicians should be putting the kibosh on this whole situation, and figure out a new way to distribute their music so their fans stop getting the short end of the stick (like Pearl Jam did with Ticketmaster…ah love). Thank God the music industry is now offering some DRM-free options.
See: Nickelback
Retiring Over and Over and…Over Again
Often fans pay a lot more money to see a show when they know it’s the “last” tour. If you continue to have a “last” tour every two years, frankly it gets to be a little annoying. It gives the impression of being a tad money-grubbing, and let’s face it, most of the time you aren’t improving your sound at all. (In fact, it might even be on the decline.) Sometimes, it’s a better idea to just put the horse out to pasture. It’s more gentle and quick that way.
See: Celine Dion, Cher, Jay-Z, 50 Cent
Being Extremely Egotistical
Thinking that you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread is fine. Continually reminding anyone who will listen is not. When Noel Gallagher from Oasis said, “With every song that I write, I compare it to the Beatles. The thing is, they only got there before me. If I’d been born at the same time as John Lennon, I’d have been up there,” I think we all grow a little purple with rage. Granted, Oasis is a good band, but it’s beyond irritating to hear someone say they’d be better than a band they were clearly inspired by.
See also: Kanye West, Axl Rose, P. Diddy, Brandon Flowers
Becoming Wussies
Can I just ask what the hell happened to Aerosmith? I mean, Dream On, Sweet Emotion, Same Old Song and Dance…genius. Then we get Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. What the hell is up with that? Listen - experiment with your sound, do what you got to do to mix it up a little, but don’t become complete and utter wussies. How might you know if you’ve become wussies? When your biggest fan base switches to soccer moms and wedding singers, you just know that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. At that point, fix the situation as it’s become embarrassing for us to watch.
See also: Bon Jovi, Rob Thomas
Ignoring Who Your Fans Are
Nothing pisses your fans off more than when you say or do something that is contrary to some of the cores of their beliefs. For example, whether or not Natalie Maines from the Dixie Chicks was correct in what she said about George Bush, the fact is that a huge number of her fans were southern, Republican and extremely patriotic. Sooo, of course they were going to get riled up - it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Musicians have just as much right to free speech as anyone else, but if you want to keep your album sales up, you might want to do a little research into the likes and dislikes of your fans.
See also: Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears
Money Grabbing
Everyone should get paid for their work, but there’s no need to be obscene about it. There are some artists that charge ridiculous amounts for tickets to see them in concert (i.e. Barbara Streisand has charged $2,500 for certain shows). Hello? That’s the price of an old car or a mortgage payment or two. There’s really no need to charge that much money for a concert, and it’s a big indicator to fans about where their favourite musicians’ priorities are.
See also: Madonna, Miley Cyrus
Becoming Uselessly Drunk or High Before a Show
As Amy Winehouse has proved time and time again, it’s not a great idea to get so inebriated before a show that you can’t perform. Fans tend to get a little angry when they’ve paid a lot of money to see a show, and the musicians in question makes a fool of themselves on stage. We’re not there to watch a drunken ass grope blindly around the stage, cause if we wanted that we could have gone to any bar and seen that show for free.
See also: Pete Doherty
Be Metallica
If there’s one thing Metallica knows how to do really well, it’s raising the ire of their fans and of music lovers everywhere. Metallica is considered to be mostly responsible for the shutdown of the beloved Napster, and in fact printed out a 60,000 page document of all users sharing their songs. Lars Ulrich became the spokesperson for the RIAA, and frankly, annoyed the crap out of people everywhere. Metallica now plans to sell some of their music on the internet, but it’s not really receiving a very positive response as people have long memories. When it came down to MP3s or Metallica, most people chose MP3s, and they haven’t forgotten that it was Metallica that made them make that choice.
Photographs Courtesy Getty Images
Posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 11:00 am by and is filed under Celebrities & Pop Culture.
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182 Responses to “10 Ways Musicians Piss Off Their Fans”
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ok dude..don’t dis Metallica ok? they still have tons of awesome fans.
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Someone should just present some evidence through a link or something when they are making a point. Every person on this blog is just arguing out of their own opinions rather then data or facts, or they are arguing about what they think is evidentially true but really they cannot support it. If you have something to say that is arguing ‘for’ or ‘against’ aspects of the article above you should present evidence; otherwise you will just be made fun of by the next blogger who wants to state his or her opinion against yours.
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Also as a (semi-professinal) Musician,
The title was/is “Ten ways musicians piss off their fans”. The author is spot on. Dispute it or not. Deservedly or otherwise. These are indeed ten ways musicians piss off fans. I would be genuinely surprised if anyone mentioned on this list honestly gives a flying f**k whether any one of us agrees. Defend them if you wish, but don’t hold your breath for backstage passes.
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you are also wrong on the dixie chick thing…you don’t have to pander to your audience. believe me they are happy their core group grew beyond a couple of red necks at the county fair into mainstream america.
just because you are from the south and love all the flag waving bullshit doesn’t make EVERYONE a republican…they had every right (as you state) and their audience needed to hear it. everyone needs to get their head out of the sand and realize their sons are dying over seas for rich assholes agendas…
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Bands names are plural nouns! Metallica ARE assholes for killing Napster. Oasis ARE an overrated band. The Dixie Chciks ARE more than one person. Think of it like a sports team, a single entity made up of more than one person, therefore PLURAL.
Bloody Americans.
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i agree with noel gallaghers quote i mean oasis r awesome, it sounds to me as though it was a bit of mancurian vs. scouse banter
thats fuelled a great football (soccer to all u amercains) derby,
however liam wat a d*ck im not surprised that noel doesnt speak to him
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I heard about the Kanye fiasco at Bonnaroo, whata D-bag
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May I point out, Olivia, that Miley sucks hard ass and shes on the path to being the next Lindsey - Brittany crossover wanna-f**k-me-be
She deserves to make this list more than even Kanye for being the next loser
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Be Metallica FTMFW!
Metallica is not only the biggest collection of douches to ever take the stage, but they are also complete fucking sellouts.
Whiplash was good, everything “black” and after sucks my balls.
Here’s your crown, king nothings!
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Metallica is a band. If you don’t like the, don’t listen to their music. If you do, then do.
I’m tired of you people going “THIS BAND SUCKS!” “this band is better than your band” “fuck you, band owns!”. Get over it, different people have different tastes.
For the record, Metallica only got pissed because people were downloading a song had not been released, MUCH LESS FINISHED. Someone leaked their song and everyone was downloading it.
Frankly, while I think their actions were a bit extreme, I don’t necessarily blame them for it. Lars Ulrich has stated in an interview that he does not care if you download their music, just to wait until it’s finished.
You are entitled to your opinion, but don’t shove it in other people’s faces, and please don’t go around bashing people due to their musical interests.
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Radiohead actually occasionally play creep now. The only reason they didn’t before is for fear of being remembered as a one hit wonder. Now that they have obviously proven they aren’t, the asinine concert goer yelling “Creep!” occasionally gets his wish granted.
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My god the Napster thing happened a long freaking time ago, get over it..so you can’t steal music anymore, boohoo. I don’t understand how them standing up for not only themselves but other musicians makes them a sucky band…and like I said, it’s old news and they didn’t want people stealing their shit. Big deal
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The reason radiohead doesn’t play “creep” is because it damn near broke up the band. You should really stop bringing in innocent parties to try and supplement your terribly nocuous writing style. Emotion is good, but keep an ice pack on that hot head of yours. It’ll lead to you saying inaccurate or idiotic things.
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What??? Radiohead? Lame, they rock, and they didn’t want people to come to their shows just because they know “Creep”. I dunno if you know any teenagers, but I do, I am one, and I know quiet a few who do that, “OH MY GOD have you heard that one song by that band with the video? Of course I haven’t listened to the rest of the album or any other of their albums, are you nutzzz?” It’s the truth.
And as for Metallica, fuck them. Good music, and people want to listen to it, they should be happy for that, the reason they now SUCK is because they focus on the MONEY instead of the music.
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If you really want to “fight” DRM, just don’t use iTunes.
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I have my own list to add to that.
This list is made up of things that piss me,and many other people off, about one certian individual. Any guesses??
1. Proclaim that your band is “the 2nd coming of christ
2. Promise “the greatest rock and roll revolution”
3. Promise fans a movie,documentary and ‘revolutionary music technology’
4. (In reference to 3) 2/3 years later, only just start finishing these projects
5. Make even more promises, on an almost weekly basis, promising remix’s, update of website, and not meet deadlines set.
6. Constant statements that each new song is “the best ive ever written”
7. Make 10 minute speeches in the middle of shows about how “you can change the world if you really believe”
8. Ditch thier guitar and start doing the lamest dancing known to man
…
Thats all I have right now.
Anyone know who im talking about..
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i don’t hate metallica for the nabster ordeal i hate them for not producing a good album since black
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Ive seen radiohead. And they played Creep. What the fuck is the big deal? Everyone keeps bitching about not seeing this song live. The song is just “Okay,” not amazing. And anyway, hearing songs from Kid A, Amnesiac, and espically Hail to the Thief, provides a greater treat than played out Creep. Have some fucking variance in your music taste and stop following, and being completly wrapping in the “conformist” style. Creep is not gods gift to music. (Like god has shit to do with anything, but thats another rant)
Oh yea. and #10, Be Metallica…Def. the best!
And finally, if you enjoy any of the following list of: Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Avril Lavigne, Madonna(anything past like a virgin), Nickleback, Celine Dion, Cher, 50 Cent, P.Diddy, Oasis, Aerosmith(except old stuff), Dixie Chicks, Barbra Streisand, and Metallica; I dismiss any comment made by you and anything thought by you that you might possibly use to rebuke my comment.
All of those artist suck big balls. And therefore, their listeners suck big balls also.
Have a good day.
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radiohead do play creep sometimes
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Quite honestly the Dixie Chicks made themselves some new fans when they spoke out. I’m one of them.
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radiohead = most overrated band ever.
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In defence of Aerosmith, they didn’t write the “don’t wanna miss a thing” they just sang it. Sadly, their ONLY number 1 hit…ever.
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To hell with any member of any band that thinks they are better than anyone else. Which is most of them.
Radiohead… no. Not the most over rated. Only ONE of the most over rated bands ever. Metallica can suck my balls. And so can Oasis. Both suck already so… it only makes sense.
Being a musician myself, I know how much dedication it takes to be able to write, play, and perform music well. I have been doing it for 25 years. I play many shows, but I am not looking on making a huge profit or even being able to live from providing intangible entertainment. Get a real job you Farking losers. To those that think they deserve money for music. F*C* YOU!
drm? pshaw… easy fix.
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As far as the Dixie Chicks go, “Artists are supposed to comment on culture, that’s the function of art.” - Margaret Cho.
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so what if metallica made a mistake?!
they’re still awesome, and you douches just dont want to admit you love them.
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I hate whe bands won’t play the songs that everyone loves. I love Dave Matthews Band so much and I respect them all, but you know, once in a while I want to hear “Last Stop” when the play live but I hardly ever do.
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Bands at festivals - where people haven’t specifically paid to see them - shouldn’t stroll on to the stage and play an hour of new material off their latest, of-fan-intereste-only album that only 10% of the crowd will know, before wearily grinding out 4 old favourites as a favour.
REM and Radiohead did this at Glastonbury a few years ago, and it was tedious to say the least. Give the fans what they want, dagnammit!
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Quote:
“I think you should have focussed on Axl Rose a bit more. I was at one of the concerts that he walked out on. Talk about some pissed off fans. What’s kind-of funny is that Metallica was awesome that night. But that was when they still made music is instead of whined about DRM.
Posted by: Guitar Musings at June 20, 2008 11:02 AM” End Quote.
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I was at the concert that Axl walked out on. It was in Copps Collisium in Hamilton Ontario. The show took place shortly after the incident where he was hit by a bottle thrown by a fan, jumped into the audience to kick the fan’s ass and was charged with assault.
Some idiot thought it would be cute and again threw a bottle onto the stage (at him). Axl said he was not going to stand up there and be a target, then walked off. I don’t blame him one bit. I would have done the same thing.
Oh yeah… Steven Victor Tallerico (Tyler of Aersomith) wrote “Dream On” when he was 17 years old… in 1965! Ynguie who??? I sure as hell don’t remember that name from ‘65… or even the early 70’s. I’m not sure I even spelled it correctly.
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Miley Cyrus should be on this list for being Miley Cyrus. Just because 12 year old girls think she’s a good “musician” (haha, I laugh when I used that word)doesn’t mean she is. Jonas Brothers too.
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The commenters here are a bunch of dumbasses.
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Speaking as one of those ’soccer mom’ who happens to like Aerosmith, I like to invite you to kiss my butt with your sexist and agist comment. Whether you like it or not, it’s us female fans who are over age 40 who are subsidizing the careers of MOST of the pop stars out there! We’ve been loyal to our ‘faves’ since childhood in many cases! We’re the ones who actually purchase CDs instead doing illegal downloads. We’re the ones who spend more than a thousand dollars turning our trips to rock concerts to a big ole ‘girls night out’ party. So don’t be dissing on Aerosmith or any other band who appreciates the most uncompromising loyal of their fans…those of us over 40!
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you are dumb. the dixie chicks’ sales went up because of what they said. if you really belive in free speech why the hell would you suggest they shouldn’t say what they believe in order to sell cds?