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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I would add: Keeping fans waiting to start a concert and the extra long break before the encore. See Guns and Roses
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Metallica was “trying to protect all of the little guys out there getting ripped off by people who think that they are entitled to free music”?
I’m 53. Music has always been free. We used to call it the radio.
The “little guy” just wants people to hear his music. The efforts of people like Metallica, Don Henley, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow to “protect” their “product” from reaching our ears without a payment in advance constitute roadblocks that keep the little guy out of the marketplace.
I’d rather people listen to my music for free than not listen to it at all.
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good list
we-rate-stuff.com
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Albums are alot of work. From an artist point of view, 3 years to put an album out is not that bad. You record a ton of songs yeah, but then you got to pick and choose which ones best fit the concept/flow of the album. If most don’t, then you write/record more. An album being only 45 minutes long is ridiculous though.
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so what about Gene Simmons blaming Radiohead killing the record industry?
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Yes, they’re forgetting who their bosses are.
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Aerosmith first and foremost sucks…. they did not write Dream On, Yngwie Malmsteen and Ronnie James Dio wrote it long before these girls got a hold of it. Aerosmith made it worse by cutting out the guitar solos, could it be that Aerosmiths guitarists can’t hack it with the skills they got out of a cracker jack box.
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yeah, somebody going to a Radiohead concert and yelling for Creep is like, somebody going to a Prince concert and yelling for.. uh…. Creep
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The dixie chix get more respect from me than any of the others could ever lose.
They followed their beleifs and convictions in a hugely hostile business arena. They may have thrown away major $$$ but they did it for their views of our ideals as American citizens not lil wussie whore record buyers or blogers.
They have more bawls then the author might sire in centurys worth of offspring.
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I can agree with you from a fan’s point of view, but the thing is fans don’t own the artists. Artists can say and do what they want. After all they are human beings like the rest of us. That said, if they want to retain their fan base then they need to be aware of the consequences of their actions and act accordingly.
Besides, you can always dig out your old albums and listen to what they were like “back in the days when they rocked”
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How do you even know that Nickleback has DMR? How do you even know what a Nickleback album cover looks like?
The only thing people who like music should know about Nickleback is who at their local radio station is responsible for playing them and when the best time to run them over with a car is.
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Ozzy wasnt on there for throwing pig entestens on his fans?
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Metallica’s last good album was the Black Album everything since has been crap, St. Anger are you kidding me! And Radiohead was a mediocre alternative band at best before they started taking acid and listening to Aphex Twin and Squarepusher, which was when they put out OK Computer, which Spin says is the most influential album in the past 20 years. Beyond that yes Aerosmith sucks
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You people forget artists can give out their music for free and then gain thousands of dollars from a concert. Record labels are what hold artists back, many band now might have had a chance and becoming amazing, instead the major labels made them create crappy music that all sounds the same, all the RIAA does from its lawsuits is say we are stealing from the artist, instead the label takes all the money, and this is true, try searching around. But the not showing up is true its a really gay thing if you payed a lot of money to see a band and they just don’t arrive.
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I went to a Radiohead concert and they played Creep!
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Wow, a lot of girly lib boys in here defending the Ditzy Twits….
Whoever they are. Sounds familiar, did they used to be famous or something?
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I feel for some reason that this article has no basing, for example there are a lot of people that realized
bands change and that’s okay
metallica wasnt the only one
showing up late happens sometimes, even for bad reasons and ou have to deal with that
making the reference to kanye west and making it seem like he should’ve been touring one week after is idiotic
that you don’t play songs that are decades old, it doesn’t look good and it’s insane
last but not least, free speech is free speech, and despite that, i know i’ll probably get flamed for this comment
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I’m sorry, but I have to agree with the author of this article… Creep is a GREAT song. To the person who said it was ‘one of their worst songs’, are you joking? Yes, Creep made Pablo Honey in a way that Paranoid Android or Karma Police or any other song alone didn’t for Ok Computer, but if they could write an album full of ‘Creeps’ they wouldn’t have to worry about being one hit wonders… so are you suggesting they’ve watered down their goodness so they don’t look like one-hit per album types like Smashmouth? Psh. Creep rules.
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yeah man how about Michael Jackson going from black to white man. Knawmsayin fah real tho. That shit ain’t cool. He goes from an okay lookin brother to a crazy old white lady. Gimme a break man. Gary Shaw 4ever!
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F DRM. Check out http://indietorrent.org . No DRM, they offer FLAC files, artists set their own prices, keep all profits… just need some artists, now.
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You forgot the biggest one: “selling out.”
Just about anytime a band goes from underground to mainstream (and switches labels) they lose their signature “hardcore underground” sound. An example that comes to mind? Atreyu. Luckily, I never listened to them much so I didn’t have anything to be disappointed about. But I know a lot of people who sure are pissed.
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To those of you jumping to defend Metallica:
Metallica are the biggest pieces of shit in music history. If you disagree, you are a fucking idiot and should kill yourself right now. That is all.
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It’s pretty clear that “Creep” sums up Radiohead quite nicely, Overated. No wonder they don’t play it.
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“Whiney little children complaining about actually paying for music. Metallica started their lawsuit after they discovered over 200,000 downloads in only TWO DAYS! MP3’s suck anyway. Compressed music sounds like shit to me. If you can’t tell the difference, your stereo sucks or you have no taste. Try spending a little more on your speakers and you might be suprised.
As for Metallica sucking, 100 MILLION album sales says differently. They’ll blow any of these new, whiney ass fluff music bands off any stage. Best live hard rock band EVER!”
Well, if that’s the case, what’s 200,000 downloads to them? They’ve got enough fucking money to support their families/addictions for years to come. And don’t tell me they they don’t have thousands of dollars stashed away in their banks and having in invested in other shit, because they probably do. Besides, it’s been proven that illegal downloading does NOT affect album sales.
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If you’re at a Radiohead concert to listen to creep, you should probably kill yourself
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“Another thing to consider is that creep is one of their worst songs and any song off The Bends or OK Computer is much better.”
Creep is one of the 10 songs I will always put on my desert island tape (you only get tapes on desert islands; not cds, not mp3 players). Most of Radiohead’s music is, quite frankly, overcooked and boring. But Creep is sheer brilliance; you don’t like it because it got popular and you’re one of those people who always has to have liked the band “before they got cool.”
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“The one that pisses me off the most is the artists who refuse to play the songs that everyone likes, that made them famous. Why the hell would I pay $100+ to go to a concert when I can’t even hear my favorite song?”
Why the hell are you paying $100+ to see an artist when you only apparently know one song?
This is the one that pisses me off the most. Most huge artists get noticed in the first place for doing something new and different, or doing it better than has been done before. By following their own vision, basically, and not being told by others what to play and how to play it. Yet once they get famous, the fans who egotistically hold themselves responsible for the artist’s success (like the artist themselves had nothing to do with it) suddenly expect these people to become dancing monkeys, mindless puppets with no will of their own?
Screw that noise.
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Metallica should quit fucking playing and lease their name to a band with some balls. They are all insufferable douchenuggets who sold out long ago. Downloading music is not going to change, get over it.
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Don’t even give me that shit about kanye giving a show one week after his mother dies. At this year’s bonaroo, he showed up several hours late, put on a lousy show, and left after one hour! I hate him
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Olivia said: “May I point out that it wansn’t Miley’s fault the tickets were expensive, it was the ticket scalpers, so technically she shouldn’t be on the list.”
Olivia, it isn’t anyone’s “fault”, honey. It’s called the free market; when demand exceeds supply, prices are going to be high, regardless of what the item/good/product is. So don’t blame the scalpers, sweetheart. Capiche?
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Yes, you brought up 10 reasons and 10 examples of how NOT to treat your fans. Hopefully, this message will get out to all up-and-coming bands, and they’ll learn the easy way before they have to learn the hard way.
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The Metallica Napster thing is right on. A lot of bands got their start because of Napster. They couldn’t afford to get their music out there so they put it on Napster. I know that’s how a friend’s band kept getting gigs. Then when Metallica came out against Napster it all stopped for a lot of the ‘little’ guys.
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I don’t believe downloading music is stealing. I like getting all the songs I want. Besides I take everything I want, it’s not stealing if you take it from a big company. Besides the person who invented the product is getting very little money, so I should be able to take it. I’ll send the inventor some money one day, but I’m not going to line the pockets of big business with my money.
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Personally, when I am at a concert, I feel I’m paying to hear the artist. I am *not* paying to have the artist stick the microphone out to the audience and have a singalong.
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The great thing is every band you listed here I pretty much hate anyways, so them just existing pisses me off.
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holy shit, Patrick, you are so typical. How can you call out REAL radiohead fans, for not liking the song because it was popular, while referring to their ingenious catalog as “boring and overcooked.” If anything is “boring and overcooked” it is you and your pointless life. Thanks. And “creep” is by no means comparable to their later work, which is why they don’t play it at concerts.
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your just jealous cause metallica are gajillionaires and ur a nobody
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your just jealous cause metallica are gajillionaires and ur a nobody
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Radiohead broke their self-imposed Creep embargo which didn’t even last 3 years on their homecoming show in 2001 and have played it live, though sporadically, since. I think they played a live show in, what, 06, 07? That was almost all Pablo Honey/Bends/OK Computer material.
Just a quick hit on YouTube shows about four live versions since 2001 on the first page of results (at the South Park show, in Tokyo, at V Fest, and in Dublin), and that’s just what got videotaped and posted online.
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You’re right about all of them except the Dixie Chicks. They weren’t afraid to be honest about how they really feel. I’ve loved them even more ever since them.
All of the other reasons are about disrespect for your fans… this issues is about the difference between following your true feelings, and being a sheep to your fans.
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@ Lou
you posted: …”then the label would say “Okay, then this show will cost YOU guys the difference to put it on, which will probably be around $200,000. You still want to do that?”
Yeah, for one show, that’s pocket change… But… for a tour? $200k x 45 tour dates?…”
-I dunno what tour your talking about being 200k but most likely if they are touring on that type of budget nightly then they most likely aren’t a “small band” thats a high profile budget. Meaning if they want to sell out the arena at a more reasonable price and pay the difference they would laugh and say ok since it would pretty much be chump change to them.
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That’s why I love Mindless Self Indulgence. They don’t pull any of that. They have a nice mix of their old a new stuff at every show. They sign stuff after every show. They really love their fans and show it on their site, in their music, and on the stage.
I used to download music all the time. I got tired of buying a CD to find out that I paid $10-$20 for one track. So yeah, I would download the crap out of a band before I’d even consider purchasing a CD. Now I just use internet radio like pandora.com to hear new good stuff.
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I’m going to disagree with you about radiohead’s creep. While it was their most popular single, most fans are their to hear their more interesting, experimental works (idiotheque, fake plastic trees, paranoid android, karma police and others of that ilk).
Just because it got airplay doesn’t mean it’s the most popular amongst the fanbase, and they’ve actually been really good about playing old favorites for the dedicated follower, and even remixing/revising songs (see “Fog”, which is infinitely better live than on Amnesiac). I could easily make a desert island tape that’s all radiohead without thinking about putting creep on it, and it’s a great song. They’re just so much better than that one song.
As Metallica is concerned, they were really quite good when they were a thrash band. They got old and slow, and are now more concerned with a paycheck than any sort of art. Fuck ‘em. They’ll stay mediocre, and they’ll die irrelevant.
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None of these “musicians” are worth listening to, anyway. And I had no idea people actually went to Amy Winehouse shows. I’m serious.
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Metallica will die irrelevant? I think one of the biggest bands of all time, with the 5th highest selling album of all time, one of the most consistent line-ups of any band (especially metal/rock bands) ever and the leading pioneers of thrash metal and bass-prominence (R.I.P Cliff Burton) will find it very difficult to die irrelevant. But the footprint you leave on this earth will go on forever, won’t it steve? Go on, go make a difference to something, let people know you exist, this comment box won’t be here forever. Go leave a legacy and be more relevant than Metallica.
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I think if you have a hit it is kinda of your duty to play it ‘cos it’s what people want to hear. So yeah, that’s annoying.
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“Aerosmith first and foremost sucks…. they did not write Dream On, Yngwie Malmsteen and Ronnie James Dio wrote it long before these girls got a hold of it. Aerosmith made it worse by cutting out the guitar solos, could it be that Aerosmiths guitarists can’t hack it with the skills they got out of a cracker jack box.”
Huh?! Are you fucking crazy! Steven Tyler wrote that one, no one else! Get your facts right, before you blabber bullshit!
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Go find some REAL artists to support, ones that care about their fans. Nobody has ever complained about a Springsteen concert: 3-4 hours long, reasonably priced, plenty of tickets available, pretty good mix of old/new songs, makes you feel part of the experience.. It’s a 2 way street: You’re there for him, he’s there for you.
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As a musician..
Canceling shows: It happens sometimes, but I agree there’s a line. Mind you, playing a show a week after your mother dies should not be EXPECTED.
Playing old hits: They owe you their appreciation, but you do not own the artist. The artist continues to grow with or without you. Go look at the Mona Lisa, just don’t expect them to paint it over and over again. Stop whining like teenie boppers. Also, Radiohead became a huge success with OK Computer. Even I know that and I remember blasting Creep when it came out.
DRM: It sucks, but I commend the music industry for actually doing SOMETHING right and giving artists the choice of whether their music should be freely sharable. Regardless of my situation, I’ll always give my music out for free, but that’s just MY choice. Stop expecting them to give you stuff and STOP WHINING! Cheap suburbanites!
Repeatedly retiring: A sham. However, some do this because you whine when they don’t come out with an album every year and so they retire thinking they can’t keep up. Then they realize, “Wait! I love doing this!” You’re all so fickle!
Overly egotistical: This is what defined a true rock star from the early days. You loved everyone from Elvis to Jim Morrison throughout the years. Who cares about a musicians personality? You’re buying their album, not becoming their buddy!
Becoming wussies: Aerosmith’s old fans = Women from 20-30 years ago. Aerosmith’s fans now = 30-50 year old women. Since when did keeping your fans mean you were wusses? Keep their fans happy and they’re wusses, but change their style and you want them to play their old songs? JESUS!
Ignoring who your fans are: I guess I missed something. The Dixie Chicks spoke their mind, then continued to play the show that their fans paid for. Again, you’re not forced to endorse their beliefs because you like to hear them on the radio. STOP WHINING!
Money grabbing: Musicians don’t set the price. The label loans the band the money to hire the tour management, therefore actually having more say than the artist. After traveling with several big artists, you realize it’s too true that labels own the musicians. It’s like a college kid in credit card debt times a million. Plus musicians are known to take a lot of their money and donate it into charities around the world. If you didn’t spend it on the tickets, you’d just spend it on yourself for something stupid you didn’t need.
Being unable to perform: Don’t blame performers like Whinehouse. Blame yourselves for purchasing overproduced and polished albums. These shit albums sound great because of the engineers, not the singer/band. You only have yourselves and the labels to blame when you go to the show to hear them suck the way they always do.
Be Metallica: As a huge fan of …And Justice for All, I’ll only say this…They were merely saying how they wanted THEIR PROPERTY handled. That’s never a bad thing. Again, some musicians want to give their stuff out for free and should be allowed to. Those that do not may suck, but it’s their music.
STOP WHINING! No wonder so many mega pop stars lose their minds!
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did this list maker purposely make all the examples the shittiest music ever made? i don’t really even know about dmr, but i guess that’s because i have listening abilities and would rather have sex with the Dick Cheney than purchase a nickelback album.
in addition, i’ve seen radiohead perform Creep… twice. it’s not their best song and i could have cared less. the only people who do want to hear it are the same people who went to the concert, because they won tickets from the radio station. the only way they knew who radiohead was??? well, they have this mix cd with creep… along with nickelback and rob thomas songs.
whoever wrote this obviously has horrific taste in music and needs to start writing for people magazine instead of music websites.