Grimes/Claire Boucher thread

she chose the wrong bieber single!

still don't fully get why the only excellent thing she's done caused such delete-my-tumblr drama

obv the people who were being dicks to her need to be shot

Ignore the trolls is something all post-internet musicians need to learn.

LOL at Tumblr drama. Is Grimes still in high school?

actually she appears to be one of the few who isn't

ageists

i reassert what i said on the poll thread, that grimes seems a prime WKIW candidate or dinner party invitee, despite her own music being so irritating

Yeah, she seems great. Why is she wasting time on tumblr or whatever? Step away from the computer, Grimes.

she wasn't wasting her time, she posted a pretty good EOY list and a great defence of it. better than the music she makes when she's not fucking around online.

Yeah, but she seems really sensitive to run of the mill online buffoonery (unlike, say, you, or many of us here). Ergo, step away from the computer, Grimes. Your year-end list was neither interesting nor controversial enough to warrant the drama.

erm when someone is the victim of people being dicks the people to criticise are the dicks not the victim

if grimes wishes to enjoy herself online why shouldn't she? people shouldn't fucking harass her.

erm when someone is the victim of people being dicks the people to criticise are the dicks not the victim

It's pretty implicit that the dicks are dicks. That's why they're called dicks. Doesn't mean the dicks will go away, ever. 98% of internet traffic is due or dedicated to dicks.

if grimes wishes to enjoy herself online why shouldn't she? people shouldn't fucking harass her.

Of course Grimes can do whatever she wants. Also, people will fucking harass her.

maybe if people were less accepting of dicks being dicks and awful harassment occurring, it would be harder for those people to continue doing it

Wouldn't that be great.

lolling at the irony

Aware of irony and it is still funny.

;) anyway, I like this move, good for Grimes

I came in pretty late to the whole Grimes & friends tumblr diaspora late last year and really enjoyed reading and seeing what she'd post. I think she uses tumblr, and the web in general, as more of a learning and artistic tool to communicate and tease out ideas in a way that I envy. I mean, if it's a waste of time, is making music a waste of time, too? Because in work that's mostly a solo effort, there's a pretty strong extension of personality and whatever you're doing to elaborate on and extend that personality is relevant to your art, let alone personal life.

Wiping the slate clean is completely her prerogative, though, and I think there's no harm there. If anything, that's just another form of expression.

on a quick side-note: flamboyant goon tie, is your ilx account wired up to an email account you use? I might send you a message, I think you are going to be in my general neighborhood in a couple months.

yes it is, go for it

Your year-end list was neither interesting nor controversial enough to warrant the drama.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, February 7, 2013 10:19 AM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think this is missing the point rather neatly

to be honest, I'm just making trouble. I haven't been following this. But I do think the Internet is funny.

*shoes you away with broom*

That list isn't really that bad at all.

Now if she was repping for fellow Canadian Shawn Desman, then I would be questioning her sanity.

Hey now Shawn has done a lot of good things for people in this country

if grimes wishes to enjoy herself online why shouldn't she? people shouldn't fucking harass her.

People shouldn't but they will. People harass on the internet, it is a fact. You can't stop it. Add to that the fact that people harass those that are in the public sphere to a far greater extent. Really the only thing to do is ignore it. Do you stop making music when you read a bad review of something you've done? No. You got to have faith in your own shit.

Hm I don't really have enough investment in this to go out on a limb to fully elucidate why I disagree with what you just posted, Adam, but the basic gist of my disagreement is that you're asking Grimes-the-person to exist in an emotional vacuum, to isolate herself from the internet-as-dialogue. I can't really put words in her mouth or the mouth of her conspirators, but my takeaway from her and her crew has been that they deliberately seek to maintain a position of mutual respect and dialogue between audience, critical complex and self. I loved, for example, that she smilingly and apologetically admitted to making Visions in Garageband. Although the aesthetic appeal of artists-who-don't-give-a-fuck is undeniable, her sensitivity to criticism and willingness to respond reads to me as self-respect.

She should chat with Amanda Palmer. There's a whole thread on ILX designed just to make fun of her and her dialogue with audience.

I think you can respect yourself and your audience and still realize that trolls exist and they aren't your audience.

my whole introduction to Grimes at some point in the past year was as some DIVISIVE ARTIST who some people apparently made a big deal of saying was overrated or untalented or whatever. i have very little firsthand exposure to that invective, and didn't feel very strongly either way about the couple most popular singles of hers that i've heard. but i guess she's getting a lot of aggression from somewhere, and i imagine whatever the pushback was on something as harmless as a defense of "Gangnam Style" must've just been the straw that broke the camel's back. seems kinda silly to have a site, with the same name you release records under, and then take umbrage when sites that praise your music quote it, but maybe she didn't get a lot of bile for that post until Pitchfork ran their story? i dunno, it's still rough out there for people straddling the indie/pop divide i guess.

actually, i suspect she is NOT getting "a lot of aggression". rather, that she has very thin skin.

That she writes and records all these songs herself and plays shows by herself is some cool stuff btw,

yeah i dunno! maybe she saw 2 derisive tweets and got upset, maybe a shitload of people sent her nasty personal emails, i really have no idea.

ppl are very nasty on the internet particularly towards women so i would give her the benefit of the doubt.

90% of the comments i saw on the gawker story about this were about her appearance and why gawker couldn't find a nicer picture of her to run with the post

I think it was with the sudden transformation of "a tumblr post" into "a Pitchfork headline", not necessarily trolls, who I feel she deals with gracefully.

Oh please don't let's mention AP in this thread I can't deal with that

I agree w Sean it's obvious she has a thin skin but shit who doesn't

That was an xp

It's an interesting thing with Grimes bc I'm not a #1 fan of the album "Visions" (this is hardly relevant and I love the singles) but I feel more compelled to defend her than many other artists and I'm not sure why, I don't think it's "Canadian" or "female" or "independent". Actually, maybe it is the independent part. And I love the live show. And the "Oblivion" video. Hm I dunno, I'm just extra "haters step off" about her. Maybe I just think she's cute, ew

Grimes isn't a part of ILX, just bcz she voices some opinions on music doesnt mean ppl are entitled to give her tons of shit

http://deadgirlfriends.tumblr.com/post/39420019737/how-do-you-feel-about-trolls

― markers, Wednesday, January 2, 2013 8:19 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^she should've just re-posted this tbh

my 8yo daughter is super into the grimes LP and as far as independence goes yeah I think she's a pretty good role model

also temperamental artist deletes tumblr in temperamental fit of pique should be filed under things that could be an onion article, I don't get what the big deal is

I don't know that she's done anything that indicates she's being thin-skinned? She had a space where she could ruminate on ideas and post stuff she likes and interact with others and the context changed so she changed how she uses it.

This isn't like beyonce pulling beyonce.com off the internet or anything.

@ roz yeah that's pretty much the best post ever

I don't tumbl so I don't know if it's a thing, but is a "p.s. pls don't reblog this" message a thing that people do?

Hm I don't really have enough investment in this to go out on a limb to fully elucidate why I disagree with what you just posted, Adam, but the basic gist of my disagreement is that you're asking Grimes-the-person to exist in an emotional vacuum, to isolate herself from the internet-as-dialogue. I can't really put words in her mouth or the mouth of her conspirators, but my takeaway from her and her crew has been that they deliberately seek to maintain a position of mutual respect and dialogue between audience, critical complex and self. I loved, for example, that she smilingly and apologetically admitted to making Visions in Garageband. Although the aesthetic appeal of artists-who-don't-give-a-fuck is undeniable, her sensitivity to criticism and willingness to respond reads to me as self-respect.

― dry rub come save beef (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 7 February 2013 17:50 (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a banging post

I get lex's point that bullies shouldn't get a free pass but idk when somebody invents the delete troll horde button for the internet we'll let him push it first

I am basically super-uncomfortable whenever people get victim-blamey. And yes focusing on HER "thin skin" or saying SHE should modify her behaviour is victim-blaming. Also, dicks behave atrociously to even the most minor public figure and to musicians in every genre space; it's not about her indie/pop straddling.

Basically Grimes is not actually the problem here. I don't know whether internet dickishness can be stopped but at the very least if you're going to make even the tiniest effort to express an opinion on this matter, that's who you should be focusing on

I mean I know merely posting "people shouldn't be dicks" will not make it so, but...posting "people should just get a thicker skin" is not gonna make that so either. And only one of those things is actually shitty behaviour

also temperamental artist deletes tumblr in temperamental fit of pique should be filed under things that could be an onion article, I don't get what the big deal is

ya seriously, i don't think it shows her being an oversensitive flower or anything. and I read her blog sometimes, get the sense that she and elite gymnastics' james get a lot of trolls hassling them all the time and they usually deal with it pretty well.

otoh some days, the internet is just too much and you just gotta delete yr blog/stop posting on ilx.

never

also I agree with lex, victim blamers need die in a fire after being shot at and then exterminated

fwiw, she's clarified that it was really about Pitchfork publishing her comments:

hey it’s claire

So I’m pretty new to this whole thing and I apologize if I behaved rashly or offended anyone.

Despite the fact that I can be outspoken, I’m a very private person.

I started that tumblr specifically to have a ‘non-official’ platform to voice my opinions. Obviously this was naive of me and i should have known how it would turn out. but i guess i just grew up on the internet and the internet is where i do things. its been intense to become a part of the content on the internet rather than just a passive observer.

I definitely meant what I said concerning beyonce, psy etc. and I’ve put that post back up (below) because I dont want my words to be taken out of context.

but i couldn’t handle my personal website becoming a content farm. My passive thoughts are not official statements.

i just need to have a normal life right now. I’m trying to write my record and I’ve never tried to make art with so many people watching. I love writing, but this tumblr is making things hard concerning my record.

I’ll start writing here again once I finished. I also just need to fully process having a ‘public life’. I haven’t parsed all this stuff yet and it’s been a real shock to the system.

again, I apologize if I upset anyone or reacted immaturely. I’m simultaneously honoured that something I say could get so much attention. I’m just not quite used to it yet. <3

x

c