miranda lambert

Luke Dick

you guys are coming up with all these theories to explain the pervasive cross demographic phenomenon that is overlooking problematic shit done by your favorite artists

J0rdan is like the only person making sense in the Morgan Wallen Erotic Racism Fan Fiction thread

Everytime someone gets "cancelled" and then just continues on to massive, arena-filling success — Wallen, R. Kelly, Morrissey, Louis, Chappelle — internet people imagine everyone in that arena is either going through some baroque mental contortions and ethical ROI assessments or they're just thousands of mouth-breathing CHUDs sticking a bayonet in the flesh of cancel culture, when the occams razor solution staring everyone in the face is "90% of people don't care about any of this shit"

^ correct, and that number's probably too low

Since no one's mentioned it, how many of you actually listened to Dangerous at the time? I thought about half the album was terrific; he's one of those country guys whose ballads are more convincing than his rockers even when he comes off as a self-pitying cipher.

and of the 10% who *do* care they don't like being treated as test subjects in someone else's schoolmarm-y performative scolding algorithm so they vote republican.

teacher teacher, morgan got drunk and said the n word! it's right here on my phone! and he's said it before!!!!

I feel like the call-out coming from one of the relatively few Black Nashville artists with any kind of public profile is being a little overlooked. Adia Victoria lives in a city and state where the Legislature spent literal years debating whether to remove a bust of Nathan fuckin Bedford Forrest from the hallway in the state Capitol, and where there’s currently a bill pending to rename a section of a street called John Lewis Way for Donald Trump. She’s not exactly doing performative scolding.

Since no one's mentioned it, how many of you actually listened to Dangerous at the time? I thought about half the album was terrific; he's one of those country guys whose ballads are more convincing than his rockers even when he comes off as a self-pitying cipher.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 2, 2023 4:22 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Tried it. He's got a bit of Church's swagger and similarly floats between classic and modern sounds, but is it me or does he have a smarm to him, whereas Church's schtick is authentic? Don't know if I got all the way through it, tbh. While we're on the music, Adia Victoria's A Southern Gothic is a captivating, haunting record. "Magnolia Blues" has a bit of "Strange Fruit" in it.

The smarm coats the garbage tracks, yeah.

Haven't heard the Adia Victoria record, but I'm already predisposed to appreciate her because her name does not start with the letter M.

Sam Sodomsky has some good thoughts on Wallen and his new album -- worth a read

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/morgan-wallen-one-thing-at-a-time/

Skimming that, kind of sums up how I feel about his kind of unambitious shit. It's just so lazy it's not worth the effort of redemption.

Agreed with most of that review.

Part of Wallen’s self-knowledge means understanding that nobody wants to hear him tackle institutional racism or Southern history and trauma in his music.

I think this applies to Lambert, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqgy4zx6yv4

ten years ago this season!

Agreed with most of that review.

well i guess i mean the second album

I think some Nashville country albums can be enjoyable yet the stars can remain moral/artistic black holes

how is that different than any other popular genre

I didn't say it was different, just that you could enjoy an album while also agreeing that it's a cynical production

Well, nothing's changed. I thought he was a dumb asshole in January 2021 too, and Sam limned that dumbness.

i see. so what parts don’t you agree with?

my motivation in asking these questions is that i’m most interested in conversing on this with someone who actually genuinely liked (or likes) his music (i haven’t had a chance to listen to the new record tho i like a number of the singles)

Sam listens to respectable country music and folkie types. This review might be the first he's written about cornpone, and I can see him holding his nose. Dangerous had garbage, just wretched stuff, alongside the good songs. He gets Wallen's approach but recoils from applying it to the material under review. Maybe this album has fewer good songs.

ftr the Lambert co-write is fine.

I imagine the importance of Wallen being true to only himself was a bolded instruction for all 49 co-writers on his latest album

Is this a troll?

All the songwriters from our upcoming album got together for a photo shoot it was so great to see everybody together pic.twitter.com/ztWh6xMCB3

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) March 3, 2023

lol yes

During a panel debate over Miranda Lambert scolding a group of concertgoers for taking photos during her Las Vegas residency show, cohost Sunny Hostin said that she's "going to take as many selfies as I want if I paid $757 for tickets," which prompted Goldberg to clap back."You know what? Stay home," the Oscar-winning Ghost actress said. "If you're going to spend $750 to come to my concert, then give me the respect of watching me while I do my thing, or don't come."

After Hostin said that she likes to keep memories from concerts on her phone to rewatch, Goldberg got up from her moderator seat and said, "Turn on the television, girl."

https://ew.com/tv/whoopi-goldberg-walks-off-the-view-table-photo-with-91-year-old-audience-member/?did=9738478-20230723&utm_campaign=ewk-nonewsubs_relationship-builder&utm_source=ewk&utm_medium=email&utm_content=072323&lctg=79cf74c66649f04efa0b3bb4a39c2b677c6d0ac6

https://ew.com/music/fan-scolded-miranda-lambert-taking-photos-responds/

Here’s the actual Lambert incident (which is several links deep in that piece).

Miranda charges $750 a ticket? Cheap!

there should be a thread of performer/audience spats. miranda seemed pretty chill compared to some interactions i've seen. jeff tweedy used to flip out on individual audience members all the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgSeKpMYdHM

The police in Sacramento are investigating an allegation that the lead singer of the pop-punk band Social Distortion punched a fan who protested his diatribe against President Trump during a concert last month.

The fan, Tim Hildebrand, 30, said in an interview on Wednesday that the lead singer, Mike Ness, called the president a bigot and a racist during a concert on July 19 at the Ace of Spades. In response, Mr. Hildebrand said, he protested by holding up his middle finger. He kept it there for two to three songs and Mr. Ness eventually called him forward, Mr. Hildebrand said, adding that Mr. Ness punched him repeatedly in the head.

(From 2018, tbc)

Monica jumps into crowd after male fan "hits" woman at her show https://t.co/52WCdDsvQr pic.twitter.com/vmA34zra8W

— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) July 23, 2023

Have some thoughts on this that aren't fully fleshed out...

In the footage, Lambert says "selfie" but has anyone seen anything that sheds more light on what the fans were doing? I've seen Lambert live 3 or 4 times and have seen tons of fans taking photos. Never seen her do anything but address fans in her audience positively.

The defenders of the fans suggested that it's entirely their right to document their experience. But what I've seen repeatedly at other shows in the last few years is fans continuously filming themselves for social media e.g., IG live, with the artist in the background. Sometimes this is paired with obnoxious behavior that almost seems to seek out the artist's attention. Aside from the fact that this is super disruptive to the other fans around those filming, this is not about "documenting" the experience. It's some perverse form of attention seeking -- both from others not at the show and from the artist.

Whatever they were doing, the fact that this was done during a piano ballad and in a more intimate setting than her typical stadium shows...maybe she just lost it on a bad night. But I don't think fans should have carte blanche to do whatever they like during shows since they paid for it. This is the same mentality that's leading to people throwing shit at artists.

I thought I saw that they were taking a picture with her behind them, like, look at us, look where we are.

it is weird how many people seem to be mad at Lambert about this. Granted, I've never been to a show where people are holding up their phones the whole time. I'd probably end up in jail.

At the last big concert I went to, the woman next to me was recording videos, uploading them to Instagram Stories, and then playing them back immediately – with the volume so loud that I could hear them over the music.

At the Metro for Yo La Tengo, there were these two dudes not too far away from me having a very loud conversation about bands they'd seen, which kept getting louder and louder and overpowering the more hushed songs YLT was playing. Multiple people, both kindly and very directly, asked them to shut up or move somewhere else, but each time one of the dudes launched into this "we paid for our ticket, we can do whatever the fuck we want" tirade. They never shut up for the rest of the show. A few people went to go alert venue staff, but none ever showed up to deal with them. It was obnoxious.

I just think there is a not insignificant percentage of people that think buying entry to an event allows them to do whatever the fuck they want while in attendance and it's not fair for entertainers to suggest or request otherwise.

there’s a tension at the heart of all these concerts now — & this was stated explicitly by the fans in question i believe — where the attitude easily becomes “well i spent the equivalent of a month’s rent/mortgage on these tickets (or flights and hotel and tickets) so i’m gonna do whatever i want.” just one more way ticketmaster is ruining the live experience!

i’m sure what these women were doing was far from egregious and they just happened to catch her wrath that night. i routinely see ppl facetiming friends during shows, live streaming themselves singing along on IG etc … there’s no rules out there anymore. miranda, as we’ve talked about recently in other contexts, is a traditionalist in many ways, especially when it comes to performing, touring etc and what that means to the identity of the musician. her support from radio, nashville et al has waxed and waned over time but she’s always had her shows — she says this either explicitly or in so many words on stage (or has when i’ve seen her) & i do think for an old school country person like her there is something sacrosanct about the idea of showing up in your tour bus with your band and putting on a great show. now, vegas is explicitly not that, in various ways, but that’s still the mentality she brings to her live shows, i imagine

one thing i’d say in defense of these women is that each artist has their own attitude towards phone behavior during concerts these days. some want to lock everyone’s phones away in pouches, others encourage facetiming a friend who can’t be there but loves xyz song. most artists are somewhere in between ofc… maybe there’s a point in the show where everyone is asked to take their phones out and take their selfies so as to not disrupt the rest of the concert. i personally think what the women were doing was annoying given the song, but based on what i’ve seen both from fans & artists at other shows it would be hard to say it was even out of the ordinary much less over the line

Agree that the context (artist, song, venue) is important, and to some degree, fans just need to be more self-aware and thoughtful; I take photos and short videos at every show I attend, but I always try to do so discreetly and at an appropriate moments. The loud assholes at quiet shows thing will likely always be a thing, unfortunately. I don't know to what extent policing obnoxious behavior is appropriate, but what morrisp shared would have set me off. There are obviously big generational shifts here, too, and Lambert is decidedly of the previous generation (and maybe even the one before it, at heart).

"Excuse me, Mr. MacKaye. I paid five dollars for this ticket. I should be allowed to dance as violently as I please."

I've actually noticed more people keeping their phones away lately, tbh.

Is Miranda OK with fans leaving to use the bathroom? To go to the bar?

I went to see Crowded House a few months back, and there was this one guy standing when other people were sitting (new song) and telling him to sit, too. He was pissed, kind of the opposite of that Yo La story: "I paid good money for my seat, because this is my favorite band, and if I want to stand and enjoy myself and show my appreciation, I am going to do it!"

Anyway, here's Harry Styes stopping a show for a pregnant fan to go use the bathroom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDXpvoad6aA

Miranda demands everyone hold onto the their beer cups in case they need to pee.

i think what set her off here was the timing of the photo op with “tin man” which is one of the most personal and crushing songs in her discography. i think she took that as an affront, like either these ppl are not “real” fans or are at best not paying much attention to the show or connecting w it emotionally

I can't imagine someone doing this stuff at, say, a stand-up comedy gig and expect to not be called out

I should add that at the actual most recent concert I attended (a few weeks ago) – which was also a "big concert," in that it was at an outdoor theater – one of the performers saw someone FaceTiming from the front row, asked for the phone, and sung a few verses directly to the person at the other end, before carefully handing it back. So attitudes def. differ (this was a performer at a different level/point in her career than Miranda).