Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

Who are the people who what they really responded to in her music was responsible medical advice and promises to never sell out

The people upset in the AMA?!

i mean obviously not but somehow learning that she isn't those things is still spoiling the joy i guess

Exactly. I mean I was pretty much in love with her (as much as an adult can fawn over an artist these days) until the anti-vaxx news. I still love her music, but my feelings for her the person have been shattered.

People are disappointed that KAS is anti-science, which is a valid criticism of ANYONE these days, let alone your favorite Buchla jamming artist. It's like finding out Neil Gaiman and Beck were Scientologists.

Regardless of whether we "love" her music or not, she has revolutionized the use of modular synth in popular music, developed an entirely unique songwriting style, literally doesn't drink and is as straight as they come, and the only thing that is getting cancelled in 2020 is toxic fandom and patterns of abusive control. Go harass a real celebrity if you want to pretend to be an activist

(That last statement isn't directed at anyone here obv I'm just super-pissed that I log into an AMA and top post is people dragging KAS over a fucking Instagram story reblogging somebody else's dumb belief.)

anti-anti-vaxxers are almost worse than anti-vaxxers imo

my feelings for her the person have been shattered.

also come on dude this is truly pathetic, are you like a grown man? get a life

She's one of the few artists I kinda fell for in a dopey fanboy over the last few years. Nothing wrong with that, other than some embarrassment when confessing here haha. I just vibed with her sound and persona, creating an emotional connection. I was one of those "overpraise" comments in one of those Whiney polls for the Ears album.

Go harass a real celebrity if you want to pretend to be an activist

It was an AMA, the third A being "anything", and clarifying someone's beliefs that they publicly expressed via social media (even if it was a lazy reblogging of some BS) is a totally valid fan question to ask an artist in a public forum! That's not harassment. She's publicly evangelizing beliefs that cause people harm. It gives her an opportunity to further clarify her already public views

Looking at the thread, most of the comments are merely disappointed. A feeling I share.

anti-anti-vaxxers are almost worse than anti-vaxxers imo

Nah.

Anyway, I have no strong feelings about her stuff one way or another but insofar as some of my favourite music of all time was made by bona fide murderers, I don't think being a gullible neo-hippie or whatever is sufficient grounds for socioprofessional erasure.

"Oh my feelings are so hurt my illusions of this person are shattered I feel grifted" I literally wish to grift your sorry ass across a gravel road. The woman owns a Buchla and is from the Pacific NW at least make this about agency and class, "the Music Easel suggests wealth", be at least a little more artful with your toxicity. I don't feel outraged so much as insulted

Might also be hitting a personal nerve id guess

anti-anti-vaxxers are almost worse than anti-vaxxers imo

Hard disagree here, I'm a resolute anti-anti-vaxxer, I'm just wondering when people are going to shake their heads and be like "oh wow hassling this person signed to Western Vinyl over a random IG story reblog did not increase my personal wealth or social capital, and the sweet tang of abuse is so fleeting, maybe I should attempt to improve the world in some other way"

i keep reading that tweet and thinking i no longer know the meaning of the word "grift"

agree with cfcf who said in the twitter thread that new age stuff is inherently a grift and it's quite disappointing she's an anti-vaxxer but i don't know why anyone cares that she got paid to premiere her album on some new age grift app

fgti if your point is that both sides should stop fucking posting, i heartily agree

...I mean it's a good album.

It is. Her best since Ears imho.

i mean if you think about it music is kind of a grift, it's just some assholes playing bullshit

fgti if your point is that both sides should stop fucking posting, i heartily agree

Same goes for me, frankly! I don't know why this touched a nerve, I barely know the woman.

if your point is that both sides should stop fucking posting, i heartily agree

board description

This news doesn't surprise me at all, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are plenty of anti-vaxers in the music biz. Music weirdos gonna believe some oddball stuff sometimes. It sucks, but it's pretty predictable.

<i>I'm just wondering when people are going to shake their heads and be like "oh wow hassling this person signed to Western Vinyl over a random IG story reblog did not increase my personal wealth or social capital, and the sweet tang of abuse is so fleeting, maybe I should attempt to improve the world in some other way"

― it’s been one week since you pissed on me (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, May 20, 2020 6:16 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink</i>

^^^^^^^^

I'm just wondering when people are going to shake their heads and be like "oh wow hassling this person signed to Western Vinyl over a random IG story reblog did not increase my personal wealth or social capital, and the sweet tang of abuse is so fleeting, maybe I should attempt to improve the world in some other way"

― it’s been one week since you pissed on me (flamboyant goon tie included), Wednesday, May 20, 2020 6:16 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

^^^^^^^^

― winters (josh), Wednesday, May 20, 2020 8:25 PM (0 seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

(hope the silliness of my stoned formatting capabilities can offer a break from this particular conversation tbqh)

if only people had any control over what IG stories they reblogged

this is killing me

i mean if you think about it music is kind of a grift, it's just some assholes playing bullshit

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Wednesday, May 20, 2020 9:30 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

also, great fgti posts

I still jam Exene and Moe Tucker and I'm still gonna jam KAS, ymmv

Also, I applied to the music supervisor job at Calm and didn't get it. I wonder who did!

there are anti-anti-anti-vaxxers posting in this thread

well i can't agree with that

funny, when i saw she was debuting the album on Calm I thought, well that's perfect, kudos to whoever thought of that and kudos to both sides for getting it done.

that aspect of this, at least, is like ... the opposite of a grift!

New Age-y musician is a bit New Age-y as a person, News at 11.

Back to the album, listening it to the first time right now, and while the synth sounds are bright and beautiful (as always), I have to say I'm a bit disappointed by it... Based on the pre-release info, I was expecting it to be proper ambient/space music in the vein of Tides and Sunergy, but it still has the mouse-on-marsy "naive electronica" approach she's been doing since Euclid. And there's nothing wrong with that, but this is her forth solo album in a row with the same sound, so I'm getting a bit tired of it.

Obviously this criticism has everything to do with my expectations and nothing with the actual record, but since Tides remains my favourite album of hers (and one of the best ambient records of the '00s), I keep hoping she would one day do something more droney like it.

funny, when i saw she was debuting the album on Calm I thought, well that's perfect, kudos to whoever thought of that and kudos to both sides for getting it done.

that aspect of this, at least, is like ... the opposite of a grift!

― alpine static

same. honestly, when i was first reading that blurb about Calm i thought "hmm, i wonder if they have good yoga videos too. maybe i'll look into that." #thoughtquote

i do like the new album, but i also sympathize with what tuomas is saying too. there were some moments on EARS that really surprised me, but with the last few releases i kind of know what to expect. i suppose that's a familiar problem for any artist (maybe not even a problem - it depends on what we want as listeners)

she has revolutionized the use of modular synth in popular music

C'mon, seriously? Modular synthesisers have been used in all kinds of musical contexts for over fifty years. For a start, even if Wendy Carlos's Bach interpretations don't count in your book as "popular", what about Tangerine Dream? Or Kraftwerk?

can't lie this is p lol and the Calm thing is pure new-age grift I mean come on

nonetheless i think it's wrong to stick the knife in so self-righteously as her cancellers seem to relish doing

her art should be judged on its merits, not her personal beliefs (even if those beliefs *might* bring those around her into risk)

Haha, I've never observed anybody suggesting that the art of Ian Stuart Donaldson should be judged on its merits, rather than his personal beliefs.

would've been surprised if she wasn't an anti-vaxxer tbh. pnw crystal/yoga people are probably one of the biggest anti-vaxx populations there is. I live among them.

I don't think I could handle living on the West Coast.

even if those beliefs *might* bring those around her into risk

Not good enough. Speaking as someone who knew two people who died young from a disease that they could have been vaccinated against, KAS and her ilk can GTFO.

anyone reading this thread: where did you first learn that she was anti-vax? how active of a role did she play in her disinformation campaign? would you have known about it if it weren't for this thread?

i'd guess most people reading (posters or lurkers) would say no, they would not have heard about it. she doesn't seem to make a big deal out of it. from what i can tell, she posted an instagram story to her 19.1K followers on jan 12 that said that vaccinations were dangerous. later that day, someone on twitter with 1,433 followers posted "Woah kaitlyn aurelia smith is an anti-vaxxer??", which was retweeted 3 times and liked 22 times.

if you do a google search for kaitlyn aurelia smith vaccination, you won't be able to find much, if anything. i'd guess that this thread may become the top search result for it, soon.

i get as angry about ignorant/dangerous beliefs as much as anyone, and i try to hold people to a high standard. but anyone freaking out on this thread needs to take a step back and assess the situation

it's one Insta story repost apparently? yeah, I don't follow her on Insta so I didn't know, and I still don't give a shit

i saw the original tweet in my timeline bc i follow the person who tweeted it and i thought it was stupid + trivial but i never would've brought it up on ilm if others hadn't mentioned it first

someone's moral sensibilities can inform their art consciously or otherwise like anything else. never heard skrewdriver but i'm guessing their shitto sensibilities might be more directly palpable and central than KAS's thoughts on immunology are in her music

i mean if you think about it music is kind of a grift, it's just some assholes playing bullshit

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, May 21, 2020 1:30 AM (fifteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

^new board description?

lol @ the idea that people noting that a minor musician has shared anti-vaxx propaganda are somehow worse than anti-vaxxers themselves. so weird to see which artists get the wagons circled in their defense.

for what its worth, i only brought it up because it was disappointing to learn. i never said or implied she should be canceled, but when an artist makes their dumb ass beliefs public, of course i'm going to think differently of them.

lol @ the idea that people noting that a minor musician has shared anti-vaxx propaganda are somehow worse than anti-vaxxers themselves.

who expressed that idea? (honest q: i skimmed over the last couple dozen posts looking for it, didn't find it)

Regardless of whether we "love" her music or not, she has revolutionized the use of modular synth in popular music, developed an entirely unique songwriting style, literally doesn't drink and is as straight as they come, and the only thing that is getting cancelled in 2020 is toxic fandom and patterns of abusive control. Go harass a real celebrity if you want to pretend to be an activist