OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

The California "mythos" somehow fries some ppl's brains for some reason, I'm not sure why (IMOM, that was one of the issues with Ann Powers' notorious LDR piece, which otherwise & of course was much more readable than the Baffler thing – which I'm impressed some of you have been able to penetrate to get to whatever its "point" is).

in the interviewer's defense, they do try to give him several off ramps and he just keeps digging

xp Nah, those people probably sucked to begin with. Respectfully disagree!

in the interviewer's defense, they do try to give him several off ramps and he just keeps digging

yeah they're tossing him a softball and he sounds like "oh good, I, Alice, am now ready to share my thoughts on gender conformity"

I keep coming back to “you perform under the name Alice Cooper, how are you so bad at this”

seriously my dude Alice. this is an easy one for you

Especially when the original question was "Here's some really progressive shit you said 50 years ago — do you still stand by that?" and all he had to do was say, "Absolutely! Now about my new album..."

i'm just shocked that a born-again christian could be in any way hostile to queer people! it's so out of character!

If it's any comfort, most of these people will soon be dead.

look it's not the interviewer's fault for cooper saying bigoted shit, it's alice cooper's fault for being (apparently, i'm not going to read the article because i have enough transphobia in my life thank you very much) a fuckin' bigot

this would be the case if cooper had brought it up unprompted, but he was explicitly asked about it and really didn't need to be.

In a 1974 interview with SPEC, you gave really forward-thinking responses to questions about sexuality and gender. You said “In the future, everyone will be bisexual,” and you accurately defined pansexuality, among other things. You also said, “Lots of men who perform wear make-up – that’s a theatrical tradition, it has nothing to do with sexuality.”

Recently some of your “theatrical” rock peers have commented about gender identity, with Paul Stanley and Dee Snider calling gender-affirming care for kids a “sad and dangerous fad.”

As someone who played around with gender expectations early on, do you have any thoughts on what some of your contemporaries have said before they walked those comments back?

this is the full question! explicitly inviting the possibility of him saying some wildly bigoted shit by mentioning some other 70s hard rockers who recently did that. i'm objecting to the interviewer thinking it was a worthwhile question to ask at all and just treating us as an object of debate without any real consideration. there is absolutely no reason to think that alice cooper would have something interesting or insightful to say about trans healthcare for kids, and even just trying to get him to weigh in on trans issues is stupid and unnecessary.

I think it’s reasonably worth asking, but not worth printing when the answer sucks shit

is it worth the news cycle of outing another old man’s hate-filled bullshit at the cost of printing hate-filled bullshit?

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/transphobia-in-music/always-the-topic-rarely-the-voice-transphobic-rock-stars

This article belongs in this thread imo, not as an example of “bad music writing” (it is the opposite), but bc bad music writing is its target

Good piece. Shame about the capitalization error in the author bio:

Niko Stratis is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in outlets like SPIN, Bitch, Autostraddle, Catapult and more. Her work primarily focuses on culture, the 1990s, queer/trans topics and as often as possible where all those ideas intersect. Niko lives in downtown Toronto with her fiancé and their dog and 2 cats. She is a cancer.

Ha I thought it was an intentional joke on Niko’s end tbh

Literally LOL’ing (as a July baby myself)

Always better to go with Cancerian or Moon Child

This isn't the worst of anything, but I thought it was kind of funny how the writer seizes on some mindless complaints (which I'll take his word on their numbering in the "hundreds") and refutes them point-by-point: https://variety.com/2023/music/news/olvia-rodrigo-short-album-guts-running-time-1235698333/

(the tweets he quotes are pretty amusing – “So basically an EP")

this is the full question! explicitly inviting the possibility of him saying some wildly bigoted shit by mentioning some other 70s hard rockers who recently did that. i'm objecting to the interviewer thinking it was a worthwhile question to ask at all and just treating us as an object of debate without any real consideration. there is absolutely no reason to think that alice cooper would have something interesting or insightful to say about trans healthcare for kids, and even just trying to get him to weigh in on trans issues is stupid and unnecessary.

― ufo, Thursday, August 24, 2023 8:14 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I think it’s reasonably worth asking, but not worth printing when the answer sucks shit

is it worth the news cycle of outing another old man’s hate-filled bullshit at the cost of printing hate-filled bullshit?

― mh, Friday, August 25, 2023 9:39 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

AGAIN: clicks! they want them!

I don't really think anyone is confused about that Evan. Maybe just wondering how many ad pennies is worth selling your soul for

ah, then yeah I don't think they believe goading old rockers into saying embarrassing/hateful/ignorant shit is really giving them any pause in light of the traffic it brings

the worst thing is, by publishing his answer, it's just a negative despairing thing to put into the world. it's going to make folks who are trans feel helpless, make them feel worse, it'll do the same for their allies, and make the opposition feel emboldened by yet another major figure coming out as an absolute moron on the subject. i can see the argument for exposing the bigotry, but idk if it does anything but add to the shit pile of dumbfuckery.

thanks for sharing that Niko Stratis piece, fgti!

I’m sorry but what the hell is this

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/listening-to-taylor-swift-in-prison

He said he'd kill for Taylor Swift tickets, we thought it was a euphemism

No body no crime

Will that turn all the Swifties into prison abolitionists or will they want more people in prison in order to facilitate their discovery of the Swift?

Afraid it may make aspiring writers consider murder as a way into The New Yorker.

I thought it was good

Ha I thought it was an intentional joke on Niko’s end tbh

― Snoopy is a cat, who lives in a cage (flamboyant goon tie included)

yeah seriously this is just how a lot of queer people _talk_ haha

you wanna talk about capitalization that nearly gave me a heart attack, how about this:

If news breaks today that whatever madlib of an elder rockstar is transphobic

jesus christ stratis if you hadn't said "rockstar" in there...

it's interesting because i do come at it from a different angle than stratis... i don't want to have a _voice_, i want a world that neither needs or wants my voice on trans issues, because there _is_ no "trans debate", because anybody who is transphobic is a bigot and is treated accordingly. that's a completely unrealistic expectation but fuck it, i'm a trans woman, "realistic expectations" haven't really done much for me

i also want people to pay me for existing, because existing is hard and i deserve to get paid way more for it than i am now

actually let me amend that, i definitely want a world that wants my voice on trans issues, i just think the major trans issue of the day should be "just how hot are trans people? very hot or extremely hot?" (the answer, of course, is "why not both?")

do people think that Swift in prison piece is bad? i think it's really good.

I thought it was good, for sure

your feelings on it probably vary depending on your tolerance for taytay's cultural ubiquity

Good first line.

This is what your 9th Grade English teacher means when she says "give your essay a strong opener." https://t.co/NSwu33OC5J

— Rohita Kadambi (@RohitaKadambi) September 4, 2023

Tory boy who claims to love Aphex Twin "reviews" his recent gig. Several paras of banal reminiscences and scene setting, one clueless one about the performance itself that can be summarised as "it's just a bunch of noise".

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-50-quid-hour-and-a-bit-troll-aphex-twin-at-field-day-reviewed/

How has he never managed to hear any post-1994 Aphex before? Oh, because he's literally only heard SAW1 and never bothered to check out anything else by this artist he "loves".

I'm hardly an Aphex expert, but I know there's more to him than SAW1. The one time I saw him live, he was supported by The Bug and Wolf Eyes. Nuff said.

A reactionary review in the fascist Spectator is a recommendation of course. The full set has been posted on Youtube and it's fantastic: loads of acid, chopped up Amen breaks, and a brutal Come To Daddy.

The singer for Fat White Family has written one of those "you just can't say/do anything anymore" pieces for Unherd, a reactionary website masquerading as a "free thought zone" or whatthefuckever. People are just too timid and easily offended these days, he says, like so very many aging "punk" frontmen before him.

https://unherd.com/2023/09/punks-spirit-is-broken/

those of you who know me, mark my words: if I ever meet Jann Wenner, and it's not outside the realm of possibility, weirder things have happened in my life, I'm gonna punch him in the mouth for the shit he says in his NYT interview here.

Q: I think it’s fair to say that the average reader assumes that what shows up in the publication is basically what was said. But you’re saying, actually the subjects go over the transcripts. And, for example, you got pilloried for reviewing Mick Jagger’s “Goddess in the Doorway,” giving it five stars, when the critical consensus on that album was that it was kind of a dud. The broader question is, when it comes to interviews with the people that you admire, who are also your friends, are you shading into something that’s a little more like fan service, or a kind of branding, than objective journalism?

A: Look, nothing was ever substantively changed from the original interviews. These are all minor changes that really get to accuracy and readability and all that stuff. Secondly, these were not meant to be confrontational interviews. They were always meant to be cooperative interviews.

Q:But there aren’t two kinds of interviews.

A: Yes, there are. The kind of interview I wanted to do was to elicit real thinking, not to confront or challenge or get somebody defensive. But let’s go to the underlying thing: Did my too-cozy relationships alter our coverage?

Q: That’s right.

That was something.

I have no idea when the last time I was this angry about a music-related piece anywhere. just such fucking bullshit, and such a giant shining indicator -- as if one were needed, but still -- of how much was lost, obscured, hidden, diminished, obviated by guys like this determining who did or didn't get the lead review, the front cover, the news item.

Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.

Oh, stop it. You’re telling me Joni Mitchell is not articulate enough on an intellectual level?

Hold on a second.

I’ll let you rephrase that.

All right, thank you. It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.

Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “masters,” the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.

Oh, stop it. You’re telling me Joni Mitchell is not articulate enough on an intellectual level?

Hold on a second.

I’ll let you rephrase that.

A: All right, thank you. It’s not that they’re not creative geniuses. It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did. The people I interviewed were the kind of philosophers of rock.

Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as “masters,” the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.

Q: How do you know if you didn’t give them a chance?

A: Because I read interviews with them. I listen to their music. I mean, look at what Pete Townshend was writing about, or Jagger, or any of them. They were deep things about a particular generation, a particular spirit and a particular attitude about rock ’n’ roll. Not that the others weren’t, but these were the ones that could really articulate it.

I can't be rational about how fucked up this is, it enrages me.

lol xp

Fat White Family are absolute garbage and I'm glad Unperson has included that piece in here. The inanity of its arguments aside, it's a terribly written piece. Lots of strained overwriting to show how clever and righteous he is.

I cant read the article. Can anyone paste it for me please?

You know, just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism.

(the jann wenner thing, not the gobshite from fat shite family)