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I liked your band better before you got fat and died
Open question… One that got me thinking…
I do enjoy reading the output of musicians on Twitter. I quite like seeing the human side to those people whose records shape my daily existence (and Example, because one likes to know what the proles are thinking)
I’ve just read something from Mike Vennart (@Hhaitch: ex-Oceansize, now Biffy & British Theatre) which made me think…
MV: “I mean, would you ever be so arrogant as to contact a band you like directly to let them know you think they going shit”. E.g. “My favourite was 'i think you should know that no-one in Paris likes your new song' - A complete stranger on Facebook regarding Legal Teens”. (tweets within “” – there are a few others, look them up as is your wont).
That set me thinking. Is this now acceptable practise? Can we rightly use social media to abuse musicians? When do you feel the urge to do so? What do the people using the sites like Twitter and Facebook for this function expect as a result? I mean, most musicians won’t respond tremendously well to what they might rightly view as unsolicited negativity…
NB – these are not rhetorical questions… I have answers to them, which seem quite obvious to me but then, I wouldn’t go around social networks bad-mouthing a band (Los Campesinos aside but Swells beat me to that punch with some style and, given that I’ve unwittingly shared guitar techs with them, I probably shouldn’t be overly-nasty to them now either… GAAAAH, another one of my pleasures gone).
My rule of thumb is thus: if you wouldn’t say it to someone stood next to you at a bar, you shouldn’t say it online. I realise this doesn’t apply to many on these boards and my mask of hate does occasional slip (as does my sentence length) but still, I try. I do what I can.
What say you, people of DiS?
FULL DISCLOSURE: the typist is a Twitter addict (@blokealex – COME AT ME BRO etc etc) and a MASSIVE Oceansize and fotl/mclusky fan, who once punched a man to the ground in Manchester’s Roadhouse for expressing a negative opinion surrounding the later band’s output… I’ve calmed down A LOT since then.