“safe” bands/artists and moral elitism.. / Ramble #13

okay. half repost from spacehey half other repost from a forum i wrote. I genuinely am so passionate about this issue that i have to post this here i’m sorry i cooked so hard i have to repost:

I really hate all the moral elitism.. like who's more problematic than who. A lot of people don't really get how problematic the music industry is as a whole, along with the fact no matter what music you're streaming you're still paying someone horrible. Even bands like ptv and such, even if mike has left the band you're still paying him BUTTLOADS with your streams because he's credited. Not to mention problematic producers and contributors etc, you're STILL supporting someone horrible out there. Not to say that their actions don't matter, but it's generally unavoidable and really parasocial to think your artist is

"safe". Just hold people accountable and move on.

Personally i dont really care what other artist people support, but i DO care if they defend their actions. mainly artists like Melanie Martinez.. like listen to her all ya want but you BETTER not say she's innocent

okay now my huge spacehey rant.

spacehey:

msi and preformative empathy / ramble #6

Today's rant is a little controversial.. but an honest conversation..

Okay... so we all know the band Mindless Self Indulgence.. and do we all know the lead singer jimmy and what he did..... okay good...

So recently i've seen a lot of posts, one in particular really sparked this idea for the ramble but it says something alone the lines "When you make new alt friends and they start talking about MSI or FIR"

I mean pretty reasonable thing to be turned off by, i probably would be a little too - but i also don't really care who other people independently choose to support musically.. it's kinda none of my business nor does it affect me at all...

but lot of people do care what other people listen to like their lives depend on it.. i've seen a resurgence recently of what i personally call "performative empathy". Maybe empathy isn't the right word, maybe activism or moral high ground.. but essentially it means: calling out other people solely for the sake of making yourself look better and pretending you care.

which is a pretty big assumption statement from me, but I think is something people don't really think about.

I should say though, I am a little biased because i actively listen to a lot of msi.. (yeah i know jimmy is absolutely SWIMMING in the 2 bucks I've paid him in Spotify streaming over the last 6 years..) (SARCASM...). I see a lot of people create alternative means of listening to msi and i love the idea.. i don't love when people shame others for not wanting to download and reupload the entirety of MSI's discog just to listen to a 2 minute song.. not everyone is unemployed like you.. so sorry..

people put a lot of emphasis on the idea of "you're still paying a pedophile".. which yes true.. but also regardless of whether you listen to msi or not.. you're always GOING to be supporting a horrible person somehow. There are PLENTLY of artists who are terrible behind the scenes and producers and stage crew and everything that you support by listening to a single artist. It's tragic but true. Even if you're careful about your bands, there's also grocery stores and clothing brands and the government and EVERYTHING.. you will be supporting some one bad.

Am i bringing in this argument to say that its good to monetarily support jimmy? no. But i really just find myself annoyed at people using msi as a tool to harrass other alts (especially newer alts who dont know much about msi). People dont understand why the modern online alt community is so insufferable.. but i'd say a lot of it comes from people like this: elitist alts who will find any reason to call someone a poser and be "more alt" than them..

I mean be honest, a lot of people who hate on ppl for listening to msi listen to bands like ptv, sws, atl, get scared, etc... the list could go on forever..

Not many people realize theyre still supporting all these bad people in these bands whether their still in the band or not.. people like Mike Fuentes still still earns money for his contributions on the early ptv albums and same with people like Nick Martin from sws, nicohlas matthews from gs, and  jack backarat from atl.. not to mention with problematic producers who worked with people like kesha and katy perry for the most notable bad producer..

I really do think if you're witch hunting random 13 year olds on the internet and fighting to the death on who they should be supporting, you shouldn't be supporting anyone bad at all either.. but to no avail, most people doing this DO support bad people and rather focus on what alt tiktok told them to say and think rather than like.......... think?? idk.. just don't pretend to care about issues that you don't actually care about.. i mean do most people who talk about how bad msi is know or care WHO the victim or victims are?

but hey, i wont deny either, I'm not SUPER informed on jimmy (I'm really mostly about the band for Lyn-z cuz she's awesome..), but i know the gist and what other people choose to think about it doesn't matter and the world quite literally keeps spinning. Most msi fans i've personally met don't like even LIKE jimmy. and YES the lyrics are very weird and disgusting even.. but msi is LITERALLY LOWKENUINELY shock rock. i'll give the definition of shock rock..

Wikipedia's defintion: 

Shock rock is the combination of rock music or heavy metal music with highly theatrical live performances emphasizing shock value. Performances may include violent or provocative behavior from the artists, the use of attention-grabbing imagery such as costumes, masks, or face paint, or special effects such as pyrotechnics or fake blood. Shock rock also often includes elements of horror

okay yeah msi is shock rock.. i dont know if this is a huge argument but i fought with someone on airbuds over it..

and mini also rant about performative alts that has nothing to do with msi.. 

why are we shaming people for fast fashion when you don't even understand what fast fashion IS.. okay yeah support small businesses, stop buying plastic clothes, pay human ppl, and hot topic IS mega fast fashion... okay back to the main rant

.... so whats the big point i'm trying to get at here????

im not sure actually, I really just wanted to rant about this because I feel like the modern day emo/alt community is so... mean?? i dont even know, all i see nowadays is fighting over who's more problematic and what makes you a poser and what doesnt (which could be a whole rant in itself). I really just want to see more common sense, kindness to eachother, and genuine empathy within the community (which sounds insanely corny, but its true.) what makes our community so shit is ourselves.. not saying you should support pedophiles or anything now.. but just give people grace and stop being hypocrites.. :,)

sorry if this rant was choppy or bad.. i lost my train of thought midway.. so sorry.. also i did not read through this after i wrote it at all..

I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks and if there's anything i got wrong, i'm very open minded about opposing sides :)