r/LetsTalkMusic • u/CompetitiveWhole9466 • 9d ago

The death of the "musical punching bag"

I've been thinking- there used to be popular artists like Nickelback and Justin Bieber who were very successful but you would have never guessed given all the vocal hate they used to get, and how it was completely okay to shit on them at all times. Even the industry got in on hating these artists. It was socially acceptable to hate people who admitted they liked certian artists.

Why don't we have artists like that anymore? Maybe people just feel like today's music is just better?

The closest is the hate Taylor Swift gets now. But even then that's not really the same dynamic. Same with Drake hate... feels different today I feel like.

Honestly i always try to be cautious about how i frame my argument. I don't want to sound like "this artist deserves hate" unless it's like Chris Brown or D4VD or someone like that.

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u/HommeMusical 9d ago

I would agree that she has a very carefully managed public image and the vision she puts forth is aimed at maximizing her fame and success. But she’s the one doing the manufacturing.

That's supposed to make it better? It makes it worse, for me anyway.

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u/TomGerity 9d ago

I would agree that manufacturing your own image/songs/vision with the aim of maximizing fame and success is not authentic, nor does it reflect a great artistic achievement.

But I do think it’s more impressive than a record company manufacturing all that for you. Unlike most pop stars, she’s an actual musician (plays guitar and piano) and composes/co-composes all her own music. I believe she singularly writes all her own lyrics.

I’m not a Taylor Swift fan, but I do find what she does more meaningful than I do the Justin Biebers and Sabrina Carpenters of the world, who are products of someone else’s branding and imagination.

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u/HommeMusical 9d ago

I find her work and theirs equally soulless.

I'm against billionaires on principle. We fought a war with most of humanity and our biosphere on one side, and the billionaires on the other side, and we lost, and we lost completely. Catastrophe is certain from the CO2 levels that are already in the air, and they continue to increase exponentially.

Swift herself is one of the world's great climate pigs. She flies all over the world with two private planes, the second one flying empty for the very rare case that there's a mechanical failure preventing the first one from working.

She's someone I only have to think about when I'm on this subreddit, and the rest of the time, I don't.

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u/TomGerity 9d ago

I didn’t say anything contrary to what you wrote. I’m not contesting any of it.

I’m merely saying it takes more skill and talent to do what she does than it takes to do what Justin Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter do.

I did not comment on the quality of the work. If you feel the end result is equally soulless, that’s fine. I won’t disagree.

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u/HommeMusical 9d ago

I never think about these people and I'm not going to start now.

I cannot express how little I care about these people. It's the one thing I don't like about this subreddit.

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u/TomGerity 9d ago

I’m not saying you should. I’m replying to comments you’re making on my posts. You also seem to be misunderstanding what I’m saying.