Precisely what constitutes the shark leap to sellout status? Big budget record deal? Ad slot endorsement? Neon Bible? If you visit certain websites, it's a lot more ironic than that.
Okay, so I can't be arsed to visit a Postal Service web forum, but I find it rather amusing that a lot of smaller artists have recently fallen prey to full scale spam attacks. When you consider the victimized fanbases, comparatively small in the grand scheme, it can only mean one of two things: 1) online marketing is a crap chute run by inept teenagers; 2) independent music listeners have enough expendable income to justify overwhelming their custom chat areas.
Why is it that Isobel's site has more registered spammers than genuine fans? And the Fiery Furnaces boards had a good month of peace before the jackals swooped in like the place pissed oil. To this I say in a cheap Colbert(ish) voice: the measure of fame is not about the sale of song rights to a cola company or automotive manufacturer; it's not about whether you make six digits or more every time you cut an LP; it's all about which audience is so imbecilic that they believe those photos of Natalie Portman stroking her lady business are genuine. I mean, I compare some of these indie bands with well established acts, and there's virtually no spam shadowing the popular ones. Oh sure, you might suggest they can afford better webmasters and content filters, but that's sloughing off the trend. And trend is king.
Nobody knows that it's M.I.A. singing behind that roof-jumping sedan, but take the fight online and the gloves hit the floor. The web has become so integrated with popular culture that it's become pointless to watch the news; they only show about 10% of the amateur footage and edit the good parts. Why did Pitchfork even know about the Animal Collective/Crayola commercial? As if we needed more fodder to build a case against the 'fork, here they are oldschoolin' it and watching television, telegraph and gramophone's younger cousin. Fuckin' 'ell, man, how do you interrupt a 30-second read only slot with a timeshare plug?
Here's a bit of advice concerning all present and future opportunists (what else can they be called): all online offerings are fake. Every one of them. You give your personal information to them, and they either bill you immediately for a non-existent service or they forward your contact details to 100 firms that will do it tomorrow. There's no way to consolidate your credit through email. There's no shortage of quality amateur porn, i.e. you needn't peruse whatever URL the cheaply composed email is pimping. But if bands who write literary tunes eventually attract fans who would buy into any of the abovementioned bullshit, they've probably sold out and alienated anyone who knows the meaning of the term "undergrad". Except my favorites, of course. They're just plain awesome.
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2 comments:
I always thought "shoot" rather than "chute" when it came to crap.
And this is one of the reasons I'm glad Neutral Milk Hotel went on hiatus when they did...less time to indulge in Jimmy Tamborello collaborations or Jon Heder movie soundtracks.
Damn, that's how I first wrote it, too. I confess, I don't understand the logic behind that one despite knowing its application. Is crap the target or the ammo?
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