those motherfuckers were the same pricks that picked on me in high school. i fucking hate those kind of people. i'd go to punk rock shows and feel some sort of validity that i didn't feel in mainstream culture. i don't know about you, but i need that.

have you learned nothing from the breakfast club? jocks?

kenoki wrote:

those motherfuckers were the same pricks that picked on me in high school. i fucking hate those kind of people. i'd go to punk rock shows and feel some sort of validity that i didn't feel in mainstream culture. i don't know about you, but i need that.

have you learned nothing from the breakfast club? jocks?

i've never seen the breakfast club. i'm assuming what you're getting at is that "jocks are people too," and that i can relate to them and that they're not all bad. if so, i'll agree with you. they're not all bad. there are some athletic people that i really like.

however!

some of them are also jerks. some of them picked on me back in the day. i really despise some of them. that's why i made the argument that i did. i wasn't trying to slander "jocks," i was slandering... sort of, the Platonic form of "jock-ness."

if that makes any sense.

i've never seen the breakfast club. i'm assuming what you're getting at is that "jocks are people too," and that i can relate to them and that they're not all bad. if so, i'll agree with you. they're not all bad. there are some athletic people that i really like.

however!

some of them are also jerks. some of them picked on me back in the day. i really despise some of them. that's why i made the argument that i did. i wasn't trying to slander "jocks," i was slandering... sort of, the Platonic form of "jock-ness."

if that makes any sense.

thank you for the essay. however i was just wondering how the idea of "jock" exists after the age of 21. forget about it man... at this age you should be more worried about the cock block and sluts. and if the peeps, who ever they are, dig on yr music then celebrate cause maybe you'll get a chance to tell them why they should like it for longer than a year.

kenoki wrote:i was just wondering how the idea of "jock" exists after the age of 21.

luckily, this does not yet apply to me. i can't remember who said it, but i once heard a quote i really liked. it went something to the effect of "luckily, at the time i had the distinct advantage of being young enough that i thought i knew everything."

i don't think i know everything, but i'm probably a lot more arrogant about my beliefs than most people. whatever. i'll grow up, probably. i've never said anything yet that i regret.

instant_zen wrote:
while i can see where you're coming from as far as expanding an audience (the same argument could have been made for recorded music, radio, tapes, and so on, a la the Albini-Lecture), i've always been a firm believer that it's more important to have a dedicated audience than a broad audience. if you're in a band that plays shows once a month, and two hundred peopl come to every single show, i'd argue that your band would be a much more powerful artistic force in the lives of those people than a band whose "single" they have on their myspace profile.

So you're going to pay for me to fly over and go and play for someone in Buttfuck, Indiana rather than just sign up for a free service that allows that person to hear your music easily? right on. I await my tickets.

chrissummerlin wrote:So you're going to pay for me to fly over and go and play for someone in Buttfuck, Indiana rather than just sign up for a free service that allows that person to hear your music easily? right on. I await my tickets.

...what? that's not what i said at all. that's not even coherent.

"if you're in a band that plays shows once a month, and two hundred peopl come to every single show, i'd argue that your band would be a much more powerful artistic force in the lives of those people than a band whose "single" they have on their myspace profile"


Sometimes that's not a geographical, financial or physical possibility. Myspace, as a free service, is useful in those cases. It's popularity is down to it being free and easy to use and allowing sound files to be stored online for people to hear. If it ever stops being free then thats when people will stop using it and do something else. I personally find being in a band in the UK thats unable to tour abroad, having a profile on that site is useful as people abroad have bought our record. This means we recoup the cost and can make another.

i won't pass judgement on the validity or artistic prowess of anyone's band, but i just think that if a band is good enough, they should be able to network and "get out there" without using myspace as a tool. the way i see it, most of the bands that use myspace as their *primary* (important emphasis here) means of networking are largely crappy ripoff genre bands that have little new to offer to the musical realm.

i say this, mind you, with the mentality that i am one such musician. i write songs for myself, and play in a band for the two other people that play in that band. i think it's an incredible release of tension, and i enjoy it a great deal, but i have no intention of forcing my personal artistic output on others.

that's my biggest problem with myspace: it's just another form of commercial. i don't need to be bombarded with anymore commercials. i avoid t.v. because i hate commercials. i don't need an analogous venue on the internet (yes, i know this could be taken a million ways, but you know what i mean).

again, i'll admit to using it. but i don't use it for booking shows, or for selling CDs, or for any other type of networking. i think networking over the internet is largely null and void until you make some sort of real contact (i.e. telephone, real mail, or meeting in person).

i think some of you are being a little too precious here.

it's just a website.