What Happens When An Artist Attracts The Wrong Audience?
Written: Nov 15 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Can inspire to make a statement to the audience
Cons: Can leave an artist to become frustrated
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| thevoid99's Full Review: Rock and Pop |
When an artist has success, they start to appeal to public. While they may have their hardcore fans, they also attract a kind of people who might've only liked one or two songs from them and also listen to something that has no relation to that artist. A few months ago, Rage Against The Machine singer Zach De La Rocha left the band after months of frustration. One of the reasons I think he left the band was because he was attracting a crowd who didn't listen to any of his lyrics or issues and instead were there just because they were part of a certain genre.
Just today on TRL, Marilyn Manson made an appearance where he looked really uncomfortable since he's surrounded by the TRL crowd who probably likes one or two songs from him and listens to Britney Spears records. Since 1994, I was fan of Manson and loved all of his work. When I went to a concert in 1996, I noticed there was a group of people who just wanted to hear either "Sweet Dreams" or "The Beautiful People" and there were the hardcore fans including myself who wanted to tell those people to shut up.
Manson's not the only person that had that problem. Jim Morrison had the same problem when he was starting to attract teenyboppers who only liked certain songs from the band didn't really listen to any of Morrison's lyrics. That attraction nearly made Morrison leave The Doors and they later got rid of their teenybopper fans when they released the blues-rock "Morrison Hotel" album.
Even David Bowie had the same in the 1980s when he went from rock innovator to a mediocre lounge lizard. By the late 80s, Bowie was becoming really uninspired and felt that he was attracting an artists who like over-commercialized pop. The reason Bowie made Tin Machine with Reeves Gabrels was to get rid of his mainstream audience, he did that but he nearly lost many of his hardcore fans in the process.
Another problem when you have success is when a band that becomes a cult phenomenon and then become a huge superstar band overnight. That's in the example of Pink Floyd. In the late 1960s and early 70s, the band had attracted a cult following with live performances and albums. When "Dark Side Of The Moon" came out in 1973, it sold huge and Floyd became a supergroup. By 1977, the band was playing stadiums to huge crowds where some of those people were just there for the lighting and props instead of the music. For Floyd bassist/lyricist Roger Waters, he was starting to hate the kind of people he attracted and felt that there was a lack of connection between the group and the audience. During a Montreal concert in '77, Waters spat at a fan who kept yelling for the song "Money" and the incident led him to make the band's biggest masterpiece "The Wall".
Attracting the wrong kind of people can be a frustrating thing for an artist but can lead to make something inspiring and challenge the audience. I just hope Manson can do something to challenge those kind of people and as for Rage, without De La Roca, they'll have nothing to challenge the audience without Zack.
Recommended:
No
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thevoid99
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Member: Steven Flores
Location: Smyrna, Georgia
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