Excerpt from Cogs, The Making of Carnival of Souls: Marketing in the era of the Internet is, according to the smartest guys in the room, all about engaging with the fan base, which is suit-speak for giving away lots of free stuff, ear tickling and shameless, cynical pandering. Screw the stinkin’ fans. They need me. I don’t need them. I hear the knee-jerkers toggling their keyboards. Note: (1) Telling the truth is grumpiness but deception is gay and cheerful? (2) When someone says, ‘We’re community’ it’s a preamble to squeezing out every nickel and dime at any opportunity. I’m not your friend, I don’t know you, but I do assume that you, like me, are in pursuit of something worth pursuing. I hand-glued a thousand covers of the ‘Tokyo’ single. I schlepped down to the corner store to xerox lyric sheets. I hang out on stage, with the rest of the band, after every show and I did it long before it was de rigueur. I don’t prevent fans from coming backstage; I tell the house security that if it’s okay with the promoter, it’s okay with me. I tell journalists, ‘I’m here to talk to members of the audience, not to be button-holed by Media Priest functionaries.’ I’m not going to engage with any stinkin’ fan base. That’s suit-speak for the wolves circling their prey. The greedy and gullible grab at free stuff, bleating – the protection and shepherding that culture and perspective might have provided in earlier times forsaken. A scent of blood is in the air.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 15:38:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015