I did not even watch The Grammys last night, but I was completely blown away but some of the things that people said about the winners and performers online. First of all, I love Bon Iver, and was excited to see him recognized by winning two awards. I was a bit confused when he was even nominated for Best New Artist last night, considering he released his first album four years ago, but his work is beautiful so I think he deserves a win none the less. Over the summer, I was lucky enough to see him perform at an outdoor show in Mountain Park, and shed a few tears as I listened to him perform:
I know his music isn't for everyone, but I was absolutely blown away by some of the awful things that people had to say about him after his acceptance speech.
In my opinion, he seemed a bit awkward, but humble. Who cares if you haven't heard of him? I haven't heard of everyone who has been nominated for a Grammy either, but that does not mean I'm going to storm over to my computer and tweet that I hope that person has been raped. You read that right. Raped. Somebody tweeted that this man deserves to be raped because they personally believe he should not have won a Grammy. Thankfully, I do not actually know the person who wrote it, but instead read this lovely comment via the tumblir now devoted to the things people tweeted in outrage when Bon Iver won over Nicki Minaj (who one tweeter commented deserves to win because of her nail polish), the Band Perry, J. Cole, and Skrillex. Personally, I would not have cared if people were just angry that someone they had never heard of won a Grammy, but the fact that some members of the public think that wishing rape on a man they do not even know is an acceptable thing to do is beyond upsetting. As far as I can tell, there were also plenty of people confused about who Paul McCartney is, but luckily no one seemed to be wishing him bodily harm.
Bon Iver haters dont seem to be the only music fans confused about what rape and domestic abuse are actually like. A couple of days ago, HelloGiggles published an article called "I'm not Okay with Chris Brown Performing at the Grammys and I'm Not Sure Why You Are." I read it and agreed with everything the author said. In my opinion, Chris Brown should be banned from ever releasing another album, let alone performing at the Grammys. I know he was young, but after I saw the picture of what he did to Rhianna, I truly do not understand how the incident has been pretty much forgotten. This has nothing to do with how I feel about Rhianna music (negative), or Chris Brown's music (more negative), but I think that people need to realize how serious domestic abuse is. People, especially teens, look up to people like Chris Brown, and when he gets away with things like this they think it is acceptable. So all of that being said, I saw something extremely disheartening (to say the least) when I logged on to Facebook this afternoon and saw that someone had posted a Buzzfeed article that was literally entirely made of people tweeting things like this:
How horrible. After reading all of these collections of tweets from last night, I feel as though I have seriously lost faith, not only in humanity, but in the groundswell. It feels like every day, there is a new article about cyber bullying, and how to stop it etc. Maybe being able to hide behind your computer has given people too much confidence to say things that they should not even be thinking, let alone saying to cyberspace. I like taking advantage of the groundswell when it comes to things like consumer reviews, but today I feel like I've read somethings that I cannot un-read. To quote Joan from Mad Men, "It takes a brave person to say something anonymously." Things are rarely anonymous in cyberspace, but it may as well be if you are writing to thousands of strangers.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I agree with you completely on pretty much everything you have said here - it is so disturbing when I read comments like that from people who see the words "rape" or "violence" in completely blase manners. We have gotten to the point in our society where it is pretty much ok to make fun of anything or put a ridiculous spin on outrageously inappropriate topics. Some may find this funny, some may find it insulting. Of course the whole argument goes back to the issue of free speech and if the word "free" is really a fair way of putting it.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to the groundswell however, the use of the internet in your post was awesome - the variety of purely online sources you found that discussed the same thing is simply insane. We truly have access to outrageous amounts of information. In terms of your comment about losing faith in the groundswell, I understand your concern and honestly I feel the same way most of the time. Usually I try to look at it from the angle of: do the positives outweigh the negatives? The groundswell has done amazing things for people, and while it has seriously damaged aspects of our society (including the ability to talk with one another in a traditional fashion) I think that the benefits have been massive enough to remain positive. Simply thinking about the way the groundswell is affecting business practices - this week I wrote about how Esurance uses its ads to show off its facebook page and how transparent the organization it. Honestly, I don't care if it's making a profit on that if it is actually behaving in a responsible and efficient manner that best helps the people who need it.
Just to wrap up (before I can't stop myself from ranting about the insanity of Chris Brown and other terrible celebrity influences) - from the looks of it, we're pretty much stuck with this. There is no turning back now from the opportunities the internet has opened up for us, and so I'm trying as best as I can (however cliche it sounds) to make the best of it and get to understand it so that I can make the most out of my personal consumption.
Oh - and I absolutely adore the meme.
I just have to "ahmen" how comical it is that Bon Iver won Best New Artist. I understand that his latest album did much better chart-wise, but it's kind of laughable to anyone who liked his music 4 years ago to see how far behind mainstream can fall when it's not listening to the Groundswell.
ReplyDeleteJust focus on what you like, don't think about others. People say mean things because they are jealous!
ReplyDeleteThe Chris Brown thing really pissed me off (as you know cause you commented on my facebook post!). It is something that has blown my mind since it happened. When he first hit Rihanna, I remember thinking "OK-a celebrity is a victim of domestic violence-by another celebrity" Domestic violence is awful, regardless of who the victim is. However, this seemed like an opportunity. An opportunity for society, ahem, the groundswell to react and say that domestic violence is not acceptable. It was a time for people to shun Chris Brown, for his career to be ruined because of his despicable actions. But that never happened....which is why that article going viral was so great, it at LEAST got people talking.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I couldn't believe the Twitter posts either, but what's funny to think about it how much thought like this goes on without being picked up and spread around the internet. Unfortunately, I feel like it's more than we'd like to imagine. And I agree with Maxie, something like that brings issues to the forefront and gets people talking, which is the first step in fixing it.
ReplyDelete