Rolitics in music

[Ben_Jamin]

This has everything to do with Social Media being a part of life now. It's given us an outlet to speak our minds to the world. The negative consequences are people taking one persons opinion as facts, and spreading it out as if they were factual statements. Which life has shown WE tend to BLINDLY accept it as facts without actually realizing it's an OPINION. And also taking that opinion to heart as if it has any effect on us personally. It doesn't to me as MP is a musician who lives on the other side of the country, and just happens to endorse Biden. Cool, doesn't bother me.

I have my political views and see no reason why one should be upset at that. Many may disagree, but they are allowed to.

[Madman Shepherd]

All Portnoy did was lose fans and potential revenue over an unecessary social media post. I lose respect for musicians and actors when they preach their personal beliefs. That's not why we're your fans!

I cant fathom how one or even several political posts could cause someone to lose fans.

This isnt a ted Nugent levels where the only thing that comes out of his mouth is politics.

When it gets to that point then sure, it's not about the music anymore. Btw, I'm not even a huge fan of Mike's newfound political activism. After trump won he had a post about how he voted against trump and we all need to come together. Very stock political post but whatever.

[IDontNotDoThings]

Personally I don't have an issue with artists being political as long as their takes aren't wildly ignorant &/or dangerous. If they are, I have more of an issue with the statements themselves than the fact that politics was brought up at all.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Honestly, I think Mike's post was fine. Good, even. I was he was that diplomatic on social media all the time.

[Cool Chris]

This has everything to do with Social Media being a part of life now. It's given us an outlet to speak our minds to the world.

And therein lies the problem. The world doesn't really care what you (you, meaning celebrity/athlete/musician/YouTube personality...) have to say.

Or does it?

Somewhere in the past few years two things happened: 1) Celebrities decided they had to share more than they had ever before, and 2) fans/consumers became more interested in the thoughts and opinions of celebrities. In a chicken/egg way, I do not know which happened first.

I remember after the George Floyd incident, some celebrity tweeted/instagram'ed out something like "I know you (my fans) have all been waiting to hear what I had to say about all this...." and I thought, WHY? Never have I once wondered what a celebrity thought about anything outside of their art. I love James LaBrie. He is one of my favorite vocalists, the voice of my favorite band, and seemingly an all-around cool dude. It has never crossed my mind to wonder what he thought about anything that didn't have to do with DT.

[hunnus2000]

Celebrity voices are important because people will often times listen to celebrities rather than politicians or clergy. Like someone said before it's the message that people don't like to hear based on their personal bias.

[Ben_Jamin]

This has everything to do with Social Media being a part of life now. It's given us an outlet to speak our minds to the world.

And therein lies the problem. The world doesn't really care what you (you, meaning celebrity/athlete/musician/YouTube personality...) have to say.

Or does it?

Somewhere in the past few years two things happened: 1) Celebrities decided they had to share more than they had ever before, and 2) fans/consumers became more interested in the thoughts and opinions of celebrities. In a chicken/egg way, I do not know which happened first.

I remember after the George Floyd incident, some celebrity tweeted/instagram'ed out something like "I know you (my fans) have all been waiting to hear what I had to say about all this...." and I thought, WHY? Never have I once wondered what a celebrity thought about anything outside of their art. I love James LaBrie. He is one of my favorite vocalists, the voice of my favorite band, and seemingly an all-around cool dude. It has never crossed my mind to wonder what he thought about anything that didn't have to do with DT.

Yup, exactly. The world doesn't care what we say online because, there is no way to show emotion other than emojis which people don't use to express the tone of the post. And in turn, may read what the person posts as anger or truth when they're being stern or sarcastic. The only way to know the true intention of the words is to actually hear the person speak. It's why I enjoy hearing interviews with Artists and people in general.

Celebrities get a sense of power and control over their fans. As evidenced by your quote, and will say anything to appease their fans, even being sacrilegious to themselves, just to keep the eyes following them. It's sad really.

Celebrity voices are important because people will often times listen to celebrities rather than politicians or clergy. Like someone said before it's the message that people don't like to hear based on their personal bias.

Idolizing, treating people like gods. That's those people's problems. Instead of a golden calf it's a golden globe.

[hunnus2000]

It's perfectly reasonable to genuinely admire and appreciate celebrities who actually contribute to society. I mean, how proud was everyone when DT helped continue awareness and raise funds for the CA wildfires? And aside from Lebron James obvious dominance on the court all these years, his foundation serves the community by educating young children. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation for years have endeavored altruistic projects in Africa. Maybe some "idolize" them but they have earned my admiration.

Now there are some celebrities and politicians who don't deserve praise but yet their followers defend them regardless sending those people into cult status.

[Elite]

Rolitics

[Lupton]

Rolitics

Rotflitics?   

[IDontNotDoThings]

Rolitics

ruh roh

[noxon]

People who think DT members (past and present) aren't political or religious haven't been paying attention to their lyrics or statements over the years.

Portnoy was for the Iraq war because he was hurting from the shock of 9/11. Then he saw what a scam that turned out to be, and flipped. How do I know? He stated as much in interviews and on the forums and stuff...

[Madman Shepherd]

People who think DT members (past and present) aren't political or religious haven't been paying attention to their lyrics or statements over the years.

Portnoy was for the Iraq war because he was hurting from the shock of 9/11. Then he saw what a scam that turned out to be, and flipped. How do I know? He stated as much in interviews and on the forums and stuff...

I remember he supported the Iraq war from his old FAQ but did he ever come out against it? When Prophets of War was written I remember him being so careful to not talk politics that I think he even banned discussion of the lyrics.

[Trav]

Plus, LaBrie wrote the lyrics to that.  But, back then it seemed like a lot of political discussion in a non-political forum, was not common. Definitely not as common as it is now. We didn't have social media to spew our opinions constantly. As well as the politics in the US not being so divisive in the mainstream. I personally don't remember there being many political discussions on the MP forum back then.

[MoraWintersoul]

What I was surprised about with MP's recent statements about politics was the flavor of the vitriol that came from his audience, the specificity of "if you think differently than me, you'd best shut up" contrasted with the mildness of his message. I know this is probably just the portion that was provoked into responding, but I didn't expect that strain of reactionary conservative boomeritics to be prevalent in the fandom of a progressive rock/metal musician. I expected to see "I love you even though I disagree with you", bla bla, "let's talk about this and debate...", that kinda stuff.

[cramx3]

What I was surprised about with MP's recent statements about politics was the flavor of the vitriol that came from his audience, the specificity of "if you think differently than me, you'd best shut up" contrasted with the mildness of his message. I know this is probably just the portion that was provoked into responding, but I didn't expect that strain of reactionary conservative boomeritics to be prevalent in the fandom of a progressive rock/metal musician. I expected to see "I love you even though I disagree with you", bla bla, "let's talk about this and debate...", that kinda stuff.

I feel like that's what people would do face to face, but on social media?  You know that brings out the worst in people.  It really wasn't shocking to me at all.  I bet many of those people aren't that big of fans of him either.  Just haters.

[Trav]

What I was surprised about with MP's recent statements about politics was the flavor of the vitriol that came from his audience, the specificity of "if you think differently than me, you'd best shut up" contrasted with the mildness of his message. I know this is probably just the portion that was provoked into responding, but I didn't expect that strain of reactionary conservative boomeritics to be prevalent in the fandom of a progressive rock/metal musician. I expected to see "I love you even though I disagree with you", bla bla, "let's talk about this and debate...", that kinda stuff.

This has been the state of American political discussion for the last few years.  "Oh you disagree with me? Well, you're a scumbag America hating traitor!" Pretty much.

[Kotowboy]

I can't stand RYING ROLITICIANS