Musings on a dormant band...
Jan. 16th, 2008 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
revidA recent post on the GDA forum set me to thinking a few days ago. What makes this post even more interesting is who the author is.
How do you guys feel about the band now? I'm sure a lot of us aren't as "obsessive" as when American Idiot came out, but how do you feel the past 3 years since the last album came out?
I gotta admit, I lost some respect for the guys. This total lack of updates and semi-veil of secrecy with everything is a major turn-off because it feels like they've given fans next to nothing to keep them interested. I mean, even after Warning they still gave the occasional random update on greenday.com until American Idiot was announced and got close to being released.
I still listen to the music about once a week, and am still waiting anxiously for new material. I just feel like they totally ruined an easy oppurtunity to keep their new fans interested in them. To me, they're losing (or lost) that quality I liked before when I first got into them, that they seemed like normal guys just having a good time, who at least gave the fans some reason to keep paying attention during the time they weren't on tour. I've said it before that they totally blundered the whole Idiot Club thing, and when I was asked to help out with their new site I was really looking forward to getting this point across. But, i haven't talked to them since early December, gotten no update - and the update I did get and posted up I was told to remove because "we like to stay tight-lipped about everything." That really kinda just pushed me over the edge with them. Cause i'll be honest, I've never done this job with the expectation to get anything out of it from the band. It was a huge plus that their manager contacted me. But every time I've asked for an update, or they promised to do the Q&A's they just fall through.
It's really damned annoying. And i just wanted to vent about it. I look around my room and see all the posters and realize all the time I've spent the past 4 years working on GDA and wonder if it'll ever be worth it. The band is not interested in it's fans on even a basic simple level of just sending an email once or twice a year letting us know whats going on (aside from their charity stuff, which i think is a bit ridiculous. Why should we care what charity they're supporting if thats the only time they want to speak up. If they feel that they don't owe us anything aside from their music, they why should they assume anyone cares to give them anymore than their $12 for the album). They set the bar so low for what they've given us that anything minor thing seems like such a huge accomplishment.
source
The poster is Andres, the lead administrator of Green Day Authority. I'm sure when he posted he was particularly disillusioned about something, but he does have some good points. And when I read it, it brought out some sadness in me to have to agree with so much of it.
This is now a 15 page thread with a lot of the usual 14 yo GDA idiot comments, but there are also some well thought out posts that try to answer the question: What, if anything, does a band owe its fans?
There were more than a few comments from people who have several thousand posts on GDA but said they never listened to Green Day at all anymore. Just looking at our little corner of the fandom, we can all think of plenty of folks who have drifted away and may never come back, including some mighty fine writers (*eyes![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
canis_takahari or letterbomb_baby*)
My personal feeling is that four years is too long between recordings for a band that wants to remain relevant, and now Green Day's done that twice. At least between Warning and AI, they toured (Pop Disaster) and made the occasional update to the fan club web site. But on the other hand, American Idiot made GD relevant again, and lightning can strike twice. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't believe Green Day are irrelevant by any stretch, but let's face it, just like the real world, the music scene is all about "What have you done for me lately?"
Does the band owe me anything? No, not at all. They don't even owe me a new record-- after all, they've put out seven albums for me to listen to and enjoy, who says I get to have an eighth?
Truthfully, I do not believe for one nanosecond that Green Day do not care about their fans. We've all seen far too much evidence to the contrary. But the analogy that springs to mind is that even when you know to metaphysical certitude that your significant other loves you, it's still nice to hear it once in a while.
But who am I kidding? I'll be the last one jumping off the sinking ship. And about a year from now, I have a sneaking suspicion that all will be forgiven.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I ripped the 7 Feb 2005 London show into video iPod compatible format yesterday forand_ed, and there's no sense letting the links go to waste. Even if you don't have a video iPod, you can still watch it on your computer if you don't have this show. This is one of the shows where they ditched the usual set list and played the entire AI album. Quality is A+. Highly recommended.
File Name: apolloPt1.mp4
Size: 182MB | Description: Apollo 7 Feb 2005 Part 1
http://www.sendspace.com/file/oyrqkx
File Name: apolloPt2.mp4
Size: 181MB | Description: Apollo 7 Feb 2005 Part 2
http://www.sendspace.com/file/b0q3u0
Enjoy!
How do you guys feel about the band now? I'm sure a lot of us aren't as "obsessive" as when American Idiot came out, but how do you feel the past 3 years since the last album came out?
I gotta admit, I lost some respect for the guys. This total lack of updates and semi-veil of secrecy with everything is a major turn-off because it feels like they've given fans next to nothing to keep them interested. I mean, even after Warning they still gave the occasional random update on greenday.com until American Idiot was announced and got close to being released.
I still listen to the music about once a week, and am still waiting anxiously for new material. I just feel like they totally ruined an easy oppurtunity to keep their new fans interested in them. To me, they're losing (or lost) that quality I liked before when I first got into them, that they seemed like normal guys just having a good time, who at least gave the fans some reason to keep paying attention during the time they weren't on tour. I've said it before that they totally blundered the whole Idiot Club thing, and when I was asked to help out with their new site I was really looking forward to getting this point across. But, i haven't talked to them since early December, gotten no update - and the update I did get and posted up I was told to remove because "we like to stay tight-lipped about everything." That really kinda just pushed me over the edge with them. Cause i'll be honest, I've never done this job with the expectation to get anything out of it from the band. It was a huge plus that their manager contacted me. But every time I've asked for an update, or they promised to do the Q&A's they just fall through.
It's really damned annoying. And i just wanted to vent about it. I look around my room and see all the posters and realize all the time I've spent the past 4 years working on GDA and wonder if it'll ever be worth it. The band is not interested in it's fans on even a basic simple level of just sending an email once or twice a year letting us know whats going on (aside from their charity stuff, which i think is a bit ridiculous. Why should we care what charity they're supporting if thats the only time they want to speak up. If they feel that they don't owe us anything aside from their music, they why should they assume anyone cares to give them anymore than their $12 for the album). They set the bar so low for what they've given us that anything minor thing seems like such a huge accomplishment.
source
The poster is Andres, the lead administrator of Green Day Authority. I'm sure when he posted he was particularly disillusioned about something, but he does have some good points. And when I read it, it brought out some sadness in me to have to agree with so much of it.
This is now a 15 page thread with a lot of the usual 14 yo GDA idiot comments, but there are also some well thought out posts that try to answer the question: What, if anything, does a band owe its fans?
There were more than a few comments from people who have several thousand posts on GDA but said they never listened to Green Day at all anymore. Just looking at our little corner of the fandom, we can all think of plenty of folks who have drifted away and may never come back, including some mighty fine writers (*eyes
canis_takahari or letterbomb_baby*)My personal feeling is that four years is too long between recordings for a band that wants to remain relevant, and now Green Day's done that twice. At least between Warning and AI, they toured (Pop Disaster) and made the occasional update to the fan club web site. But on the other hand, American Idiot made GD relevant again, and lightning can strike twice. Anyone that knows me knows that I don't believe Green Day are irrelevant by any stretch, but let's face it, just like the real world, the music scene is all about "What have you done for me lately?"
Does the band owe me anything? No, not at all. They don't even owe me a new record-- after all, they've put out seven albums for me to listen to and enjoy, who says I get to have an eighth?
Truthfully, I do not believe for one nanosecond that Green Day do not care about their fans. We've all seen far too much evidence to the contrary. But the analogy that springs to mind is that even when you know to metaphysical certitude that your significant other loves you, it's still nice to hear it once in a while.
But who am I kidding? I'll be the last one jumping off the sinking ship. And about a year from now, I have a sneaking suspicion that all will be forgiven.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I ripped the 7 Feb 2005 London show into video iPod compatible format yesterday for
and_ed, and there's no sense letting the links go to waste. Even if you don't have a video iPod, you can still watch it on your computer if you don't have this show. This is one of the shows where they ditched the usual set list and played the entire AI album. Quality is A+. Highly recommended.File Name: apolloPt1.mp4
Size: 182MB | Description: Apollo 7 Feb 2005 Part 1
http://www.sendspace.com/file/oyrqkx
File Name: apolloPt2.mp4
Size: 181MB | Description: Apollo 7 Feb 2005 Part 2
http://www.sendspace.com/file/b0q3u0
Enjoy!
