We’re all fans of something, I suspect. Very few people could make it through life without becoming emotionally attached and devoted to something, be it an author, a band, a filmmaker, a television character, or a producer of small round orange things that say ‘phlurrr’ if you give them liposuction.
Fans are loyal, supportive, and in some ways, friends. They are also the worst people in the world. Those of you who were paying attention in the first paragraph will note that encompasses all of us.
Fandom, or Fanaticism set to music
This post was brought about by the fact that Muse released the first single from their new album, The 2nd Law, a couple of days ago. The track is called Survival, and the first two times I heard it, I thought it was awful. Then I listened to it again and think it’s actually pretty good. Not that it matters – this post isn’t a review of it.
I was looking at the song’s Youtube page and, seeing as I wanted to get my senses offended and felt that my current positive feeling towards humanity could do with being taken down a peg or two, I read the comments section. The transcripts of Hitler’s speeches contained less hatred and anger.
The largely un-moderated internet has done two things for humanity. Firstly, it showed us that any everyday occurrence can be the premise for an orgy. Secondly, it turbo-charged our sense of self-importance. There is no longer a difference between what people think and what they can say. And we’ve gotten so used to this idea that we’ve forgotten what an opinion actually is, and how little weight it does (or should) carry.
It’s all gone a bit paradoxical
We’ve all got it into our heads that we’re great and that because we can say anything, we should say everything. Look at Facebook and Twitter and comment’s sections and blogs and, if you can stand the smell, the insides of public lavatory cubicles. Because that’s where speaking your mind first started. Twitter is just a very fancy electricity-based way of writing ‘I love cock’ on a wall whilst relieving your bladder.
We’ve become so obsessed by our ‘right’ to express our opinion that we’ve fallen into a cultural paradox. We know that our right to express our opinion is very important, yet we do not extend that right to other people, especially those who’s opinion is contrary to ours. Which is why, in reply to the comments on the new Muse song that said it didn’t sound like Muse (I can see where they were coming from), were comments filled with abuse. I’m not going to copy any of them verbatim, and I literally cannot make one up that would be as foul and pointless as the ones on the thread.
Basically the rule we all seem to live by now is ‘I’m the most important person in the world’, yet we still all get surprised to discover that everyone else thinks exactly the same. I’m not saying we shouldn’t argue – if someone says that Undisclosed Desires is a terrible song I’d have a discussion with them. But I wouldn’t abuse them for saying it, because of course there are people out there who don’t like it. A lot of people who read this post may disagree with everything I say, but that’s fine, because they’re allowed to have an opinion.
We’re an odd bunch
And discussing the idea of the consumer disagreeing with the creator leads me nicely back to Muse and the direction they seem to be moving in. I’ll be honest and say that, whilst they are my favourite band, most of the time I listen to their most recent album, The Resistance, I turn it off after the first three tracks. United States of Eurasia is a silly song (a silly song that I like when I actually listen to it, but can never be bothered to listen to it), and the rest of the album is hampered by big mistakes in what should have been classic Muse tracks, such as the complete lack of proper choruses in Unnatural Selection and MK Ultra.
When I first heard Survival, as I’ve already said, I didn’t like it. I was worried that it was representative of The 2nd Law in it’s entirety, and still think that would be a bad thing. That’s the thing about Muse. They’re all such brilliant musicians that making the same old stuff for them would be incredibly boring. Each of their albums has evolved and expanded upon their sound, so while The Resistance sounds nothing like Showbiz, the two are still very obviously Muse albums. The trio seem to just wander into new genres and go ‘Yeah, we’ll have a go at that’ and then ace it.
Which makes things interesting from a fan’s point of view. I like to think I have my own mind. I don’t like every single one of Muse’s tracks, and I’m certainly not going to like a song just because Muse wrote it. I can take or leave Plug In Baby and New Born – they’re good songs but not my favourites by a long stretch, which alone is something that a lot of others would probably say means I’m not a ‘real’ Muse fan.
So, if I’m going to make up my own mind, then Muse’s new album will have to appeal to the fan part of me, by making songs that I consider good and to be what Muse ‘are about’. The main reason certain songs on The Resistance don’t appeal to me is because they are too far away from what I consider to be ‘Muse’; they’ve experimented too wide and lost too much of themselves in the quest for something fresh.
Should we create for our fans, or for ourselves?
Obviously I’m still a long way away from having to worry about this question from a personal perspective, but there is a point in the lives of most successful artists where they have a large enough following that the issue in the subtitle becomes an actual problem. You get successful because you (hopefully, if you’ve done it properly) have written/recorded/filmed something that you loved, and that happened to be something that a lot of other people loved too.
But then when you get successful, there’s an expectation that you stop doing it for yourself and start doing it for the other people. This is where my own thoughts on the new Muse album become complicated. I know that the reason they have made some of my favourite tracks is because they have indulged themselves and experimented. If they made only what their fans wanted the whole time, I expect Black Holes and Revelations wouldn’t exist, as it’s a bit of a step away from Absolution. But at the same time, the track I Belong To You, which I think is awful, is what happens when (to my mind) they step too far.
So somehow I have to balance my feelings on what I want them to produce, with acknowledging the fact that they have to produce what they want to produce. I respect Muse immensely for their talent and dedication to music, but I do worry that The 2nd Law could be the point where I stop caring about their later work as much as I do now. I really hope to be proved wrong, but that’s my current feeling towards it. Survival is a good song, but considering the first single from Black Holes and Revelations was Supermassive Black Hole, I’m hoping the quality of the single doesn’t reflect the quality of the album, otherwise The 2nd Law will be an OK album, which from Muse would be disappointing.
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This is another great post with so many talking points. I do love a good discussion but would never have the indecency to ignore the points others are making as well, even if they vary greatly from my own and I most certainly would not get my opinion across in such harsh and brutal ways as some people do.
The issue with more progressive bands like Muse or Radiohead is that they are known for their originality to begin with so I think they have it harder than other more mainstream bands because many of their fans expect them to create that next new sound and yet still stay the same. Fans of more traditional bands seem to just want them to make new songs that sound like their old ones. I think the pressure to recreate or reinvent their sound yet stay the same is an impossible place for any group to be in. That is why they are so often attacked by their own so called fans when they release anything. This happened to Radiohead when they released Kid A because they tried to evolve their sound and yet now it is regarded so highly.
In regards to my own writing, I do write with an audience in mind sometimes because the story or novel I really want to write seems too controversial or too far out in thought sometimes and I wonder if others would be too critical of it. Therefore, I write more in line with what I think potential readers would want to read or write it the way I want and soften it in the editing process. I do not know whether when someone gets to a high level of fame they should create for themselves or for their fans but I would suspect trying to meet in the middle somewhere would be the best way to go.
Thanks Billie. Exactly – debate is a great thing, in my opinion, it broadens the mind and makes you challenge and consider your own views and opinions, but it is amazing how many people manage to value their opinions very highly, whilst refusing to give the same value to the opinions of others.
It’s definitely a problem for bands, or any artists, being known for always doing something new and different. And as you point out, ‘fans’ can be more hostile to bands than critics or people who didn’t like the bands in the first place. Even if Muse’s new album isn’t to my taste, I’ll always be a big fan of them as musicians, and of their earlier work.
A balance sounds like the best idea, but personally I’ve decided I’m always going to write for myself and see what happens. My logic is that if I get a book published, it will be a book that I wrote for myself. If I then get fans, it’s because they also liked what I liked. I feel that, if I was going to disappoint my fans and write a bad book, I would rather have the integrity of having them (and me) know that it was because I found something I like that they didn’t, rather than because I tried (and failed) to write something for them.
Thanks for the praise! and your insights as always
I happen to very much enjoy “I Belong to You”, and shall now abuse you mercilessly for having the gall to feel otherwise. …Pfft, right, ’cause it’s so totally vital, and discourtesy’s the answer to everything.
Your Muse experience is reminiscent of mine with the Backstreet Boys. Love their old portfolio to death, minus a handful of songs that I just can’t get into. And their most recent album went into too much of a dance direction for me, which I guess is all very current, but a disappointment for me. That said, I’m really looking forward to their next project (Kevin’s back!), in the hope that their doing what they want will meet in the middle with what I’d like to hear.
As far as the conundrum you present at the end… that’s a tough call. On the one hand, disregarding public opinion entirely strikes me like disregarding accepted rules of grammar entirely: Sure, you can do it, but you’re at high risk of turning off more people than you turn on. On the other, trying to pander exclusively to what you think people want is folly, in no small part because people rarely know what they really want. The closest thing I’ve got to advice: Get comfy in your craft, allow room for experimentation, trial and error, and pray like mad for the best.
Well, there’s always one
If you continue to disagree with me I shall have to fall back on the proven and destructive ‘your mum’ insults, as featured heavily on Youtube.
Yeah, there are a few bands that have slowly drifted into new territory that I don’t like, but I guess it’s inevitable that they either make a terrible album in their old style, or go in a direction that we don’t like. It’s all a matter of time.
That’s a good piece of advice. I think the idea of establishing some kind of boundaries, so that you have some room for experimentation whilst still knowing where the realms of ‘too far’ begin is a good idea. I think also the problem for us as unpublished (or slightly-published) writers is that we don’t know why other people read us. Published authors with a following probably have an idea of why their fans read them (is it their satirical squid characters, their dramatic use of shampoo, or the great shrew metaphors they’re famous for?) whereas we don’t know what makes our work so appealing (perhaps that’s one of the reasons we aren’t published…).
I loved ‘Survival’!! My opinion is that the video with lots of Olympic action in it distracts from the music and leads a listener away from the meaning of the lyrics into direction that he/she would not necessarily went to if there was no video at all. In some crazy way this song had reminded me music of the legendary Queen. Peace!:)
Now that I’ve decided I like it, it is stuck in my head, and it’s growing on me all the time! I haven’t seen the video, so I’ll have to check that out and see. It does have a very strong Queen feel to it!
I am so happy you did fall in love with the song after all.:)
Reading the section about artists creating for themselves versus creating for their fans reminded me of a similar issue – people complaining to celebrities directly when they find their tweets less than interesting. This is a criticism mainly launched at comedians who have the cheek to post something that’s not funny. Followers genuinely seem to be miffed that their favourite comics or writers are not 100% hilarious 100% of the time when a) nobody is, b) most times the personalities are posting about important subject matter it would be inappropriate to joke about, and c) it is not their right to expect brilliant material considering it’s a site people use for recreation, and it’s all free. Posting Youtube comments on a track is one thing. Sending abuse directly to a famous person you’re less than satisfied is another. As you rightly say, just because you have the forum to express your opinion doesn’t mean you should.
I follow a few celebrities on Twitter, but I’ve never come across this problem. It’s pretty staggering when you think about it. That’s one of the problems of celebrity, I guess, that you get typecast as the thing you are; i.e. comedians are always these funny, happy go lucky people who have no inclination or ability to take anything seriously. And it’s a good point that as Twitter is free, how can you expect comedians, for example, to continue doing what they’re paid for for nothing? I’m sure those fans would complain if in their spare time they were being rung up by their bosses asking about reports they had filed or whatever. And God forbid we should want our celebrities to show a bit of their – *gasp* – personalities online.
Rewan- you write a good social commentary.
Of course we are self-important now; we can barge in anywhere, anytime, and make our voice heard. Here I am doing it now! Who am I to you? But I have something to say- in this case, supportive banter- and I WILL say it.
You’re right, of course- all of us are fans in some sense. And a fan must have an opinion- maybe even a strong one. It’s a standard phenomenon, but it sure can make us ornery when something doesn’t go our way, can’t it?
Looking forward to more solid, thoughtful stuff from you.
Thanks Dad, and sorry it took so long for your comment to get moderated! I wouldn’t call commenting on this post barging in. Any medium that has the capacity to allow comments is of course inviting people to have their say, and it’s fair enough that they do. It’s just when people forget that other people are also entitled to their say that things start to get messy.
I try to be a fan without being overly fanatical, but sometimes you just can’t avoid it, can you?!
Thanks for the comment, and the nice words
No problem, son. xD Your post was thoroughly worth the feedback.