Matt, it appears that a lot of cease and desist letters have gone out and shut some of these Instagram pages down. I'll leave the names of some of the artists I like that have been embroiled, because they're not quite canceled yet, but they have gone dark for a while at least.
The first of this type of Instagram site I saw is one that so…
Matt, it appears that a lot of cease and desist letters have gone out and shut some of these Instagram pages down. I'll leave the names of some of the artists I like that have been embroiled, because they're not quite canceled yet, but they have gone dark for a while at least.
The first of this type of Instagram site I saw is one that some friends in Austin sent me. It consisted of people trying to get bartenders and waiters and grocery store clerks fired for perceived, often petty offenses. It was gross. This became quickly trendy and there were pages like this for every conceivable type of organization, for a brief, horrible moment.
This one has been written about a good deal, and I know the Red Scare ladies defended Mr. Rafman on their podcast, which was re-tweeted and supported by Glenn Greenwald. Even the Times covered this, I believe. An Instagram page about the Canadian art world had Jon Rafman's fairly major show shut down based on allegations of what appear to be consensual sexual encounters that people felt weird about later:
I didn't spend too much time exploring all of the accusations, and there did seem to be some genuinely abhorrent behavior here, or at the very least incredibly sleazy rock'n'roll partying of the sort from past decades. My concern was that illegal behavior was being thrown in with things maybe mildly unethical, or possibly even newly reinterpreted as "wrong" with this week's new rules, and that in this world, there's no hint of investigation, or even questioning.
The label attempted an embarrassing rebrand/rename, with a new corporate female executive and a female-centric approach in the first day of accusations, and by the second day, they'd shut it down completely. I honestly don't know many of their artists, but they had become a pretty big player, especially in the resurgence of cassette tapes. It appears that their entire catalog will now go out of print. Their annual music festival was hosted by John Waters and had some huge acts (Iggy Pop, Devo, Jesus and Mary Chain, among others).
It just seems wild that something like that would cease to exist so quickly, and it did open up the floodgates to some very strange, often totally legal, accusations that broke up bands, had their catalogs instantly removed from streaming, etc. There's certainly way more to all of this, but these are two of the bigger stories.
Sure, a lot of the stories going around are as old as rock'n'roll, and jazz, blues, and other American pop style, but some of the stories are things like "I was 21 and I was sleeping with the guy that lived in the record store because he was giving me free tapes, and now I see that he was abusing his power imbalance over me" or "I slept with this guy when I was only 18, because of his power." Sounds transactional, but who's initiating these transactions?
It's more concerning to me that the whole label would totally shutter so quickly. It's not like these guys were sexual power brokers like Miramax. It sounds like they were a few burnouts in their early '30s thinking they're living in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." This means that all of the records that the label handled go out of print, and they had a pretty big catalog (and not just of a bunch of LA party types). Suddenly having your titles go out of print - and maybe even getting pulled from streaming platforms - during a pandemic where you can't perform live for what appears to be an indefinite period of time is not good for people in indie music, who are living a pretty tight existence these days as it is.
Matt, it appears that a lot of cease and desist letters have gone out and shut some of these Instagram pages down. I'll leave the names of some of the artists I like that have been embroiled, because they're not quite canceled yet, but they have gone dark for a while at least.
The first of this type of Instagram site I saw is one that some friends in Austin sent me. It consisted of people trying to get bartenders and waiters and grocery store clerks fired for perceived, often petty offenses. It was gross. This became quickly trendy and there were pages like this for every conceivable type of organization, for a brief, horrible moment.
This one has been written about a good deal, and I know the Red Scare ladies defended Mr. Rafman on their podcast, which was re-tweeted and supported by Glenn Greenwald. Even the Times covered this, I believe. An Instagram page about the Canadian art world had Jon Rafman's fairly major show shut down based on allegations of what appear to be consensual sexual encounters that people felt weird about later:
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/hirshhorn-museum-halts-jon-rafman-show-after-allegations-surface-online
Here's the associated Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/surviving_the_artworld/
Here's the Instagram page that opened up the floodgates of accusations in the independent music world:
https://www.instagram.com/lured_by_burger_records/
And a story about it: https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/burger-records-allegations-bands.html
I didn't spend too much time exploring all of the accusations, and there did seem to be some genuinely abhorrent behavior here, or at the very least incredibly sleazy rock'n'roll partying of the sort from past decades. My concern was that illegal behavior was being thrown in with things maybe mildly unethical, or possibly even newly reinterpreted as "wrong" with this week's new rules, and that in this world, there's no hint of investigation, or even questioning.
The label attempted an embarrassing rebrand/rename, with a new corporate female executive and a female-centric approach in the first day of accusations, and by the second day, they'd shut it down completely. I honestly don't know many of their artists, but they had become a pretty big player, especially in the resurgence of cassette tapes. It appears that their entire catalog will now go out of print. Their annual music festival was hosted by John Waters and had some huge acts (Iggy Pop, Devo, Jesus and Mary Chain, among others).
It just seems wild that something like that would cease to exist so quickly, and it did open up the floodgates to some very strange, often totally legal, accusations that broke up bands, had their catalogs instantly removed from streaming, etc. There's certainly way more to all of this, but these are two of the bigger stories.
Nothing new in that story
“If it wasn’t for date rape/I’d never get laid” Sublime “Date Rape” 1992
“You’re only 15/No, I don’t want to see your ID” The Rolling Stones “Stray Cat Blues” 1968
Sure, a lot of the stories going around are as old as rock'n'roll, and jazz, blues, and other American pop style, but some of the stories are things like "I was 21 and I was sleeping with the guy that lived in the record store because he was giving me free tapes, and now I see that he was abusing his power imbalance over me" or "I slept with this guy when I was only 18, because of his power." Sounds transactional, but who's initiating these transactions?
It's more concerning to me that the whole label would totally shutter so quickly. It's not like these guys were sexual power brokers like Miramax. It sounds like they were a few burnouts in their early '30s thinking they're living in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." This means that all of the records that the label handled go out of print, and they had a pretty big catalog (and not just of a bunch of LA party types). Suddenly having your titles go out of print - and maybe even getting pulled from streaming platforms - during a pandemic where you can't perform live for what appears to be an indefinite period of time is not good for people in indie music, who are living a pretty tight existence these days as it is.