Comments on: “Spin” Turns The Rock-Star Notion On Its Ear

By: KikoJones

KikoJones — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 05:03:24 +0000

"There has to be a happy medium: rock stars who act like rock stars but don't act entitled. Honestly, the best ones over the years have pulled this off."

Ah yes, the age old dilemma of maintaining the delicate balance between badass and asshole.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:45:24 +0000

Gross’s piece is such a fluff piece it hurts. One thing is detailing a band’s creative “process” (if Coldplay could claim to have one, that is – read the lyrics to Fix You and recognize your 13-year-old self writing in the diary you called a “journal”). Another is narrating a huge boring band’s personalities. Did we expect Chris Martin to have Ted Nugent’s balls? He better have not. If he does, I’m sure he’s smart enough to hide them. Print music journalism – there’s a reason great websites like this (and crap blogs) are popping up all over the place. Rolling Stone can’t get over itself, which is bad enough. Spin can’t get over Coldplay’s normalcy? Ugh.

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:03:56 +0000

There has to be a happy medium: rock stars who act like rock stars but don't act entitled. Honestly, the best ones over the years have pulled this off.

Everybody uses Kurt Cobain as the ur-text in the new self-effacing rock star model, and that may be true in terms of his influence, but it doesn't reflect how Kurt actually acted. Kurt was "an artist" because he was a glorious pain in the ass: not playing along with anything people wanted him to do, refusing to act like a leader even when it was called for, "passive-agressing" people to death (literally). He also pulled numerous small-bore rebel moves in his time: the intro to "Rape Me" on the MTV Awards, the little fibs he told journalists (without acting like a diva or refusing to do the interviews in the first place).

I like Coldplay fine, but Chris Martin could learn a thing or two from Cobain about letting his muse lead him rather than his public persona.

By: RaptorAvatar

RaptorAvatar — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:58:03 +0000

Do you really want a world where Coldplay is allowed to be cool?

By: DavidWatts

DavidWatts — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:05:01 +0000

@jetblackturd: To pick up on that Morrissey thing, I would say that where an individual's, ahem, needle points on the Swaggering Big Dick Scale has fairly little to do with how popular or talented a band is. It has more to do with, well, whether or not its members are giant cocks. Notions of how rock stars ought to behave aside, dealing with a bunch of guys who are giant assholes kind of sucks.

Related: Dicks, cocks, sucking and assholes. This comment turned into Savage Love and I barely noticed.

By: Lax Danja House

Lax Danja House — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:58:58 +0000

idk they may be spoiled arrogant morons, but I tend to relate more to the members of Motley Crue than I do some of these everyman bands.

Oh wait, that's the reason!

By: jetblackturd

jetblackturd — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:56:09 +0000

Maybe it's got something to do with the emerging new musical middle class that a lot of the guys in these new bands are just regular guys. But yeah, I agree that feigning disillusion at your own potential fabulousness is tedious and just so terribly straight. The Smiths were an indie band signed to an indie label yet Morrissey always referred to himself as a pop star. But never a gay man...ironically.

By: revmatty

revmatty — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:39:37 +0000

We can, of course, decide to start calling him Your Boy Wonder. Which I think we just did.

I also concur with Your Boy Wonder that sometimes Rock Stars should act like Rock Stars. And I'd rather that it be someone with talent instead of always being Kid Rock.

By: Al Shipley

Al Shipley — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:31:39 +0000

"But Your Boy wonders if the respective muckety-mucks of Spin and Rolling Stone can..."

For a second I thought your new handle was Your Boy Wonder. Kind of disappointed that it isn't, really.