| Editorial: A Plea For Punk Protest, BrokenCYDE on Warped Tour |
| Written by Will Angelos |
| Tuesday, 17 March 2009 06:49 |
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Note: This is a part of our editorial section and represent purely the OPINION of myself, Will Angelos. You may disagree and that is fine. I've been wrong before... Click Read More for the editorial that briefly crashed our site...
The sounds of the underground music scene have shifted and splintered more and more quickly as the years and Internet age have caused our attention span to wane. The Black Flag/Minor Threat punks wanted very little to do with the more pop sensible, less serious punks like NOFX. The NOFX punks wanted very little to do with the pop-punk movement of Green Day and eventually Blink 182. Then, punk and hardcore began to mesh more and more and we got the current, mainstream brand of "screamo," originally from Thursday and eventually an even less chaotic version in bands like Senses Fail. It is an extremely simplified version of events, but you get my point.
Surely, each generation falls in love with its own scene and thinks it is much more "credible" than the one that follows. In most cases, we know this often to be more of a superficial, elitist attitude than anything that merits any real consideration. Indeed, although the music argument can (and sometimes should) be made that a band has "ripped off" another band or the generation before it (See Botch if you think Norma Jean came up with their sound all on their own), in most cases we must accept that influences happen. Certainly, any music was in one way or another influenced by another that came before, albeit with varying degrees of mimicry.
What am I getting at? Senses Fail vocalist Buddy Nielsen is currently on tour with his band, accompanied by a band called BrokenCYDE, who unfortunately is getting the attention and ears of the youth of the underground music scene (Underground being debatable). Nielsen has been speaking out against the so-called "Crunk/Screamo/Electronica" band. Absolutepunk.net got in touch with Nielsen, and he told them, "Yeah, I slam them every night because in no way, shape or form do I back anything they do or say and I am embarrassed that kids these days are into it and am sad that kids these days are exposed to it. There is absolutely no substance whatsoever in their songs and no passion in anything they do. It is the musical equivalent of a snow cone, bland tasting frozen tap water loaded with sugar, yet colorful, that will give you a brain freeze, melt all over your hands leaving yourself dissatisfied and sticky. They seem like pretty harmless guys but if I don't voice my opinion on what I think about Brokencyde then I have no right to ever speak up about any other injustices to the music scene in the future. There are only going to be more Brokencydes in the coming months with Millionaires, Breath Carolina and countless other mindless white suburban hip-hop "acts" popping up. I never thought Id say this but this new wave of horse shit makes me look back and not hate Atom and His Package because at least he was original. I know I am not going to change anything, there will still be 14 year old girls that like their colorful merch and there terrible club beats but if I can make one person at least question the authenticity and integrity of singing the words "let's get freaky now, let's get fucking freaky now" then I think it is well worth the effort."
Certainly, some things could be directed toward Senses Fail in terms of their own credibility (even though our own reviewer Tom Good really enjoyed the new album so it is indeed up for debate). However, it would almost certainly be directed at them artistically and not at their actual lyrics or intent. The band seems to be doing what they believe to be artistically gratifying and, like them or not, that is something, at the very least, to be respected.
BrokenCYDE on the other hand obviously have no intentions beyond getting attention and making a few bucks along the way. The fact that their "music" is horrendous is essentially a given, but there are a lot of terrible bands out there. This is the Myspace-era after all. What is more unsettling is the fact that a band with their offensive lyrical content would be included on Warped Tour 2009. At the beginning of the BrokenCYDE song "BREE BREE" (Listening to the band for the first time based on this Senses Fail post), the band says the 'N' word. Don Imus was suspended from the national airwaves for a similarly racist remark (at least refraining from the N word). How could Kevin Lyman allow four suburban white kids to say this word and still be booked for this Summer's Warped Tour?
Does the underground music community now have less backbone than mainstream America? Loudhawk.com is asking everyone to go here: http://www.warpedtour.com/warpedtour/contact.asp and write Kevin Lyman to tell him you will not attend Warped Tour this year as long as BrokenCYDE is on the bill. Something like the following would work just fine (please remember a respectful, well-thought out letter is much more effective!):
Dear Mr. Lyman, I was planning on attending Warped Tour '09 this year until I was made aware of the fact that a band BrokenCYDE that uses racist, offensive lyrics was included on your bill. Certainly, every person has the right to free speech. However, I have the right not to attend as well. I plan to spread the word about this. It is sad to see that this festival that I grew up loving, that once stood for inclusion through its punk roots, has now sunk to this low in an effort to sell tickets (or perhaps you weren't aware, I hope). I will make every effort to see that this will hurt your ticket sells, not help them. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but there is no place for music like this in our community. They are spreading all the wrong messages and I believe you know it. Please do the right thing and remove them from the bill and I along with many others, will be happy to attend Warped Tour 2009. Sincerely, (Your name)
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Comments (13)
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INSANE response everyone! Gives me hope! While this isn't the most pressing matter in our world today, it is cool to see people taking action for something they care about.
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Reading this reminds how far we've come from anything resembling punk rock. To cry about this to the people at Warped Tour, and use offensive language as the excuse for not going, is the most pussy thing I've experienced in a long time.
A Thread I started on the Warped Tour Website last year...
So I decided to stir the hornets nest of teenage crunk/screamcore fans to see what I'd get:
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i'm really sick to my stomach with your attempts to keep black culture away from the warped tour audience. there is nothing racest about a crunk group using the word nigga regardless of of the color of their skin. im happy these white boys are embracing the hip hop clture and the fact that suburban noise records has signed them shows they r a legit force in the hip hop community. This is not just a attack on BrokenCYDE this is an attack on every african american in the united states. please stop your boycott
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It's not about black culture at all. At least I don't think so. There have been some great hip hop groups that have played Warped in the past and brought in their own crowds.
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Haha, I never thought a response would be that I was, "attacking every African-American in the United States." I guess that's the interesting thing about opinions and editorials. I really feel like it does matter who says it though. They don't have any idea about the thoughts and feelings that evokes in the black community so they shouldn't invoke it. Simple as that in my estimation.
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Thursday was the original screamo band? Botch invented angular heavy guitar parts?
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R5000, This is an editorial by someone not in Senses Fail. I am the owner of this site. I wrote it. I have nothing to do with Senses Fail. I only quoted the singer at one point.
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Also, in a little more defense as I'm not seeing how those first few paragraphs could totally ruin my cred (I SWEAR IT WAS FOR WARPED KIDS HAHA) I never said Botch invented anything in particular, but I'll stand behind Norma Jean completely ripping them off. It's obvious that's the only record Norma Jean listened to in writing their first couple records (I do recall hearing some Isis parts sporadically spread in there). |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 18 March 2009 14:31 |
