Official GNR Social Media Update / Discussion

[SoulMonster]

2 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

Well that's a total misreading of what I said. At no point did I mention that 'money is a sin' or that a product is 'worthless' because it is advertised. 

Put simply - when you're already stinking rich, I find it pretty embarrassing that you'd be happy to do stuff that compromises the integrity you tried to build up in the past and contradicts previous principles in pursuit of even more money. 

I think the kids used to call it 'selling out'. And let's not pretend that people don't laugh at wealthy celebrities advertising tat anymore. 

It's just sad is all. Nothing personal, nothing deep. 

Sorry for misinterpreting.

"Stinking rich"? You do make it seem like being rich comes with some stigma and that it is somehow wrong to want to be even more rich. 

Actually, they haven't violated many principles, at least not principles they have disclosed previously. There are a few quotes from them about not wanting to "sell out" on merch....from when they were in their 20s. I guess that counts. But nothing much, really.

For most part, it is us, the fans, who tend to assign certain principles to them, to expect them to behave in certain ways, like the whole idea of "not selling out", which, it seems to me, just means you are not supposed to do anything that gives you lots of money. We are the ones who hold them to certain principles, and especially Duff who is supposedly "punk" and should therefore, by established rock law, always live in poverty and dirt. Which is funny since many of these artists who succeed at not "selling out", and are poster boys for the whole concept, would LOVE to have success and earn more money. But we are the ones who can't stand our idols succeeding above where we are; we met then when we were all young and idealistic, and we are still stuck in the rut dreaming of success and can't stand them enjoying it. We lie to ourselves saying that if we were in their position we would still have the idealistic mindset of youth and would deny the fans the joy of seeing us play large shows! We would do the show for little or no profit! We would deny them the joy of buying merch or just stick to "cool" merch! And little do we know ourselves.

The derision for artists who are successful to the point of becoming rich, amuses me.

And again, people change as they get older, and become less naively idealistic and, do I dare say it, get wiser? If they earn more money from playing shows fans want to attend and sell merch people want to buy, then they have my blessing. And I just hope they use the spare cash they get wisely. But regardless, as far as I am concerned, they have earned it.

[allwaystired]

22 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

Sorry for misinterpreting.

"Stinking rich"? You do make it seem like being rich comes with some stigma and that it is somehow wrong to want to be even more rich. 

Actually, they haven't violated many principles, at least not principles they have disclosed previously. There are a few quotes from them about not wanting to "sell out" on merch....from when they were in their 20s. I guess that counts. But nothing much, really.

For most part, it is us, the fans, who tend to assign certain principles to them, to expect them to behave in certain ways, like the whole idea of "not selling out", which, it seems to me, just means you are not supposed to do anything that gives you lots of money. We are the ones who hold them to certain principles, and especially Duff who is supposedly "punk" and should therefore, by established rock law, always live in poverty and dirt. Which is funny since many of these artists who succeed at not "selling out", and are poster boys for the whole concept, would LOVE to have success and earn more money. But we are the ones who can't stand our idols succeeding above where we are; we met then when we were all young and idealistic, and we are still stuck in the rut dreaming of success and can't stand them enjoying it. We lie to ourselves saying that if we were in their position we would still have the idealistic mindset of youth and would deny the fans the joy of seeing us play large shows! We would do the show for little or no profit! We would deny them the joy of buying merch or just stick to "cool" merch! And little do we know ourselves.

The derision for artists who are successful to the point of becoming rich, amuses me.

And again, people change as they get older, and become less naively idealistic and, do I dare say it, get wiser? If they earn more money from playing shows fans want to attend and sell merch people want to buy, then they have my blessing. And I just hope they use the spare cash they get wisely. But regardless, as far as I am concerned, they have earned it.

Oh I'm not really talking about GNR here....as they haven't actually flogged themselves off to adverts yet (speculation was that may happen after their demise so we shouldn't beat them for something they haven't actually done!). 

More the concept of it. There's a reason people like Cobain, Hendrix, Lennon etc are so well respected. The music, obviously.....but it's more than that. Imagine if Cobain had cropped up telling us about the joys of buying Coca Cola or taking a cruise? His legacy would be VERY different. 

No one is deriding musicians for being successful here. But is there criticism of high ticket prices and high merch prices? Absolutely. Everywhere on here and doubtless on lots of other forums.

Personally I think there is a huge problem with greed in the upper levels of the music industry, which seems to come at the expense of new and younger artists. 

I'm afraid no-one can really convince me otherwise on that one. 

I'm totally onboard with people making money- I mean, hell, I don't stream  anything on principle, and buy any album I want as I believe strongly in bands making money. But I'm not onboard with gigs costing hundreds because very rich people want a few more digits on the end of their pay cheque. People will always cite 'supply and demand' and stuff, but I'd just love to live in a world where things weren't based solely on money and rich people thought 'well, perhaps I don't need to make quite so much cash, and some of these people who don't have as much as I do might like a break and see us play'. 

Yeah I'm probably naive, but you know, fuck it. That's what I believe. 

 

Edited May 25, 2023 by allwaystired

[SoulMonster]

2 minutes ago, allwaystired said:

Oh I'm not really talking about GNR here....as they haven't actually flogged themselves off to adverts yet (speculation was that may happen after their demise so we shouldn't beat them for something they haven't actually done!). 

More the concept of it. There's a reason people like Cobain, Hendrix, Lennon etc are so well respected. The music, obviously.....but it's more than that. Imagine if Cobain had cropped up telling us about the joys of buying Coca Cola or taking a cruise? His legacy would be VERY different. 

No one is deriding musicians for being successful here. But is there criticism of high ticket prices and high merch prices? Absolutely. Everywhere on here and doubtless on lots of other forums.

Personally I think there is a huge problem with greed in the upper levels of the music industry, which seems to come at the expense of new and younger artists. 

I'm afraid no-one can really convince me otherwise on that one. 

I'm totally onboard with people making money- I mean, hell, I don't stream  anything on principle, and buy any album I want as I believe strongly in bands making money. But I'm not onboard with gigs costing hundreds because very rich people want a few more digits on the end of their pay cheque. People will always cite 'supply and demand' and stuff, but I'd just love to live in a world where things weren't based solely on money and rich people thought 'well, perhaps I don't need to make quite so much cash, and some of these people who don't have as much as I do might like a break and see us play'. 

Yeah I'm probably naive, but you know, fuck it. That's what I believe. 

The thing is, as long as people are buying the tickets then they are not priced too high. 

You could argue they artists should show solidarity with people who can't afford the high ticket prices and accept selling them at a lower price and accept less profits. But that's an argument that doesn't really stop anywhere, because it can always be applied. There will always be people not able to shell out money for tickets. So what's the conclusion, artists should give away tickets? And it is not like back in the 80s where the artists could just break-even on tours because they had their bread and butter income from album sales. Those days are gone. So unfortunately, the dynamics have shifted and concerts are for those with money enough to pay for them. I hate that shift myself, because live music is such an important cultural thing, but it is not entirely the artists' fault, nor is it easy to blame them as long as enough people are actually able to pay the ticket prices.

But this hasn't so much to do with the concept of "selling out", I think. Or, maybe that concept has become obsolete in today's music business. 

As for Hendrix and Lennon and Cobain, who knows if they wouldn't be playing giant tours today with the same ticket prices if they have lived? It is easy to not sell out when you die as young.

[allwaystired]

9 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

The thing is, as long as people are buying the tickets then they are not priced too high. 

You could argue they artists should show solidarity with people who can't afford the high ticket prices and accept selling them at a lower price and accept less profits. But that's an argument that doesn't really stop anywhere, because it can always be applied. There will always be people not able to shell out money for tickets. So what's the conclusion, artists should give away tickets? And it is not like back in the 80s where the artists could just break-even on tours because they had their bread and butter income from album sales. Those days are gone. So unfortunately, the dynamics have shifted and concerts are for those with money enough to pay for them. I hate that shift myself, because live music is such an important cultural thing, but it is not entirely the artists' fault, nor is it easy to blame them as long as enough people are actually able to pay the ticket prices.

But this hasn't so much to do with the concept of "selling out", I think. Or, maybe that concept has become obsolete in today's music business. 

As for Hendrix and Lennon and Cobain, who knows if they wouldn't be playing giant tours today with the same ticket prices if they have lived? It is easy to not sell out when you die as young.

Yeah the latter  point is very fair. Who knows? 

I like what The Cure are doing on their US tour. They seem to have had enough of it all.

I think we accept greed a bit too readily- we take it as granted that people need to make a million or so a night, which is outrageous when you think how most fans are living. 

[SoulMonster]

I think another problem is the near-monopoly of Live Nation. Artists might want to charge less but they need to make deals with Live Nation.

[allwaystired]

5 minutes ago, SoulMonster said:

I think another problem is the near-monopoly of Live Nation. Artists might want to charge less but they need to make deals with Live Nation.

Definitely. They've been terrible for fans and are probably terrible for artists too. 

[svdv]

I remember back in 2010 I saw Guns N’ Roses in Spain and the Netherlands. The ticket price in Spain was half of that what it was in the Netherlands. I doubt the band asked for less. So I’m thinking mojo just asked more because they could

[We love Axl Rose]

[Ratam]

Today is 40 years Axl plays final gig with Rapidfire, Ultimate Classic Rock have an interesting review about it.

[Stay.Of.Execution]

Holy shit. Axl rehearsed with the band

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=279363441180498 

 

[gnrjanus]

3 minutes ago, Stay.Of.Execution said:

Holy shit. Axl rehearsed with the band

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=279363441180498 

 

And sounding good!!

[Joraz]

12 minutes ago, gnrjanus said:

And sounding good!!

ngl kinda looks like new footage for a music video tbh

[VeeR]

 

[Eric Cantona]

17 minutes ago, Joraz said:

ngl kinda looks like new footage for a music video tbh

Copium incident

[VeeR]

34 minutes ago, gnrjanus said:

And sounding good!!

eh... well it sounds a bit better than some of the 2022 performances. I think the audio-mix of that video helps somewhat as they pushed Axl's voice more into the back and brought forward the background singers (Duff, Melissa, etc).

[Tom-Ass]

18 minutes ago, VeeR said:

eh... well it sounds a bit better than some of the 2022 performances. I think the audio-mix of that video helps somewhat as they pushed Axl's voice more into the back and brought forward the background singers (Duff, Melissa, etc).

Agreed. The mix made it sound ok but he still sounded very much like Mickey Mouse. Another song he could benefit by using his lower register voice. It could be very powerful. But nope

[TheSlashrose]

And there are some idiots saying that this video in the rehearsal studio means they were recording a new album

[Stay.Of.Execution]

1 minute ago, TheSlashrose said:

And there are some idiots saying that this video in the rehearsal studio means they were recording a new album

you're the first person who made the connection though. 

[Blackstar]

1 hour ago, Stay.Of.Execution said:

Holy shit. Axl rehearsed with the band

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=279363441180498 

 

He always rehearses before a new tour leg - at least since 2016.

[AxlIsGod.]

I'm not even sure this audio is from the rehearsal... it just looks to me like they took some 'Selects' KOHD chunk and half synced it up to a rehearsal clip. Can anyone spot the clip from elsewhere 

[jamillos]

31 minutes ago, AxlIsGod. said:

I'm not even sure this audio is from the rehearsal... it just looks to me like they took some 'Selects' KOHD chunk and half synced it up to a rehearsal clip. Can anyone spot the clip from elsewhere 

You're right, this is clearly just a collage. Well, good to see Axl anyway. 

[Stay.Of.Execution]

2 minutes ago, jamillos said:

You're right, this is clearly just a collage. Well, good to see Axl anyway. 

full rasp confirmed then

[axlvai]

The motherfucker is alive and looking good. That sunglases rocks.

 

[wendirosez]

3 minutes ago, axlvai said:

The motherfucker is alive and looking good. That sunglases rocks.

 

Couldn't have said that better myself @axlvai

[axlvai]

3 minutes ago, wendirosez said:

Couldn't have said that better myself @axlvai

That was my dopamine talking.