Album Rating: 5.0

Dammit, I promised my friend floor tickets to the Seattle show as a wedding present and now I am on the hook for something like $800 between the 2 of us

Album Rating: 3.0

Get them an espresso machine if you're forking over that much dough.

Album Rating: 2.5

I’d say a concerts better than an espresso machine but yeah you really cornered yourself there

Album Rating: 5.0

i will not stand for this rewind slander

Album Rating: 1.5

He is right you know.

Album Rating: 1.5

It's still absolutely ridiculous what you have to do and spend to see your pop idol live.

Album Rating: 3.5

More than anything rewind reminds me of the bookends, though I have to listen to this album again--but it's hard to see singling that one out as "terrible" if you at all enjoy the album's aesthetic. then again taste is mysterious...

Album Rating: 5.0

actually watched a really great 30min video explaining why so many us arena tours seem to be flopping and getting canceled this year (including this charli tour):



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a51dNIIGjDU



tldr ticketmaster is the devil but it was pretty fascinating to see all the logistics laid out this way

Album Rating: 3.0

@Alex,



Without watching the video, I've heard that one of the other issues are labels pushing newish artists into doing arena runs after 1 or 2 hits. Then charge folks astronomical prices (coupled with Ticketmaster's thievery) to see mediocre to shit-tier shows because these artists don't produce shows worth the asking price.

Album Rating: 5.0

yeah the bubble is bursting because labels are pushing them and ticketmaster has a de facto monopoly on the venues. There are so many middlemen who view the artists as short term investments that have to be wrung out for all their worth with only a hit or two and a single album because the odds are low for them to be relevant longer.



Labels don't develop artists anymore.

Album Rating: 2.5

money grab comes with the territory of pop music so kinda on yall for being fans lol

Album Rating: 3.5

huh? "money grab" must exist on some sort of spectrum--it wasn't always this bad; why give in?

Album Rating: 5.0

@christ yeah that's definitely part of it... but artists are kinda forced(?) to charge those astronomical prices in order to fund an arena tour. all the screens, lights, dancers, fireworks, the labor force that sets it up and takes it all down every day etc... nobody wants to attend an arena show that doesn't have all that but at the same time no one wants to pay those prices (taylor, olivia, and springsteen being the exceptions right now).



many artists these days who do arena tours simply aren't actually big enough to be doing them without losing money. and especially with popstars, it seems labels/management have been falling into the trap of mistaking social media followings for actual fans (jennifer lopez).

"money grab comes with the territory of pop music so kinda on yall for being fans lol"
oblivious tool fan moment

Album Rating: 2.5

it has always been this bad and always will be for commercialized music because thats the point of it is to be profitable and anything else is secondary. there is no spectrum. even if the singer songwriters may be genuine and altruistic in nature (very rare), the industry will always be the ones to determine margins, and those margins will always be in favor of maximum profitability

Album Rating: 2.5

lol i just came from making fun of tool fans in the fear inoculum thread johnny, weird choice of pigeon holing

Album Rating: 3.5

"it has always been this bad and always will be for commercialized music because thats the point of it is to be profitable and anything else is secondary. there is no spectrum." ok yes the profit motive remains consistent throughout all human history or capitalism blah blah but to say that its been the same in the 1930s as the 60s as the 90s as now is just unnuanced

the point of popular music is to speak to a large audience
the point of commercialised music is to rake in heaps of cash
yes, these two things exist in the same market and yes, it's often nebulous where one ends and the other begins within single artists (charli is not a good example here, as it's usually patently obvious which of her material is more commercially aligned), but it's putting the cart before the horse to reduce pop music as a whole to a money racket. any artist successful enough to rip off its fans is going to be used as such if their act is large enough to have significant industry involvement and/or if they're genuinely a bunch of stooges - hence Tool - but this is a deeply lazy lens to analyse them on the level of individual artists

Album Rating: 4.5

I'm just happy I got to see Janet Jackson for $30 this year

Album Rating: 3.5

Bro I'm jealous as hell. Was thinking of dropping a lot to see her in Connecticut with my gf who grew up on her music...but nay