The Internet was set ablaze with fury and outrage. Expletives were being spewed at an alarming frequency. Was this some new legislation on immigration or marriage? Or some protest for a war? No, not at all. This energy was being tunneled into one almighty question: Who the F*&%K is Arcade Fire?????
A week ago, after a fairly uneventful Grammys broadcast, people were extremely agitated with the fact that Arcade Fire won the award for album of the year. The tumblr site whoisarcadefire, dedicated itself to posting all of the lovely word vomit that was a direct consequence of this apparently earth shattering development. Really eloquent phrases like “I had never even heard of them before tonight so they must suck,” or “Congratulations to all 10 people who have ever heard of arcade fire before”, and my personal favorite “What the f*&K is the arcade fries?” littered this mecca of people so passionate about the fact that the latest pop phenomenon had not won an award.
All concluding, therefore that Arcade Fire deserved a painful and torturous departure from the music industry, simply because Bieber or Gaga was not declared the victor. The serious hate being circulated was a real surprise to me. Now the fact of the matter is that I am an Arcade Fire fan (they’ve actually been around for quite a while-fyi) but I am also an avid Lady Gaga listener as well. Clearly it’s okay to like both and not be considered a traitor to either party. The funny part was that a lot of the posts talked about hipsters and their crappy music, etc. My definition of a hipster deals with attitude, not clothing or music taste. If you act like a pretentious jerk who can’t have an open mind and who thinks their way of thinking is above others, then guess what? Yup, you’re a hipster. So most of these people bad mouthing Arcade Fire were acting like their own worst self-declared enemy. I guess they didn’t realize that “The Suburbs” has been on sale on Amazon.com almost every week since it came out, and has on multiple occasions been priced at $3.99. For this one site, it has on several occasions been the number one download, thanks in great part to this fact.
So, it is not completely unheard of that they would have a chance to win an award purely based on quantity and sales. The fact that people were making it out to be a talent assessment, well that’s illogical propaganda being circulated. So, I would think that if you are that passionate and connected to the Grammy’s it would be a true mark of a serious love for music. Seems more like a love for whatever’s playing on the radio, regardless of its merit. However, throughout all the hate, I think that Arcade Fire’s image has only grown since that fateful night. More downloads, more goggling, more Youtubing. These were all byproducts of their award. I say good for them. On the other side of the totem pole, some were upset that now the band was in the mainstream eye. Well that is why people start a band, to get their music out to as many people as they can. I do believe that music connects people. But it only works if the audience is willing to give it a chance. And for goodness’ sakes, if the same artists won the same awards every year, where would new ideas and fresh sounds come from?
Here is a relevant, yet entertaining skit from the comedy team of http://funemployedchicago.com:
After the cruelty of those Tumblr posts, I’m pretty sure another good video could be entitled “When vicious Bieber fans attack
