Posts
Green Day don't want to go to WalMart
You'd have thought - given their target audience tends to be the sort who still go shopping with their parents - Green Day would be determined to do everything they could to make sure their new record, 21st Century Breakdown, would appear on the shelves of WalMart.
It's too their credit, though, that they have refused the edits the store demanded and taken the loss of not having the record in the stores:
[I]n Armstrong's view, "There's nothing dirty about our record."
"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."
There is a wider point, though: WalMart say in their defence that they won't stock Parental Advisory stickered product, and it's up to the bands involved if they want to make a version which avoids the sticker.
You could ask why Green Day choose to rail against WalMart for rejecting stickered content, rather than at the stickering process in the first place.
You might even ask that if you support Tipper Gore types who don't like sweary music, in fact. Because surely WalMart refusing to stock the parental advisory stickers is not just an indication of prissiness on their part, but also that the sticker system doesn't really work. Because if stickering did keep kids from "unacceptable" content, surely WalMart would be just as happy to sell Green Day's album to its customers as they are, for example, to sell them the SAW movies?
7 comments:
"You'd have thought - given their target audience tends to be the sort who still go shopping with their parents"Slightly off-topic but this being true (which it is), I started to wonder, whatever happened to old Green Day fans? Are there purists out there who still hold a place in their heart for Dookie and all that? They were never my cup of tea but I seem to remember the fans at the time (they were slightly older than me) and yet I don't recall hearing anyone defend them with a "yeah but their early stuff was good" recently. Don't really know what my point was but you know... well... I'll stop.
(Actually now that I think about it I did hear a band in a pub a couple of weeks ago covering Good Riddance)
@Anonymous: I think you'll find our Simon is very particular about which middle aged men in mascara he'll listen to.
So you can buy guns and bullets in a Walmart, but not Green Day albums? Perspective is a bitch.
@Anonymous- '1039...' and 'Kerplunk' still sound good; power-pop, faux punk/teen romance records about not getting the girl. 'Disappearing Boy' is still one of the best things they've written.
@olive
You're right - they have to be balding at a faster rate than I am.
Now, I know you aren't talking about Brian Molko, Simon.
Are there actually any middle aged mascara wearing musicians who are still worth listening to? I mean I cringe even thinking about present day Robert Smith and I was a bit of a Cure fan. (I'll quote my first post and pre-emptively defend with a "yeah but their early stuff was good") Of course, it's not actually the mascara - I don't mind that.. It's mostly just that their current music is shite.
Somebody must be able to think of a mascara wearing musician who can prove me wrong!
Post a Comment
As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.