This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. Jordan Sargent, writing at Spin, with a detailed look at the what happened over at MTV News: It was a fairly gentle critique of a band who, pretty much anyone would agree, is no longer putting out its best music. Still, the article became an immediate source of trouble for MTV and it was quietly deleted after the band raised concerns with executives at the network. […] Hopper called a staff meeting two days later to discuss the situation. According to an ex-staff member who attended the meeting, Hopper explained that the band became aware of the article and threatened to remove itself from the MTV Europe Music Awards. And: Conversations between senior staff and artist representatives on the topic of what would be accepted on the site happened with some regularity. On July 5, 2016, Hopper told the staff that MTV was attempting to book DJ Khaled for various unknown projects, telling the staff that they might have to “nix” any writing on the producer “unless it’s like, KHALED IS GREAT.” Elsewhere, interference from artist reps was so pervasive that some MTV News editors spent part of this past New Year’s Eve haggling line-by-line with a chart-topping, platinum-selling, Grammy-winning female pop star’s publicist over a post in which MTV’s editors eventually agreed to cut one sentence. What a complete shit-show. Expand - View Original
God, imagine being upset that a band who was panned by a review might not play your award show. Like, if the music wasn't that good, why not just let them not play the award show?
Finished reading the entire article and this is ridiculous, on both sides. MTV for backing off of what their writers are writing, and the artists for being that offended by any slightly negative take. Places like MTV News, Pitchfork, Chorus, etc. need to be looked at as a bunch of writers using a platform. If Jason says "The Menzingers album is the greatest album of this decade" I don't walk around thinking "I can't believe everyone at Chorus.fm thinks that!" Homogenized opinion in a review source is awful, it's good for writers to have different opinions on the same thing, and it's good for artists to recognize that it may be the case.
Was thinking about this today. This is basically what happens now that the media isn't the gatekeeper any more. 20 years ago, bands couldn't say no to MTV. Now, if they don't like MTV and it's not playing ball (aka saying they're great), they can just say no to interviews and answer questions on Twitter or something or stream one of their performances instead of going to the VMAs. They don't have to worry about MTV not playing their videos since they don't play videos or give them attention on the MTV News site, since they will anyway. It does suck and sad to see MTV News bent their knee so hard, especially to a basically irrelevant band like Kings of Leon. Also sad to see Chance is too thin-skinned to take a little criticism.
Soooo what artists are they alluding to here. I was thinking Fall Out Boy & Mariah Carey but I'm likely way off.
I dunno much about FOB's team but would they really care that much about how they're portrayed in the press - especially at MTV? Were they scheduled to play that show, too? I wanted to think blink but even their team I doubt would be that petty and I am confident they weren't scheduled to play that show. Green Day? Maybe...
It says in the article who they refer to. Also shit-show is about the best way to describe this whole mess. Imagine having to work in an environment like that. A writer is inherently creative and free-thinking, and to be blocked from being able to say what you want to say is disheartening to say the least. It seems like the majority of them are better off now though.
I used to love watching MTV for 120 minutes to discover new bands back in the day. I think the stuff that went on in this story is absurd but I guess they were doing what they thought they needed to remain relevant. Years ago they could do whatever they wanted because they knew everyone was coming to MTV for music and info.
what a sad reality this is. Being a journalist and not being able to express your opinion on a bands music. I want to know what entitled shit stain artists think they are immune from a bad review? MTV needs to get a spine and let its writers write what they want and critique and artists music the way they should instead of letting some PR firm call the shots and control their own publicity. MTV is a joke nowadays they have lost sight of themselves and their vision years and years ago.
MTV fired pretty much all their best writers, so it's safe to say they're just going to be a PR firm.
Totally makes sense that the guys who were afraid of birds shitting on them during an outdoor show - and cancelled their set because of it - are concerned about negative press from MTV. What absolute d-bags.
They've interviewed some of the most iconic and important artists, politicians and actors of both past and present generations. So they have or, at least, had some cache in pop culture.
I want to know who the pop star was that they haggled with over what ultimately was one line. Other than that I was glad it actually called out the artists that got content removed.
I was at that show in St. Louis. These guys are the farthest thing from a rock band after pulling out three songs into a set because of it. The reality was they were too drunk and it was too hot.