Jul
2007
Live Earth Afterthoughts
I watched the majority of Live Earth, and while most musical acts stuck to the core message of fighting global warming, there was one that seemed to miss the point completely; the Smashing Pumpkins.
Towards the end of their set, Billy Corgan, lead singer and founder, took a moment to promote their new album, Zeitgeist
Really, Billy, you felt this was the best venue to not only self-promote, but to also scold two billion people watching you on television around the world? I didn’t hear anyone else mentioning their latest projects. I didn’t hear anyone else taking this time to bring up online piracy. Nope, that was just you.
No matter what your stance on global warming is, it was the central point of the entire event, and of all the acts I watched, you were the only one I saw do this. Good job, Billy, really, way to show you got the whole point of the day. If you didn’t have anything to say about it, then just thank every one for coming out, suggest they take some literature home with them, don’t berate the entirety of the viewing public for the actions of what amounts to only a small percentage of the audience.
It just struck me as fairly classless.
Shari | July 9th, 2007 at 11:24 pm #
I think that his comment is a reflection of his dismay at being a much poorer selling act than during the Smashing Pumpkins heyday. It’s a lot easier for fading acts to blame downloads for their poor sales than to accept that they’re not as good as they once were and people have lost interest in them.
It’s not only classless but rather pathetic.
Sean P Aune | July 10th, 2007 at 9:06 am #
Shari – You hit the nail on the head. And I think it’s telling of the whole industry. “Sales are down! Must be those evil pirates… not that we’re producing crap in a factory mentality…”