More Publicity for Atrocities Against Music

Is there a Paramore/Millionaires tour in the future?

About a week ago Hayley Williams took part in a chat on Absolutepunk.net where she answered questions from fans about the new album, tours, zombies, and oh yeah - her open hatred of the Millionaires.  Their first summer not on Warped Tour since the band's inception, when asked if Paramore would be back on the popular tour in the future Hayley answered with this gem: "If it were up to me alone, then we'd be on every Warped Tour for the rest of our touring career. Even if Millionaires were the only other band... not."  She became even more candid as the night and the chat went on, responding with a simple "I think it's bullshit" when asked how she felt about scene icons Pete Wentz and Gabe Saporta being a contributing factor to the Millionaires exposure.  Her distaste is not limited to the Millionaires, but aimed at the whole genre of crunkcore, which she thinks is "sad."

And Hayley Williams is hardly the first or only artist to speak out against crunkcore.  Senses Fail's lead singer Buddy Nielsen spoke against BrokeNCYDE pretty much every night of the Saints and Sinners Tour, of which BrokeNCYDE opened for. Friend Anthony Raneri of Bayside, who I'll get to later, posted a blog entry with Buddy's explanation of why he bashes BrokeNCYDE.

"I am embarrassed that kids these days are into it and am sad that kids these days are exposed to it. There is absolutely no substance whatsoever in their songs and no passion in anything they do. It is the musical equivalent of a snow cone, bland tasting frozen tap water loaded with sugar, yet colorful, that will give you a brain freeze, melt all over your hands leaving yourself dissatisfied and sticky."

The thing about crunkcore is not just that it's annoying and causes bleeding of the ears, but the worst of it has actually become offensive in a lovely variety of ways.  The lyrical content is bad enough, with its misogynistic connotations, promoting date rape as if it's okay, and simply lacking in any artistic qualities, however they also offend those who actually work for their music and success. The previously mentioned Anthony Raneri wrote a blog entry revealing his shock and disgust about such bands

"Do you know that people actually listen to Brokencyde? I’m not kidding. There are people in this world that actually listen to that shit. What is the world coming to? I’m all for people making music and doing their thing, but there is making music and then there is making a mockery. What a joke."

The backlash has gotten to the point that it's no longer limited to the bubble of such communities of Buzznet and AbsolutePunk, mainstream publications like the Boston Phoenix and the New York Times are criticizing these bands as well.  The article from the Boston Phoenix refers to what we call crunkcore as "scrunk" - a hybrid of screamo and crunk.  At first I thought scrunk sounded gross, but then I realized that's what makes it so fitting! So from now on I'm going to use scrunk, join me won't you?

The article quotes AP.net's founder and CEO Jason Tate and how he "has been absolutely stunned by the mere existence of brokeNCYDE," saying that "They're just that bad, and they epitomize everything that music (and human beings) should not be."

The Phoenix goes on to reference Jessica Hooper, a musician and author who "traces the sound's influence back to 2005, when Panic! At the Disco first mixed up emo and electronics, much to the delight of mainstream music listeners."

OH NO SHE DID NOT!

I'm not even going to address the emo thing, because we all know we're just kidding ourselves at this point.  But a lot of bands use electronica now, and sound nothing like BrokeNCYDE, not to mention the fact that Hellogoodbye was doing that in 2004.  Frankly I don't see how someone can draw the conclusion that there's a significant connection between "So testosterone boys and harlequin girls/ will you dance to this beat and hold a lover close?" and "Let's get freaky now, let's get fucking freaky now."

Warped Tour co-creator Kevin Lyman makes a much more logical connection, saying 3OH!3 was "the real tipping point for scrunk," a connection I myself made in my journal "Why Some Bands Suck More Than Others".

Interestingly, this article did allow members of the scrunk acts defend themselves. Here's what Millionaire's Melissa Green had to say:

 "As a role model, I don't think what we say is what the younger girls should really look up to saying or doing. The three of us are role models in that we never had the musical abilities to actually play instruments and play guitars." 

So we're supposed to look up to them because they're not talented and didn't work to get where they are? We're supposed to look up to them because they don't deserve to be where they're at?  Please scroll to the top to see my answer for this.

The New York Times is the most recent media outlet (that I know of) to address the atrocious trend. They described BrokeNCYDE as a "gauche mash-up of hip-hop, screamo, punk and whatever else shuffles up on their iPods." That's the New York Times for you, and I know their description of Long Island's Warped Tour is better than anything I could paraphrase, so bare with me for one more block quote.

"It was Millionaires, though — three female rappers whose committed, dim music suggests an anime porn soundtrack — that made people take a stand. First came a dig from the otherwise charming Paramore-would-bes Kelsey and the Chaos!, playing a few hundred feet away: “Thanks for choosing us over the Millionaires.” Then there were the bottles, raining down at a furious clip. (“So many presents!” the group joked.) And when Millionaires finished, the metalcore band Vanna began on the adjacent stage with the snarling proclamation, 'We make real music.'"

So what do you think of all the negative publicity the "scrunk" acts are getting? Is all publicity good publicity?

And what about people like Hayley Williams openly speaking out against them? Is it tacky or does it show guts and self-assurance?