"Rockism" is killing music (it might be too late...) 

We all know that music peaked exactly when my adolescence ended and everyone else is wrong

I dont think I have ever in my life considered how well an album has sold. I cant imagine ever caring. If I like it: I like it.

I've never even heard of the term "rockism."

This isnt just a rock thing, it happens in rap as well.

One justified part of rockism is not wanting to pay $45 for a concert to watch someone lip sync.

"Why do we need new bands? Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact."-Homer Simpson

I agree with a lot of what you said, but, for me at least, authenticity and originality will never stop being important. It's the reason you can have innovation in popular music at all.

No. It’s the over commercialisation of music, and turning the artform into nothing more than a vehicle for profit. Being critical of a subgenre, subculture, ideology or set of values is necessary.

Rockists are posers too. Everyone knows real music is one-man black metal recorded on a 4 track in the basement of a cabin in Northern Finland during the dead of winter. And if anyone hears those tapes before the artist self-deletes, they're posers too.

I'm all for being open minded about art, but it's incredibly rich for Lizzo to call anyone else an asshole after the stunts she pulled against her staff.

Another thing that might drive _some_ these 'rockists': They actually care about their culture and don't want the entire scene and artform to be replaced by all sorts of new tech-gimmicks every other year. They want it to have some semblance of a natural nerve instead of being diluted into some piece of automation. When we look at history, it's not a usual things for every cultural facet to be replaced every year or decade, because an industry wants to throw it all out to make something else cool and replace entire culture after a few years. And the industry rules most of it and determines what people think are cool. It's controlled top-down.

Live performances prove to some people that a band isn’t just a computer generated song (computer generated guitars, drums and bass, auto tune). In some generes like reggaeton and rap, concert goers get bummed when the artist is just yelling some words or lines from the song and the song is just being played in the background with vocals and all.

“Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” -Robert E Howard

I agree with most of your points here, the one thing I don't fully agree with is the live performance thing, like yeah don't limit an artist on if they can use backing tracks, but what annoys me is when a band actually can't play their instruments as well as their studio released songs, I really think some artists are just not meant to be live performers, especially if they can't actually play the songs they've released.

I think the thing with a lot of producers is that its never marketed that way. Its marketed as an album by MGK. Its supposed to be his creative vision. And then when he has a whole army of people who helped him people start to wonder if its really MGK's creative vision, or the creative vision of the label that hired all the producers.

Eddie is talking about main vocals and instruments. Not orchestral or other things that can't be done live. A lot of artists are lip syncing full performances.

There's a level. I saw a band last year that straight up didn't care. For good lengths of time, the guitarists and bassist didn't bother strumming or fretting - and the music didn't change one iota. Their stage instruments were 100% backing tracks. Essentially, the performance was just karaoke. Yes, the general audience still LOVED the performance. Here's the issue: 1) When backing tracks go from adding a few elements - such as orchestral thickening sounds in rock - to what I'm going to dub "forward tracks" - replacing the sound that would normally be generated by the instruments on stage - it's gone to far. This is the point where you basically have cool model looks on stage and session musicians doing all the work behind the scenes. Authenticity still matters at least a little bit. Otherwise it's just a joke some are in on it, some aren't.

Its all about Crabcore, we wouldn't have jazz without crabcore, we wouldnt have opera and classical music in the 1600's without crabcore and we wouldnt have the golden age of hiphop without crabcore,

This seems to be an incredibly small problem to complain about. The actual problem is the complete opposite. Most people in the world have never stopped to critically reflect on the media that they are offered, and couldn't express at all what they like or dislike about something. As you yourself said, there is more music being released daily than anyone could ever listen to in a lifetime. That being given, you should be extremely discerning and discriminating about what you spend your time on. Snobbery is a good thing and we need it to protect ourselves from being inundated with subpar, mediocre trash.

is it "rockism" if someone uses a AI text to music program to make a song instead of hand crafting it themselves? People are entitled to their opinion weather it's rockism or not.

In the larger scheme of things, with AI soon to swamp the streaming services, the idea of people actually playing an instrument and playing it live will likely be a huge validation of being human and not AI

This only matters if you let charts dictate your musical taste. Music is around. It will be around long after we forget how to spell blibroad.

Well, first off, it doesn't necessarily sound "worse" live just because there's aren't six or eight guitars playing at once. That's just pure bullshit. Tons of bands in the 70s and 80s used multitracking in the studio and still made it work live. Anybody who's ever visited a guitar store knows there's tons of foot pedals that can make one guitar sound like several guitars. Hell, Les Paul could do that in the 50s.

In college (12-14yrs ago) I was super pretentious with music. Looking back now, it's cringe. Now I listen to and enjoy whatever I like without regard to it's cultural significance or technical skill or it's uniqueness.... I listen to less variety now but I still enjoy what I listen to because I've learned more about what I really like about music, so I've settled into my tastes. And it's actually quite freeing!

Sum 41’s acceptance from some hard rock and metal fans wasn’t merely due to then name dropping Iron Maiden. They sounded closer to metal than Blink or any of their pop punk contemporaries. Their guitarist was also influenced by technical players like EVH, which really comes through in the solos.

Rockism is literally the new jazzism over 50 years ago. A prime example is Miles Davis was called a sell out for going electric or what qualify as jazz or "authentic jazz".

Most of the times when someone is writing an article or recording a rant about "music" the term they should use instead is "the mainstream", which is a topic which its mere existence I don't even care about.

I only need to use one word to destroy all of the strawman arguments presented here: _authenticity.._

Another rockism trope i can't stand. Musicianship is a competition.

Finn showed up with the gloves off! I was curious what shift would happen after your channel update a few weeks ago. This is an exciting direction. Not only was the subject matter engaging, I don't think I've heard that kind of energy in your voice in several months. Keep going with these passion projects!

Making 90's Techno, I thought that something like "Rockism" was preventing most people from enjoying it! I thought - Techno, Rave, Industrial - these are the "Alternative" from "Alt Rock"!

PLAYING LIVE: you don't sound 'worse' if you don't have the 12 guitar tracks u did in the studio, U LEARN how to make it work with your ACTUAL HUMAN BAND MEMBERS, and that's called the 'live version'. A lot of times I've heard live versions of songs and yeah, it sounds DIFFERENT, not 'worse', sometimes BETTER! The hatred of backing tracks is MORE about people who can no longer sing and are FAKING.

The problem is the kids who grew up wanting to be rockstars are the same kids today who want to be RU-vidrs. The dream has changed.

We live in a time where every regular person has a “voice”. However, just because you have a voice, doesn’t mean we want to hear you sing.

I do think that there's an issue with a band not being able to mostly replicate their music without who's on stage and playing their parts.

It’s been rough for ol’ rock lately. The top bands for the last 20 years have all been bands that were around in the 90’s and 00’s. We desparately need new blood in the mix but this is not it. Lol.

Finn, you and Rick Beato should have a debate on this

I hate the term Rockism because its tenets are not specific to rock music, and can be applied to all genres and even all art in general. Also, a lot of the points come across as straw man fallices the way they are applied as rock specific statements. A lot of people have a favorite genre or styles of music and feel like its better than other styles/genres. Generational divides happen all the time, in other genres. Hell, progressive rock was invented to fight back against the idea of old boomer Jazz elitist.

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I feel like in the case of the laptop situation, the best thing bands can do when stuff like that happens is ask the fans what they're comfortable with. Maybe their fans would be pretty stoked to attend a large scale "Unplugged" session. Maybe they will find a new way to enjoy the band when it's more stripped down. Maybe they'd be fine with waiting a few extra days or weeks for the band to fix their problem. I think they'd appreciate being consulted.

I'm going to disagree on two points. I think it's fine to use backing tracks and electronic equipment to get the sound you need live. It condenses a lot of the equipment you have to haul around and simplifies a lot of things. That being said there is a fine line between using it as a tool and using it as a crutch. It's like Snapchat filters. You're dressing yourself up and people know that, but there is such a thing as fans calling you out for overusing it. For example, I love Starset and they would not be able to get the theatrical IMAX sound they do without a bunch of backing tracks and electronics. But when you watch them you know they're not leaning on it to support their show. The second is that the studio version makes me want to see a band even more. Not having access to a live band is one thing, like distance from venues or a band not hitting your city on a tour, but if a band I like is coming through I'm gonna see them. And I want them to be just as, if not better than their studio sound. That's what I love about guys like Iron Maiden, where their live performance is better than their studio one. It's perfectly acceptable to say that you weren't impressed by a band's live performance because they couldn't reproduce what they did in the studio. I wouldn't call that rockism or gatekeeping, it's just calling it out for what it is.

I decided Post Malone was acceptable when I found out he plays Magic TG.

Today I found out I am a "rockist" and I am fine with that.

I always liked Kraftwerk's concept of "Lautsprechermusik": if whatever comes out of the speaker is good, it's good.

My favorite rockism take is "This song is harder to play, therefore it's better" Edit: I'll elaborate for the dense, this was sarcasm.

Agree with you - but the backing track thing is considered a slippery slope - from bands that use it honestly to enhance the human/live element, and other bands (like the Eagles) who use it to lie to the crowd. We just don't like being lied to. I don't mind hearing a 100-piece orchestra that I can't see. I mind not knowing that Don freaking Henley isn't actually singing Desperado while pretending he is...

Thank GOD someone addressed this. You giving credit to Post Malone shows you're a real music enthusiast.

I stopped getting my music critiques from Reddit years ago. Nothing useful about that garbage can.

More is not more. Overabundance might be killing music.

A lesson I learned about 4 years ago has stuck with me. A dear friend of mine was sharing with me a song that meant a lot to here. Before she played it, i made fun of Greenday, and you can imagine what I said. The song she played... was Greenday. From that day in, I never judged another person by what music they love. I still may not like Greenday, but I am happy there is someone out there who is touched by their music.

As a Hood White, I enjoy both Metal and Hip hop. I like Metalcore because they are mixing the two. My Homie is a guitarist, been best friends since childhood, he makes metalcore music. I want to be like Yelawolf and use rock in my Raps. I grew up on Ozzy, Faith no more, Metallica, Tool, Limp Bitzkit, Pink Floyd, but also grew up on Run DMC, Grand Master Funk, RA The Rugged Man, Beastie Boys, Boyz 2 Men, Slick Rick, 2 pac, Biggie, Mystical, and Em.

that screenshot of that reddit thread sums up my entire comment I was going to write here: "Everyone hates everything and it's exhausting". Games, Movies, Music, ...all this stuff's art and not a competition, I'm here to enjoy what I like and share it with whoever will listen and if they don't like some of it I will find someone else to share it with. I love those moments where I randomly find out someone else likes a band I've known for a few years and we can bond over the positive experience of talking what we enjoy about them like recently with Amaranthe and a friend who didn't know they had released another album again already (they're shockingly consistent with release output for a band which imo is only getting even better!)

People that like rock will like music that sounds like rock and dislike music that doesn't sound like rock. It's not rocket science, or wrong. It's just what it is.

Quite a few of your arguments are backdoors for Ai. If your a fan of things made by humans. Now, out of anytime in history is a good time to Gatekeep. Not just for rock, but all forms of art.

I have to say that being a very old fart who was lucky enough to see Elvis performing live passing thru deep purple, the cramps, the residents, Ramones, GnR, Metallica, pantera, daft punk, pryda, anyma…..and so many, many more I can say with certainty that I can remember fondly, happily the live performances with all the imperfections and raw angst of each and everyone of the musicians I heard live, compared with the times I’ve listen to them on a crappy am radio, walk-man to a very hi-end hi-if systems……there is magic that you send to the stage and it is also magic that you receive from the performer!

never hit an unsubscribe button so fast in all my life.

Oh man, you're going to strike a nerve with a lot of people with this video (but you're 100% correct). People don't want to hear this type of content, but it's important to be addressed!

There are a lot of good points in this video but I disagree pretty heavily with the take given on the massive credit lists of some of these albums. Part of what is so enjoyable about listening to an artist or band is feeling like you have a connection to those specific people. If a given song was written by a bunch of calculating industry veterans, then I start to wonder if the perspective and emotion I'm relating to is really genuine or if I'm just being manipulated for engagement. It's not a matter of pretentiousness, it's about feeling tricked and betrayed.

I prefer live performances. The voice cracks, the flubbed lyrics, the audience participation- it's amazing. The call and response of Magic Shop make me cry every time

This commentary is what gets traction on social media. Part of the fault with this feeling that everything is so negative lies with the social media platforms.

Have you considered people hate something cos it's not good?

People get mad about backing tracks because pop music is a theatrical production and they don't want to go to a theatrical production they want to go to a concert.

The only popular media that succeeds at becoming popular media is because there's a big budget for marketing behind whatever it is.

On the Falling in Reverse topic: I'm in a modern metal Band myself and we play mid-sized festivals in Germany. We use click in our In-Ear Headset to play perfectly tight to samples and Ambience tracks which are controlled by two laptops. We are doing that, not to subtract from our Show, but to add important show elements like ambience, bass drops, effects and so on. Our goal is to sound as tight and full as possible live, and i think that added Layers on the ambience, guitars, and vocals do a great job for that. Even we, as a compared to F.I.R. tiny band are somewhat dependant on our Laptops to ensure the best show with the best sound possible. I hope that helps some guys understanding why Laptops are important nowadays..

Id rather they be competent enough to play there own music and not need backing tracks... Live music is about energy not perfection.

The moment I clicked on this I thought I was watching a Fantano review🤣🤣🤣

It’s so hypocritical it hurts. Especially the “I’m more punk than you” thing yet basing everything they listen to and wear to the late 70’s early 80’s stuff and missing the whole point of just being yourself no matter what. Meaning no matter your style or form of music.

As a musician, it's very easy to pick through what is organic, good music and what's fake, cloned, computer generated "music"! All I'm gonna say.

You ever play to a backing track before? To some of the points of authenticity, I don’t necessarily go to a show to hear a song I like 1:1, I’m going to see them showcase their talent with their own music Got 7 guitars layered? Well figure out a blend of parts with two, and that’s part of what makes the live performance incredible for me. The musician point of view may be “elitist” too but it’s an aspect I disagree with in your video. It’s not to say backing tracks can’t be used, just use them tastefully. And that’s the problem right, how do you know how much or little they’re filling in with a recorded track. If I wanted to hear the song, 1:1 I’d pull it up on a streaming platform.

Constructive criticism is the fuel for evolution and change. You mentioned video games and movies which are mainly made to satisfy corporations and not the audience nowadays. Even though there are some highlights like Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Lies of P or Stellar Blade. In my opinion it also happens in music, there are amazing artists like Kendrick Lamar, Knocked Loose or Beyonce who manage to make music that is both enjoyed by millions and pushes the boundaries of the genre but nowadays we have tons of popular artists that don't use music as a way to express themselves but rather to gain short-lived popularity and it makes me sad. Call me a snob or whatever but if we accept everything without any criticism we'll grow indifferent towards something we once cherished.

Now, this is the Punk Rock MBA i like. Fuck what the metal nerds, we are here and we will stay for a long time.

There is no problem with co-writers. It’s just when these artists are presented as a million dollar stock when it’s really just worth 100 dollars.

The live performance is important because why would you pay money to hear someone who can’t sign anymore? Like taking back Sunday.

I member the biggest industry plant of the 90s was Bush

I'm genuinely surprised at your comments regarding live shows. Not because you're wrong mind you but rather because your channel always focuses on money and the financial aspect of music. In that sense, live shows are the life line of the music industry. Artists make most of their earnings from live shows, not selling albums, streaming revenues, etc. Therefore if a band is terrible live they will struggle to fill arenas and simply won't be financially viable. So the rockism aside, from the artists' perspective the live show is genuinely everything.

I disagree with the points presented in this video. Post-authenticity is a cleverly crafted consumer trend that makes almost everything immune to criticism. I enjoyed Post Malone's cover of "Them Bones" on Howard Stern. However, if we're being honest, it was simply a well-executed cover. It felt like watching an American Idol or The Voice contestant deliver a strong performance, but as always, it was overly polished and lacked genuine emotion. I don't have a particular issue with backing tracks, but at recent concerts I've attended, the artists relied on them so heavily that the shows felt bland and unappealing. The music lost its dynamic quality, and it resulted in strange situations like Madonna performing to a crowd of over a million people, essentially doing karaoke. While I prefer studio versions of songs, that doesn't mean I want to hear the studio version at a live concert. I would rather experience imperfections and mistakes than bland performances.

Here's the thing: hell yeah brother 👊👊👊.

I am a stage actor, with my forte being early modern practice, which essentially means audience on three sides of the stage, minimal set, and universal lighting on audience and performers. The same kind of thing applies there as it does in a live show: there is so much happening on and behind stage to make the show happen and look smooth and seamless. I feel like a lot of rockism idolizing the live show and hating any production involvement tend to forget that lots of great live performances extend to the stage hands, the sound techs, the blocking on stage, and other things that people who either are not part of that life, or just are ignorant to begin with take for granted. Sure, a minimalist performance of Merry Wives of Windsor that I was in might have seemed "raw and stripped back" but there was so much that went into making the actors look good and "natural" on stage. Same goes for live music performances. It is never as simple as "just go up an do it. I have plenty of horror stories about directors who think that they can just put professional actors on a stage and the play will come together. The same goes for these people who claim to value live music, but have no idea the kind of intricate dance that is required for making it look and sound great. TLDR: art is cool. and hard. don't be a cock.

The Beatles ended live shows in 1966 and focused on studio music: their music remained great but became more varied and interesting afterwards.

Really interesting video! just a few of my thoughts. For backing tracks, I feel like the distinction as to whether it seems weird/inauthentic or not is what the intended experience is. Is it a big production, with lights/pyrotechnics/dancers etc, or is it more of a performance, where an artist is performing their art. Backing tracks seem out of the ordinary if it's a local show in the back of a coffee house, where we're all screaming our hearts out, but they seem totally normal at a Slipknot/Taylor Swift/Post Malone show. But ultimately, my opinion is my opinion on midi drums as well. Anything that helps you create art is a good thing. For people criticizing if an artist sucks live, I think it's really dumb to entirely base an artist on their live show, but I feel like it's more about whether its worth the money/time to see them live. Sometimes people can really only afford to see a show once a year, so they want to know if going to it is going to be a good experience. Personally, I think it's always 'worth it' to support things you like, so hypothetically, If I hear an artist I like isn't good live, I would find a different way to support them, like buying a CD/Shirt/Poster etc. For critiquing production, I agree that a lot of people are just trying to find something to dislike, but sometimes it can be as simple as 'I really like this vocal line, I wish it was slightly more pronounced in the mix'. For Producers, I agree, But there is a degree of authenticity that goes into it. If an artist is claiming to be self made or DIY, it's disingenuous to do so if they have a bunch of producers/writers backing them. There is nothing wrong with having a large team when it comes to creating art, but if you do, don't pretend that you don't. I agree that I see a lot more people criticizing things than praising them, and I think some of that has to do with negativity selling better than positivity, Ex. any news station. But, that doesn't mean that art should be above criticism. Yeah, people are probably looking for something to complain about, but if something does genuinely suck, it's totally fair to voice that. That being said, there Is definitely a difference between people senselessly leaving mean comments on an artists page, and the plethora of allegations against Lizzo for being a bad person. If what is alleged is true, she 100% deserves all the hate she has gotten.

My band never plays any of the samples we have on our record. No one ever cares. We just play.

people criticising bands for using laptops live, when they spend their whole lives using laptops🤣

I agree with you on basically everything, it’s just that Doja Cat and Lizzo’s criticisms were deserved I think. I mean a lot of people aren’t too fond of the satanic appearances from Doja Cat and other artists, and Lizzo literally abusing her backup dancers for being too fat (while she herself can fill up a room). It’s unfair to judge based on personal music preferences, but it’s fair if artists are doing something immoral.

Good video, Finn. The only thing I really disagree with you on here is the bit about live shows. I dont have any problem with backtracks or laptops and I was completely on Ronnie's side during "laptop gate", but it is nice to know the band are capable of performing their stuff. Like when I pay to see an artist live, I'd feel cheated out of my money if they just put up a big screen with the album cover, hit play on the Spotify app, and that was the show. That would suck. Its all about finding that balance. I also tend to think the value of the live show is only going to increase as AI gets better and better at just generating highly produced songs.

But if you hate the hater, doesn’t that make you equal?

I don't think the obsession with authenticity is limited to "rockism." I think it's a natural reaction to an era where absolutely everything is fake.

Never heard the term rockism before, but as prog-metal fan, I obviously look down on punk rock.

I get the idea of artists occasionally co-writing and collaborating with artists/producers (it's extremely healthy), but when they don't even write their own music or have a full suite of producers/writers and they're just the artist I find that annoying. As someone who writes, produces and plays the instruments to her own rock music it bugs the hell out of me.

Even in more traditional fields you'll find this kind of mentality. For example, in woodworking some people only hand tools are valid so the majority power tools or CNC are seen as cheating, which is absurd.

I worked in Munich in a concert organisation firma, each weekend (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays sometimes) for rock and pop stars. From Simple Plan to Audioslave, Steve Vai,.InExtremo, Snoop Dog, Mel C, Limp Bizkit, Robert Plant, Kelly Clarkson etc. I was surprised about the fact that almost all of those "rebels" "antisystem" bands were who complain about the meals was not right served, the Moet &Chandon bottle was not cold enough, the toilet paper was not the right colour and consistence etc. while others I always thought were superficial, snobby or egomaniacs were the nicest and more down-to-Earth people. In rock Dept it´s almost everything fake..........

In my town, especially since COVID, there is a huge tribute scene where people get great opportunities to see quite high-fidelity tributes of these super cool popular old bands and I love the fact that this makes the live show more accessible to real people who can't pay hundreds of dollars to see the real thing that might only come to the country once a decade if we're lucky.

Why do people prefer live performances over studio recordings? Oh, I don't know, maybe because musicians actually play and perform LIVE?

Gotta say Finn, first time your gonna get a hard disagree from me. Totally agree with the idea that all music should not be compared to rock or that rock is the most authentic music. But, use of backing tracks and producers/songwriters is different. Your whole backing track argument seems very picky and choose. If all you care about it the best sound possible, the band should just go up there and mime. Why does one live guitar justify the use of 6 backing tracks? The Falling in Reverse thing was weird cause it just felt like they threw in the towel so quickly. People use to say "The show must go on", but they didnt even try to pull something out. Why not play a "stripped down" set with just the band or even acoustic set? And the producer/songwiter thing is crazy. How can we even call someone an "artist" if they arent making their art? If they didnt write the song and didnt play the music, how are they an artist? Your movie comparison was not a good one, cause no one involved in a movie is going around acting like they made the whole thing themselves. But there are plenty of "artists" performing other peoples words as their own. IMO, there is a huge difference between music made by a lone musician and music made by 15 people under one persons name. It just a lie and it should be called out. I feel that especially as the music industry is staring down the barrel of AI, authentic art is more important than ever. Some of the arguments you made in this video will soon be made by people trying to justify and pass off an AI generated piece of sound as their music. Should those people really be called "artists"? Should those people ever be held in the same regard as those who came before? The day that happens the music industry in truly dead. Its a slippery slope, people like you with big followings need to be carful what they endorse.

This video Is not only based on shallow opinion but also full of fallacies. It Is true that we are still collectively influenced by the idea of art of genious by the erly esthetic philosophy and that classic rock fandom Is toxic (just like any other fandom), but the issue with pop Is that Is becoming less authentic not onthologically but because Is being mass produced algorithmically in a very industrial, rathet than artisti al manner. Today's pop i cheap plastic disposable music, where very few people like Post Malone really reach a global fame outside a specific niche

I can recall a UK interview Björk gave in the 1990s, back when she was a new solo artist at the forefront of the burgeoning Electronica movement. She described Brit-Pop (which was then fashionable) as an unimaginative, regressive attempt at maintaining rock's traditional place at the top of popular music. Around the same time period, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails stated in a MuchMusic interview that he felt the rock scene had grown stagnant and that there was much more innovation happening in hip-hop. In hindsight, Björk and Trent were both railing against the elitist attitude of many rock musicians and fans (i.e., rockism). I personally dig a lot of rock but can find no fault in what they said. They make good points, as does this video.

I agree with pretty much everything you said, but I do want to say that it’s also ok to appreciate when a song or album does come largely from a small group or one artist, like if we can appreciate something is great when it comes from a large team, shouldn’t we inherently recognize how huge an accomplishment it is when something just as great is made by a small team or one person.

Yea I'm gonna have to disagree with you on this one somewhat. The humanity of the music is part of what makes it art. There's a good reason people don't like manufactured bands and music: because it's hollow. There's no human experience to feel, nothing to connect with.

Your rant about songwriting credit is so spot on man. That shouldn't even be controversial some of the all time greatest artists are collaborators. Marvin Gaye? Elton John? Trent Reznor? All master collaborators

Despite being a metal fan for decades, I still can't stand those gatekeeping elitists. They completely ruin things for everyone.

If my illusion of live performance is broken by some just hitting the space bar on a laptop, I WILL be pissed if the tickets were $50+. Also MGK is awful. I agree with everything else