Now let me also try to make something completely crystal clear before I go any farther. If you happen to be a musician that got annoyed simply by the viral repetition or whatever, you’re not the subject of my rant here. See above, about how we all get tired of one thing or another. No, what follows here is about those folks who seemed to take some sort of bizarre offense at the very existence of the topic.
It was about conversations. I saw a LOT of these across my FB wall in the past 2-3 days. Virtually all of them not only talked about the bands mentioned but also about how they fit into the timelines of their lives. Not the bands but rather, how the concert experience came to occur. Where you sat, where you saw it, why you went. You know, actual conversations rather than the same ol’ picture shares, meme shares, hoaxes, and fake news links.
It was about nostalgia. A growing portion of the population doesn’t remember when “camping out for tickets” was a thing. If you DO remember, odds are you have some fond recollections to go with the uncomfortable attempts to sleep and freezing your butt off.
It was about shared experiences. “You were there too? We didn’t even know each other then, how funny is that?” and “do you remember that one guy, down toward the front, who kept trying to …”.
I was there, you were there, that’s a connection.
I’m looking back through the things I saw and find myself even more perplexed by the angst they seemed to generate for some people. I don’t see anything that does another musician any harm. I don’t see anything that diminishes anybody in any way. I don’t see anything that requires any more effort to ignore or avoid than any of dozens of things that must surely upset the equilibrium of these hyper-sensitive souls every single day of their glaringly unhappy existence.
Well buttercup, if you think those lists yanked your chain, let me show you what a REAL tug on it feels like: take your pitiful little complaints, shine ’em up reaaaaal nice, and shove them up your tightly puckered ass. You’re either so pathetically self-centered that you can’t fathom not being the center of attention for fifteen (more) minutes and you’re just pissed that everyone isn’t kissing your feet & posting about youyouyou OR you’re so out of touch with how actual humans connect with each other that you’re unlikely to contribute much, if anything, to the social media sphere. Don’t go away mad, just go away.
Ah hell, who am I kidding? As long as you shut the hell up with the whining, I don’t really care if you leave mad or not.