06.22.2003
It’s so heartwarming that Metallica has decided to exploit the poverty, violence, and other hardships endured by prisoners of the U.S. penal system to sell their new bad-ass image, rather than present themselves as the preening, coddled, rich musicians they are (although that comes through anyway), who just a year or two were distraught to the point of litigation over losing money to teenagers downloading their music on Napster. The bad taste in my mouth… is it metallic? Watch their new video, “St. Anger,” on mtv.com, if you can stomach it.
Update: 50 Cent’s new video, aired just ten minutes later, plays like the Bizarro World version of Metallica’s, this time with prisoners serenading their lovers over telephones and a glossy, soft-core conjugal visit scene. I guess this is also, in a way, exploiting prisoners, although less directly - does 50’s supposedly having been there make it OK? And did Metallica’s depicting real inmates on film and adding a dedication to them at the end make their posing any less offensive? In any case, chalk up two missed chances for popular musicians to say anything more profound than that spending some time in a prison proved they were tough.
comments 4God, they’re such an awful band! I agree—the influence of rap metal is strong here. Absolute tunelessness.
I can’t even look at Lars without thinking of Napster—talk about ruining your “anti-establishment” image!
Too bad those inmates *didn’t* take them hostage :-).
Posted by Buzz Andersen at June 22, 2003 03:59 PMMen are close to one another by nature. They diverge as a result of repeated practice.
Posted by Deangelis Andrea at January 25, 2004 09:39 AMThe company has grown substantially green card over the past few years and caribbean cruise is a family owned and operated ionic breeze company. The family centric dental plans focus is passed on to every link exchange product the company makes. send flowers The guy is a former marketing merchant account executive from Laycos, where human touch massage chair
Posted by las vegas hotels at June 6, 2004 10:41 PMmore shey.net
06.18.2003: one-sided
Salon’s Sahar Akhtar worries that downloading individual songs will be the death of the album cut and the “B” side. This seems like a poorly thought-out position that doesn’t take either the way music is really produced and listened to or the flexibility of e-commerce models into account.
06.23.2003: Buzz does WWDC
Not much for you here today, but be sure to head over to Buzz’s site for his perspective on the WWDC.
I saw some of this Metallica video last night, and had much of the same reaction.
I can’t believe they are still trying to be badass.
Metallica, please stop trying to be badass when everyone knows what coddled rich punks you are.
I also noticed they were trying to “fit in” with the new-ish sound of bands like Linkin Park, with, you know, the almost rap-like spoken word?
So. Very. Sad.
It was awful. I changed the channel.
Posted by Alanna at June 22, 2003 02:12 PM