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We’d Just Like To Say This About The Continuing Flap Over Arcade Fire And Esperanza Spalding: Fuck You, America


No it’s not, asshole. You’re just a spoon-fed rube. As evidenced by the fact that you’re talking
to DOG THE FUCKING BOUNTY HUNTER on Twitter.

Now, look: We’re no great fans of Arcade Fire (in fact, we kind of loathe them) and Esperanza Spalding might be better on paper than in reality (go away from the smooth jazz ledge, girl), but when both won Grammys on Sunday night — apparently violating Justin Beiber’s foul birthright and inspiring a kind of Beiber Nation jihad — we were like, “OK, fair enough.” But the continuing backlash against the two winning acts has evolved/devolved into a rather telling meme: Whoisarcadefire.tumblr.com collects incredulous and dismissive tweets about the situation, and frankly, it’s pretty disheartening. Why? Implicit in this over-reaction is a whole knee jerk impulse of “I don’t know it, it must suck.” And in a nutshell, it’s why we’re becoming a third world country. Bear with us here: The impulse here — to hate the new — is basically the same as the other impulse to hate “Other.” This is the very same impulse that gave us Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. And with Arcade Fire And Esperanza Spalding, we’re merely seeing that impulse played out among our junior citizens. Not cool. You’ve made a lot of small-minded and ignorant little people, America — this much we know by merely flipping on cable news — but worse still, you’re making more of them. And as usual, they have awful taste.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 at 10:02 am.

  • http://www.thehighstrungloner.com HighStrungLoner

    Idiocracy.

  • http://www.awellrespectedman.com awellrespectedman

    “And in a nutshell, it’s why we’re becoming a third world country. Bear with us here: The impulse here — to hate the new — is basically the same as the other impulse to hate “Other.” This is the very same impulse that gave us Sarah Palin, the Tea Party & Pittsburgh Steeler fans.”

    the 610 struggle

  • MichaelJackSauce

    I was listening to a review of the Justin Beiber movie on NPR the other night, and one of the claims of the Beiber camp is that he is different from the other teen idols in that he wasn’t hatched in a disney studio.

    Here is what I call the Beiber Paradox: Young kids have so much media at their disposal, they can find things that interest them on their own… but it turns out the things they are interested in are pretty much the same thing adults in corporate media have been pushing on kids for generations.

  • mufffin

    stupid people hate it when their opinions aren’t reinforced.

  • endswithaW

    Thanks for the timely yet pointless commentary on 2010′s musical landscape. Maybe next week you can wax philosophical about Egypt and Iran?

  • tips

    @endswithaW: That comment cannot possibly be about this post. Where else did we peepee in your Cheerios, son?

  • delacruz

    The more important question is, why the hell do we still care about the grammys? Didn’t the grammy awards lose its credibility a decade or so ago? At this point the grammys are only good for talking the next day about how stupid the grammys are. I think Esperanza Spalding’s record was weak and that she can’t hold a candle to meshell ndegeocello as far a bass badassery goes. And the irrelevant grammys did nothing to change that.

  • mordesquitos

    I didn’t expect the Tea Party – Spalding haters connection to come this way. I thought they would irrationally hate her just because she was the act Obama chose to bring to Oslo to play the Nobel gala.

  • shawnkilroy

    last time i gave a shit about the grammys, Michael Jackson had Webster on his lap.

  • PooSteam

    I thought Esperanza Spalding was the catcher for the Phillies?

  • La Mar

    But I like Arcade Fire, Bieber, and Sarah Palin. And tea! Shit.

  • http://zoestrauss.blogspot.com zoestrauss

    Two words: Milli Vanilli