Every alternative punk in the 90s knows Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins’ bald, amorphous, nasally-voiced lead singer. And he can sometimes be an idiot. Now he’s being an idiot about iTunes.
In an interview with Antiquiet, Billy Corgan blamed the “decline” of rock and roll — which, if you’ll look around, is actually in ascent, largely because it’s so much easier to reach an audience with iTunes than it once was — squarely on iTunes shoulders. Why? Because it’s too cuddly.
You don’t need an army, you don’t need a tank, you don’t need a bayonet. You just need a really good fucking idea. There’s something about a guy… just like Tom Morello had this quote on his guitar from Woody Guthrie: “This guitar is a fucking weapon. This guitar kills fascists.” Love kills fucking fascists. And when music is so goddamned fucking iTunes friendly cuddly, it makes me want to fucking puke. It’s not for everybody to be like that, but where is that voicing in the greater collective voices? Why don’t we have that anymore?
Deep, man, deep. Keep in mind, every album Smashing Pumpkins ever released is on iTunes. Heck, ebem Corgan’s follow-up band, Zwan, is there.
Don’t you just love it when rockers who have been nurtured and coddled and become millionaires through the studio system start lashing out at the new generation of artists trying to get their music out in any way they can as somehow lacking their edge?
What a doof.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
13 responses to “Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan Says iTunes Is Making Rock Too “Cuddly””
Yes, God forbid publishing music be made easier so more musicians can be heard. We should definitely go back to the time before iTunes and YouTube where musicians had to have a recording contract to be heard by anyone outside of their local scene.
The only one being an idiot is you for calling someone an idiot because they don’t like what iTunes has done to the industry.. He makes a good point. Anyone and their brother can release music nowadays and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Every once in awhile you find a rising star but for the most part it floods the genre with complete and utter crap and for a consumer like myself, it’s hard to weed through it.
So we should only allow musicians to be heard if a record label says they are worth a shot? We shouldn’t be able to judge for ourselves if its a good song or not? I’ve heard plenty of Indy bands in the past few years I’d never have been able to listen to if it weren’t for places like iTunes.
Maybe he should make a good album, then he wont be so bitter about iTunes. Oceania is terrible. It’s really sad to hear how much he’s lost it. I honestly think Billy is tone def :(
Hey Brownlee,
I wholeheartedly agree, record labels shouldn’t speak for us and our tastes … paradoxical I guess … but I will also admit that he, along with other big players of the industry, like MJK an his explanation to his unsigned approach of Puscifer, makes extremely good points and insight as to exactly where the industry is heading because of outlets like iTunes. It’s something we should embrace, but it’s not necessarily the “best thing since Elvis” for the genre.
calling someone an idiot because they don’t express the same opinion as you is the single biggest thing that is tearing the entertainment world around us down from the inside out.
Corgan has only had like 5 good songs in his whole career. Maybe that is why he is so angry?
Give it to Apple Fanboys and incendiary bloggers who don’t know the difference between a noun and an adjective.
Give it to Apple Fanboys and incendiary bloggers who don’t know the difference between a noun and an adjective.
Who?
And when music is so goddamned fucking iTunes friendly cuddly, it makes me want to fucking puke.