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Gene Simmons Threatens Anonymous Again and Gets DDoS'd
BussyB writes "Rather than shutting him up, the 'Operation Payback' DDoS attack on his websites only made Simmons more angry and outspoken. None of those threats seemed to bother Anonymous, however, and the group promptly launched another DDoS attack on both of Simmons' websites and rendered them inaccessible once again."
I noticed you didn't say "the most talented musicians"
Absolutely not. Without highly knowledgable producers/engineers, most mainstream artists wouldn't be given a glance.
When it comes to music, high production values and experience can trump talent.
Living With a Nerd
The largest and most successful musicians are the ones that most effectively act as employees of powerful record companies. Part of being an effective employee of those companies is believing them when they say "X is the reason why your sales are down".
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
or is it the shrewdest businessmen who become the largest and most successful musicians? Kiss was a business. It was about marketing and maximizing profits. Of course the people at the head of that machine are concerned about every angle they could pursue and every dime they could possibly get.
Anonymous doesn't care. They are doing it for the lulz. To assume they have any agenda besides lulz gives them too much credit. Honestly, have you ever visited 4chan? Does that user base strike you as political or activist?
Nonsense! With Kiss it used to be about the music, man! Well, that and the lunchboxes, posters, cartoon shows, movies, guest appearances, fast-food tie-ins, TV specials, KISS Army fan club, clothing line, Halloween costumes, makeup line, books, toys, and probably a whole lot of other stuff I'm forgetting about. But the music was in there somewhere, I'm sure of it.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Sadly Gene is about 5 years behind Metallica in learning that biting the hand that feeds you hurts you more in the end. I've got a friend that would buy every piece of Kiss crap that hit the shelves from CD's to action figures. He got sick of Gene's crap last year over this kind of thing and has been slowly selling his entire collection on ebay. It doesn't help that the album prices for digital downloads are nearly 50% higher than buying the CD. Take Kiss Alive II for example, at Wal-Mart and Best Buy its $9.99 while on Amazon and Itunes its $13.99, who in their right mind would buy the digital version when they can buy the disk and just rip it? I dont use a cd player anymore, but still buy CD's for this specific purpose....but according to Gene im a pirate for it. I realize your an old man Gene but you pretend to be hip and relevant try and at least understand the technology and why people do what they do, maybe then you could be part of the solution rather than a contributor to the problem. I dont think Gene realizes that the same people he is wanting to sue are the same people willing to buy Kiss caskets and trinkets, with his known level of greed you would think he would be more concerned with the revenue stream than someone downloading a copy of a song they have likely already purchased on Vinyl, Cassette and CD.
It doesn't make sense because it isn't a reasoned position, just an emotional one. Gene Simmons has gone as far as endorsing prison rape for file sharers. That's, simply put, psychotic. It used to be I didn't buy Kiss merchandise because I didn't particularly like Kiss (and I didn't and still don't infringe their copyright either). Now, the way Mr. Simmons is talking, I don't buy Kiss merchandise because I'm concerned he's so far over the edge he'll use the money to try and get draconian revenge, far beyond any proportionate concept of justice, on some kid he elects to make an example of.
Who is John Cabal?
Because Kiss was always about being corporate whores. I mean it's not about the music, it was about how fully they could sell out for more money. And if the corporate masters don't keep pushing it there's that many fewer lunchboxes and breakfast cereals sold.
Sure as hell wasn't computers. Gene Simmons didn't have a computer growing up and look what happened to him.
Buy your kids a Banana Jr. 6000 today!
Who are these clowns? Kiss? You don't know who Kiss is? No. Never heard of them. They look likeidiots to me. No, no, no, dude. These are four of the smartest guys who ever lived. They're these Jewish guys that grew up in New York, and they put on guitars and makeup to get girls, and all of their songs are about fucking! I'm listening. Seriously, this song is called Love Gun, and it's about Paul Stanley's dick and how this girl's gonna get some of his dick! Cool. I didn't know Jews could sing like that. No. No. They couldn't at the time. That's why they had to dress like clowns. This got them girls? Get this! They've been getting pussy nonstop for 30 years! They're probably fucking right now, and they're old dudes! They put makeup on, and it's all good! No shit? You pull the trigger of my Love gun You see, Ronnie? His dick is the gun!
They tried autotune with Lemmy. The autotune box exploded, killing 4 in the sound booth.
Trolling is a art,
It's the guy who told one of the best interviewers in the country that she should welcome him with "open legs". I don't think intelligence and good sense are part of his skill set.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
Actual music is almost dead in America. As for the world, actual music is more endangered than the Panda.
If your talking about the big labels, and the top 40 machine, then you are absolutely correct on all your points, but, luckily, this is only a very small portion of modern music. Yes, it is the most visible, and has the highest share of public consciousness, but that scene still represents a tiny minority of the music that is out there.
Right now, in your town, there are hundreds (maybe thousands, depending on population and culture) of small bands, some of which are VERY good. Most are crap, but some of them are better than anything the major labels have churned out in years. Finding which ones are worth the time is a bit daunting (currently, in my town, we have an obnoxiously ubiquitous metal scene, which aspires to recapture the most idiotic parts of 90's metal...), but I guarantee that there is something out there that you will like.
Thanks to the internet, major labels are largely insignificant. It is trivial to find an acquire music from small labels, or individual bands, without ever touching the ancient media dinosaurs, this is now, and not in the future. Of the last 100 or so music purchases I've made in the last 5 years, only two were from major labels, this was completely accidental, I did not have the desire to "stick it to the man". The independent music is just better, at least to my taste.
I would recommended some bands that are awesome and have nothing to do with big labels, but taste is subjective.
I would guess that the big labels make around 90% of the profit, but only represent around 10% (if even) of the artists out there. In ten years they will be almost completely irrelevant. Yes, they are nice for marketing, and promotion. This is generally the case made against independently distributed music around here, small bands can't go on their own because they can't afford to be Lady Gaga (whose branding efforts might rival those of CocaCola and Nike). But who cares? If a band can't become huge without marketing they don't deserve to be huge. And small labels work wonders, insteading of having 10 labels with 10,000 artists, why not have 1,000 labels with 100 artists? Smaller labels have funds for promotion, and smaller labels allow more artist control (the only thing that matters). This is how things are going to develop.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey