# Artists who most alienated their fanbases **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 28, 2008, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452 "2008-02-28T02:10:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/101 "2008-02-29T18:52:32Z")
[QUOTE=Slacker] _snip_ What did **Traci Lords** do? _snip_ [/QUOTE] I think it was pretty much what she _didn’t_ do after her initial claim to fame. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/102 "2008-02-29T18:52:33Z")
[QUOTE=installLSC] **Zen Beam** , I think you’re remembering about VH’s Diver Down album… [/QUOTE] Back in the day, VH lost me mostly due to Eddie’s crash into alcoholism and asshattery to his wife Valerie Bertinelli. He was an idol to me in my younger teen days, and a lot of VH posters were torn down from my wall in the mid eighties. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/103 "2008-02-29T19:47:15Z")
[QUOTE=Slacker] Her last album still sold out the wazoo didn’t it? Even after that “performance” at the MTV award show? And apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t know all these stories already, because no one else is asking for explainations of these two word answers. 😛 What did **Traci Lords** do? I assume **Woody Allen** is the whole step-daughter fiasco (hey I knew one after all). [/QUOTE] Traci Lords made a zillion porno’s before the age of 18 and only 1 afterward. Therefore, the vast majority of her life’s work is impossible (and illegal) to find\*. > **[Traci Lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traci_Lords)** > > Traci Elizabeth Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma; May 7, 1968) is an American actress and singer. She has starred in TV series such as Tales from the Crypt, Roseanne, Profiler, and First Wave. She has also appeared in films such as Skinner (1993), Virtuosity (1995), Blade (1998), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), and Excision (2012), which earned her a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress, Fright Meter Award, and a CinEuphoria Award. > Lords recorded the song "Love Never Dies," wh... \*I say this never having tried to find an early TL film. I would assume that some of them _probably_ are out there on the web. ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/104 "2008-02-29T20:16:41Z")
Seconded Anne Rice, she went from writing books about beings that want to drink your blood to a single being that wants _you_ to drink his. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/105 "2008-02-29T20:27:13Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] However, my wife was completely alienated a few episodes before when Scully gave up the baby (William). Being a new mother at the time, it just broke her heart to see that (my wife also will go through the rest of her life never seeing _A. I._ again for the same reason). [/QUOTE] Between that (even people who didn’t like the baby arc were mad because they saw it as suffering through a baby plot for no reason) and killing off all three the gunmen he already had fans fuming in the month before the stupid finale. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/106 "2008-02-29T21:05:09Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] Wasn’t around then, but i don’t think Lennon alienated his _fanbase_. ISTM, the folks actually angry about this comment were bible-thumping christians who were already anti-rock & roll and anti-Beatles, and who were just waiting for an excuse to attack the band. I imagine that actual fans of the Beatles likely either took it in stride or applauded Lennon’s irreverence. [/QUOTE] Yeah, 'cause you couldn’t be a Christian and a Beatles fan, like, say, me. I don’t think Lennon’s comment was either smart or accurate, but that doesn’t matter, because I also don’t think he was trying to make any huge statement; it was just a toss-off line about how popular the band was. A joke, in other words. And my nominee for the OP would be the Offspring. RR ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/107 "2008-02-29T21:07:28Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] Getting drunk and calling a police officer “sugar tits” is a not a political statement. [/QUOTE] Mel Gibson lost many (if not most) of his fans earlier, with the whole _Passion of the Christ_ think. The Sugar Tits (Jews Control the World) episode cost him the remainder. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/108 "2008-03-01T00:35:13Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] Traci Lords made a zillion porno’s before the age of 18 and only 1 afterward. Therefore, the vast majority of her life’s work is impossible (and illegal) to find\*. > **[Traci Lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traci_Lords)** > > Traci Elizabeth Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma; May 7, 1968) is an American actress and singer. She has starred in TV series such as Tales from the Crypt, Roseanne, Profiler, and First Wave. She has also appeared in films such as Skinner (1993), Virtuosity (1995), Blade (1998), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), and Excision (2012), which earned her a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Supporting Actress, Fright Meter Award, and a CinEuphoria Award. > Lords recorded the song "Love Never Dies," wh... \*I say this never having tried to find an early TL film. I would assume that some of them _probably_ are out there on the web. [/QUOTE] She personally annoyed me by making one of the “Talk Dirty To Me” sequels unobtainable and I’ve always been quite the fan of John Leslie’s body of work. Bitch. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/109 "2008-03-01T21:01:56Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Which was funny, becasue he was 100% correct, and he didn’t say cooler, smarter or better, just more popular- the outrage at it is puzzling. [/QUOTE] I can’t find it online any more, but I’ve read the transcript of what he said, and in context, he was pretty insulting. This should not be a shock to anyone who’s read the unsanitized histories of the Beatles. Basically, he said, “Christianity will die out, mark my words. I mean, we’re already more popular than Jesus.” Considering his attitude through all the rest of his life, I can’t believe that he meant this in some professorial and dispassionate manner. This is the guy who is reported to have put condoms on crucifixes to irritate the people (Germans?) passing by. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2008, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/110 "2008-03-01T23:58:47Z")
Here’s the relevant part: > **[John Lennon - Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Lennon)** “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/111 "2008-03-02T00:11:13Z")
[QUOTE=Cardinal] Here’s the relevant part: > **[John Lennon - Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Lennon)** “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first — rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” [/QUOTE] After all this time I finally get why so many people were offended by that quote. The whole thing is pretty offensive. It wouldn’t me, but then I’ve never been particularly churchy. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/112 "2008-03-02T00:12:35Z")
Speaking of Beatles, I think McCartney alienated his fans when he hooked up with Michael Jackson to create some of the most wretched music ever written. I agree with Laurell Hamilton. Her novels started out interesting and then devolved into some sort of twisted porn. It was inevitable that her “heroine,” Anita Blake became less sympathetic as she became more involved with the underworld, but there’s nothing redeeming about an angry slut. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/113 "2008-03-02T00:26:41Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] After all this time I finally get why so many people were offended by that quote. The whole thing is pretty offensive. It wouldn’t me, but then I’ve never been particularly churchy. [/QUOTE] I finally get why people _could_ have been offended by that. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the hysteria was aroused by people reading the full quote. (There’s a parallel with the Dutch Mohammed cartoons…) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/114 "2008-03-02T01:10:47Z")
This is the first time I’ve ever heard the full quote…I’d only heard the version referred to in **Cardinal** ’s link about the Beatles being “bigger than Jesus”. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/115 "2008-03-02T02:00:44Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] I haven’t been in the US for a long time and don’t see any American daytime TV, but based on what I read here and elsewhere, once Rosie O’Donnell became the main host of _The View_, she steadily became more extreme in her opinions and generally nastier to anyone who questioned her. [/QUOTE] What didn’t help is that a lot of what she was spewing on the view was 9-11 conspiracy nonsense ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/116 "2008-03-02T11:47:18Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Miskatonic] What didn’t help is that a lot of what she was spewing on the view was 9-11 conspiracy nonsense [/QUOTE] Ah, right, I do recall that getting discussed here. It’s sad, really, she used to be so, well… nice. Speaking of 9-11, Dennis Miller seemed to flip from semi-conservative libertarian to panicked authoritarian following the attacks. Did that cost him much of his fanbase? It certainly lost me. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/117 "2008-03-02T14:39:25Z")
That’s when I stopped watching Dennis Miller or reading his books. It must have cost him something, since he’s had two shows cancelled since then. ---
**Author:** ![red\_awning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@red\_awning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_awning)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452/118 "2008-03-02T14:48:04Z")
Fiona Apple with the whole “Listen don’t try to be like me because its all a lie” crap at a grammy award or something. So very enlightened of ya chick, just take your freaking statue and get off the stage. Oh an Julia Roberts and her “I’ve worked so hard for this Bill Conti so put your little wand down cause mama’s got sumpn to say” crap acceptance speach which she then followed up by attempting to stuff Denzel Washington up her vagina head first as he was getting hsi award. Oh wait the Halle Berry “I am the first and the door’s been opened” stupidity like she was receiving an award for the underground rail road or something rather than just for playing typical stereoptype of a black crack whore, “way to represent honey” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-most-alienated-their-fanbases/439452.md?page=5)