snerk
Okay, now this is homophobic.
(Kidding! ;):D)
Don’t you people understand? Ryan Murphy is thinking about the children!
But is it a rant?
If Murphy would stop engaging in Greek-warrior-intense cum-guzzling soul-prostrating abominations unto God long enough to think straight, he’d see that it wasn’t a homophobic rant.
…Please excuse me for a few minutes. I need to freshen up.
I’ve never seen Glee, and know nothing of this band, but the “bra” remark does sound like a gratuitous, homophobic swipe. Not enough to qualify as a “rant,” but dickish and probably indicative of their general attitude.
I am looking at this through the lens of hating Glee, but still, I think Murphy is being a whiner and the singer from Kings of Leon makes a valid point. Remember those KidzBop things from the early '90s? That’s all Glee ever sounds like to me. If you’re some vapid pop tart, you probably don’t mind having your shitty pop song covered in that style. Kings of Leon, admittedly not a favourite band of mine, appear to be aiming for a rock music route, and that may not be their thing. Did the comment that this lead to, about bras and manicures, come across as homophobic? No, not at all, unless we somehow acquaint women’s underwear and manicured nails with gay men. Yes, it’s mildly sexist, but no more than the jokes friends (male and female) and I make to one another about getting one’s panties in a bunch.
I’m actually offended that Murphy thinks his show (where the cheerleaders reference scissoring each other, a girl gets pregnant in a hot tub, and a football player knocks over convenience stores) should be watched by 7 year olds.
The rant is neither homophobic nor sexist. It’s sexist if you say “acting like a woman is bad”. It’s not sexist if you say “You’re a man that’s acting like a woman, and that’s bad.”
They’ve covered REM, The Rolling Stones, Louis Armstrong, The Beatles (and various members solo), U2 and Bruce Springsteen. But hey, if you want to put those people in the same category as vapid pop tarts, go for it.
Do you want to put any of those people in the category of a band trying to make an image for itself?
Okay, how about Jay-Z? Rapper with the hardcore bling bling, had multiple songs on the show.
Paramore - I don’t listen to the genre, but they’re often thrown in pop/punk/indie bands, not Britney Spears.
Michael Bublé - Yeah he’s mainstream, but not exactly going on tour with vapid pop tarts any time soon.
Lily Allen has also managed to dodge diva pop star fame while still being a popular female artist.
Those are all mainstream pop artists, none of whom seem to need to break out or create their image (Paramore may be less known, but since they are signed to Warner’s music label, I doubt anyone is calling them indie). Michael Buble had a song featuring Nelly Furtado - is dueting with a vapid pop star close enough to touring with one?
All music that has been played on Glee is pop, whether it be pop with a rap twinge, or a country twist, or the ‘crooner’ sound. One of the only genres right now that attempts to distance itself from pop is rock; it’s still commercial, it’s still mainstream, of course it’s still all those things. But it tries to make itself the alternative choice, and that would not seem to involve appearing on Glee. The artists you mentioned in your first response to my post either don’t need to care what the average Glee watcher thinks, or are dead. Either way, their legacy is sealed and some extra cash for a KidzBop cover? Sure, why not.
If the album containing Use Somebody has just been released to poor or average record sales, and the Glee offer had some in, would Kings Of Leon said the same thing? Who can say. But the reason mentioned, that it was the end of a record promoting cycle and the overexposure wasn’t desirable, seems pretty spot-on.
Those artists were asked and said “yes.” Kings of Leon were asked and said “no.”
I think the point is that both answers are valid.
More of a GQ, but I assumed any artist could block or approve any use of their material.
If you publish a song is anybody allowed to use it legally without permission? And can you set your own fees for licensing?
She didn’t really get pregnant in a hot tub (just claimed to), but to your main point: no kidding. I watch Glee, but there’s no way I’d let my young kids watch it.
This is not correct. They have to acquire a synchronization license to use music in a movie, the same as they have to to use music in a commercial. And it’s not a statutory (compulsory) license, so the copyright owner can set the price of the license as high as he or she wants to.
You can cover any song into a vapid pop tart ditty.
And if Ryan Murphy sees his demographic audience as 7 year old children he should rethink a show that is a sexually charged version of Band Stand.
Didn’t you see the PSA where the cast is collecting instruments to sent to underprivileged schools? Yeah, man, that’s clearly what the show’s all about!
Anyway… This is as ridiculous as someone like Al Sharpton crying racist at the drop of a hat. Keep it up and no one will pay attention when something that actually deserves it comes along.
This is the first I’d heard of this dispute, but it sounds like Murphy is the one most in the wrong and acted like a jerk about Kings of Leon’s perfectly reasonable refusal to permit the use of one of their songs on Glee. As others have mentioned I think it’s especially bizarre that he considers this show appropriate for elementary school children. I’ll add that if he’s trying to encourage young children to get involved in the performing arts then a TV show in which attractive, talented teen characters are constantly being bullied for their involvement in the performing arts is probably not the best way to do so.
That said, while I think it’s an exaggeration to call Nathan Followill’s comments a “homophobic rant”, the bra reference is an attempt to insult Murphy by suggesting he’s effeminate. This may indicate a certain lack of respect for women or gay men. To be fair though, it’s a pretty mild response to “fuck you…self-centered assholes”. Unless Followill has a history of making sexist/homophobic remarks then I’d give him the benefit of the doubt here.
I can kind of see how some might take the remark about “educating 7yr olds how to say fuck” as a suggesting that Murphy engages in inappropriate sexual behavior with children. In the context of Murphy’s own rant I think it was obviously intended to mean that while Murphy says he’s trying to educate children he’s sure not acting like a good role model by swearing and throwing a tantrum about not getting his way. But to some people it might seem like Followill was insulting a gay man by calling him a cross-dressing pedophile. That would be a homophobic rant.
I don’t think one could sincerely interpret Followill’s remarks in that way unless one didn’t know exactly what Murphy had said, though. Whoever wrote the Huffington Post headline was almost certainly just trying to make things sound worse than they really were.
This is all assuming that Kings of Leon a) know who Ryan Murphy even is and b) know he’s gay.