The art of trash talk

I've been At the receiving end of a lot of trash talking over the years regarding music projects and musical taste. And I'm at point where I'm less and less bothered about it.

Let's face it we've all done it. I've done it, you've done it. We've all listened to a band or watched someone live and thought it was bloody awful. Then we dash to the nearest social network site to vent our hatred hoping that someone agrees.

So I'm not going to name names on here. But you know you've done it. I wish someone would tell me the point of trash talking someone. It's not some fame competition nor are 99% of people interested in what you've got to say.

Recently I played a battle of the bands with my band. We were playing with some good friends of ours and a couple of other bands. It was a competition so banter was expected but it was the "our bassist said all the other bands apart from you are shit" comment from one of the competing bands to our friends that sparked defensive but controlled Facebook responses.

Ok so a band I've never listen to are calling my band shit by using other bands Facebook wall and using the old "but you guys are amazing" line to honey glaze their obvious dislike for every act on the bill. Real subtle, look people I'll give you hint you can find anything and everything on Facebook or the Internet. Your comments aren't hidden so if your going to slag someone off don't do it on a public forum. I mean your just asking for trouble.

You can imagine our opinion of that band now. They've tainted perfectly good people to be included in their fan base.

I hope that most people are over the 00s trend of one sided music tastes, seems the thrill of voicing opinion has washed away from a lot of places "YouTube" not included as apparently everyone is a musical film director with a viral video under his or her belt.

Taste is dynamic not universal. Please feel free to talk and discuss what you like and don't like but there's a fine line between being critical and "trolling"

I admit there was a point were I hated everything and thought I was the centre of the known universe but I think everyone was the same. The main thing now is the support each other.

Being in a band is hard work without the trash talking and the bitching and the between artist arguments it's just another pain in the back side. Having your creative vision mocked is not what you want. This is what I've learnt from being in "Dead Retinas" (my band) if I go on facebook and praise those that I like and love, I get that same praise back, when I go see live unsigned bands and artists they come to see us play. Our Facebook likes go up, more people are "talking" about us; linking liking and reblogging. We are all after the same thing, that same festival slot, that same slot on "Warped Tour" if you're considered a team player people are going to start listening. People's ears are on the ground most of the time in this digital age where your phone and can access life and 24 hour data streams bombard are senses with needless and required information. I can find out anything I want about someone through other people. This includes all the good and all the bad.

So what is the point of this post? Well this isn't a showboating technique to establish myself ahead of the curve, nor a piece about how good I am compared to the next. This is about my experience with those comments that don't need to be said. Please people think, would you like the someone blindly forming an opinion without reason? So why do it? Instead of being typical human being try being nice for a change, support not reject and even try doing it without asking for something in return. You'll find the impact is far greater and spreads further then trash talking.

CJ

CJ is bass player for Manchester punk band Dead Retinas - check out his band here www.facebook.com/deadretinas

CJ also started making the #supportthescene posters after Designer Magazine set up the twitter hashtag

 

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