Billy Corgan rips into iTunes, FB, claims killing rock
updated 08:27 am EDT, Thu June 14, 2012
Billy Corgan expresses his dictate for rock in the iTunes age
Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has lambasted the iTunes and Facebook culture for helping to take the danger out of rock 'n' roll. In an interview with Antiquiet, Corgan vented his disdain for the 'cuddliness' of social networking and iTunes. He thinks that the phenomenon of iTunes and Facebook could be holding back the next generation of genuine rock talent from 'kicking their own door in' as bands such as The Clash and Nirvana had done in the past. His comments, ironically, come at a time when his band's latest album Oceania is a featured album on the iTunes Store and can be streamed for free ahead of its release.
For Corgan, there is a certain peer pressure on Facebook that stops people from expressing their real thoughts and feelings on topics. 'Look, we're all insecure in our own ways, most of us,' said Corgan. 'You've got a Facebook with a few hundred friends. If you do something truly radical, are you ready to withstand the forty negative comments?' he argues. 'Most people aren't. So they're getting peer pressured at levels they don't even realize. It's what you don't say,' Corgan said during his interview.
As for iTunes, Corgan believes that the type of attitudinal disruption that was brought out through bands like Rage Against the Machine seems to have evaporated thanks to iTunes. Apple's 'friendly cuddly' technology has ruined, for Corgan, the idea of rock as a weapon for railing against what is wrong in the word today.
'Tom Morello [of RATM] had this quote on his guitar from Woody Guthrie: 'This guitar is a f***ing weapon. This guitar kills fascists.' 'Love kills f***ing fascists,' said Corgan. 'And when music is so goddamned f***ing iTunes friendly cuddly, it makes me want to f***ing puke,' he exclaimed. 'The world has never been more dangerous than it is right now, and we have a limp, impotent artistic response to the situation.'
As with most releases in the iTunes age, Apple will be making Oceania available for download on June 19 when it officially launches. [via PC Mag]
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Joined: Jun 2012
And Billy...
...hasn't been relevant since the 90s.