Controversial Opinions

Discussion
21

[reply]I love the way wannabe musos say the pistols were manufactured (because… their manager gave them free clothes? right) but always cite the clash as the real deal, when they totally fucking aren’t

The Sex pistols were manufactured and not because Malcolm gave them free clothes. They were literally put together because of their look not because of their playing ability. Sid had no idea how to play the bass and would pretend to tune his bass during songs. That said, I’ll take The pistols over the clash any day. The Clash suck ass![/reply]

Sid didn’t join until the band had been going a while and the first album was pretty much finished. Glen Matlock was a decent player & writer and he has been the bassist for the majority of their history.

But yes Sid was added because he looked the part - that makes them contrived not manufactured - I realise that sounds like an utter hair splitting piss take, but bear with me

what’s the difference? Paul Cook and Steve Jones were already a band (with wally nightingale)… John Lydon, whilst pretty much a complete cock, is an honest cock who means what he says and doesn’t do it for effect.

Steve and Paul were together because they were friends & had similar musical tastes and ambitions - malcolm didn’t push them together. So the core of the band existed long before any management started meddling

Sid the contrived charlatan mascot is the best case for saying they were manufactured - but he wasn’t there from the start, and the rest of them were honest about what they were doing.

Sid joining is a sign of a dickhead manager starting to ruin a band, it’s something that happened later on

The trouble is Malcolm Mcclaren was obsessed with drumming up as much publicity as possible & insisting that he invented the pistols and designed them for the ground up.

But it’s not true, and in fact the more power he got, the more they fell apart… wtf has “the great rock n roll swindle” got to do with “never mind the bollocks”?

Very little… this is because sex pistols the band is a different thing to sex pistols the media hype entity created by mcclaren. And as he exacted more control, John left and utter shit like that film/LP were put out under the pistols name.

The band was over by that point & all that was left was the bullshit - but the fact you can seperate the two for me shows that malcolm’s bullshit vision and the actual band that existed were two different things - to the point where they couldn’t co-exist

When we talk about manufactured bands, we mean bands where each member is a careerist who has been hand picked to fit an aesthetic and creatively the management and marketing call all the shots - this doesn’t describe the pistols, the core of the band was already formed and to say malcolm was pulling the strings all along is to believe his hype

That said, I’m not a massive pistols fanboy, I just think they get a bad time of it

Same as people saying Lydon is a hypocrite for doing those butters ads… why? Which pistols/PiL song says he’s dead against making money? The funniest thing about the pistols was the way they rinsed all those labels for advances

I seriously think people either just want to be that voice, or they’ve somehow confused the pistols with crass

that was a super wanky muso essay & kudos if you made it this far

22

I don’t think people in wheelchairs should be allowed to ride the local bus.

23

I would be more compassionate about the AIDS crisis and the movement and search for a cure, funding, etc. if it weren’t for one person. Keith Haring. He is the worst artist of all time and his crappy aesthetic and its infestastion and influence on pop culture at the time and the inevitable footprint of ugliness and social retardation that it would permanently leave on us makes me kind of think, yeah, I’m glad he got the AIDS, if anyone had it coming, it was him. High-profile 80’s activism like Hands Across America and We Are The World and whatnot really turned me into a cynical bastard and it’s probably crap like that which keeps me awake at night thinking, “If I could pay $10,000 for the chance to throw a brick at Bono’s head, would I do it? Yes. In a heartbeat.”

24

Hahahaha! Wow.

I dig this kind of brutal honesty. So in turn, I’ll offer my own. . .

I have (almost) no sympathy for the homeless. Yes, a lot of them have mental disabilities, and that is a shame. But the rest? Get a fucking job.

I am fiercely liberal in every other way, except in this area. I grew up poor and learned early on: You have to work to make your way in this world. As long as you have hands, you can work.

So no, I’m not going to spare any extra change. I don’t give a fuck how clever or sad your little sign is.

25

That’s a very charitable view, i’d go slightly further and say that they went from being my favourite band to being absolute shit. I listened to the last album once, will never listen to it again. The Slip, and what i could tolerate listening to from Ghosts, was crap as well. Most of what he did with his wife in that other project was boring, samey shite. It’s just all the same, all boring, none of it worth listening to. There’s no excitement to NIN any more.

I agree to an extent. It’s certainly not what it used to be. Trent is making some killer soundtracks though, so he should just stick to that.

As for my one controversial opinion- Trent’s 2000-2014 output is better than Al’s. I’m going to go run and hide now.

26

um yep… that tetsuo theme is better than the entire bush trilogy

27

I dig this kind of brutal honesty. So in turn, I’ll offer my own. . .

I always feel let down when we have threads like this, asking for unpopular or controversial opinions. Instead of “I don’t believe we ever landed on the moon” or “Queers are destroying our soil” it always turns out the same. “Dude, like Nickleback is not a very good band and I don’t like Jar Jar Binks and I think Marilyn Manson kind of sold out.” Booooorrrrriiiiiinnnggg.

28

I don’t think people in wheelchairs should be allowed to ride the local bus.

I don’t know why they would need to. Can’t we just tie a rope to the bumper and pull them along?

29

But armchair thumping about people in wheelchairs… now that’s edgy

30

[reply]I don’t think people in wheelchairs should be allowed to ride the local bus.

I don’t know why they would need to. Can’t we just tie a rope to the bumper and pull them along?[/reply]

Clearly the solution is this: make wheelchair tires with excellent tread, add steering and rocket launchers. Problem solved.

31

Clearly the solution is this: make wheelchair tires with excellent tread, add steering and rocket launchers. Problem solved.

Gary Busey already tackled this.
Or at least he did for Corey Haim.

32

Gary Busey already tackled this.
Or at least he did for Corey Haim.

Ha ha!!! Now that’s what I’m talking about.

34

you should pass an exam before you can vote

you need one to drive a car in case a kid gets knocked down, yet any old muppet can vote in a party that nukes the world - it’s nonsense. I’m pretty liberal but we do cling to some fluffy notions regarding the sanctity of the personal opinion

You’re born a clueless twat and let’s be honest even the best minds don’t have the answers.

“just saying” and “that’s my opinion” became little disclaimers to remind you that in our society there is this weird standard of respecting peoples right to pussy out and cease being critical

35

Getty Lee’s voice is like fingernails on a blackboard.

People who think they are entitled to park in a handicapped parking spot when they do not have a placard or plate are complete arseholes. I saw this happen at the gas station the other day with someone who was too lazy to walk an additional 10 feet from all the other available spots.

36

I sometimes think Syd Barrett is severely underrated, and I sometimes think that he’s just a burn out who gets too much credit. And I’m not a big fan of Floyd.

Tried, but just can’t get into the Beatles.

Oh, and how about this for another NIN/other band comparison…“The Day the World Went Away” riff is almost exactly like the Lenny Kravitz song “Blues for Sister Someone” .

37

into the void = sledgehammer

38

into the void = sledgehammer

Your ears must be crazier than mine. I still have yet to hear someone come up with something like the great Peter Gabriel would do.

Down In It=Dig It. Trent has even admitted to this.

39

I always feel let down when we have threads like this, asking for unpopular or controversial opinions. Instead of “I don’t believe we ever landed on the moon” or “Queers are destroying our soil” it always turns out the same. “Dude, like Nickleback is not a very good band and I don’t like Jar Jar Binks and I think Marilyn Manson kind of sold out.” Booooorrrrriiiiiinnnggg.

This sounds like a challenge to steer away from music-related unpopular opinions, so I’ll try to humor everyone (well…mostly Gunnar) by throwing some more sociology-oriented bones of contention.

Here’s one that always gets me labeled as a contrarian buzzkill. There’s no significant difference between mainstream “porn” and “erotica” / “pin-up” or any of the supposedly more ethical “alternatives”.

Sure, you can make tattoos and hair dyes the tools of your trade rather than silicone and collagen. And you can say that this represents some sort of challenge to, or critique, of how mainstream porn objectifies the body. But it’s just a different kind of objectification. At the end of the day, it’s all about providing people with material to aid in masturbating. Any other supposed missions to change people’s perspective are just an afterthought.

40

Islam as a religion should be outlawed. Or at the very least scaled down.

The Australian Aboriginal as a collective is lazy and uses “racism” as a scapegoat to detract from the failings inherent in its culture and ideology.

Taboos regarding children and nudity in art/culture should be somewhat alleviated.

The world is in the financial mess it is now (largely) because of left wing / socialist governments.

And that’s just for starters…

41

Also, there was an “Unpopular Opinions” thread not that long ago.

Why start another one?