Rogan and Neil *
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The Neil Young / Joe Rogan thing.
Reactions to it have been split right down the right and left highway, as you’d expect.
I didn't really feel comfortable wading into the online dumb-fuckery because I'd never heard Rogan's show before. I'd read a lot about it for sure. Aaron Rodgers got his Covid advice from the podcast, which in retrospect says a lot. Rogan has a propensity for finding the most batshit "experts" around, and allowing them to go off on wild un-peer-reviewed tangents about the evils of vaccines etc. Rogan-bros are fiercely loyal, and thanks to them Spotify rewarded their man $100 million. This is the same company paying Neil Young a fraction of a penny per stream.
Speaking of Neil, I grew up with him, and he’s one of the guys that made me want do what I do. He changed the world. If you don’t think that’s true, then you don’t do rock and roll.
Anyway, I've recently returned from listening to a few hours of “The Joe Rogan Experience”, and my brain hurts.
Don't get me wrong. He can be engaging and funny and come across like the likable lug on the next barstool. But the overall dumbness (and misogyny...and racism, he drops the N word constantly) and intellectual vacancy is so flippant and casual that it gradually grows terrifying.
In short, his show is perfect for grievance-seeking MAGA-leaning white boys who spend their weekends playing quarters.
The fact that he's become some sort of a recognizable ANYTHING is bad enough. Knowing that countless people turn to his show for medical advice during a pandemic (a comment I saw on facebook yesterday from a father said "my daughter won't get vaccinated because of Joe Rogan") is a dystopian nightmare. To think that this is what $100 million buys these days makes me want to book a one way trip to Mars. His is the most popular podcast in the WORLD.
That being said, many of the people I'm forced to deal with on a daily basis are at least as dumb as Joe Rogan. And frequently dumber. I recognize this and act accordingly. I don't want Spotify to censor Joe Rogan. Neil Young does not want Spotify to censor Joe Rogan. Neil Young asking Spotify to pull his music from the platform is not censoring Joe Rogan. Neil Young does not wish to share a platform with somebody as dumb as Joe Rogan. One time at work I was placed next to an idiot, and I asked if I could sit someplace else. Same idea.
Censorship is a Tennessee school board banning a book about the Holocaust.
This stuff really shouldn't be that hard.
A few things need to change. I'll admit that. But none of them include censoring Joe Rogan.
Spotify is a greedy, evil monster that pays artists shit. They get away with it because they offer an addictive product. Essentially all the recorded music in the history of the world, literally in the palm of your hand, for the price of a monthly cheeseburger and fries at a bar. Once you've allowed your music collection to be taken over by the Spotify model, you've doubled down on punching artists in the nuts. MY OWN MUSIC is on Spotify, so I punch myself in the nuts every day. I make 10s of dollars every year from Spotify. Spotify can pay Joe Rogan $100 million because of all the musicians being punched in the nuts.
Neil Young pulling his catalog IS badass. Don't get me wrong. Neil is brave and always has been. But he can afford to be. But keep in mind that Spotify reacted to his ultimatum by gently suggesting he not let the door hit his ragged ass on the way out. Spotify revenue comes from us.....and unless subscribers start bailing in huge numbers, Joe Rogan is gonna remain free to deny climate change and the effectiveness of vaccines and spread his love of ivermectin forever. Spotify does not give a shit about Neil Young….any more than they give a shit about that father’s unvaccinated daughter.
With the internet and Napster an entire generation came of age thinking that music is not something you should have to pay for. So while Neil pulled his stuff from Spotify, it's still available on Apple Music and Amazon, each which pays the same goofy per-stream rate of around 4 tenths of a penny. Focusing on Joe Rogan and the occasional artist pulling their catalogs is being distracted by the cheese and not seeing the trap.
Until we once again put a VALUE on recorded music, this will get worse. What’s the point of releasing new music at all?
(There ARE equitable options out there. Bandcamp allows the artist to set their own price. In turn they can even allow the consumer to set THEIR own price. Music can be downloaded, but more importantly, it can be immediately STREAMED via their app. At a higher quality than Spotify. Your money goes directly to the artist.)
The other elephant in the room I sorta already touched upon. How on earth do we continue to whistle past an educational graveyard that produces so many willing to burn their science textbooks and listen to Joe Rogan? Are we that divided that ignorance itself becomes a cudgel?
This is not a fair fight. If there was a referee, it would have been stopped.
In a bit…
—tf
* apologies for the obscure Drive-By Truckers reference