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Desperate Journalist (the Band) Would Like You Not to Listen to Their Music?
Desperate Journlalist is a British post-punk rock band. Ricochet editor-in-chief Jon Gabriel named the band’s song “Hollow,” off their 2017 album Grow Up, as his song of the week on the most recent episode of The Conservatarians podcast. Jon also added the song to his The Conservatarians 2018 Spotify play list. Caz Helbert, who is the band’s drummer, would like you to please not listen to their music, however. In an email to Ricochet Saturday afternoon, she wrote:
Hi
I’m from the band Desperate Journalist which you mentioned on your website and featured in your Spotify playlist. Can I kindly ask you to remove us from the playlist? We would rather not be associated with a political movement.
Thanks,
Caz
I find this truly amazing. Why wouldn’t she want you to listen to her music? I mean, Desperate Journalist’s music is on YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, and Bandcamp for anyone in the world to listen to. Here’s Desperate Journalist’s official music video for “Hollow,” which is publicly available on YouTube, but that they don’t want you to listen to if you’re, I guess, an American conservative or libertarian?
I always assumed musicians wanted people to listen to their music. Helbert’s email left me totally flabbergasted, especially since the act of demanding separation from a “political movement” is itself a highly political statement. I wondered if the rest of the band shared her opinion. Do they give concert-goers an ideological litmus test before they judge them good enough to listen to their music? So I contacted Desperate Journalist by Facebook messenger and asked, “Don’t you want to have as many people as possible listen to your music?”
“Not necessarily, no, and not at any cost,” wrote back Simon Drowner, who plays bass guitar for Desperate Journalist, and who was kind enough to reply to my inquiry. “We’re a small indie band from the UK,” he went on. “What relevance does our music have to American Conservative/Libertarian politics?”
Maybe Jon Gabriel just likes it, and it’s as simple as that? Maybe Desperate Journalist can’t control who listens to their music? What does it “cost” them to be listened to by conservative libertarians in Arizona?
Drowner ended his message by writing: “If you actually do like us as a band (which is presumably why we’re in contact in the first place) maybe you could just respect our wishes and let us get on with playing music.”
Do you like Desperate Journalist’s music? To be totally honest, I don’t share Jon’s taste in music. I’d never heard of Desperate Journalist until yesterday, and their music is not my cup of tea. But that doesn’t have anything to do with politics. One of my favorite bands is Audioslave, and most of the band members were insane wannabe socialists. (They played a concert in Cuba!)
Desperate Journalist, made up of Jo Bevan (vocals), Simon Drowner (bass guitar), Rob Hardy (guitar), and Caroline “Caz” Helbert (drums) is from North London, and their debut album Desperate Journalist was released in 2014.
If you like Desperate Journalist, then why don’t you buy one of their albums? And if you’re in Europe, check out one of their concerts this summer.
UPDATE: Please see the band’s response in the comments. Also, I’m not sure how to interpret this tweet in conjunction with the comments from the band here on Ricochet:
What a bunch of morons. I like music regardless of the political beliefs of the artists – until they become so insufferable, I can’t take it any more . . .
Answered your own question.
I can relate to the sentiment behind “We would rather not be associated with a political movement.” In an era when everything is politicized, it’s nice (and increasingly rare) to find something that hasn’t been.
I’ll stick to country music.
I think not wanting to be made political by association is OK, but taking a contrary stand and telling people they may not agree with to not listen to their music is a dick move.
As long its the former I don’t see a reason to not be cool.
Do you like Toby Keith’s Running Block? LOL I lived it once . . .
They’re the Stephen King of song.
I think this is probably an interesting question that if answered would probably be an eye opening affair for them. blah blah universality of the human condition and all that.
My sentiments exactly. I’ve been a fan of U2 for longer than I can remember. But never seen them live.
I run hot and cold on Bono – but this has sent me over the edge. I even switched the channel last night when I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for came on. Not sure I’ll have the discipline for Bad
https://conservativetribune.com/bono-crosses-the-line-boycott/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=thenewvoice&utm_campaign=can&utm_content=2018-01-21
Interesting. I imagine some of their pushback comes from other’s marketing schemes to be featured on x website, as part of expanding their audience. Maybe that’s not how this band rolls.
My question is: who is the mole who informed this band that they were on Jon Gabriel’s spotify?
And how many others have they told, “please remove our music from your spotify list.”
It’s weird, because spotify is a user generated format. The performers don’t really have control of who puts them on their individual spotify playlist.
It’s an interesting question. I never took the songs played on the show to be an endorsement or expression of conservatarianism by the artists. I saw it as “songs Jon likes.” I like the occasional track, but I don’t queue up the whole list.
By naming the playlist after the podcast, there is a connection being made between the songs and “conservatarian.” I can see some artists not liking that. Not that I agree, but how many artists have protested when a Republican politician has played their music at a rally? Enough to not be surprised.
I doubt they’d have complained about being on a “Jon Gabriel” playlist. Whether they want to avoid ALL political associations would need to be tested by adding them to playlists named, say, #brexit and #resist.
Dear Desperate Journalist,
We are currently evaluating your request. In this evaluation process we are currently auditing the time our members have spent listening to your music. Accordingly, we will bill you $7.25 per hour to compensate them and provide both you and them a complete and just break.
Yours sincerely,
The Ricochet Team
Since Jon Gabriel and I have pretty different tastes in music, I usually find that his song picks don’t find their way on to my play lists. I wasn’t real likely to listen to “Hollow,” or any other song by Desperate Journalist to begin with. Since they have specifically requested that I NOT listen to their music, I find it very, very easy to honor their wishes.
This band is giving an ideological test to its listeners. Ricochet readers don’t pass the test. This is the behavior of a faith-based cult, not a group of professional musicians.
Their music is incredibly derivative and overwrought, which is what you’d expect from such self-important, intolerant, smug artistes.
Edited
The band has asked to respond. I am creating an account for them.
Be sure they pay in cash.
Edited
Please post a link here when they do. Don’t want to miss it.
I wouldn’t give the band any grief over it. It’s most likely that they don’t want to alienate any listeners who would get their jockeys in a wad over the song being listed on a conservative’s playlist. The band members themselves may have no issue with it, but I can easily see some SJW condemning them as being “unclean”.
Hi, in answer to the question about how we found out about this, it was just a Google alerts notification. We have never been covered by any kind of political site before so it was quite a surprise, particularly as we have no connection with ‘Conservatarians’ (new word to me!) This is the first time we have requested someone remove us from a playlist.
Here is the message sent to our facebook inbox by ricochet.com, followed by Simon’s response.
“Hi, I work for Ricochet.com.
Caz contacted us and asked us to remove your band from a Spotify list maintained by one of our podcasters because, she wrote, the band “would rather not be associated with a political movement.”
That’s pretty weird. Don’t you want to have as many people as possible listen to your music?
I’ll be publishing a post tomorrow at 3PM Eastern Standard Time about how you apparently don’t want conservatives to listen to your music. I’ll include lots of links to your music and I will very politely encourage our readers to check you out and to purchase your music if they like it. Please contact me by 2PM ET if you would like to provide comment on why you’re apparently intolerant of certain ideological or philosophical viewpoints, to the point that you don’t want broad categories of people listening to your music. Or, you know, if that’s not the case, then that’d be great to know, too.
Thank you.”
“Hi Max,
I’d disagree that a band not wanting to be associated with a political movement is ‘weird’. (But also so what if it is?)
We may one day choose to talk about our political views, or align ourselves with a particular cause, but that’s our decision, not something we want foisted upon us.
“Don’t you want to have as many people as possible listen to your music?” Not necessarily no, and not at any cost. We’re a small indie band from the UK. What relevance does our music have to American Conservative/Libertarian politics?
Your website doesn’t seem to cover much music, i was surprised to see us mentioned in the first place.
Don’t put words into our mouth please. We’ve never commented on the politics of our listenership, and don’t have the time to ask them all individually.
I’m sorry you find us to be so ‘intolerant’.
If you actually do like us as a band (which is presumably why we’re in contact in the first place) maybe you could just respect our wishes and let us get on with playing music.
Thanks
Simon”
As you can see, we didn’t ask anyone not to listen to us. Quite baffled by this but happy to answer any questions.
Profiles in Courage.
We did not publicly do anything.
We sent a private email, and ricochet wanted to go public.
This is what you just did with your email to Ricochet. You made the decision.
I was clearly mistaken in my assumption that they’re intolerant of differing political viewpoints to the extant that they are here engaging in a civil conversation about what happened. I think that’s great, and I thank them for taking the time.
I still think it’s weird that Caz wanted their song removed from Jon’s playlist, but I’ll grant that “weird” is subjective. No, they didn’t say “we don’t want you to listen to our music,” exactly, but is there much of a difference in effect between that and “remove us from the playlist”?
She didn’t want it removed from ‘Jon’s playlist’ – she wanted it removed from a playlist called ‘The Conservatarians 2018’.
Oh… Hmmm. I don’t know what to make of this:
Good idea.
Right, sorry, that’s what I meant. It’s Jon’s playlist, but it’s called “The Conservatarians 2018.” So, it’s the word “Conservatarians”? Does it help that it was coined by a Brit? (Charles C.W. Cooke in The Conservatarian Manifesto.)
A band member asked, “What relevance does our music have to American Conservative/Libertarian politics?” Obviously the band does not wish for its music to be relevant to as many people as possible, and certainly not to “American Conservatives/Libertarians.” The band just tweeted that they do not wish Ricochet readers to listen to their music. This is a kind of cultural fascism — no dissidents allowed in our club! impure thoughts not allowed! — not to mention stupid, business-wise. The Hive Mind is alive and well in North London apparently. Here’s a bet, based on both their music and their snotty attitude: This band will remain small, and indie, for a long, long time to come.