#the song makes me feel insane and i have a parasocial relationship with it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kerubimcrepin · 2 months

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The Card Games Overview - Part 1

"I would have wanted to be Joriiiiiiis, to be able to do my shoooow!" - The Hypermage's Blues

Joris, as discreet as he is efficient, is the emissary of the king of Bonta.

Already we're starting strong with the first card here, because, and you will never believe this, — the implications for lore this has are huge.

youtube

It is a parody of this song, "Le blues du Businessman", which implies that: (and I beg you to forgive me for taking this silly little song reference so seriously. I am neurodivergent about this. It gives me pleasure to overanalyse things)

Within the World of Twelve, this song is about being a huppermage, and the pain that comes with it. (They are called here "hypermages", because this was their name in 2009-2010, when their lore was still being developed).

Someone in the huppermage class community has formed a parasocial relationship with Joris?? Imagine namedropping princess Diana in your depression song.

It makes me wonder what other famous huppermages' names could be used in the World of Twelve version of this song. "I would have wanted to be Juliiiith, so I could shout who I am!!" or something??? Would Bakara be name-dropped (actually, she probably would... she does have a parasocial fan in Dofus MMO, despite probably having been dead of old age for centuries)? Does this song make Joris cringe so much he almost dies?

This seems very rebellious, considering huppermages have what seems to be a very... conservative, rigid in-culture, that is against outside influences, and somewhat in favour of in-group hazing, (Wakfu quests — professors' reactions to students being attacked within the huppermage temple amounting to "you'll get over it." + what I've heard about institutionalized huppermage on huppermage violence that happens in Julith et Jahash comic.)

The other thing that makes it seem rebellious is the fact that Joris probably isn't welcome among his own people, with his independent personality, relation to Julith (this one is a mixed reason: during his youth, she was hated, — but as of Dofus MMO times, she was seemingly a figure that was revered just as strongly as Jahash, among huppermages), and affinity for other classes' (ecaflips) cultures and beliefs.

Another lyric that includes the word "artist", "I would have wanted to be an artist, to have the world to remake, to be able to be an anarchist, and live like a millionaire" makes me insane in this context. This fits him so well because this fucker doesn't give a shit about huppermage rules (he hits people with a log to give them concussions instead of using magic), and lives like a millionaire (smokes expensive blunts while drinking Chateau Lafite Rothschild in his nasty room filled with plushies and cartoon figurines).

These are the only two crepinlore adjacent cards in the Wakfu TCG, so, we will move onto Krosmaster:

You can't just tell me that, by ecaflip standards, Atcham is considered disabled and expect me to be normal about it. This confirms a lot of what I already thought: Atcham feels scorned for a multitude of reasons:

People think he's bad looking, he can't have a romantic relationship (if he didn't have Kerubim to blame for everything, god knows he would have become an incel. And I don't mean that as a joke. I mean it in the "blaming people being awful to you bc of your looks/neurodivergency/social skills — on other, random people, because the pain of being unable to change your situation is too much" way. He already does that. In canon.)

His lack of fur actually causes issues with his health. (we didn't need a card to tell that, but feels good to have it acknowledged. Just google how vulnerable sphynx cats are to temperatures. I feel bad for him.)

He feels... "uncute". Catboy body dysmorphia is both real, and fucking depressing.

There isn't any lore here, but I want to acknowledge something: Isn't it weird that he never wears pants as an old man, except in his first 2 official arts in Krosmaster? Isn't it whacky that he speaks in one episode as if he does wear pants? I am haunted by this, folks.

His dice have a wrong design on the first art here. Sorry for noticing insane things like that.

I have so many thoughts, and none of them coherent.

The scales, the fangs, Atcham's sword, the fact that it's called "draconian crisis"... I am in loves. Also "strange little boy" is on par with other things Joris gets called in canon. Like "funny little man" and "weirdly endearing for a curtain twitcher".

An error I noticed: he isn't wearing the tights/stockings he wears in Aux Tresors de Kerubim. I can see that because they coloured his knees the same colour as his shoulders/hands.

(Yes, yet another insane "I had watched Dofus Aux Tresors for 83492734 times" detail only I would ever notice.)

He is so, so,,...

A discussion with a friend made me want to present to you the next scenario: imagine Joris, being offered to play boufbowl as an adult. He would say "No, I shan't, I really shan't", before defeating everyone in record time. Just because he's smug like that, and loves to show off how cool and awesome he is, but in a subtle, quiet way. Athletes unironically hate him.

He should listen to Speedfreaks FM while running around.

Big news for Joris Pain enjoyers: Grougalorasalar can inflict nightmares upon people. And personally, I want him to have done this to Joris. Repeatedly.

I have a lot of emotions about her...

I wish more people took her alcoholism as more than a joke. I think it's fucking depressing that she's around 20yo, already an alcoholic, doing the whole huppermage thing just because of her brother, and the pressure of other people, and the only other stress relief she has besides alcoholism, is Violence. Jesus fucking christ.

I will probably write many more words on this topic, when we get to the movie, or to a particular comic, — but that will have to wait.

#cardpost #dofus #wakfu #joris jurgen #atcham crepin #kerubim crepin #krosmoz #ro liveblogs dofus #Youtube

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sweatyflytrap · 6 months

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MORE TAG GAMESSSSSS

Got tagged by the most adorable @effervescentdragon 🥹🥹🩷🩷

Last song: Sleep Deprivation by Chance Peña according to spotify (hilariously ironic considering my sleeping habits)

Favourite colour: pink my beloved 🩷

Currently watching: Hawaii five-O posting got to me so that 😭😭 they are so old married couple and it's only the second episode 🥹

Last movie: questions i have to ponder far too much because i barely watch stuff. Oh ya the second knives out movie, re-watched that with mom some weeks back!!!

Currently reading: I am always reading some or the other part of lotr, tying to get the spirit of insanity that made me finish it in three days to possess me again 🥺🥺

Sweet/Savoury/Spicy: SPICY!!!! We stan good amount of spice in this household, then savoury and then sweet. Not the biggest fan of sweet stuff but it does have a role in the ecosystem of midnight snacking.

Relationship status: planning how to kidnap the 42yr old geriatric I am parasocial about

Current obsession: old man posting but that's just me everyday. Honestly the start of winter has taken the wind out of my sails so we are just doing one day at a time 😭🫡

Last google: sauve vs suave (tbh most of my searches are just words and their spellings because english stops englishing randomly alot)

Currently working on: job search, trying to make sure my piercing doesn't die and take me with it, various other issues of the mental health variety :))

Current game: the game of life which I am getting a solid below avg at (i don't play games, last i did was probably subway surfer minion rip off on my sister's phone last year or something)

Tagging @skitskatdacat63 @breathofnyx @merenwenformulauno @parallelplayers @lil-shiro @pitayyaaa @ayceeofspades @userkritaaay @geneticcatalyst

No pressure at all ofcourse, if anyone else wants to do this feel free to tag me 🥹🥹

#love tag games #love to ramble #love to force people to read my ramblings even more ☺️☺️

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chanstopher · 4 months

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(for some reason I can ask via my fan account(

But I just want to say I feel you with the stay and KPop fandom comments. I see so many taking it too far and can't seem to recognise that they are creating parasocial relationships in their heads and narrative around situations they had a 2% outsider view of what's happened - and yet they act like they are coming from facts and reading the minds of others. I find it baffling.

I'm a LOT older, but it's always been nice connecting to those from different age groups via fandoms before. However, KPop ones really push me away from engaging. I try and recall back to my younger days with being in fandoms of pop groups and whilst there may have been issues between people from time to time, I don't recall anything to the level I see in Kpop where people get lynched and fans seemed to have had a firm grasp of reality and their place in terms of being a fan and crossing a celebrities boundaries. I don't think KPop stan's behaviour to be new, but in the age of social media and information being so easily accessible, it seems to have amplified certain types of behaviours and attitudes or, probably more likely, groomed and encouraged certain fan attitudes. I dunno.

someday tumblr will work fully. idk if its a sideblog or just tumblr being insane lol

I do feel like in the 2010"s it was a lot easier to find a corner of any fandom you could just be happy in, but with how many (negative) opinions ppl project constantly now its a lot harder, and then we all get sad about lack of engagement without thinking that maybe its the vobes we give off. like if ur rude or closed off or wont take someone elses opinion ppl are going to be afraid to engage and its sad. when i have a 1d blog i had maybe 4k followers at its peak and i would have dozens of asks a day because ppl were so engaged with everything all the time. now if someone dislikes a song they get death threats lmao. i think its why i make sure to answer asks and talk to anyone who tries to talk to me, i dont want ppl to have such a sad fandom experience. I remember being so excited when big accounts talked to me and were kind and helpful that i always felt like it was part of the experience. like the bigger my blog is the more i feel responsible for being accessible and welcoming because i want that so much for other ppl. i just dont get the amount of hostility and bitchiness that comes alnog with social media now. not that i dont get pissed off or dislike things or even ppl, i just try not to focus on it beyond the necessity (like ppl stealing content or stories)

i will say i find it to be such a weird thing that when i was a teen liking 1d i was so excited they had adult fans (as long as it wasnt weird ppl iykyk) but now a 15 year old will be like you who are the same age as that idol how weird for you to like them?! and im like...... what? i hated ppl thinking the things i liked were a teen or childhood phase when i was young and now ppl get so aggressive about it in the opposite way i get so confused lol in the end im just happy to have my happy little corner where i can ignore all of the weird ass behavior the rest of the internet seems so happy to engage in lol

#drm.ask #abodyofexpression

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charl3ss · 2 months

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Saw your post about joe and the crazy rumors people come up with and can I just say I fully agree with you😭 and it's so rare for me to find people that think similarly

The parasocial relationship some stans have with Taylor (and her relationships) should be studied fr because the amount of comments I have seen about her personal life is just.... Not it

Also obsessing with an artists relationships just so you can get new music is a bit weird. Like people love to act like they love the new partner until they break up and then they are demanding the tea through songs. Maybe somethings should stay private...

And I'm not here to create beef so if you disagree feel free to just delete this ask and we'll pretend it never happened!!

Anon, I COMPLETELY agree with you, 100%. I think to an extent, all fans of celebrities can get parasocial at times (just part of the territory, unfortunately) but swifties take it to the extreme. Like, I don’t care about Joe Alwyn in the slightest, but the bs with the lies…..I legitimately feel bad for him. I mean, as the fans, we know NOTHING about what happened. All we have are the songs and the upcoming album, but even that isn’t gospel. Because at the end of the day, there’s two sides to every story, so of course Taylor will tell her end, (which she’s completely entitled to do as an artist and I’ll be listening lol, but that doesn’t make it complete unbiased truth) but sometimes relationships just fall apart. There isn’t always “a villain” sometimes people just grow apart. But who knows what actually happened. Not me!

Honestly, the fans’ rampant desire to turn this situation into a “villain-victim” one unsettles me, because they are going off of like. No information and one song. I’ve seen people saying “we’re just holding a man accountable” but 1) you can’t hold someone you don’t know accountable and 2) you don’t know what happened!!! It’s ridiculous. Do you know how bad this is that I’m defending a MAN 🤨 making up fake DV stories based on NO evidence is awful and low.

Anyway, yes anon I totally agree with you. I’ve been a fan since I was a little girl, but there’s a reason I don’t hang out in fan spaces or follow any big swifties anymore because the parasocialism……it’s insane and makes me uncomfortable.

#someone’s going to call me a fake swiftie for this I can already tell #anyway thank you anon for sharing your opinion <3 #answered asks

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eviligo · 6 months

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I need to hear about your complicated feelings on z I am so curious i know next to nothing about this woman

ok.

so like, first off: i am disgustingly, parasocially, insanely jealous of her. let me just get that out of the way. it is an irrational jealousy because i have zero chance of having any relationship with matt and i have no delusions otherwise. i’m 29 years old with a full time job and extensive therapy under my belt and i am FULLY aware that my infatuation with matt is at its worst borderline unhealthy. so let me just say all that up front, i am extremely self aware and if anyone reads this and wants to send me hate just know you’re not going to be telling me anything i don’t know

i do not HATE zeph, but i do not like her. my first exposure to her was the noob dude video like many other people but i know she had a career before matt. but i’m not kidding when i say that the SECOND i saw her in that video i knew they’d end up dating. call it a gut feeling. then the twitter interactions followed and i was convinced if not in denial. to be fair their interactions, and their platonic friendship, was cute. they’re both a little annoying and mentally ill and terminally online

plus, their interactions gifted me with this, which i will cherish forever

and she gave me this

which, again, i hold so near and dear to my heart. but i won’t get into why, i’m sure you can interpret it

but before they ever got together i would get recommended zeph’s tweets CONSTANTLY. all the time. and each one made me roll my eyes. i muted her long before we found out they were dating. she just annoyed the absolute shit out of me. she tried too hard to appeal to a certain crowd, you know what i mean, the twitter-brained depressed queer 20-something women/enbies. the type that make their entire personality a mitski song. but that’s ok, it’s just not for me but there’s an audience for it, whatever, she wasn’t hurting anybody. i phased her out of my timeline and got to pretend she didn’t exist for a while. it was fine.

that was really where it started. i found her really fucking annoying, and she was quickly becoming close with matt, and i was jealous.

when we found out they were dating, officially, through a stream matt did with jim and luke where he let it slip that he had a girlfriend (and we were pretty sure he and annabel had broken up at that point) of course it bothered me. i already didn’t like her. and i just kind of sat in that for a while. they weren’t exactly public with their relationship but she alluded to him constantly on her social media, both positively (talked about his big dick) and negatively

and then she posted an…instagram story? on her priv? i think. that or her one of her twitters. about how he wasn’t paying her enough attention while he was on tour, talking about how she texted him she missed him and he didn’t respond immediately but when he did he was short with her. and on another occasion she compared her bpd to owning a dog.

“Imagine you were about to get a dog, but then the dog was like "STOP: I have a million health problems and I will cost a lot at the vet. And I'll tear up all your furniture. And I'll still love you and be cute but I'll be really hard to take care of.” And then the person ignores all that and is like, "I got it," because the dog's just cute. So what I'm saying is that if I warn you from the beginning and you STILL hurt my feelings, I don't think that's a me problem anymore.”

this was within the first couple months of her relationship. and it is so, so manipulative. i can’t help but draw parallels to leighton with his bpd and lex with her mental health, and refusing to take accountability. plus, knowing what we know now, with the cheating, it really recontextualizes things. sheds some light.

like i said before, i don’t think a relationship built on a wobbly foundation of cheating and emotional manipulation will last. but on the other hand she stuck with him through the last three months, while she caught some strays too. you can’t undervalue the sort of bond that can forge. plus she gets 24/7 unrestricted access to him now, which satisfies her insecurities.

there’s other, more personal gripes. i have a problem when men trade in their girlfriends for a younger, slimmer model. i think matt falls too hard, too fast, and mistakes strong affection for love. he is not without his faults here. they both have their own shit and i think they could be a powder keg. i hate how she does her makeup and think she looks so much better without it, but i have an issue with makeup culture in general. again—this is more personal stuff.

i want to stress that i DO NOT advocate sending zeph hate, or prying into her personal life that she does not share online. she’s just a mentally ill 20-something living in california. whatever happens will happen

#i’m sure i forgot some stuff in here. and idk if i’ll leave this up.

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tim-hoe-wan · 1 year

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The haylor theories about their relationship is insane but also up at swiftie alley. I am admittedly a fan and I used to love being on swiftie tumblr to see all the ways her fans can relate and interpret her songs. But for a while now it seems swifties are less on creativity and treating her body of work as an autobiography. Even with folklore despite the premise, some fans insist it’s all secretly about her. I just find it toxic because I love artistry and I love how creative songwriters and writers can be. They can make a whole story out of a single encounter or they can hear someone else’s story and make a story/song out of it. Now it’s all just used to connect bits of pieces of ones life. When Fine Line came out I used to check out a few blogs to see their take and they were doing the same, so I dipped from his fans immediately after, but it doesn’t surprise me why their fans overlap and why they take such pure conjectures and take it as fact.

I still enjoy Taylor’s music, but I don’t think I can stand the level of parasocial and coddling of her fanbase anymore.

I’m not part of either fandom to say how similar/different they are. I do think Harry’s pr uses the same vanilla/safe zone pr Taylor does.

I have known plenty of irl swifties in my life and during her debut to 1989 I was at the age where teens were really impressionable and dare I say, easy to indoctrinate. It doesn’t help that Taylor herself does tend to act like these are diary entries though I remember she herself saying oh I imagined this or the ex (or Maggie G) saying no it didn’t happen or I don’t know about that. I mean, other than the fact celebs lie, there’s also this thing called creative license. It’s not exclusive to songwriters, writers do take inspiration from their life but as many would clarify it’s just an inspiration, not the autobiography. And even with inspiration, it comes with imagination, exaggeration etc. all other creative license that mixes facts with fiction.

I’m with you, I’m not really a fan of interpreting songs to analyze people’s life. It’s different when they share it and hold which part of their life they took inspiration from. It doesn’t mean for example, Trent Reznor is literally wearing a crown of shit. I also feel it really helps being families from both sides be so heavily in the industry and see real time curating images for certain celebs or being in the creative session and listen to people voice their thoughts and how they for the idea for a story etc.

I don’t think anyone will change my mind that TaySwizzle really f**ked up the level of parasocial relationship and living vicariously between a celeb and their fandom. She wasn’t the first, but she sure was one of the most influential promoters of that kind of fandom activity.

#like these days it seems a songs can never be just a song #it has to be some message or story about the celeb life #miss the days when Mitski or Lady Gaga straight up say it’s not their story #cause now that’s everyone’s MO #or even if they took inspiration from it #doesn’t mean it’s free from imagination #or that it’s a pass for people to attack the person behind the song #ahem Olivia and Joshua #that poor boy #Sabrina too

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reddd-robin · 2 years

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🐦 Robin’s top albums of 2021 🐦

These aren’t in order of my favourites, but I like these alot and i listen to music from them ALOT. you guys should see my brain its mostly these guys and some stragglers. im just gonna name them in order lol

1. Do- Cosmo sheldrake

This is Cosmo’s newest album and it bangs really hard though i espesially like ‘Did don’t do’ it’s my favourite outta there. I usually play this when I’m writing beacuse it’s not as heavy as other stuff i listen to so i can pay attention to the words i write lol

2. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?- Of Montreal

this almbum is so good it managed to make Of Montreal one of my top artists within the month i first listened to it. insantiy incarnate. this one is a really good walking album for me, like i put it on and i am enpowered with the energy to speedwalk.

3. Through the looking class- Siouxsie and the Banshees

very good album but also i mostly listen to it absently and not specifically as an album. im mostly there for spellbound, you’re lost little girl, gun and this wheel is on fire. those are the ones i like i skip the rest lol oopsie

4. Chumpfrey- Feed me Jack

god i love this album its so so juicy and i really like the sounds they do it makes me happy in the brain. rosies is a great example but also pirate muse. those songs are amazing and the whole album is really good as a whole but those guys are the best like i specifically cant wait for them to come on when i know they’re in a playlist. love

5. Just a Lad- Oingo Boingo

goes insane goes evil rolls around on the ground scratching and clawing. this album is the best ever it should be sent to space so aliens can listen to it. This entire thing is pure gold its my favourite thing ever. the specific sound of oingo boingo in general i love but this whole ablum encapsulates every single thing i LOVE into one place. this is the only album i repeatedly put on as an album and not because alot of the songs are in my playlists. its insane. listen to this thing if you want but only the enlightened can survive

6. People who can eat people are the luckiest people in the world- AJJ

Dont make me talk about this thing i’ll explode into a bajillion peices and make a firework noise as my meat bits are launched into the sky like a bloody lightshow. This album is so so so so good its my favourite AJJ album it holds a special place in my heart. this album is just important to me and i love it. love

7. A history of public relations dilemmae- Petrojvic Blasting Company

this is a little unfair since this is their only album asides from their offical work in Over The Garden Wall, but i really really love this album. I love the jazz mixing with folk and it just. lights up my brain. Like princess andy and SINKING SHIPS oghhh i love sinking ships. love love. SIMON WAS IS ALSO RLLY GOOD i love this. theres some songs in here that are only okay but even still it doesn’t effect my love for the album. heart

8. Bury me at makeout creek- Mitski

Guys im sorry you see me Mitskiposting im very very feeling the winter and she’s my best friend. i listen to mistki talking about falling from balconies and kissing people drunk and not caring it sucks and i go a heem heem yes mitski me too mitski. close to being here was the only heartbreaker or Retired from sad new career in buisness. mitski forever

9, Testosterone!- Talkshow Boy

ok im transgender, alright? what do you want from me. i can be a little emo. a lot emo, actually! leave me alone. i like this album alot and it reminds me of 2015 in a good way and i like the funky sound. The contents are very fucked up like seriously this guy is having a bad time but we’re besties its ok. He’s fighting a tiger on the floor and i’m watching. thats my cousin. parasocial relationship with this guy he’s my weird friend’s brother.

this was fun actually i havent talked about my music like this before lol. Thanks to Anne for tagging me <3

urhmmmmmmmm i have to think of who to tag eruru

@heyits-hardy @elesketchii @beeapocalypse

thats all i can think of lol if you want to be tagged or untagged you can just ask

#i actually had to look trhough alot of my music bc i don't rlly pay attention to albums only usually songs i like #most of these have songs in the albums i don't care about or skip exept the ones i rlly rlly like #again ty anne this was fun #Talking2Myself

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yharnamsnewslug · 2 years

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I'd love to hear about the visceral music lol

NNNNNGH ANON I LOVE YOU - Okay, okay, so - fuck, I've a bunch, now that I think about it BUT let's goooo.

So in no particular order, and with the lyric specified unless it's the whole fucking song:

1) Liar, by the Arcadian Wild: "I have made you my next victim."

Okay so I'm BIASED on this one because I've been working for WEEKS on an animatic of my Saltmarsh campaign, which I'm DMing, and the barbarian's father is a huge mystery within the game, right? And this is HIS song, this is the man that begins EVERYTHING that has happened within the campaign (it's based on the module but heavily Homebrewed, because I wanted to do a full campaign with the Princes of the Sea). In any case, this is his song and the break of it is INSANE, it really is, it gives me goosebumps but the moment of GUILT as Greyson looks at John and feels this huge wave of sadness as he realizes he has to kill his best friend to save a little boy... GODS.

2) Call Them Brothers, by Regina Spektor: "Everyone's chasing a shot, a shot rings out, nobody wants it. Nobody wants it to stop."

Not just because I'm a younger sibling and my relationship with my sister is fucking bad, but also within the current Spanish political climate, this feels pointed and hard. I listen to it and I'm a bit overcome by the fucking guilt of being part of a system that's intent on splitting the public with political parties (not even ideologies!!! Just parties!!!) instead of helping this fucking country.

3) The Thunder Answered Back by Gabby's World: this entire song but ALSO -

“I SAID HOW'D IT TURN SO BAD?

THEN THE THUNDER ANSWERED BACK

IF YOU KNOW NOT WHAT YOU LACK

THEN YOU MUST UNTURN YOUR BACK

YOUR INSIDE IS OVERCAST

AND YOU ARE TETHERED TO YOUR PAST

AND IT MUST FEEL LIKE FUCKING HELL

TO BE A PATCHWORK OF YOURSELF.

A BUNCH OF SCRAPS, THROWN AND SOWN AROUND YOUR BONES

AND THOUGH YOU’RE ALONE IT’S HOLDING YOU TOO TIGHTLY”

This song I think it’s my favorite?? Of all time?? And like, okay, to me it’s so stupid to have a favorite song because there are so many and I can never even choose my favorite band, even if I have favorites, but damn this song. It feels so raw and when I discovered it in 2018, it was... good. And it’s become greater and greater and greater since then. A lot has changed. My feelings about this song have changed. The ENTIRE song is good but this part just makes me feel, period.

4) Inside, by Bo Burnham: especifically Content, Problematic, All Eyes On Me and Goodbye

From Content, just the utter absurdity and genius of fucking... “I had anxiety so bad that I had multiple panic attacks on stage, I was a creator that criticized the exploitation of parasocial relationships between artist and public for profit and I said multiple times just how guilty I feel about being someone who was thrust into the spotlight when I was a middle class white kid that shouldn’t have gotten so much attention. It’s slightly depressing but also funny as he raises the flashlight and shines it on the disco ball, “But look, I made you some conteeeent! Daddy made you your favorite, open wide! Here comes the content!” SPOON-FED TO YOU AHHHHHHH HE’S SO GOOD AT MUSIC. I really don’t give a shit that TikTok kids misused his music to do edgy OC content~~ and that subsequently, Tumblr has decided that Bo Burnham is cringe, I think Inside is one of the best things, if not the best thing, to come from 2021.

From Problematic, he voices everything I hate about the current situation regarding Cancel Culture, and how it’s so divissive about whether it works or not, absolutely forgoing the difference in power between “It doesn’t work! Jeffree Starr is still rich and famous!!!!” vs “This artist with just 1k followers on Tumblr was harrassed to such a point that they left the internet, no presence of them is left online anywhere and they were traumatized by it all”. The song is already BANGING, it’s super catchy and the video is incredible, and while I love the part where he’s “crucified” as he’s like “And I’m really fucking sooooorryyyyy”? I think the best is the bridge, “Times are changing and I’m getting old! Are you gonna hold me accountable?” It’s so GOOD to see someone call out how much of the “accountability” side is being processed as something that the public must do. I love it, I love it, are you gonna hold me accountable? Brilliant song.

Everyone and their mother has talked about All Eyes On Me, I don’t think I need to talk about the profit people’s poor mental health makes and how often mentally ill people are exploited or even how they risk themselves in order to monetize absolutely everything. Added to just doomer shit. This song was the one that made me bawl my fucking eyes out, I couldn’t breathe.

Goodbye is good because it’s a well-composed song, but on TOP of that. Fucking - the amalgamation of everything??? It gets me, EVERY TIME, “Oh shit... you’re really joking at a time like this? -WELL, WELL, LOOK WHO’S INSIDE AGAIN -”

This entire special makes me feel a lot, okay?

5) Dead Boys, by Sam Fender: “The anniversaries are short-lived but they come back around with breakneck speed.”

(TW: self harm, suicide) This song is about young men killing themselves. I’m a man, I’ve struggled with a lot of self harm and suicide. Still to this day, I struggle a lot with it. I’ve been clean of sh for a long time but this summer I had an attempt. It was rough and it was harrowing but I’m still standing, somewhat. This song means a lot, it’s very hard.

6) Lazarus, by David Bowie: “Oh, I’ll be free. Ain’t it just like me?”

David Bowie defined a lot of who I am today. I got into music because I got into Bowie, as a 12 year old. I used to dance in the kitchen with my mom as I began to learn English, with Just Dance. And she’d help me learn English with his songs. Lazarus’ music video was uploaded the 7th of January of 2016, and the 10th of that same month, same year, David Bowie passed away. And because of the mark that he left within me, the love that he instilled onto me, and how much music matters to me now BECAUSE of David Bowie? My name went from Nicolás, simply, to Nicolás Lázaro. It’s a very important song to me.

7) The Wolves Part I, by Bon Iver: the entire song

Ah, another of my favorite artists! I really had to choose one for this little thing I’m making but damn, I could put a thousand songs by Bon Iver in “Songs that Make Me Feel”. He’s an expert at invoking deep, more raw emotions with songs such as iMi, AUATC, For Emma and The Wolves. I don’t really know how to express everything, but there’s the specific part when the drums are beating like fireworks and the guitar is being strummed and Vernon’s falsetto starts with “AHHHHHH-aaaaaah-ahhhhh-ah!” Like, that’s brutal to me. I’ve cried for no reason with his songs before, but this one takes it all.

8) We Drag the Dead on Leashes, by Being As An Ocean: “Forgive the things that you hate in yourself so that you might be grace to someone else.”

Well, this was the first thing I ever got tattooed! It’s on my left arm, right under my elbow, it’s a very important song to me. I listened to a lot of hardcore, currently am getting back into it thanks to my friend, Sam, but man, this song still fucking slaps. There’s a lot of very optimistic songs by these guys, but be warned that they’re very fucking Christian. Luckily, I had a good relationship with the religion I grew up with.

9) The Chain, by Fleetwood Mac: but especifically the guitar solo at the end, and to listen to my favorite version, go to the 1980 Wembley LIVE. That one is just INSANE.

Hmm. I don’t have a good relationship with my sister.

10) Stay Alive by José González: the entire song, not going to lie. Just listen to it whole.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, the Ben Stiller remake, means a lot to me. May be better or worse than the original, yeah, but fuck, man, the soundtrack is on point. From Step Outside to Space Oddity to Stay Alive. Stiller really knows how to invoke emotion, he’s always been good at it, it’s no surprise. But it still gets me when it’s the morning and I chose to leave my bed instead of staying inside all day. It’s good. It feels good.

AND WELL, I could talk about more songs for ages. But I already wrote a ton so I’ll just put a little list underneath. Everyone who was crazy enough to read all of this is absolutely welcome to add their own little personal essay underneath!! Tell me how songs make you feel!!!

Honorable mentions:

Light of Love by Florence and the Machine,

Inmaculada Decepción by Zahara,

Gimme Love by Joji,

A New Kind of Hero by Aiden-Chan,

The Grand Escape by RADWIMPS,

And the Snakes Start to Sing by Bring Me the Horizon,

I’m Low on Gas and You Need a Jacket by Pierce the Veil,

Asleep by My Chemical Romance,

The Storm or The Depths by Of Mice & Men,

Came Out Swinging by the Wonder Years,

Long Train Running by the Doobie Brothers,

Cai by La Niña Pastori,

Niña Voladora by Juanito Makandé,

Lobo López by Kiko Veneno,

Hills to Climb by Tim Myers and

This Year by the Mountain Goats.

#ask #anon #poor anon tbh #I don't think they meant to make me talk so much #I wanted to be a musician for so long #I love music so much #nico.txt

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passionate-reply · 3 years

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Do you “fucking love” science? Have you ever been blinded by it? Well, it doesn’t really matter, because that goofy little number isn’t really supposed to be on Thomas Dolby’s debut album in the first place. Find out about all the awesome OTHER stuff that’s actually meant to be here, in this new installment of Great Albums! Transcript below the break.

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’ll be talking about a stellar album by one of those artists who have gone down in history as “one hit wonders,” despite producing a deep catalogue that’s often more impressive than that one song they end up known for: it’s The Golden Age of Wireless, the debut LP of Thomas Dolby. Chances are pretty good you’ve heard his big hit, “She Blinded Me With Science,” before...at least, if you’re American.

Music: “She Blinded Me With Science”

Like I said, if you’re American, you’ve heard this one before. If anything, it’s oversaturated! But if you’re from elsewhere in the world, you might not know it. Growing up in the US, I went through the whole gauntlet of alleged “one hit wonders” of 80s synth-pop, and a great many of them turned out to be British artists who had perfectly respectable careers in their native UK: Gary Numan, Soft Cell, and OMD, for example. Thomas Dolby is also British, but he’s apparently more famous here than he is across the pond--which is still not that famous.

He really ought to be, though, because The Golden Age of Wireless is a true masterpiece. Or, at least it WAS, in its original form. It’s actually a tough album to talk about, insofar as it’s hard to pin down what exactly constitutes “The Golden Age of Wireless.” It’s had quite a few different pressings, and a variety of different track listings. And the original version of it does NOT include “She Blinded Me With Science.” While I’d never argue that it’s a bad song, since it is insanely fun, and catchy to the point of being irresistible, it really does not belong on this album. I’m sure it helped them move copies of it, but its inclusion kind of ruins the vibe, to be honest. Its in-your-face and flamboyant hooks make it feel like a very unwarranted intrusion on an otherwise fairly serious and contemplative LP, which seems to have been intended as a fairly tight and thoughtful concept album.

Aside from that glaring issue, there are a few other tracks that have appeared on later versions of the album that weren’t there from the start, namely, the two tracks from Dolby’s first ever-release, a double A-side of “Urges” and “Leipzig,” as well as “One of Our Submarines,” the B-side of some versions of “She Blinded Me With Science.” All of these tracks are excellent, and mesh with the thematic and sonic character of the album quite well. “One of Our Submarines” in particular is often considered one of the best tracks of Dolby’s career--melancholy, claustrophobic, and stinging in its poignant sense of tragedy. It captures the misery and futility of modern war, as well as the sunset of the British Empire after the Second World War...and there’s a sample of a dolphin, too. It’s easily the track that I most wish had been included from the very start.

Music: “One of Our Submarines”

But now that that’s over with, I’d like to drill down and talk about how the album operates in its original form, as the artist intended. Like I said earlier, The Golden Age of Wireless is best understood as a concept album, and I think of it in a similar league as classics like the Buggles’ The Age of Plastic, OMD’s Dazzle Ships, or even Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. The original track listing opens with “Flying North,” a stellar introduction to one of the most prominent themes of the album: freedom!

Music: “Flying North”

“Flying North” is an exultant anthem of self-determination, and one clearly mediated by “metal birds”--aeroplanes, that is. It’s a celebration of the independence allowed by technology, and a rather winsome one, in which this almost macho image of a heroic pilot takes center stage. The final track of the album, “Cloudburst At Shingle Street,” is a bit more esoteric, but seems to be aiming for a pretty similar idea overall, and I’d argue that the two of them form thematic “bookends.”

Music: “Cloudburst At Shingle Street”

“Cloudburst At Shingle Street” leads us through the technological evolution of mankind, from swinging from trees to paving concrete beaches--but the spacey synth warbles beneath those lines give them an ominous bent. The assertion that we might be heading into a cloudburst “mindless,” “naked,” or “blindly” is unnervingly cynical, but, we’re told, “there’s no escaping it.” Despite all of these signs that our better judgment should be resisting the temptation of this miraculous cloudburst...this triumphant, rising coda, with its powerful choir encouraging us onwards, seems to muddle the whole thing. The untethered, free-roaming nature of modern life isn’t always this sexy and exuberant, though--consider the track “Weightless,” as a counterpoint.

Music: “Weightless”

“Weightless” certainly seems to be about modern transients of some sort--in this case, traveling by car--but never lionizes them or makes them too terribly enviable. Instead, the focus is on the image of the draining fuel tank: the constant emptiness and craving for meaning, validation, and genuine love. No matter the allure of this very American, Route 66-like setting, the gas stations, cinemas, and decadent diner meals along the way are never any real substitute for an emotionally authentic life. That setting is, of course, a wistfully backward-looking Midcentury one. Nostalgia and childhood naivete are also among the album’s major themes, and are expressed the most clearly on “Europa and the Pirate Twins.”

Music: “Europa and the Pirate Twins”

Narratively, “Europa and the Pirate Twins” is a bittersweet story of childhood playmates who never quite re-unite, despite promising to be together again someday. The really interesting wrinkle is the fact that the narrator’s beloved Europa has become a famous celebrity as an adult, and the narrator is essentially a fan of her despite their real-world relationship. It’s an uncanny, confused parasocial relationship dynamic that feels extremely contemporary, despite the fact that it’s ultimately more of a commentary on the rise of teenager-oriented marketing during the Midcentury than anything else. The strange, often unhealthy relationships between young people and mass media, particularly radio, are another one of the major sources of tension on The Golden Age of Wireless. “Europa and the Pirate Twins” is also one of the more interesting tracks, instrumentally, featuring a prominent harmonica part, performed by Andy Partridge of XTC. Given how much the album strives to be about the future and past simultaneously, steeped in nostalgia and utopian visions alike, it makes sense to hear Dolby blend elements of traditional folk or popular music with forward-thinking synth-pop sensibilities. Listen also for a flute on “Windpower,” and a substantial amount of guitar on “Commercial Breakup,” a song that proves Dolby certainly can rock, if he feels like it.

Music: “Commercial Breakup”

The cover art for The Golden Age of Wireless isn’t exactly the most iconic, but I’ve always thought it was very beautiful. You’ve got this very eye-catching, lurid, pulp magazine style illustration of Dolby as a diligent, yet glamourous engineer, radiating with the complementary colour palette of orange and blue, the perfect picture of retro cool. But it’s framed and inset, to give us a conscious sense of observing something that’s coming to us from another time, an artifact preserved. That patina and sense of the antique is amplified by this dull-coloured background, which actually shows a marble sculpture gallery in a museum, though that’s tough to make out unless you have it right in front of you. The numerous shades of irony operating here are another thing that make the album feel strikingly contemporary.

I’m also a huge fan of the album’s title. “Wireless,” if you weren’t aware, is an old-fashioned term for radio. Radio itself is a strong theme on the album, most obviously on the track “Radio Silence,” but the use of the term “wireless” isn’t just another piece of retro nostalgia--I think it’s also evocative of that sense of free-flying, untethered independence I talked about earlier. The first half, i.e., “golden age,” is perhaps even more important. “Golden age” is an extremely loaded term that brings a number of rich associations to the table. “Golden ages” are simultaneously longed for, but not fully believed in. They’re bygone eras that usually felt like nothing special to the people who actually lived through them, despite their greatness being palpable to anyone reflecting on them in hindsight. In every golden age, there’s a poetic tragedy.

I think that even if someone did buy this record just to get their hands on “She Blinded Me With Science,” they’d probably be at least a little bit disappointed in what they got. The album does have some decent pop singles, chiefly “Radio Silence” and “Europa and the Pirate Twins,” but they’re still humming with nostalgia and unease, and not without some substantial experimental DNA.

Music: “Radio Silence”

While they cut the single weirdest track on the album, “The Wreck of the Fairchild,” they still retained some fairly ambitious tracks, such as “Windpower”--clearly an ode to Kraftwerk’s “Radioactivity.” It’s hard to be angry with an electronic musician for trying to rip off Kraftwerk, since they all do it one way or another, and in this case it invites a natural comparison between two great concept albums focused on the theme of radio.

Music: “Windpower”

Overall, though, The Golden Age of Wireless is still a reasonably accessible album on the whole. Possibly not what you expected, and certainly, a work that’s more sentimental and affecting than good for the dance floor, but as far as poignant, ballady, diesel-punk odes to the tragic techno-optimism of the Midcentury go, I’d say it’s not all that hard to get into! Dolby does have a pop core, as an artist, that he’s quite capable of selling to us if he chooses to. For proof of that point, look no further than the single “Hyperactive!” which he followed this up with a few years later:

Music: “Hyperactive!”

When discussing an ostensible one-hit wonder, there’s a distinct temptation to resort to “they deserved better” style rhetoric. On one hand, yes, I do think more people should hear Thomas Dolby’s music, and that it has a lot to say to us. I’m all about obscure music finding new life and being appreciated. That said, in the case of Dolby, I think he basically got what he wanted, in the end. He’s always been more keenly interested in music’s many behind-the-scenes roles than he has in chasing pop stardom himself--he’s produced music, and scored a number of films and video games over the decades. It feels kind of wrong to tell someone who’s successful at one thing that they “deserve” to be successful at something different, just because we may want to hear him do it, or because we esteem one skillset more highly than the other. Ultimately, The Golden Age of Wireless is a Great Album on its own terms, whether Dolby ever decides to grace us with another synth-pop release under his own name again--which he did in 2011, with A Map of the Floating City. But it’s his decision, as an artist, and the fact that he can choose to or not is a luxury that allows him integrity. I think that’s the way it ought to be.

My overall top track on this album has got to be “Airwaves,” a song in which the narrator dies, tragically and suddenly, in an automobile accident. It’s not the sexy, “Warm Leatherette” sort of car accident, but rather a dismally realistic one, that shows quite frankly how undignified death can be. Sometimes, we aren’t so much doomed heroes as we are frightened, sickly children, defeated by our own fickle bodies. The last thought our narrator gets is “I itch all over, let me sleep”; their honour perishes just moments before they do. Meanwhile, the radio is a constant presence throughout, and serves as both something to anchor the scene in the droll and quotidian, as well as ultimately becoming something transcendent. The promise of “airwaves” is not only the human interconnectedness made possible by technology, but also a hint at the ultimate destiny of human souls, a kind of ethereal afterlife in the sky. The meandering lulls of the verses contrast sharply with the song’s eerily soaring refrain, which enhances that feeling that those “airwaves” occupy some sort of higher plane. On that surprisingly heavy note, that’s all I’ve got for today, so thanks for listening!

Music: “Airwaves”

#music #album review #album reviews #thomas dolby #one hit wonder #one hit wonders

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btsorpheus · 4 years

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(Kate Greenaway (British illustrator, 1846-1901). The Pied Piper of Hamelin, illustrations, pp. 40-41. 1888. Artstor, library.artstor.org/asset/AMCADIG_10310847749.)

II. PIED PIPER

If you were on Twitter in the early months of 2020, it’s almost inevitable that you would have bumped into a user with a superscript “7” attached to the end of their name.

(Screenshots from the following list on a K-pop humor Twitter account on March 9, 2020. Twitter handles have been blurred for the users’ privacy.)

This was originally for BTS fans, collectively known as ARMY, to show their support for the new album, Map of the Soul: 7. It has since become a way for individual ARMYs to quickly display their fan status to other users--as well as demonstrate how overwhelmingly numerous they are.

It’s almost insane how much influence BTS holds over Twitter. Though they have only 24.3 million followers as of March 9, 2020 (compared to Justin Bieber, who has 110.3 million, and Katy Perry, who has 108.4 million), four of their tweets are on Wikipedia’s list of the Top 30 Most Retweeted Tweets.

For another comparison, Barack Obama is on that list four times, as well. Neither Justin Bieber nor Katy Perry have made it as of March 9, 2020.

What have BTS done to have accumulated such a devoted fanbase?

Listening to their song “Pied Piper,” it’s clear that BTS are aware of the power they hold over their fans. Like Orpheus, it’s unclear whether their music is ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Jimin and Jungkook put it best when they sing, “It’s a bit dangerous but I’m so sweet / I’m here to save you, I’m here to ruin you.”

In Ovid's version of the myth, as recounted in the last section, Orpheus’s music both soothes nature and causes it to break into violence. Though he technically uses it for what appears to be a good purpose (i.e. saving his wife), Orpheus is also a transgressor--living beings aren’t meant to enter the Underworld, nor are they meant to bring the dead back to life. By doing so, Orpheus has crossed what should’ve been an uncrossable line.

Furthermore, Virgil’s Georgics uses him as essentially a bad example. At odds with the typical view of Orpheus as a great hero, Orpheus is portrayed as a failure compared to Aristaeus, an agricultural god who follows the gods’ exact instructions and succeeds in his task while Orpheus inevitably loses Eurydice.

It’s interesting that BTS choose to identify with the Pied Piper of Hamelin in their music. The Pied Piper, after all, is the antagonist of his story. According to Robert Browning’s poem, “The Pied Piper,” when the Mayor of Hamelin is unable to pay him for ridding their city of their rat infestation, the Piper kidnaps all of Hamelin’s children and holds them hostage until he gets his reward. This is not typical heroic behavior.

Similarly, BTS paints themselves as tempters. Like how the Pied Piper lured children out of the city, RM is aware of how their music can cause obsession that distracts fans from their day-to-day responsibilities. He raps, “Now stop watching and study for your test / Your parents and boss hate me,” with ‘watching’ referring to the content BTS are constantly churning out (“video clips, pictures, tweets”).

Like Virgil’s Orpheus, BTS disrupt social order with their musical prowess. They don’t even seem to be certain whether they want this or not. Obviously, the more people streaming their music, the more money they make. But some fans take this to another level--trending hashtags and getting views on music videos is what they feel is their job.

(Screenshot taken from the YouTube comments section on BTS’ “ON” music video on March 10, 2020. The spelling of “buzz words” (ex: streaming (“st34m1ng”), YouTube (“y0utube”), deleting (“d373ting”), view (“v13w”)) have been altered so that YouTube’s algorithms don’t mark the comment as spam and delete it. Notably, this comment has approximately 4,800 likes.)

This is when the obsession becomes dangerous. When the experience of listening to music is no longer about enjoying it for what it is, an essential part of why the work exists has been removed. For the music industry, the only reason music is produced is to make money--similarly, using music for profit seems to be the only reason the Pied Piper plays his songs.

The K-pop idol industry tends to fall into this category of mercenary music. A lot of K-pop acts feel “manufactured” as a result of “artists being too managed by the agencies,” as CedarBough Saeji, a visiting Korean studies assistant professor at Indiana University Bloomington, notes in a Wall Street Journal article on BTS’s growing popularity in the United States.

Every aspect of an idol’s personality is tailored to appeal to fans. Doing “aegyo” (Korean for “cuteness”), or a coquettish display of affection, is purely fan service, just like how agencies impose a dating ban on their idols to ensure they can appeal to fans as available sex icons. (When a member of the boy group EXO announced his marriage, his “fans” immediately turned on him, declaring him a traitor and calling for his blood.)

BTS appear to have the authenticity and intimacy that other K-pop groups lack. Because they’re allowed to sing about their genuine feelings--as they do in “Pied Piper,” despite how morally dubious the lyrics are--their fans feel a deeper connection with them. This is likely key to why they have sky-rocketed to worldwide fame while other K-pop groups, who sing almost exclusively about partying, monetary success, and vague ideas of love (typically kept carefully PG-13), have stalled.

Jin’s most recent solo song, “Moon,” is specifically about the parasocial relationship between BTS and ARMY. It almost feels like a love song from him to their fans, with its upbeat, poppy tune and gentle promises (“I will stay by your side / I will become your light”).

But the guiding metaphor through the song is Jin (and by extension, BTS) as the moon and ARMY as the Earth, with Jin orbiting but never reaching them. There’s an essential distance between the group and their fans that can never be breached. No matter how many vlogs and selfies BTS put out, the vast majority of their fans has never actually befriended or even met them. They can’t know who they really are. Even if BTS appear authentic by comparison to other K-pop groups, at the end of the day, they’re still performers.

This doesn’t stop fans from taking BTS’s professed affection at face-value.

(Screenshot taken of a BTS fan’s tweet after RM’s (Kim Namjoon’s) V Live livestream on March 9, 2020. The user’s Twitter name and handle have been blurred for privacy.)

It’s a weird relationship that brings into question exactly what kind of love this is, and maybe even blurs its boundaries. But it becomes clear that their music isn’t the only factor in what draws their fanbase in.

Like Ovid’s Orpheus, BTS have a rhetorical power that functions as transactional. Orpheus’s song to Hades and Persephone to convince them to release Eurydice from the Underworld is a business proposal that clearly states how both parties would benefit in the exchange of Eurydice, describing her as a “loan.” Any element of romance remains absent as Orpheus instead attempts flattery, calling Hades’s kingdom “vast” and noting that he holds “longest dominion over humankind,” referring to a soul’s infinite inhabitation in the Underworld after a temporary mortal life.

Who is the fanbase in the Orphic scenario? If BTS are the serenading Orpheus, then,

The fans must be either Nature, which listens to Orpheus’s song and weeps with him,

Or the rulers of the Underworld, who listen to Orpheus’s song, weep with him, then give him Eurydice as payment.

In the well-oiled K-pop idol industry, where award shows and fan service loom around every corner, support (whether financial or social) is always expected in return for content--a Eurydice for every song.

And at the end of the day, BTS are still an idol group and a commodity. Just because they appear more authentic than other groups doesn’t mean they can give up their whole, genuine selves. As Pitchfork notes in their review of Map of the Soul: 7, though the album follows “philosophical, Jungian blueprints,” it lacks the “kind of candor and complication” that should feature on an “album about the dark side of the psyche and the BTS journey.”

I showed this review to my roommate, a more passionate BTS fan than I am. Though she agreed to an extent, she added that, “If they actually came out and said something like, ‘Our fans are insane,’ they’d lose all of them in an instant.” And with the fans, their income.

Jin’s “Moon” is, itself, an Orphic song. Like Orpheus and Eurydice, the moon and the Earth can never be together. The moon is fated to orbit the Earth forever, looking back longingly as Orpheus does at Eurydice, but never able to reach her.

Maybe “Moon” is a genuine love song. Maybe Jin does feel a loving connection between him and ARMY, and he wanted to share a piece of that.

Or maybe “Moon” is a sweet, safe song in the midst of an album about being swallowed by your stage persona (Suga’s “Interlude : Shadow”) and losing your passion for art (“Black Swan”)--one that lures fans in and will get them emotional, streaming, and, ultimately, generating revenue.

(Screenshot from a Twitter fan account dedicated to encouraging other fans to listen to BTS’s music more often not out of fondness for the songs but to get their numbers higher, taken March 10, 2020.)

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