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I was thinking about livestreaming a video response to this video but I decided a Twitter thread is more apt. Sources will be the last tweets in this thread.
I do appreciate how Filthy is upfront with his ignorance on culture and history and welcomes criticism, at least for the sake of the intro to his video. He has been hostile to critics thus far but whatever.
First, the anti-Vietnam War movement was not the counter-culture.
First, the anti-Vietnam War movement was not the counter-culture.
The anti-war movement was an element of the 60s counter-culture as was the Civil Rights movement. The counter culture was the hippie/free love/psychedelia movements who embraced those stances. They also embraced socialism and far left-liberalism.
Either way, Filthy constantly conflates music with culture thought the first half of the video. The folk and psychedelic rock and folk music of the hippies wasn't what brought on the counter-culture they were a product of that culture. Same with punk, the punk attitude and...
the style was already being developed before the Sex Pistols and Ramones started making the rounds. The rebellious attitudes were already being expressed at places like CBGBs and the style was getting popular in the UK through the SEX boutique in London long before The Ramones...
...and Sex Pistols respectively. Punk music was a reflection of that subculture. Both of these movements had pretty clear ideological roots as well. As mentioned before left-liberalism and socialism with the hippies and classical anarchism and anti-authority with punk.
However Filthy throws grunge in there which for all intents and purposes was a rather apathetic and opioid-induced self destructive musical movement. It didn't come from any kind of ideological perspective and left no real political impact like the former 2 examples.
Moreover, the same could be said about the early days of hip-hop and rap which he seems to have a very cursory understanding of. For most of hip-hop's life, it's been very sugar-coated for most of its early history. Gangster Rap was later on. NWA and the like took...
a full 10 years after hip-hop broke into the mainstream before the real violent and sexist themes came into play. hip hop like Sugar Hill Gang, Beastie Boys, Run DMC, and Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff is what dominated at the time and was very mild in their themes.
Again, hip-hop didn't come from an ideological shift. Public Enemy's radical leftism and NWA's anti-police brutality and racial profiling messages came much later. Not to say there were themes prior, they were not yet woven into the fabric of the subculture yet.
Filthy brings up the BBC and The Beatles. It's worth pointing out when it comes to the example of Come Together the whole system of media in the UK. In the UK at that time, you have to pay for your TV access and what you got was the BBC. As a result BBC was not allowed to run...
advertizements of any kind. No commercial spots or product placements and this rule also applied to their radio holdings as well. Think of it like Showtime or HBO but by force. If the BBC gets its money though you with a gun, the least they can do is not run ads.
Because of this, the culture in the UK became very different with respect to advertising even outside of BBC and has one of the most restrictive rules for advertising and product placement not just in law, but advertising the people there are repulsed by this activity.
So imagine you're a government agency and you are the ones enforcing these rules. How do you know if a real product in a piece of media is just an artistic expression or part of a backroom, an under-the-table deal you're not privy to? You can't. So the rule can only be to ban...
all of it or people will just exploit it. The BBC nor the government was concerned about people hearing about Coca-Cola, but it was a way to make sure that people would break the law and upset the people in that country with product placement in a song.
I'm not saying it's a good thing or that it's the right thing for the government to do, just that Filthy's interpretation of it was out of ignorance of the British way.
Filthy goes on to explain that there hasn't been a new real musical movement from 2000 onward that upset...
Filthy goes on to explain that there hasn't been a new real musical movement from 2000 onward that upset...
the status-quo types. This is false on its face to anyone who is really involved with music; playing or listening. You had Dubstep, various types of Rave and EDM which were seen as a venues for promiscuity and party drugs like ecstasy and ketamine. Vaporwave which was...
demonized as artistically bankrupt and pushed an anti-consumerist and pro-communist agenda. Crunk which was demonized for promoting codeine addiction. Neopsychedelia which was demonized for promoting psychedelic drugs. Mumble rap for promoting...
prescription drug abuse and.... well, being mumble rap. Emo and screamo for promoting suicide. This is not even touching on pop which thoughout its existence as always been sexually provocative to the point of vulgarity. From Prince to Madonna to Britney Spears, to Miley Cyrus...
and everything in between. Furthermore, every musical movement gets attacked by those who wield power. Even fucking John Denver was also attacked by the establishment for promoting drug use in Rocky Mountain High and even the most milquetoast and bland artists...
today get accused of glorifying satanic or Illuminati symbols both intentionally placed to be provocative or imagined by their accusers.
To the meat of this video though: Therefore cryptocurrency and digital piracy is the new counter-culture.
Sure, at the core of the piracy community there is a GNU-like ideology of information and media should be free and open. For general users? No.
Sure, at the core of the piracy community there is a GNU-like ideology of information and media should be free and open. For general users? No.
He does acknowledge this later but it's still a big snag for his point because at the end of the day people still pirate to sample what they will later buy. All of the studies have shown this. Though more recent studies have become more sketchy about this, is mostly because of...
something important this video completely overlooks: Streaming.
Music piracy took a dive and it is becoming increasingly harder to find more obscure music on these torrent sites. However, it's hard to find a band that isn't on these services. (continued in next thread.)
Music piracy took a dive and it is becoming increasingly harder to find more obscure music on these torrent sites. However, it's hard to find a band that isn't on these services. (continued in next thread.)
Continued here: https://twitter.com/JimJesus/status/1249733657096417280
