I was born Texan, raised Louisianan, and transplanted New Mexican. I don't miss the mosquitos, but I do miss the rain. I love dialectic. I try to refrain from eristic.
Bad Religion = Highly Marketable [ Sun Nov 28 2010 2:58 PM ]
There seems to have been a lot of misunderstanding about my criticism of Bad Religion. I'll review just to be 100% clear.
Bad Religion seems to me to be a cowardly band in a genre that is supposed to be an in-your-face, say-whatever-needs-to-be-said genre. I say this because they are still restricting the religions attacked in their logo to Christianity, while Islam, as the fastest-growing religion in the world, is completely left out. I cannot say for certain, but it would seem they avoid it because the political Left in America is decidedly for the acceptance and understanding of Islam (and justifiably so), and the political Left happens to be among Bad Religion's target demographics. An Islamic icon in a red circle crossed out would be too controversial for the band to tackle, although they claim to be against religion in all forms. Accordingly, I see an inconsistency between the band's creed and its marketing.
It seems to me the band is more interested in selling albums than speaking out for its beliefs. After all, a Christian cross in a red circle crossed out can't possibly hurt the band's album and merchandise sales; if anything, it helps them. Exploiting the Christian symbol for album sales draws in the dough from rebellious children reared on Judeo-Christian values--a key demographic for the sale of punk rock albums. In this way, Bad Religion's assault on the Christian icon is not unlike the album-selling tactics of such schlockly shock rockers as Disturbed. It's all about getting money from the rebellious kids, who probably got the money from their Christian parents as an allowance.
There seems to have been a lot of misunderstanding about my criticism of Bad Religion. I'll review just to be 100% clear.
Bad Religion seems to me to be a cowardly band in a genre that is supposed to be an in-your-face, say-whatever-needs-to-be-said genre. I say this because they are still restricting the religions attacked in their logo to Christianity, while Islam, as the fastest-growing religion in the world, is completely left out. I cannot say for certain, but it would seem they avoid it because the political Left in America is decidedly for the acceptance and understanding of Islam (and justifiably so), and the political Left happens to be among Bad Religion's target demographics. An Islamic icon in a red circle crossed out would be too controversial for the band to tackle, although they claim to be against religion in all forms. Accordingly, I see an inconsistency between the band's creed and its marketing.
It seems to me the band is more interested in selling albums than speaking out for its beliefs. After all, a Christian cross in a red circle crossed out can't possibly hurt the band's album and merchandise sales; if anything, it helps them. Exploiting the Christian symbol for album sales draws in the dough from rebellious children reared on Judeo-Christian values--a key demographic for the sale of punk rock albums. In this way, Bad Religion's assault on the Christian icon is not unlike the album-selling tactics of such schlockly shock rockers as Disturbed. It's all about getting money from the rebellious kids, who probably got the money from their Christian parents as an allowance.