November 1, 2005
Ashlee Simpson Protest: Resistance or AntiPopism?
"Hey hey. Ho ho. Ashlee Simpson is a no-talent goat."
That sort of taunt, made up this very second, could very well be included in the grass-roots movement to embarrass Ashlee Simpson today at Much Music. The group making the noise, headed up by some Ry-High students, has put forth the following message:
We are meeting in front of Ryerson’s School of Image Arts building (122 Bond Street, close to Sam The Record Man) at 1:00 pm on Tuesday. From there, we’ll venture down to 299 Queen Street and set up shop before her real fans get out of elementary school. If you can’t make it at that time, don’t sweat, you can just show up at the CHUM City building before 5 pm. The show runs from 5 - 6 pm and we plan to boo for as long as possible. If we get tired of booing, we’ll switch to chanting. If you feel the need to bring a sign, try to conceal it from security, as we don’t want to be removed before the start of the show. This is a peaceful protest, by the way. If we are asked to leave by way of force, then we’ll leave. Our goal is to have some fun, not to get arrested.We are also trying to get people who can’t attend in person to call in with fake questions to get on air, then ask/say something to Ashlee that they really want to say. For example, "What’s it like knowing that once your fans grow up, they’ll realize you have no
talent?" The possibilities are endless.
From one perspective, to call this antipopism is an understatement. "Operation BOO," as it's called by organizers, projects quote-unquote elite musical tastes onto others (disliking Simpson is a matter of taste, condemning Simpson fans is a matter of none-of-your-business). And not only does this undermine the importance of public protest, but it also adds to the congestion around Queen and John. From another perspective, it must be funny to someone somewhere.
Next entertainment protest: Stop Aki Berg!
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Boooooo-ring. Cmon, that music is so shit its not even worth going to, to boo. Sounds like a pretty lame event to me, like some sort of teenage protest. YAWN.
How bout instead of booing or whatever you go and start making quality music yourselves?
Yes that did sound like it came from the mouth of a mother.
A motherfucker.
It's total popism, but if they want to do it let 'em. Heck it's a total waste of their time and I'm not sure how their "protest" is any different than the hundreds of fans that are going to show up.
She doesn't need any more attention, why are they giving it to her?
First of all, it's spelt Ashlee, not Ashley. ;)
I don't believe why anybody should be targetting Ashlee above any other pop star out there. You don't see protests outside Canadian Idol competitions or worse yet, Britney Spears concerts and appearances. Those are just as manufactured as anything else.
Furthermore, in my opinion, Ashlee is one of the "better" manufactured pop stars out there. Her appeal is in the fact that she really doesn't give a rats ass about what everyone else thinks and to keep doing what she loves to do. Her main fan base, teenaged girls, have caught onto that, and in my opinion, that's a much better role model than Britney's sexed up music videos and trashbag husband, Paris Hilton's inherited fortunes and whorish ways, or any rapper with bling using women as sex objects.
She's not the best singer, but that's not particularly why the people love her love her. And she must be doing something right, with her new album sitting at #1 on the charts.
thanks...changed.
It's art! It's subverting the paradigm! It's funny! It's actually a little thought-provoking!
Also, it may well "undermine the importance of public protest", but -- hoorah! I've always found marches and coordinated chanting of slogans to be vaguely fascist.
First Sarah gets all down on the dude who raised money to smash iPod for now this... Down with earnestness! Up with ridiculous protests!
i love this idea. i just don't see how it relates to people wanton smashing ipods, which i think is plain dumb. absurdity is great, destructive absurdity, not so much.
i don't think there is anything wrong with popular culture, or pop music for that matter. i think there is something inherently wrong with our ability to define what it is.
popular culture is what we deem as good - without the marketing machine. maybe michael jackson of the 80s, maybe even the arcade fire now - and i know that you people think that the arcade fire aren't pop music, but i mean they are popular, right?
mass culture is what is wrong with society - it is what ashley simpson and paris hilton represent. it is when the mass machine of consumerism tries to market what our taste is. and believe me, it is not an organic process of liking. it's kind of like brainwashing.
anyway. i think this is a good idea. yeah, her feelings will probably get hurt, but honestly this girl needs to be held accountable for her actions. she is afflicting our world with poor taste.
DAMMIT JOSH
POPISM = PRO-POP, NOT ANTI-POP
*SOUND OF BANANA CREAM PIE GOING SPLAT ON FACE*
(also dare i say it but pieces of me is a catchy little number is it not if i do say so oh yes)
Leave the kids to their pop music. Who are we to judge?
How pathetic is it for 20 year olds to curse out 12 year olds for their musical taste. Leave them alone. This isn't something worth protesting at all.
Now, protesting Aki Berg might be worthwhile.
dammit, morris! you are such a rockist!
a more worthwhile target of protest would actually be muchmusic and their continued support for derivative (sp?) forms of entertainment. have you seen the shit they're peddling now? even the newmusic is an afterthought, hannah sung really dropped strombo's ball when he left.
haha. oh man, this doesn't rank among my "best causes to support" list, but i always applaud people who actually go outside and do anything.
i mean it. anything at all. seriously world, stop watching so much tv!
I guess people have finally picked all of the belly button lint out of their belly buttons and are now looking for another useless thing to waste time on.
Wow, some people.
What a waste of time this would be.
Actually, I'd love to go down and watch the people boo. And then watch them collectively get told off by 900 13 yr old girls. Because, if there's a demographic you DON'T want to argue with, it's 13 yr old girls. The mind recoils in horror.
I don't understand how anyone can say "Ashlee Simpsons music = bad taste". No, it's just not YOUR taste. It would be akin to me saying "I'm Catholic, so Muslims are wrong". No, they just think differently. Leave people alone and let them make their own choices on what they like, mr. know-it-all.
Much Music is pretty LoCoDe though.
help a old lady cross the street, pick up some litter, help at the food bank, please do something useful with your lives
um...i just think it sounds mean.
I think you're all in the wrong, I was there, it was fun, good way to kill an afternoon, the goal was to distrupt live television, which we suceeded in doing by enraging the MOD Program Director and get a reaction from people to create an entertaining documentary. The Problem with all of you is you're a bunch of stuck up urban wannabe intellectuals with pretty empty criticism. We're a tight group of boys from smalltown Ontario, this is fun. We had more people interested in us than Ashlee, we had fans looking at us, we had cars honking, Police on out side, news photographers, Hannah Sung and Tom Green for gods sakes. We had old men taking pics with their camera phones and no 13y.o's are not frightening their harmless and didn't do anything. Shut your mouths next time please.
"We're a tight group of boys from smalltown Ontario, this is fun."
Of course.
Now that we've met jim, I'd like to retract my earlier comments. It's still inadvertently art, though.
Eeech. I rest my case on all fronts.
Boooooo-ring.
Yesssss, I win.
"The Problem with all of you is you're a bunch of stuck up urban wannabe intellectuals with pretty empty criticism."
Unlike you, who took time out of your day to go and share your empty criticism of a makes-no-difference-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things pop star and ruin the day of a bunch of tween's.
Yeah, you're a real hero.
I don't understand how the people against this "protest" are the "stuck up" ones. Aren't you going out of your way to tell people what they shouldn't listen to?
And arn't you in turn telling these people not to protest?
Meh it's time that people started "protesting" or at least voicing their concern. MMTV has gone downhill(um sook yin? electric circus????), for something that might have a lot of potential. There's lots of great shit happening in this city that needs to be exposed. YES they need to sell shit, but there could be more of a balance. I'm not sure what the protester's motives are but it seems that someone was taking a chance to have their voices heard. The fact that it was Ashlee Simpson doens't matter, shes just a symbol of the benality Much has sunk to.
The fact that people don't agree with this just encourages the same old safe medium flavour in mainstream culture.
Well I had a splendid time myself. Imagine the internet saying something is dumb...whoa.
while the absurdity of the protest is funny, and pop trash in total can be nauseating, what really gets me is that bunch of 19-20 years olds are picking on a littly kid! That's even more absurd! Of course, I firmly believe in targeting kids, it's so easy to win in a fight against them.
ashlee rocks!! she's awesome and you are so jealous! get over it...
ASHLEE IS AMAZING! the best!
kiss my fucking ass if you don't like her
bye
peace!