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Tributes - please stop


Steve Browning

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The deaths of two guitar playing legends has unleashed an army of guitarists/bands performing 'tributes', their versions of songs made famous by the departed.

Why do they think anyone wants to hear a (to use the fairly recently-coined term) Poundshop version of a classic piece of music? It's more of an insult than tribute. Actually, I hate bass players covering Youtube and Facebook with their solo noodling too but that's slightly different, I guess.

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I sort of agree.  If the music/musician meant a lot to you, that's great (and it's certainly clear that EVH had that effect) but I don't really feel there's much to be gained by sharing your 'tribute' (particularly by murdering their songs) publicly. 

Maybe I'm too British (or just a cold, unfeeling git) but actually I'd extend that to all public outpourings of grief, including but not limited to:

- 'U ok hun' style posts on Social Media

- Tattoos of names / death dates on your skin in prominent places

- Shrines of any kind (unless you're actually related to them)

 

Re-reading the above, I am a cold, unfeeling git.

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I don't really mind :)

It allows to find some good ideas/versions/arrangements!

 

Edit: Given that the 'issue' seems to be the fact that those covers are being made in response to the death of someone, I'll put it in these terms as an idea: if I published a cover of a Van Halen song three years ago on Youtube, it's always only had 54 views. Today, it blows up to 500k views. In an alternate universe, I never published that video, and I hear that Van Halen passed away: I now make or publish that cover, that reaches 500k views just the same. From a 'final user' point of view, who is the one that is actively going to look for those things given what happened (aided by the good old YT algo), nothing changes - I get served the content I looked for. So it's just a moral question, at the end; Youtube is an on-demand platform first. If you see content being watched a lot, it's because...people want to watch it :)

Edited by akabane
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They usually come across as a by-the-way-look-at-me thing, making it about the poster rather than the deceased. Whether the poster is bright or aware enough to realise that is an entirely different matter. It's all quite self-centred and tasteless, as seems to be the fashion of the times we live in, sadly.

Edited by Doctor J
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42 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

The deaths of two guitar playing legends has unleashed an army of guitarists/bands performing 'tributes', their versions of songs made famous by the departed.

Why do they think anyone wants to hear a (to use the fairly recently-coined term) Poundshop version of a classic piece of music? It's more of an insult than tribute. Actually, I hate bass players covering Youtube and Facebook with their solo noodling too but that's slightly different, I guess.

People just want to feel part of it mate, in the pre-internet/pre-covid days, everyone would gather outside the house or record company or studio, it's just people's way of managing their own stinky poo. I find the easiest way of not getting annoyed by it is to never look at social media, and by the way, I include BBC News 24 in that category, they increasingly report this sort of thing as if it's news "Person does something on internet that annoyed other person" :)

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I think there is a wider issue with our interest around celebrity death. When I heard about Eddie Van Halen, I went on Basschat and a notification came up on the 2020 deaths thread, as I had posted before. When I went on it there must have been 20-30 users viewing that thread. I'm not personally a fan of Van Halen but my social media would suggest all my friends were, not that I remember many of them mentioning it.

I guess it us acknowledges a part of our childhoods that has now gone. Personally I have no issue with people posting playing tributes. if I am not interested, I won't click. I thought for years that these public displays started with Diana but Lennon & Elvis show that the public response is generally, um, public.

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2 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

 I'm not personally a fan of Van Halen but my social media would suggest all my friends were, not that I remember many of them mentioning it.

I've noticed that too - part of me thinks / hopes it's a sign that more people love music than I think, but they're just not as vocal about it as me.

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41 minutes ago, El Capo said:

I sort of agree.  If the music/musician meant a lot to you, that's great (and it's certainly clear that EVH had that effect) but I don't really feel there's much to be gained by sharing your 'tribute' (particularly by murdering their songs) publicly. 

Maybe I'm too British (or just a cold, unfeeling git) but actually I'd extend that to all public outpourings of grief, including but not limited to:

- 'U ok hun' style posts on Social Media

- Tattoos of names / death dates on your skin in prominent places

- Shrines of any kind (unless you're actually related to them)

 

Re-reading the above, I am a cold, unfeeling git.

I don't think you're cold and unfeeling. There is a difference between being genuinely upset by something that has happened and being "social-media shouty look at me and feel sorry for me and let me be part of someone's grief" playing to the crowd. 

I'd add to your list, if I may, footballers doing "tributes" to people. A minutes silence, OK, but then the whole writing messages on shirts, having props to pull out during games to pay tribute to people... Don't get me wrong, footballers do give a lot to charity etc. But it's the showy "look at us displaying our grief" thing that just seems tacky. 

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46 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

I don't think you're cold and unfeeling. There is a difference between being genuinely upset by something that has happened and being "social-media shouty look at me and feel sorry for me and let me be part of someone's grief" playing to the crowd. 

I'd add to your list, if I may, footballers doing "tributes" to people. A minutes silence, OK, but then the whole writing messages on shirts, having props to pull out during games to pay tribute to people... Don't get me wrong, footballers do give a lot to charity etc. But it's the showy "look at us displaying our grief" thing that just seems tacky. 

Exactly my feelings and definitely in respect 'dedicating/tributing' by sports people/clubs.

 

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re. the social media 'outpouring' - I have never been one for shouting about how much I like/love the output from VH over the past 42 years but I found myself genuinely upset at EVH's passing.  His music was part of my youth/adulthood and I never failed to listen to what the band VH did through the years, even if I felt indifference to some of it (nothing to do with band line-up changes).  I'm sure EVH's early work would eclipse anything that he might have done now but I'm struggling to put into words my feelings toward the fact that his death was self-inflicted and has robbed us of any further opportunities to hear him produce more music.  

However, back to the OP point.  I found myself picking up the bass and jamming along to a variety of VH material today; none of it recorded... doesn't make it any more/less valid.  Oddly enough it made me feel better.

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To be clear, I don't watch these things. I find it almost objectionable that someone would be arrogant enough to think that anyone wants to see how poorly they compare to the great they are mourning.

I will make a single exception for Snowy White to tribute Peter Green (he'll be so pleased).

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For sure we can skip past them, but I guess the OP was trying to find out what the rest of us think about them......

.... so here goes.....

It can seem a bit off if it smacks of self-promotion, which it sometimes will.

Might be different if an established artist did it for someone who never got the recognition they deserved in life I guess.

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Van Halen’s passing doesn’t upset me one bit, in all honesty. 

Not because I’m a git. Obviously it’s tremendously sad for his friends and family. But I didn’t know him. I liked his music, but that’s as far as my interest in him went. 

Is that bad? 

Same feelings for Rocco who passed recently. Tremendous player, seemed like a genuine guy and I grew up with his music. But times change. I like other music too. I appreciate the music he left behind that I can enjoy forever. 

Maybe it’s just me!

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