Richard Marx And How Not To Act In The Internet Era
from the crazy-crazy-crazy dept
A year ago, Mike presented at Midem, discussing how being more open, honest and awesome to the public and to your fans is a recipe for musical success in the internet era. It sounds like an easy concept, but it's one that few do really well. It means connecting with your fans and your public, engaging them positively, responding honestly to inquiries, and generally putting the ego aside and embracing a certain amount of humility.Or, alternatively, you could go the Richard Marx route, which basically means acting like a self-important psychopath. That's what Edward McClelland at Salon discovered when he did a piece that made a joking reference about Marx.
As I wrote in a story last week on the Morning News, Marx – the Chicago-born singer best known for the 1980s soft-rock hits “Hold On to the Nights” and “Right Here Waiting” – demanded a sit-down with me after I called him “shameless” in a blog post for a local TV station’s news site.
“Would you say that to my face?” he emailed me. “Let’s find out. I’ll meet you anywhere in the city, any time. I don’t travel again until the end of the week. Let’s hash this out like men.”Now, if you think it's a bit on the crazy side for 1980's ballad singers to go rushing around Chicago to meet up with people who said not nice things on the internet, you're not alone. Even stranger, it would appear that monitoring the interwebz and local papers for critics to respond to is something of a habit for Marx. He referred to one radio producer as a "coward", "jerk" and "douchebag" after he failed to show up for a radio appearance. The producer criticizing him for this qualified as a "pussy move" with Marx. He also was quite public in being upset at WGN-TV for not giving him more air time and told them essentially to go elsewhere if they needed a musical artist for their show in the future. These are but a few examples and, in the age of the internet where these stories will never die, they represent the best way to torpedo any possible chance an artist might have at a career in the future. Then there was his email exchange with a writer for Chicagoist, which was memorialized in a YouTube video:
There's just no reason to behave like this in any case, nevermind in an era where the harm done is multiplied and then refuses to disappear.
Now, in case you should think that my labeling Marx as "crazy" is unfair, take a look at a few samples from the email he sent to McClelland and dared him to post online.
-First, your editor, who’s not named but whose identity I can easily find, is a liar. I’ve never tipped less than 20% in my adult life, and you’re more than invited to call any establishments you think I may patronize to check it out.I have to admit that last one is my favorite. Sadly, it is about being thin-skinned when you feel the need to drive your car from the suburbs into Chicago to meet face to face with some guy you don't know who said something you don't like on the internet -- especially when that "something you don't like" is the barely offensive claim that you are "shameless." More importantly, it shines a light on a psyche that is so desperate for attention and praise that it demands action from those he does not know. I can't take Marx up on his offer to critique his music because, frankly, I've never heard it. Nor have I heard of him prior to this piece coming out.
-Second, to assume you can crawl inside my head and know what my motivation is for writing a song is arrogance reserved for the likes of Hitler and Stalin.
-The big question is why I give a shit about people like you or the things you write. Even my wife and some friends ask me why I don’t just let certain things go. Here’s my explanation. The internet, Twitter and blogs particularly, are a Utopian breeding ground for cowards. A place for small, frustrated people to spew vile, bitter shit without fearing true retribution. Today, you became the poster-boy for Chickenshit-itis. And for you, as well as anyone else who thinks this is as simple as me being “thin-skinned,” let me make a clear distinction, again…and for the last time: Mock or belittle my music all day long? Go for it. You’re entitled to your opinion. But disparage or call into question my character, and I’ll demand you answer for it.
And that's really the point. For the sake of longevity, acting childish can do amazing things to your career and future opportunities. And I mean amazing the same way that Chernobyl was amazing. While the consequences in the internet era for being awesome are significant, so is the opposite true.
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Filed Under: criticism, internet, journalism, richard marx
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Bring it on.
Let's go, big boy, let's go.
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Still, you gotta admit, he does sound pretty shameless.
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Response to: Lowestofthekeys on Jan 29th, 2013 @ 1:59pm
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He invited all of them and didn't tell them it was not a publicity stunt, because those that showed up thought it was.
Those that didn't think and were refused were the ones younger and stronger than Mr. Boll's :)
See this is why all those drugs in the 80's were so bad they created a whole generation of idiots, that as they get old they get crazier and crazier.
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People (myself included) are all too quick to fire off insults from the safety of their keyboards that they wouldn't dare to utter in person.
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REALLY?!?!?!? Why not just discuss in the forum of the conversation? If Richard Marx showed up in the comments and wanted to explain why he thought this wasn't strange behavior, or perhaps some details of the story that were previously untold, I'd sure as shit listen. I have a hard time thinking anything would sway me to believe zipping around to random bars because of internet words is a good idea, but I'd listen. What does being "in person" have to do w/anything?
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I'll see you behind the monkey bars after class.
Love,
Richard Marx
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Some people think that people won't criticize them in person. Sadly, that is not the case.
If Richard Marx, whose music I vaguely remember as a child born in 1985, asked me to say it in person I'd probably call him worse. But I'm a huge fan of button pushing. The easier it is to tick someone off the harder it is for me to resist doing so and the more hilarious I find it to be as I watch their blood slowly boil and their sense of reason slowly melt away as a result. (Which I'm not going to lie, watching a guy with a mullet... does he still have that? In the year 2013?... get pissed and basically say, in no uncertain or eloquent terms, the equivalent of "Come at me, brah." Oh man, I'd pay to see that and I'd gladly criticize Marx for the opportunity to have him ask me that. But only if he pays for airfare and hotel accommodations for me to get to Chicago and stay the day while I await to see him "in person". Him and his mullet, which is dare I say as amazing as Billy Ray Cyrus' ever was in it's "Achy Breaky Heart" glory days.)
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Richard, if by chance you ever read this, yes I insulted your mullet and essentially you. But, and let me make this clear, there's a fine line between having what is essentially a joke of a career and yourself becoming a joke. You crossed that line with your actions.
Since I mentioned Billy Ray Cyrus, let me just show you what an adult does.
He goes from this (and I'm sorry to everyone for having to post that, as a Texan who was a child when that song hit the air and was forced to learn to dance to it in gym many, many excruciatingly long and numerous times, I am so, so sorry):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byQIPdHMpjc
To this:
Damnit, I can't find a clip. So I'm just going to copy/paste what's in the Wikipedia entry for what I was hoping to find/put.
"In "The Way We Almost Weren't," Jackson and Miley experience a flashback to June 2, 1987 where they meet Robby in a New Mexico cafe. He is trying to write "Achy Breaky Heart," but is struggling with the right adjectives, first trying "itchy twitchy" and "herky jerky." When Jackson suggests "achy breaky," Robby dismisses it as "the dumbest thing I've ever heard.""
That's a man who can at least laugh along with everyone else. And also, is now lacking a mullet. IT'S 2013!!! Mullets, to not quite quote Robert Muldoon from Jurassic Park, they should all be destroyed.
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I fear you're going to get shot some day...
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"What does being "in person" have to do w/anything?"
Have you not observed the phenomenon that online commentary more easily/quickly devolves into crude insults than in person communication?
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People (myself included) are all too quick to fire off insults from the safety of their keyboards that they wouldn't dare to utter in person."
He didn't "ask to discuss things in person". He "flew off the handle like a goddamn madman".
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He "demanded a sit-down with me"
�Would you say that to my face?� he emailed me. �Let�s find out. I�ll meet you anywhere in the city, any time. I don�t travel again until the end of the week. Let�s hash this out like men.�
I don't think any of that qualifies as flying on the handle like a mad man.
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A normal, sane person would have shrugged it off and gone on with his day.
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"You have a temper", "You are colorful" or any other euphemism available to describe someone.
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Marx
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Fails to live up to the Marx name.
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Marx is a child
I mean, "Let�s hash this out like men"!? Really Marx? This is the equivalant of a 9-year-old saying "You called me a name, meet me by the bike racks after school and I'll kick your butt!"
Never grow up, Marx. This is kind of entertaining - sad, but entertaining nonetheless. It'll never make your shitty music-like-product worth listening to though. And I pity your wife, who apparently has more sense than you.
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Re: Marx is a child
Really? It's Richard Marx! I'm sure making a loud noise (like vigorously shaking coins in a can)will be more than enough to scare him and his mullet away.
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Now, how is that for an insult Marx !
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You have a limp dick, Marx!
FTFY :D
And, yeah... anytime I hear his music my testicles crawl up into my stomach and won't come out if they see their shadow.
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Because the 1st Amendment wasn't around before the internet, Twitter, or blogs.
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Richard Marx has drunken one-man Twitter party
Unless the guy in the pic has secret ninja skills he should probably keep his ass behind the keyboard before someone kindly takes him up on his offer.
that is all,
Nigel
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Re: Richard Marx has drunken one-man Twitter party
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Marx
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Marx
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Richard Marx is Great
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Re: Richard Marx is Great
Nigel
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Re: Richard Marx is Great
Yep, and even then he was about as tough as Hello Kitty.
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Re: Richard Marx is Great
As tough as he tried to portray himself, he was certainly no Michael Bolton. Now there was a bad ass entertainer!
I celebrate the man's entire catalog.
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Re: Richard Marx is Great
I think you're confusing him with Karl Marx.
Or maybe Groucho Marx.
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Oh yeah...
Richard!
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Well
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Richard Marx?? Never heard of him.
But now I have and what I know boils down to this:
"Richard Marx is thin-skinned petulant ass looking for a fight."
Has this piqued my interest?
Not one damned bit.
Rot in obscurity Mr. Marx, rot in obscurity.
.
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Re: Richard Marx?? Never heard of him.
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Re: Re: Richard Marx?? Never heard of him.
Where did he say he was proud to have never heard of him?
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Pride? When did I say anything about being proud? I've just never heard of the guy, is all....
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Wise words from a long-ago hero of mine
The words that they say
No it don't mean nothin'
These games that people play
No it don't mean nothin'
No victim, no crime"
- Richard Marx
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Having said that, yeah, it seems like he's being kind of a douche.
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How old *are* you?
I feel so sad that you missed out on the teen angst that is Richard Marx. How horrible your upbringing must have been! That, or you're younger than I thought.
OMG. That's it, isn't it?
{hangs 42-yr-old head in shame}
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Re: How old *are* you?
Well, that and any jazz from the 40's to the 60's, of course...
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Re: Re: How old *are* you?
That was 11 years ago for me.
Thanks. Now I feel *really* old!!
But Richard Marx is still the bomb. I have to say that for two reasons: 1) to stay on-topic and 2) so I don't make his shit list.
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Ahhh... Tim
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Crazy Chicago Musicians
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Wrong
"While the consequences in the internet era for being awesome are significant, so is the opposite true."
is something we would both LIKE to believe, it just isn't true. I would love it if both were unconditionally true, but they aren't.
In some cases, some violent video games are arguably harmful, and in some cases bad actions have "cachet". Too bad, really, but not something we should ignore "because ..."
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Richard Marx
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Wherever you go, whatever you do...
I will be...right here...waiting...for you.
Whatever it takes.
Or how my heart breaks,
I will be right here...waiting for you....
(with brass knucles near the back alley, and a revolver. Don't fuck with me or say you don't know me. You WILL hear my music. I will sing it to you as you bleed out)
-Marx
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