Goth icon Robert Smith of The Cure has clarified his views after a recent interview by him appeared to criticise the band Radiohead.
Of all the heavyweight contests, Robert Smith versus Thom Yorke surely stands as a worthy sequel to the ‘Rumble In The Jungle’. Both men lead hugely successful British groups, but it seems the two have wildly varying views on how to respond to downloading music.
In an interview with Radarmaker Robert Smith said “you can’t allow other people to put a price on what you do, otherwise you don’t consider what you do to have any value at all and that’s nonsense. If I put a value on my music and no one’s prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan, it can’t work.”
Smith has now expanded on his views in a new blog posting, stating:
NO I AM NOT CONFUSING ‘ARTISTIC VALUE’ WITH ‘COMMERCIAL VALUE’
MERELY QUESTIONING THE DUMB ACCEPTANCE OF THE ‘FREEART IS THE ‘NEW’ PARADIGM – THATS JUST THE WAY IT IS’ MANTRA
IN THE WAY OF OUR BRIGHT AND BRAVE NEW WIRED WORLD
THESE IDIOT CRITICS HAVE TRIED VERY HARD TO TURN MYGENERAL POINT – A POINT I MADE USING RADIOHEAD’S ‘IN RAINBOWS: PAY WHAT YOUWANT’ MARKETING RUSE AS IT IS THE MOST WIDELY KNOWN EXAMPLE – INTO A MOCK SHOCKHORROR “HOW DARE ANYONE QUESTION THE FAMOUSLY INDEPENDENT ANDANTI-CAPITALIST RADIOHEAD, THEY SELL MORE ‘PRODUCT’ THAN THE CURE SO THEIRSTRATEGY OBVIOUSLY ‘WORKED’ (HUH?!!)… AND ANYWAY, ROBERT SMITH IS WAY TOO OLDTO COMMENT ON CONTEMPORARY CULTURE” MOMENT…
MY POINT IS NEITHER PARTICULARLY NEW NOR ORIGINAL
Robert Smith finishes by asking:
HOWEVER
IF THIS ‘ART FOR FREE’ IDEA BECOMES THE CULTURAL NORM
THEN HOW DO ARTISTS EARN THEIR LIVING?
