Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Punk the prez? - Moby's anti-Bush tricks
New York Daily News ^ | 2/09/04 | Rush & Molloy

Posted on 02/09/2004 1:33:06 AM PST by kattracks

One of Sen. John Kerry's celebrity supporters is ready to pull out all the stops to get him elected. Republicans are shrieking over a suggestion by rocker Moby that Democrats spread gossip about President Bush on the Internet. "No one's talking about how to keep the other side home on Election Day," Moby tells us. "It's a lot easier than you think and it doesn't cost that much. This election can be won by 200,000 votes."

Moby suggests that it's possible to seed doubt among Bush's far-right supporters on the Web.

"You target his natural constituencies," says the Grammy-nominated techno-wizard. "For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you're an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion.

"Then you go to an anti-immigration Web site chat room and ask, 'What's all this about George Bush proposing amnesty for illegal aliens?'"

Moby didn't claim that he believed the abortion story.

Last month, Bush did propose reforms to immigration policy. But he insisted, "I oppose amnesty, placing undocumented workers on the automatic path to citizenship [because it] perpetuates illegal immigration."

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson likened Moby's proposal to "dirty campaign tactics we're already seeing from John Kerry."

"His campaign was willing to use these kinds of voter suppression tactics against members of his own party in Iowa and New Hampshire," Iverson says. "John Kerry is a hypocrite. He pledged to run a clean campaign. Then he uses the lowest form of gutter politics to impugn his opponents, Democratic and Republican. It's unfortunate but this is probably just the beginning of the kind of tactics we're going to be seeing from John Kerry in the months to come."

Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said, "I doubt that Moby was suggesting anybody suppress the vote. We did not use any dirty tactics against any candidate.

"When it comes to dirty tricks the Republic party wrote the book. We've already seen Republican attacks and we haven't even won the nomination yet. The Republican Party is clearly afraid of John Kerry."

[snip]

With Ben Widdicombe and Suzanne Rozdeba

Originally published on February 8, 2004



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004election; agitators; agitprop; anarchists; appathy; baldheaded; blackshirts; brownshirts; bushhaters; culturewar; dirtytactics; dirtytricks; disruptors; dnctalkingpoints; dusruptors; election2004; eminem; fifthcolumn; goonsquad; johnkerry; lyingliar; mediabias; moby; mobytrolls; mtv; plausibledeniablity; rentamob; smearcampaign; stealanelection; suppressthevote; trolls; usefulidiots; zotforbrains
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-112 last
To: PhiKapMom
FYI..earlier thread.
101 posted on 02/09/2004 1:55:48 PM PST by MEG33 (BUSH/CHENEY '04)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: weegee
there is no pre-existing emotional response.

"Pre-existing" is the qualifier that you're hanging your argument on. Sure, some songs are used to appeal to nostalgia. Other songs are chosen to appeal to a sense of "hipness." Or because the song's lyrics are a natural fit for the product ("Like a Rock" was hardly an oldie when Chevy licensed it but it said exactly what Chevy wanted to say about their trucks). Or because it's just innocuous and goes with the pretty pictures. Doesn't change the fact that they've been chosen because the advertisers want to appeal to emotions.

Why do you think that some jingle writers employ sound-alike singers? Why do you think that these same people get sued just for hiring someone who sounds like a celebrity to sing a commerical song? If that same singer were to record a single instead, there would be no lawsuit.

Huh? I've read this paragraph four times and still can't connect it to the argument at hand. Yes, if you license a song, you're less likely to get sued than if you just steal it and hire a sound-alike to record it. What's your point?

It really rankles you for me to call Moby out for what he did, doesn't it?

I don't know if "rankles" is the word I'd use. I just think you're deluded if you think making money through your music via route A is more virtuous than via route B. Once you take dollar #1 for your art, you've sold out. The rest is just negotiation.

Yes, Crumb doodles in a notebook. I could probably make a case that for Crumb, at least, his constant drawing in a notebook or on placemats is a sign of OCD. Given his brothers, I'd say there's a good chance that he's a bit "touched." But instead I'm just going to say that enjoying making art and making money doing it are not mutually exclusive.

Re: Dali and Warhol. Dali was a sick old man surrounded by vultures during the time he signed all those blank sheets, and Warhol...well, Warhol's a discussion for another day. But I'll concede everything you said, and it did have the effect of cheapening his art (good piece in Vanity Fair a couple of months back about the lucrative and controversial business of "authenticating" Warhols). It was kind of an inevitiable outgrowth of his whole theory of Pop Art, a splashy dead-end in art history.

When finding the next buyer (and crafting works specifically for that audience) is the overruling consideration before "creating" something, then the commerce has taken priority over the art.

Ah, well, there's the rub. I doubt Moby made his album (unlike Eno's "Music for Films") thinking exclusively of selling products with it. That was just a happy outcome. And don't forget, "Integrity Sells."

Graphic design commercial art and soundtrack music can be nice but it is forever tied to its sponsor.

Quick, what was Alphonse Mucha selling? And contrarily, given that most art prior to, say, 1700 was either commissioned by church and contained religious themes, or was commissioned by royalty and contained portraits of themselves, wouldn't you say that that's pretty tied to it's sponsor?

The artist who painted all of those Coca-Cola ads will never get his day in an art museum because he was a "hack"

Hey, I just picked up a book of paintings from those "Men's Adventure" magazines of the 50s and 60s.

Real artists create because it is a part of their personality. It is how they communicate and there is a psychological release from "creating".

Absolutely. No argument. Doesn't mean that they aren't looking for places to make some money with it, whether their wife is handling the business end or not.

Ultimately, what "rankles" me is the whole notion of "selling out," which has long been the accusation of the less commercially successful artist against the more successful.

102 posted on 02/09/2004 2:10:52 PM PST by Heyworth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To anyone still reading this thread, here is a longer (hopefully more on topic) thread:

Moby's anti-Bush tricks (Kerry supporters admit to TROLLING conservative sites to hurt Bush)

103 posted on 02/09/2004 4:09:25 PM PST by weegee (Election 2004: Re-elect President Bush... Don't feed the trolls.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RepublicanSulli
Thought you would be interested in reading about how the Democrats are spreading lies on the Internet about the President. They are up to their dirty tricks the same as in the 2000 campaign.
104 posted on 02/09/2004 9:06:33 PM PST by PhiKapMom (AOII Mom -- Support Bush-Cheney '04)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: weegee
The biggest "hit" to come from a commercial prior to this recent "explosion" was "No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach Is In)" by the T-Bones (from the 1960s). It was created as a jingle and drove the release of a cash-in album.

What about the Coke song, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing?" I thought that was a jingle before it became a hit.

105 posted on 02/10/2004 2:23:43 AM PST by NYCVirago
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: retrokitten
One thing that always makes me laugh about the libs is that they can't seem to make up thier mind on if we are drooling yokels driving around in our pick-up trucks with a three legged dog in the passenger seat and a rebel flag and gun rack on the back window, or the exceptionally wealthy who would rather die then step foot in anywhere "lower class" then Neiman-Marcus, dress and talk like Thurston and Lovey Howell from Gilligans Island, and have some secret plot to rule the world with the Bilderbergers.

Great post!

106 posted on 02/10/2004 2:26:00 AM PST by NYCVirago
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 100 | View Replies]

To: NYCVirago
Why, thank you /blushing
107 posted on 02/10/2004 8:37:22 AM PST by retrokitten (If by 'wanking' you mean educational fun, then let's get wanking! -Principal Skinner)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 106 | View Replies]

To: weegee
I know on the stats page that it shows how many sign-ups per day there have been. Wish the number of zotts per day could be added.
108 posted on 02/10/2004 7:50:38 PM PST by MattMa (I'm not a victim, I am a conservative and if you get to close, I just may bite.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: PhiKapMom
I can tell you being a high school student a lot of kids listen to Moby. Thankfully they all think politics are stupid and do not listen tom what he and other "artist" say. Their parents and myself will get them all to vote BUSH!!!!!!
109 posted on 02/12/2004 12:55:18 PM PST by RepublicanSulli
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: kattracks
Note my tag line. This was taken from the 2000 Census, and it includes all Virginians, not registered voters.

Moby is due to be sunk, any day.
110 posted on 02/12/2004 1:02:11 PM PST by Darnright (The 6,875,029 Virginians who did NOT vote Kerry cannot be wrong!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kattracks
....just saving this article to read later.
111 posted on 02/14/2004 5:36:59 AM PST by Apple Pan Dowdy (... as American as Apple Pie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Just a reminder that “Mobyies” are still here.


112 posted on 10/29/2009 10:55:27 AM PDT by roses of sharon (Call the NFL and welcome their new Commissioner, Al Sharpton.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-112 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson