Posted on 09/07/2012 9:45:19 PM PDT by bronxville
On Friday, the musical act R.E.M. sent a letter to the Fox News Channel insisting that it stop using its song “Losing My Religion” in its news coverage — specifically this week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
“We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage. Our music does not belong there,” lead singer Michael Stipe said in a statement.
Late Friday afternoon, Fox News returned the volley by arguing they were within their legal requirements and suggested it was a publicity stunt by R.E.M.....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
“We have little or no respect for their puff adder brand of reportage. Our music does not belong there,” lead singer Michael Stipe said in a statement."
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/07/fox-news-fires-back-at-rem-in-losing-my-religion-cease-and-desist-fight/#ixzz25qkizeLC
They should be Shiny Happy People, it’s the most play their music has gotten in years!
They have a point. The Democrats have long had no religion to lose.
They had just finished opening for Foghat in a Holiday Inn bar in Des Moines, when they saw it on the TV.
Stipe, a virulent sodomite, used to rant about Ronald Reagan’s AIDs policies in between songs.
Which is why their audience steadily became flaccid over the years.
I thought these old fags had already died.
Michael, your band broke up. The frat boys you hate were the ones who bought your records. It's over. Just shut up or overdose like a rock star.
Hey! Believe it or not I went to see Savoy Brown (Kim Simmonds and some youngsters) at a refurbished movie theater a few years back. It was a good show, Simmonds has still got it - - he even did 'Louisiana Blues'. (For you youngsters out there, half of the original Savoy Brown broke off and formed Foghat nearly 40 years ago.)
I'm no youngster (I saw The Beatles in concert in 1966), but I didn't know that.
I don't understand why these drama queens feel compelled to waste their paying audiences' time with political screeds. These people are the biggest narcissists. Imagine if the grocery checkout guy or the dry cleaner went off on some political monologue every time you had to deal with him. Besides, it's one thing to talk politics one-on-one in a social setting, and quite another to force-feed your views on someone who's paying good money to see you perform.
Sure you did. You just forgot.
: D
Of course this has absolutely nothing to do with the singer being a flaming faggot! /sarc
Forgot what?
My wife is a singer and recording artist (if you want to hear what real music sounds like, try this: http://tinyurl.com/8zcz67k ), so I’ve had to learn quite a bit about music licensing. Every time some narrow-minded leftist twit whines about people whose politics he disagrees with daring to play his music at a rally, I always make it a point to spread this fact far and wide:
If the song is licensed to ASCAP or BMI, and you purchase an ASCAP/BMI public performance license, which virtually every public venue has, you can play any song in the library as many times as you want for any audience. If the composer wanted to maintain control over that, he should’ve never let the song out of his bedroom and signed a contract to let the evil capitalist licensing company collect royalties and send him the dirty money of fans he disapproves of.
TV play is different, as is the use of a song in an ad, film, commercial, etc. But if Fox says they had the appropriate license, I believe it, because that’s SOP for TV stations. One reason ASCAP and BMI exist is so you can make blanket licensing deals and not have to track down every composer of every song you want to play to get permission.
In other words, Fox is right: all this is just a pathetic show for publicity and for Michael to reaffirm his leftwing moron bona fides to all his fellow travelers. Play all the REM you want at public performance venues, and if Michael Stipe doesn’t like it, he can go whistle up a rope.
Exactly.
By the way, as I started to post this I went to put on the pair of glasses I grabbed off my desk only to clunk them into the glasses already on my head. Yikes..
Yup. 100% right.
Read the comments there. One lib is whining that it just isn’t so and Fox STOLE IT ALL!!!
God these libs get more pathetic by the day.
Genius, Stipe! Complain when the democratic convention is OVER. Fox will certainly honor your request. Now that it has no consequence whatsoever.
It really should hurt to be so stupid
Very good voice. You are a lucky man.
sesac too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds50-nwAGpw
Wayne’s World - (REM Everybody Hurts Parody)
Hey, great music, lovely voice your wife has. Time to make a purchase. Thanks for the link.
Elton John does the same thing at his concerts.
R.E.M. breaks up, leaves behind career that balanced hits, integrity
Too funny!
Hellbound Train baby
Because the media keeps describing them as “artists” and they’ve started to believe it.
Not everyone that picks up a guitar, sings, dances or paints a picture is an “artist”. IMHO, most of them are just working out their psychiatric problems in public, and people are stupid enough to not realize it.
I got hooked on some Korean music (thank God for subtitles) and I have noticed a few things about them. Their girl/boy bands are almost always studio creations. They train them for sometimes years, sometimes they’ll be able to sing songs in English, Japanese and Chinese as well (!). I don’t think American rock stars have to go to school for years before they make a stage debut.
The fans in Korea are real tough, even the smallest scandal can ruin a career. (Not a real big country) A young girl band member being seen with a boy band member in a coffee shop can cause a scandal. (obviously they aren’t like Pervertland Japan- where many stars start off in U-15 (light kiddie porn in skimpy thongs) sometimes as young as 8)
Recently a band member of T-Ara tweeted something about being bullied by the other girls. A couple of band member de-friended (unfollowed?) her. Then she was fired (for making this public?). She is 18.
I think we can call some of them ‘artists’ but your right, often celebutards got rich and famous for things that are just trivial.
Folks called REM southern
Not...Yankees......none born or early reared in Dixie and it shows
I liked Radio Free Europe then they went soft.....became The Byrds part II
My wife toured in their circle of clubs around the south ....relationship with a contemporary of theirs who was big then too......she knew them.....she said Buck was a drunk but not a sissy
The rest....girly men.....she tired of the rock life.....met me and became a Williamson county housewife mommy....true story
Girls outgrow rock stars....least mine did
And Berry really wanted to be a farmer instead
And that Stipe did not really have an affair with Natalie Merchant
Yes, correct.
I paid BMI good money every year for the privilege of simply playing my radio through the PA system.
He can go pound sand...
The ironic thing is that “losing my religion” has nothing to do with ‘religion’; is a euphemism for losing one’s temper and cussing.
In the song, Michael Stipe sings the lines “That’s me in the corner/That’s me in the spotlight/Losing my religion”.
The phrase “losing my religion” is an expression from the southern region of the United States that means losing one’s temper or civility, or “being at the end of one’s rope.” Stipe told The New York Times the song was about romantic expression.
He told Q that “Losing My Religion” is about “someone who pines for someone else.
It’s unrequited love, what have you.” Stipe compared the song’s theme to “Every Breath You Take” by The Police, saying, “It’s just a classic obsession pop song.
I’ve always felt the best kinds of songs are the ones where anybody can listen to it, put themselves in it and say, ‘Yeah, that’s me.’
[was Stipe pitching a hissy fit?]
I attended an Elton John concert last March in Madison, Wisconsin with my wife (her idea...not mine...she loves him, I tolerate him). John played for about three hours and never delved into politics once. Not even homosexual issues. By the way, he sounds in concert exactly the same as he does on his records..er..recordings.
Me too, on the seeing them twice part - but it was at a time when hardly anyone outside of GA had heard of them. As in they were still on the Hib-Tone Records label. Saw them once for free in the daytime during the Piedmont Park Arts Festival in ATL, and the other time at the old 688 Club, which was a punk/new wave bar across I-75/85 from GA Tech, a block or so north of The Varsity.
That's been one my personal pet peeves for decades. I remember some musician (?) on some talk show many years ago objecting to being called an artist. He asserted that artists were people in studios who wore berets and smocks and painted pictures. He said he was a musician, not an artist. That always amused me, but it was a feeling I agree with. Personally, I'm an amateur musician...not an amateur artist.
Its why I've always respected Elton John's work. He will not agree to perform at an event unless he plays live AND he is allowed to have his sound engineer run the boards and set up the equipment. He will not agree to backing tracks and lip syncing. His philosophy is people are paying hard earned money to see him and his band perform so its gonna be good and no corners cut!
Its why he was at one end of the stadium and not the center of the field when he played at the Super Bowl. You can't set up an entire band and get a decent sound if you have to roll everything on and off in under 20 minutes.
Say what you will but he is a professional performer and for that I respect him.
Give the freaks thier song back. Can’t tell whether thier men or democratic women, SCARY!
I agree. Fox News should go to the higher ground when possible. Musicians of the Left don’t want their music associated with the Fox brand? Fine. Remove them from the rotation. Don’t give them the exposure. Don’t enable their fading/diminishing voices reach the ears of potential new audiences.
And Republican candidates running for office should seek out those [musical] voices that extol their values/beliefs, as well. Reagan got into a flap with Springsteen over “Born in the USA” when he was campaigning. I don’t know if he discontinued use of the song, or not. But he should have (the song’s title suggests something different from the actual meaning of its lyrics anyhow).
My bad that wasn’t a Super Bowl Halftime show but the Season Opener show in 2004 at Gillette Stadium.
I saw them in College Station Texas in 1987. Stipe told the audience, “If you are drinking, please don’t drive. If you are in the military ... get out.” Being in NROTC, I was unimpressed, ignored his advice, and instead stopped listening to REM.
AGREE
Fair Use argument. Neat. Screw R.E.A.M.
Right...how about Rush playing The Pretenders song “My City Was Gone”.
Same gig.
For years, I couldn’t fathom how people thought it was okay to illegally download music. Over time however, I realized that it was just payback for all these liberal turds who find it appropriate to whine and spout their agenda at every opportunity. Also, is it just me, or is it only American bands that pull this? I’ve never heard Glass Tiger complaining when they play their stuff on The Five. I doubt we’ll hear Duran Duran whine about their use of “Girls On Film” yesterday. It’s moronic coke-heads like REM and RATM who feel the need to ram their agenda down people’s throats, even when they have no legitimate, legal right to their music once it is signed to the record company.
REM, another band I must remind myself never to send money to... a shame, seeing as how I enjoy “Orange Crush”, but this Stripe douchebag clearly doesn’t have a spine.
Hey R.E.M.
U.P. Y.O.U.R.S.
Wow! She is good! Thanks!
Hmm, they want their music to be out in the public forum so it can make them money, but they want to whine when someone uses it for something they don’t believe in.
How about we all just cease using your worthless excuse for “music” and then you can go to your graves broke and forgotten. Oh wait... They pretty much already are...
Hey Stipe, your “music” doesn’t belong in an elevator either, but that is the last place I heard an REM song.
Exactly right. I think the most obvious example of this is the Rush Limbaugh theme from the Pretenders My City was Gone. Chrissie Hynde loathes Rush but admits her mother loves him and can do nothing about his perfectly legal use of the song. The song is a whine about development destroying the Ohio she grew up in which is probably why you never hear lyrics when Rush uses it.
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