As the list of people who supposedly knew the moral failings of Marilyn Manson grows, unsurprisingly, Phoebe Bridgers chimed in:
"I went to Marilyn Manson’s house when I was a teenager with some friends. I was a big fan. He referred to a room in his house as the “rape room,” I thought it was just his horrible frat boy sense of humor. I stopped being a fan. I stand with everyone who came forward." -
Let's be very clear, I 100% believe Phoebe Bridgers account, what I have a problem with is Bridgers. She is a PC Warrior who took a run at Eric Clapton last summer and is very vocal outing people that she finds racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.
I listened to Bridgers' music and it'not that good, but I am old. So I asked my kids if they listened to Bridgers' music and they said no, it's not that good. As I typed this article, my teenager was wearing a Nirvana shirt, so let's use that band as my example.
In 1991, part of the reason Nirvana was so popular is because hair metal was not good music and had run its course. Let's use the band Warrant as the second band in our example. Warrant sucked and one of their biggest hits, Cherry Pie, was, in hindsight, a misogynistic mess.
But what Nirvana didn't do was attack Warrant's lead singer Jani Lane, the band, or any of their horrible songs. They were just better than Warrant, plain and simple. Music writers weren't asking Kurt "what do you think of Warrant's objectification of women?" I assume that Kurt wasn't a fan, because he made a list of his 50 Favorite Albums and not one of the songs listed was in the category of hair metal.
Nirvana made great music and the grunge wave washed away most of hair metal. If Phoebe Bridgers made great indie/folk music, her generation's music would wash away the evil, unpolitically correct music of the past.
Yet it hasn't. Your argument is that Bridgers' album Punisher is up for multiple Rock Grammys? You don't read Beacon of Speech often, because we have no respect for the Grammys. The Grammys are notoriously wrong and fickle from year to year. Looking over the Rock Grammy category this year, it is clear that the Grammy folks have a very loose definition of what Rock is.
You know what though? Maybe this is the moment Folk Rock is embraced by America's Youth. I went over to iTunes looking for Bridgers. Their Top 100 Rock song list is almost all Legacy acts, their Top 100 Alternative songs are from artists like Weezer or Billie Eilish.
Young people don't use iTunes, you say? Okay, I went to Spotify. Their Top 100 Rock songs are almost all Legacy acts, also. Their Top 100 Alternative songs are from artists like the Wombats, Imagine Dragons, and Death Cab for Cutie. I couldn't find Bridgers anywhere.
Again, Bridgers can have her opinions, this is a free country. And she doesn't have to connect with me, I'm way out of her target demographic. But if she wants to erase the evils of yesterday's Rock Music, that happens by making the kids of today forget about yesterday, not attacking the music of yesterday. She's going to have to step her game way up to connect with my kids. Her job is to get my kids to say "stop listening to that Dad Rock, you need to check out Phoebe Bridgers." So far, that ain't happening. The clock is ticking because Bridgers is already older than Kurt Cobain when Nevermind was released.