This week started with the VMAs, which set a new record when more than 12.4 million people tuned in and every single one tweeted about Jayoncé’s fetus. Bon Iver hated the show almost as much as he hates haterz. But as far as controversy goes, Lady Gaga’s prosthetic penis had nothing on Jack White’s Insane Clown Posse collaboration. You guys had a lot of comments about all of the above, and we’ve compiled the highest and lowest rated ones below.
THIS WEEK’S 10 HIGHEST RATED COMMENTS
| #10 |  |
Polythene Pam | Aug 26th | Score:15 |
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Whooaa, who is this lady? She’s great! |
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| Posted in: St. Vincent @ The Met’s Temple Of Dendur, NYC 8/25/11 | |||
| #9 |  |
Scott | Aug 28th | Score:16 |
| Posted in: Watch Kanye & Jay-Z’s VMA Performance | |||
| #8 | |
Scott | Aug 29th | Score:17 |
| Posted in: Bon Iver Shits On MTV | |||
| #7 |  |
corban | Aug 28th | Score:17 |
| Posted in: Watch Kanye & Jay-Z’s VMA Performance | |||
| #6 |  |
cecilparks | Aug 29th | Score:18 |
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The VMAs are not a music show. They’re a music-themed celebrity show. Nothing more, nothing less. If you do anything to become somewhat famous yourself, you’re in no position to complain about other people’s cheap celebrity worship. And really? You’re going to bring Bill Hicks in this and you expect him to take your side, Justin? What would he say about your music being used to sell beer for a multinational conglomerate? |
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| Posted in: Bon Iver Shits On MTV | |||
| #5 |  |
fuck yeah louis gossett jr. | Aug 31st | Score:19 |
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“Well, it’s about time.” – Earth |
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| Posted in: Hear Jack White Collab With Insane Clown Posse And JEFF The Brotherhood | |||
| #4 |  |
MikeyObviously | Aug 31st | Score:20 |
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What are you, a fuckin’ scientist? |
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| Posted in: Hear Jack White Collab With Insane Clown Posse And JEFF The Brotherhood | |||
| #3 |  |
TheWastelander | Aug 29th | Score:20 |
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I think it fundamentally gets down to two contradictory forces that rose in natural opposition to each other: the corporatization of entertainment and the hegemony of the internet. You have democratic forces against undemocratic ones, and that’s inevitably going to lead to conflit. When you all are talking about what you think of as a “Golden Age” of MTV somewhere in the early to mid 90s (I assume), this took place during a fundamentally different music world. The key moment that ended this was the signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Gone were the locally-curated DJ playlists and the regional media outlets in their place were a hegemonic Viacom and corporately-centered Clear Channel. The power of the non-corporate tastemaker was severely diminished, and the huge media conglomerates grew arrogant in these boom years. This ushered in an area of $18.99 CDs and indistinguishable boy bands. Complacent with the unfathomable sales of Backstreet Boys records, MTV and the like turned to reality shows convinced they no longer needed to worry about the music front since they were so dominant. Then Napster steps in and allows people the freedom to choose what they want to listen to without going through a monopolistic middle-man first. This leads to more individualized music approaches culminating in what we have now with things like Pandora and Spotify that specifically cater to what you want to listen to. In an instant, people became listeners and not consumers. This did not sit well with the major labels and media companies. In response to this, they scrambled to go for the lowest common denominator approach and put forth increasingly mindless trash. Labels no longer significantly invested in new artists that had potential to grow if they didn’t make a blockbuster first record. As a consequence, the indiesphere becomes more niche-oriented, and the mainstream gets dumber by always seeking to appeal to the largest possible audience in a shrinking market. What does that all lead to? A world in which getting a Moonman doesn’t matter anymore. But that’s just me. |
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| Posted in: Bon Iver Shits On MTV | |||
| #2 |
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Connor Johnson | Aug 29th | Score:32 |
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I really thought that title was going to be literal. |
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| Posted in: Bon Iver Shits On MTV | |||
| #1 |
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Chris Trash | Aug 26th | Score:33 |
| Posted in: Shut Up, Dude: This Week’s Best And Worst Comments | |||
THIS WEEK’S LOWEST RATED COMMENT
| #1 |  |
theduchessofthomyorke | Aug 31st | Score:-20 |
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Only when it’s on while your mother is on my dick. |
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| Posted in: Hear Jack White Collab With Insane Clown Posse And JEFF The Brotherhood | |||
[Editor's Note: Oh man, theduchessofthomyorke you are on thin ice. Four of this week's five lowest rated comments were your personal attacks on fellow commenter DJ Freshie. Not cool. And let's get off the topic of "your mother" since … this is a family blog.]
THIS WEEK’S EDITOR’S CHOICE (SCOTT’S PICK)
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Bill Emhof | Aug 30th | Score:1 | |
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I’d use it to travel back in time and kill Hitler. It does that, right? |
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| Posted in: Watch Neon Indian’s PAL198X Synth Commercial … And Win One Of Your Very Own | |||
[Editor's Note: Videogum callback! I actually wanna vote for every comment in the PAL198X thread. Nice work, entrants. I hope you all win! But only one of you will win!]
THIS WEEK’S EDITOR’S CHOICE (AMRIT’S PICK)
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Chris Trash | Aug 30th | Score:4 | |
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Kind of funny that an ad that’s supposed to be about natural ingredients feels the need to make Nelson’s voice sound like T-pain. |
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| Posted in: Willie Nelson Covers Coldplay For Chipotle | |||
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that chris trash and his image and half of the writing staff won spots this week should be a motivator to get the rest of us commenting again. GROUP HUG, Y’ALL.
I love that 3 of the 10 top comments are just the Stereogum writers. Staff win!
Well, they clearly got hired for a reason.
Chris Trash, the new King of Stereogum.
Chris Trash: http://tinyurl.com/christrash
That Chris Trash is some kind of something.
Boy, this Chris Trash is all anybody’s ever talking about.
So sick and tired of hearing about how brilliant that Chris Trash is.
Overrated.
Thanks Topknot, I really appreciate it, but now I feel overrated and one thing Stereogummers hate is things that are overrated. Let me be the first to start the backlash:
Chris Trash sucks, I saw him commenting In Yahoo OMG, mainstream a-hole.
Chris Trash unironically likes Uffie.
Chis Trash made a long pointless reply comment about himself, what an ego…. and so forth.
This sounds like a clever ruse to get more thumbs up out of some extreme reverse psychology… I fell for it. You manipulative sonofabitch.
Chris Trash admits he likes Wilco and Cat Power! Could he be more obvious?
haha, duchessofthomyorke got quite a talking-to in this article… you give Radiohead fans a bad name, man!
In a hilarious turn of events, that exchange translated into a bunch of unexpected CD sales, so…thanks?
I ain’t even mad!
Also, the “Mother on my Dick” line was admittedly hilarious.
I was channeling Gabe a bit there w/ the warning. theduchessofthomyorke actually made one of my other favorite comments this week:
http://stereogum.com/796071/m83-hurry-up-were-dreaming-premature-evaluation/franchises/premature-evaluation/comment-page-1/#comment-7433132
I thought I thumbed up a duchessofthomyorke comment this week. Must have been that one. I agreed in that I wish I was still in college listening to M83 on my campuses requisite “Quad”.
I think I gave this week’s lowest rated comment an upvote.
I was in a crabby mood this week. Sorry all. Also, IRONICALLY my handle has no correlation to a love of Radiohead. It just sounded like a username that had to be made.
Thumbs up to bygones.
thomyorkeshirepudding is still out there, as is beyondthomzorke. Good weekend everyone!
It’s a damn clever name.
cecilparks makes a good point, I didn’t know Justin did a beer commercial. Gotta be careful with those Bill Hicks references. He set a high standard that only gets higher as society sinks lower.
Bill Hicks is an immortal legend, whose ideas are more relevant than ever – especially to the increasingly watered down “indie” music world.
Justin brought his name into the conversation and for that he should be thanked. None of us are completely pure of influence from the corporate power structure, no matter how hard we try. You shouldn’t throw stones in a glass house.
… or masturbate!
prude.
I’m sure this has been said, but props to the editors for doing this feature. It brought the comments section back in a major way after they became closed with the site redesign. That section was always one of my favorite parts of the old Stereogum site, so thanks Scott.
Yeah, ditto to all of this. I used to comment a lot more often before the redesign, and then afterwards it seemed like everyone just stopped talking. I enjoy that the voices are being heard once more!
A blog is not a blog (but at best an online magazine as pseudo-blog/quasi-rivalry Pitchfork is) when there are no means of public participation. A blog is not a great blog when those existing means lack public participation. So thanks to Stereogum, Scott as the SU,D creator and all of those passionate commentators for advancing the comment culture. :-)
can people comment without being rewarded for it?
go back to russia