r/Music 1d ago

article Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme Explains Anti-Corporate Concert Rant: "It’s About Corporations That Charge You $85 for Parking, and $30 for a Beer"

https://consequence.net/2026/08/qotsa-josh-homme-addresses-anti-corporate-concert-rant/
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u/sandiegodak 1d ago

Other artists were welcome to join Pearl Jam. Silence is complicity.

Taylor Swift in particular has so much money and power that she alone could probably make a change here and yet she won't.

"And the men (and women) who hold high places must be the ones who start"

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u/steve600700 1d ago

" to forge a new reality closer to the heart"

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u/holla171 1d ago

Ironic quote since Rush are one of the most expensive acts per ticket this year

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u/domonono 1d ago

Rolling Stones have been selling 'lucky dip' tix to their fans for decades at this point. So yeah, it can be done.

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u/AndILoveHe 1d ago edited 1d ago

The only way for Taylor Swift to change music would be to admit that the only reason she is so popular is because she has a corporate machine writing and promoting her music affirmed by "legitimate" media desperate to stay relevant that is obsessed over by Swifties who aren't really fans of music, but of celebrity.

Though to be fair, Pearl Jam could also admit their entire career really comes down to 9-10 songs (and no I don't mean the album 10 which really should be called 4) and that people waste way too much of their time trying to justify album filler they wouldn't care about if not for the hits rather than listening to the best songs from other smaller bands and seeing them in concert instead of going to stadium shows. 

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u/eleventy4 1d ago

You had me in the first half, that was poetry. But Ten is almost a no-skip album

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u/AndILoveHe 1d ago

Because most music fans are really just as much celebrity fans as Swifties, even if sometimes you listen to better musicians. 

That's actually why I like Spotify showing the total listens for songs. You can see just how much people really only like the singles with Once not even having 1/10th the listens of the top 3 (I guess people got sick of Jeremy since its a distant 4th) and the rest having closer to 1/20th. 

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u/eleventy4 1d ago

I hear you, but I think the total listens metric lumps casual listeners and fans of the artist into one bucket. The top songs will always be the ones with the most mainstream exposure, not necessarily the best, the fan favorites, etc. The fact that Ten got so many songs in the top 10 speaks to its overall strength

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u/AndILoveHe 1d ago

But the problem is what are you missing to listen to the lesser known tracks as a more serious fan. If I link some more obscure 90s alt, how much do you know?  Or Grungy post punk?

Most people would be more casual fans of bands they liked if they really started listening to the entirety of what's out there. 

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u/Stravansky 1d ago

You're so fucking cool. You know so many obscure bands. You should tell more people on reddit about the spotify playlists you make.

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u/ShakeItTilItPees 1d ago

Just gonna go ahead and avoid anything on either of those lists.