Friday 21st September 2012. The iHeartRadio Festival and everything's going great as Green Day are blasting through the 1994 classic "Basket Case", when all of a sudden.. "Woah! Fuck this shit" abruptly ends the song. Suddenly, the band have one minute and frontman Billie Joe Armstrong isn't pleased. Blaming being giving just the last minute on their set being cut short (it was later revealed it wasn't, but Armstrong may have been under the influence of drugs), Armstrong went on a verbal tirade, releasing F-bomb after F-bomb. Letting us know that he's not "Fucking Justin Bieber", Billie and fellow bass guitarist Mike Dirnt proceed to smash up their instruments before storming off the stage. After his minute long rant, even though quite honestly, Armstrong is in the wrong... the crowd continue to cheer him. However, it's these kinds of attitude problems in both the past and present music scene that makes me wonder why we put up with it.
Green Day, Guns 'N' Roses, 30 Seconds to Mars, hell even Justin Bieber. Everyone has their favourite musicians, but why do they have the patience to stick with them when they continue to make such fools of their selves? It seems that every month, we get a new Axl Rose (GnR Frontman) story, where's he pulled off some ridiculous stunt to make him look like even more of an idiot. In 2011, Rose kicked a fan out of a gig for no reason at all, he constantly turns up late to gigs and also likes to walk around hidden behind some fencing panels. Axl is most definitely not a "cool" guy in any sense of the word, it seems that he really likes to piss people off. A whole hour and a half after his band was meant to be on stage at London's 02, the fans eventually started to turn on Rose, but as soon as he hits the stage, they love him again! Well, that is until he threatens to walk off of the stage midway through the show. When a fan has paid good money to see what they assume is a classic band, one that's been loved through the years, I'm pretty sure that this isn't the kind of behaviour that you would expect from a star like Axl Rose. Respect is blown out of the window from him to us, but when we look at him on that stage performing, or see him out and about, we couldn't help but love him.
But it's not just respect that's being blown out of the window now... it's care. In 2008, when crowdsurfing during a performance, Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars decided that he would hit one of his own fans in the head with his Microphone! There is a chance that the fan may have tried to pull him down from above their heads, but what right do you have to attack one of your own fans who 1) Has paid to see you live and 2) May have put a foot out of line accidentally, only to end up having the man he idolises to hit him in the head? The next day, the video hits YouTube and immediately, 30STM fans jump to Leto's defence, proclaiming that he "obviously was defending himself", but without severe proof, how do they know it? They shouldn't be trying to help him out, they should be disgusted that a musician they love has attacked a possibly innocent attendee. It's not the only time Jared pulled that stunt out of the bag though, it seems to be something he rather enjoys. So much for caring about your fans eh Jared?
But then there's the downright and plain disgraceful. We've been through the more mature "Rockstars" who have taken a turn for the worse, but then there's the young and pathetic, Justin Bieber. Since this year rolled around, there hasn't been more negativity about one person than this young man, if you could call him that. The immaturity and irresponsibility he's shown is just awful. Firstly, he pulled an Axl Rose, but worse. Bieber was three hours late for his own concert, which was attended by many little girls and their parents, who were forced to sleep in a McDonalds Restaurant overnight because they couldn't make their way home. Yet the little girls still wanted to talk about how much they loved the concert, not how they felt let down. Following this, there were complications with his Monkey (not a euphemism, I promise) along with accusations of him taking drugs, which just so happened to be recovered from his tour bus on the same day. Were they his? Who knows! But this young kid should be setting an example for his fans, not publicising drugs and sex. But it floats by them without a care in the world, they don't really give a damn if their favourite singer is performing on stage under the influence of drugs or not, because they "love" him so much! It's gotten so bad recently, that even Britney Spears warned Justin that he could die early. You know something's wrong when Britney's warning you. But if these people had any sense, once they saw Bieber's degrading form, they'd give up on him! But no, the personal lives of stars nowadays doesn't matter.
It comes across to me that as fans, we assume that we're only meant to focus on the music. But no, I don't see it like that. There are people behind the music and the way they act determines the way I feel about them. I lost respect for Rose, Armstrong and Leto when these events rolled around, because you can't behave like that and just assume that everyone's going to love you. That's not the way the world works guys, alright? When it comes down to it, if you're going to tarnish your career by acting up in front of us all, then eventually we'll start to forget about the music and just focus on the actions
