blurry face wrote:but commenting on his musicianship is just plain rude? like didn't he learn bass JUST for this band? he's not like frank or ray who have always been naturally talented with these kinds of things; he learned an instrument just to plan out his big brother's crazy ideas. the basslines aren't supposed to be the full focus of my chemical romance; they're more about frank & ray's guitars and gerard's singing. almost all of their songs are drum or guitar driven; there are none, i believe, that are solely driven by his bassline - unlike, for example, fall out boy, where most of their songs are dictated by the basslines and drumlines. they're made to be simple in contrast to frank and ray's because of the fact that they aren't the main focus.
How is it "rude" to comment on a
professional musician's ability to play an instrument? It's not like anybody was like "omg Mikey is the worst bassist ever, he sucks, how could you like him, etc. etc." I don't think there's anything rude about stating the reality of his musical ability, especially since, you know, it was his career for more than a decade. As a musician myself I'm not offended at all if someone comments on the reality of my musical ability. I know there are things I'm not good at, and I'm cool with people acknowledging that, as most musicians are.
Also to me it's not just that he's mediocre, it's that his playing always felt kind of half-assed. Like he could be better if he wanted to...he just didn't care enough. He is a beginner level bassist and even most people with little talent will improve with experience...he never did.
But w/e I'm not hating him for his musical ability, just pointing out the reality. He may be fantastic at some other instrument, I know he did guitar/keys in Electric Century - he may be fantastic at those instruments, but I never bothered to listen to EC to find out.
Or as fans are we just supposed to all blindly follow and not say anything critical ever?
Also, as someone who is mentally ill, mental illness is not an excuse to behave like Mikey allegedly did. There is never an excuse for acting like an epic dirtball. I'm not 100% that's what you were trying to say but that's how your first few sentences came off, so sorry if I misread that.
Neither is being an addict; my ex was a pretty severe addict and used that as an excuse to cheat on me/treat me like a subhuman. Excusing an addict's behavior because "oh you're an addict, you can't help it" or "you didn't mean it because you were under the influence" just feeds the addiction and almost any rehab/detox program tells you one of the very first steps to getting clean is owning up to your actions. And who knows, maybe Mikey has done that now, and if so, good for him.
Also you can't act like the whole cheating thing was just made up by fans, there was a little more concrete proof coming from Mikey/the band themselves...I remember Lyn-Z absolutely tearing Mikey a new one on twitter when it was all first going on. Since she's Mikey's sister in law, I feel sure she knew much better than any of us what was actually going on.
But all of that aside, I never cared of Mikey to begin with...so even if he didn't cheat and was 100% innocent (which I severely doubt) I still wouldn't like him.
Just because you're a fan and like the
music, doesn't mean you're obligated to like all the band members or never say anything critical about them. I mean heck, Gerard is one of my idols and he is in part responsible for who I am today but he's done stuff artistically that I was not a fond of at all and I won't hesitate to say that. Love does not equal blind following.
I'm not trying to be argumentative or rude here so please don't read what I'm saying as that.
EDIT: typos. I'm sorry, I haven't been awake for long.