
Trent Reznor on Why Facebook "Sucks" - phreeza
http://drownedinsound.com/news/4141279-trent-reznor-on-why-facebook-sucks
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tptacek
_if as many people really listened to Joy Division as list them on their
Facebook page, Joy Division would be bigger than U2_

This just drives me nuts.

First, there isn't an epidemic of people on Facebook claiming to like Joy
Division; ~340k people "Like" Joy Division, compared to ~3.6MM for Avenged
Sevenfold.

Second, it's an extension of a high school attitude that enjoyment of music is
a kind of badge that needs to be earned; not only does it very much _matter_
to Reznor that you like Joy Division and not, say, Collective Soul, but also
he's pretty sure you don't _really_ like them as much as you say you do.

Joy Division was a pretty great band. But compared to the landmarks of western
culture, they're not particularly Important. You like them if you like them.
They aren't a club and you don't need to pledge to them. Reznor has plenty of
good reasons to hate social networking services (he has cultivated a
particularly drama-heavy collection of fans online), but they are Reznor-
specific, not endemic to the whole Internet.

~~~
lionhearted
> Second, it's an extension of a high school attitude that enjoyment of music
> is a kind of badge that needs to be earned; not only does it very much
> matter to Reznor that you like Joy Division and not, say, Collective Soul,
> but also he's pretty sure you don't really like them as much as you say you
> do.

I agree with both you and Reznor's point, actually.

Not sure exactly what I have as the music on my Facebook page (FB blocked in
Vietnam, and I can't be bothered setting up a proxy to check) - but if I
remember correctly, I filled out my Facebook music tastes in a way that says,
"I'd like to go places with this kind of music playing in them if we go out."

Since I travel a lot and connect with people when traveling, lots of people
don't know my tastes - so I list music for places I'd want to go to. For
instance, I've got Bebel Gilberto listed in my profile - she makes really nice
bassanova music, which is softly sung Brazilian Portugese with light music
with lots of strings behind it.

I used to listen to bassanova quite a bit. Nowadays, not as much, but I'd be
happy hanging out anywhere it's playing. Likewise, I've got some of my
favorite electronic artists listed, and some of my favorites from opera and
classical.

I actually like Nine Inch Nails, I've got The Fragile on my iPod, but if I
remember correctly, I didn't list it down in my music likes. Oh, it's good
music, don't get me wrong - I'm just not at the point in my life where I'd
want to go hang out at a rock/metal/industrial club.

So you're both kind of right. Reznor says people put it down for signalling
value, which is true - I've got my music down partially to signal what parties
and bars and clubs I'd particularly prefer to be invited to. You're saying
that's kind of a pretentious attitude on Reznor's part - I agree with that
too. I think you're both right.

~~~
acabal
Re. blocked in Vietnam: only the DNS request is blocked, so if you switch to
OpenDNS you should get access back.

------
jsz0
_Whether you spoke to them on person or talked on the phone, when you interact
with them it would be a real person and not some avatar of themselves._

This is simply nostalgia. Some people have always been _posers_ , _phonies_ ,
_narcs_ , _fakers_ , _wanna-bes_ , _tools_ , _charlatans_ , _jive turkeys_ ,
_bullshitters_ , etc. I don't think we can blame this one on Facebook.

~~~
JeffL
Yes, but, doesn't Facebook encourage this sort of thing more than in the past?
It takes a lot less of ... something to put that you are a certain way on
Facebook than it does to claim it face to face to another person. People are a
lot less likely to call you on something you put on Facebook than something
you claim to their face.

~~~
edanm
Why do you say that? I'm not convinced. I've met plenty of people who have
claimed various liked and disliked in the offline world that were...
exaggerated. Especially in the dating world, or the job interview world.

------
zach
A bit off subject -- I knew Reznor was a Joy Division devotee but I didn't
realize until just now that his Halo numbers are patterned after the Factory
Records numbers that Joy Division releases were a part of. Links:

<http://www.ninwiki.com/Halo_numbers>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_Records_discography>

Factory elevated the then-usual record company catalog into a numbering system
that clearly established authenticity and intentionality. Also, as it happens,
it naturally increases fan collecting interest.

The Factory Records numbers included not just records but all manner of
designed items such as concerts and their posters, videos, promotional items
and some even more interesting examples.

Reznor limits them to recordings, which does allow the realistic completion of
a collection and there are indeed many "Every Halo" fans who have made Nine
Inch Nails' old singles unusually collectible.

Apart from the collectibility, it's a simple way of creating a story by
putting things in a timeline as well as establishing what's really in the
canon and what's peripheral.

~~~
pronoiac
I love the Factory numbers!

FAC 501: Tony Wilson, his funeral, & his coffin

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wyclif
This reads like it was very badly transcribed from audio. Or not transcribed
at all-- it's filled with errors, missing words, and run-on sentences. Not a
great reflection on the site or Reznor. If I were him, I'd demand they fix it.

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indigoviolet
I think I understand what he's trying to say, but perhaps he could've picked a
better example than Joy Division and U2.

The Joy Division pages on Facebook:
<http://www.facebook.com/JoyDivisionOfficial?ref=ts> [55k fans]

[http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joy-
Division/108018775886004?r...](http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joy-
Division/108018775886004?ref=ts) [260k fans]

The U2 page on Facebook: <http://www.facebook.com/u2> [5M fans]

------
InfinityX0
I'm surprised we don't hear more from Trent Reznor. As I can tell through his
music (pick up the TSN soundtrack today released in full) - the man is a
genius. But to not hear more from him in today's internet world like we do
Scott Adams or other intelligencia who have done spinoff work seems like a
waste of a mind that I intently want to hear from.

~~~
harry
Speaking as a fanboy: Reznor goes in reclusive phases. He'll be all over the
net doing interviews and bitching on twitter one month then completely absent
for 6. Just sorta what he does.

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lotusleaf1987
I think you guys are missing the forest through the trees, maybe Joy Division
was a bad example but what Reznor is pointing our is how much of a performance
Facebook is, every profile is what/how you _want_ to be perceived now so much
how you actually are. It's an idealization. How many of your friends Facebook
profiles represent someone significantly different than the person you
actually know? A lot.

~~~
Keyframe
_every profile is what/how you want to be perceived now so much how you
actually are_

But what can they do about it? It's not like they have access to your youtube
play logs or winamp stats or anything like more like that from which to derive
"you".

~~~
mseebach
> or winamp stats or anything like

IIRC, there's a last.fm app for syncing your Facebook music section every week
to your actual top artists for that week.

~~~
Keyframe
Facebook should tap into those kind of sources then.

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rottencupcakes
I don't understand why people are interested or care about the opinion of some
guy who hasn't even managed to be relevant in his own domain. Just because he
made the soundtrack to a sub-par film about Facebook?

He's basically acting like a 45 year old Holden Caulfield. I think he just
wishes he was as good as Joy Division.

~~~
DuncanIdaho
Hmm... I wouldn't call an artist that inspired Johnny Cash to cover him,
irrelevant.

~~~
smackfu
OTOH, Johnny Cash covered a lot of stuff. He had 6 cover albums in the
"American" series at the end of his career..

