
Jered Threatin: A conversation with a false rock god - iamben
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/jered_threatin
======
nkurz
It's an interesting saga. One of the parts that I hadn't heard before was that
not only did the band leader fake all the parts necessary to book the tour, he
also claims to have faked much of the outrage exposing himself as a fake:

 _But that’s because he had something he was eager to show me - a series of
emails that he said he sent out under yet another alias, a Gmail account
belonging to “E. Evieknowsit”._

 _“URGENT: News tip,” the subject line read._

 _“The musician going by the name Threatin is a total fake. He faked a record
label, booking agent, facebook likes, and an online fanbase to book a European
tour. ZERO people are coming to the shows and it is clear that his entire
operation is fake,” he wrote, including links to all his phoney websites._

 _“Please don’t let this man fake his way to fame... Please Expose him.”_

 _The first such message he showed me was dated 2 November, a day into the
Breaking the World Tour, and a week before the first news reports were
published. He says he sent the messages out to a database of reporters’ emails
he keeps in a massive Excel spreadsheet on his laptop - to outlets like the
Huffington Post, Spin, Consequence of Sound, Rolling Stone, The Guardian,
Pitchfork, New York Times, MetalSucks and, yes, the BBC. Although it was
unclear if the tips directly resulted in coverage, some of the emails appear
to have predated articles._

If true, this is a rather extraordinary level of fake self-promotion. And if
it's not true, it's even more remarkable to that he was able to get the BBC to
write an article making the claim on his behalf.

~~~
CM30
Makes you wonder how many more people have done this. I know some companies
actually faked outrage, like with EA creating a fake protest to promote
Dante's Inferno:

[https://www.engadget.com/2009/06/05/ea-confirms-dantes-
infer...](https://www.engadget.com/2009/06/05/ea-confirms-dantes-inferno-
protest-was-staged/)

And hey, given how much attention even bad press can bring, I can definitely
see other individuals and companies having done this in the past. Seems like a
pretty good growth hack for taking advantage of the Twitter/Reddit/Tumblr
outrage culture.

Maybe many other 'controversies' were really the same thing.

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kurtisc
I don't find the original deception, or his claims that he did it
intentionally, very interesting at all.

In an artistic sense, it's trite. In a PR sense, I don't see it being very
effective because, actually, he's not very good. So ultimately all that's
happened is that he's financially and emotionally hurt some people in an
already tough business and congratulated himself for it.

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arkades
For the BBC, that’s a surprisingly softball article. He defrauded venues out
of money, bandmasters out of a good chunk of their time (and considering
fucking with their pay at the last second, money too.) it seems there should
be a lot more depth to the “how do you feel about screwing all these people?”
line of questioning.

It also seemed unduly credulous. For someone who illustrated they were an
excellent manipulator online, but also apparently an excellent conman at the
direct interpersonal level (see: sustained lying with the band mates), the
article let the claim about his self-outing go without any real skepticism. A
quote from his brother is fine, but how about actually following up with the
reporters that were supposedly emailed? One of them was _at_ the BBC - would
it be that hard to confirm whether his disclosure was real?

~~~
barrow-rider
The BBC is state-owned media that makes a profit, via things like Dr. Who
syndication and OutBrain clickbate articles -- softball is their modus
operandi.

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kup0
Manipulating the "music industry", which has its share of problems, is one
thing. When spun/phrased this way it can make it seem like a positive... "this
guy is sticking it to the man!"

But in reality, he screwed venues, his band members, and others, and seems not
to care that humans and small businesses were hurt in the process because "LOL
music industry"

He got his 15 minutes of fame, his following will probably dwindle, and all
for the small cost of his dignity/trustworthiness. It's pretty gross,
honestly.

~~~
GauntletWizard
He doesn't have any dignity. He's a clear sociopath. It doesn't matter who he
lies to, it doesn't matter to him who he hurts. Even the mild contrition that
he displays to the reporter here is pure act : he knows that's what people
want to see, so he puts on that show because it will help him.

The sad part is that it will work. People will go see him for the guffaws. A
few will convince themselves that he really is some sort of genius and that he
deserves success - and that when he's treated as the pariah he is that it's an
injustice they must correct.

It's the Charlie Manson playbook, the Jim Jones Gambit. Exposure only helps
him.

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abledon
WOW! what a ride. sounds like he is atleast having fun manipulating the weird
creature known as the modern music industry. Aside, That BBC webpage is so
well designed - Soft on the eyes, pictures tastefully spaced out. Nice
background colour on the font. well done designers.

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puranjay
I listened to some of his music. It's not awful but man, he needs a bassist.
There is just no low end

------
EADGBE
A guy who's taken "any press is good press" to heart.

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iamben
Note: the title is "The wannabe rock star who conned his way to fame" on the
BBC homepage, but "Jered Threatin" on the article. The one from the homepage
seems to make more sense in a HN context.

