Feature: Is Our Music Scene as Progressive as We Think?
By Devon Hannan, Contibutor
Over the past few weeks, the web has been blowing up over the event between Run For Cover Records and the band, Whirr. In case you have been living under a rock (or are simply new to the music scene), the record label, Run For Cover, home of many fellow punk bands such as Tigers Jaw, Citizen and Balance and Composure, recently dropped the shoegaze/punk band, Whirr, from their label for transphobic tweets against the band, G.L.O.S.S., who is fronted by a trans woman. These tweets have since been deleted.
(Whirr may have deleted the tweets, but the internet never forgets.)
The band Whirr is no stranger to offensive use of social media; in fact, many think that this has only set the band over the edge. Tweets included statements such as, “misogyny is hating women. g.l.o.s.s. Is just a bunch of boys running around in panties making shitty music.” The band has also caused controversy over tweets directed to suicide. The community spoke out against Whirr’s misconduct, and was heard almost instantly.
Within 24 hours, Run For Cover announced that they would no longer be working with the band, “We will not be working with Whirr from this point on and do not support that behavior in anyway. We will post a full statement tomorrow.”
Whirr then responded with a public apology, claiming that a “trusted friend” was the one who was distributing tweets from the band’s Twitter. As I read it, the song “Why The Fuck You Lyin’” just kept repeating in my head. Weird.
As soon as the news broke through my Twitter feed, I immediately thought to myself, “This is big.” I thought Whirr was trash before, and this only confirmed my suspicions. I wasn’t surprised by their behavior whatsoever, but that mindset is what got me thinking. Why was I so nonchalant about this behavior? Am I really this used to transphobia, as well as other injustices within our music realm?
I was surprised, however, by Run For Cover’s quickness and “no bullshit” attitude. I knew enough to understand this move was colossal. I knew it was a decision between morality and commodity. I wanted to know what other people thought, so I found a few people who were awesome enough to talk to me about it or give me leads for people that could.
I spoke to fellow OHIO students who are also active within the music scene Run For Cover provides. I asked the basic questions and their general opinions of the event and all responses came back relatively similar.
“Whirr sucks. Even their apology sucked,” said a student of the School of Business, Hunter Lake. “I could say that it was half assed, but it definitely wasn’t half assed. It was eighth assed. They tried to use the friend excuse about it. It has been known that they use the same remarks on stage.”
When asked about any potential future for the band, freshman Ellie Moore said, “I think they’re done for. It will be hard for another record label to sign them.”
With this set of questions, I basically found out what I already speculated; people think Whirr is trash.
I wondered what fellow performers in the scene thought. I had received responses from Dalton Edwards, a member of local Ashtabula Hardcore bands, Cringe and Wasted Blood. Bands Runaway Brother and Everyone Leaves also shared their thoughts.
Edwards spoke about Run For Cover’s quickness to drop the band. He said, “Other labels saw how big of an impact this controversy had on the record label, so if something like this would ever happen with their own bands or employees, they will know how to address the situation as RFC did. I think other labels may notice that RFC gained more following and respect through their decision.”
Runaway Brother, however, argued the Run For Cover’s move was more based on commodity. “It suggests and sends the message that, if you are a label, it is rather less important what sorts of terrible behavior your bands are engaging in, but how many people know about it, care about it and are talking about it. At some point, that number of people may translate into a state of unprofitability, and I think that Whirr and RFC reached that threshold. It is probably safe to assume that had they not dropped Whirr, RFC would have had a difficult time not only continuing to sell Whirr records, but continuing to function as a label in general.”
When asked about what other forms of oppression are observed throughout the hardcore/emo/pop punk scenes, Everyone Leaves brought attention to their female bassist and photographer. Jacob Bialosky claims that the problem not only lies in injustices against the LGBT community, but sexism as well. “The most common thing we encounter is that door personnel at venues, promoters, general venue staff, seem awestruck at the idea that Carolyn and Aubree aren't just someone's girlfriend there early for the show. We've had promoters almost refuse to mark Carolyn's hands. One promoter went so far as to tell Aubree she had to 'prove' she was in the band.”
“We do sometimes hear slurs among the hardcore community, primarily within touring bands, however they are used without intent or knowledge as to why they could be offensive. A common phrase is 'Get in the pit, pussies,'" Edwards said. “The people I hang around and are involved with in my community (Cleveland Hardcore) don’t see a lot of major forms of oppression. We don’t discriminate based on race or gender.”
Freshman Riley Doherty, who used to be a part of the Cleveland Hardcore fanbase, disagrees. She is a member of the LGBT community at Ohio University. Doherty claims she no longer supports the scene because of oppression not only linked to sexism, but to LGBT members as well.
“Drawing from my own experiences, I think the reason women and members of the LGBT community tend to avoid or feel alienated from hardcore and punk culture is because these hateful, entitled boys are given a platform in an environment that supports violence and ignorance. And although this sort of environment is becoming less pervasive as members of the punk and hardcore community become more educated and aware, there is still a large group who believe they are entitled to this invalidation of other people’s entire identity. I’m not really ever surprised when allegations arise of members of punk or hardcore bands doing problematic things, because they basically get up on stage and tell people how fucked up they are and then they’re never held accountable for it--they feel like they’re accepted and encouraged to be violent or abusive or ignorant, and so they never change. I think that’s a problem and that’s something we need to push back against.”
There are still problems within the hardcore, emo and pop punk scenes, undeniably so. We have also, undeniably, made advances. Whether you believe that Run For Cover’s decision was based on morality or commodity is up to you, but the uproar among RFC’s fans directly relates to a movement of acceptance and support for those within the LGBTQ* community. However, we can’t stop here. Until the community is a safe place for everyone to express themselves and their music, we must continue to acknowledge forms of oppression. To continue to make change, we have to ask ourselves the question: “Is our music scene really as progressive as we think it is?”
