an open letter to record labels and their 'fan clubs'

cobra has gotten so big because of the message boards (and leighton meester helped a whole fucking lot). think about it. on lj we were all the ‘biggest fans’ and shit and the people who cobra would always make shoutouts to. they knew that the haters and fans were on livejournal.com. places like suavez and dgs were the ‘fanclubs’ and we were all somewhat organized there. now with the fucking forum, you’ve got way more 12 year olds wearing cobra merch screaming about how much they want gabe saporta to marry them. if you did that shit on lj you would get your ass mocked till you left the fucking site. but on the cobra boards, that sort of behavior is tolerated and even encouraged.
they know us by our ljs and by our daily haunts. victoria has a livejournal, ryland used to have one, gabe namedrops livejournal. this fan club has done nothing but further alienate fans from the band by mass producing this feeling of comradery that already existed on livejournal, something that cobra doesn't want to do. i'm sure it fucking sucks having to run back into your bus because you'll get mobbed if you hang around by the merch table.
the corporate bigwigs made an eye-rapingly ugly forum and said THIS SPACE RIGHT FUCKING HERE IS FOR YOU TO DO XYZ. well we already fucking had XYZ and then some on livejournal—this is all fan-created content, something that no corporation can help truly inspire in people. the ‘fans’ created by this corporation are basically consumers. the message board is just a way to make money, which is why gabe saporta so vehemently tried to stop it from happening. i mean he’s trying to turn it into a positive thing with all the contests and shit (not gonna lie i’m benefited from the boards/contests--HELLO HOT MESS VIDEO SHOOT) but he knew that this was yet another way for FBR to make money off of HIS band. why not just keep people talking and discussing the band on lj? FBR has no way to truly profit off of what we do here so they make us all talk over on the message boards. ‘true fans’ are naturally suspicious of this gimmick but newbies to the whole cobra starship thing eat that shit up immediately.
everything’s all for these new fans too. have you seen the new and improved cobra starship story? no traces of gabe tripping balls on peyote and having an epiphany anywhere. because seriously, cobra starship is the direct result of a bad trip. it’s too much for these 12 year olds whose daddies buy the (still horrendously god-awful) merch. they see drugs and they refuse to drop a cent on this band (because merch is the one way bands actually DO make money). on the message boards, everything is nice and controlled and filtered by FBR. they can control what goes into and out of the message boards. the mods there are different than the mods here. on suavez/dgs pm the only rule is ‘no fanfiction’ which is the most reasonable rule i’ve ever heard. but the message boards have a different set of rules and if you fuck up you’re banned—despite having paid for membership.
i might be rambling. you might not agree. but the message boards are BAD NEWS for people who would call themselves true fans. we are the people who came together on lj, we are the people who make and fuel the gossip, we are the people who start the communities, we are the people who organize gifts and books and meetings and events, we are the people who show up hours before the venue opens and stay long after it closes. we are the people who fucking got cobra off their feet in the first place. this whole catering to the latest passengers on the corporate bandwagon, while profitable, is downright insulting.
my love for cobra starship isn’t any less, i’m just frustrated. yeah i’m one of those people who are bitter about them getting big. feel free to disagree, i’d love to see what your counterarguments are! (and yes i am aware that gabe’s been making music for like 10 years etc we should all be happy for him but he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere if it wasn’t for the tiny solid core of people who supported them from the start, and those people for the most part exist on livejournal.)
please, feel free to add to this and pimp it everywhere. this isn't a complete list of things that are wrong with the whole fanclub idea so if you would like to say something i want to hear it. there's gotta be a better way, you know? if they see that we're unhappy with this fanclub bullshit maybe things can change.