Why The Hell Would Any Rock Or Metal Act Play At A Corporate Christmas Party?

Listen – I’ll be the first person to say that I really like Yungblud as a person. His heart is usually in the right place. His music? Hit or miss. However, I respect the hell out of the relationship he had with Ozzy, and therefore, I respect the dude himself. And so, I say this with the utmost respect… what in the actual fuck made Yungblud think performing at a corporate Christmas party is a good idea? Especially with the general state of the world?

I mean, the behaviour can kind of be expected of the rest of the lot; but for an artist that has quite literally built a festival based around affordability, performing for the people who screw over the common man feels… counterintuitive.

Hired by billionaire – yes, with a b – Todd Boehly, the CEO of Eldridge Industries, Yungblud took to the makeshift stage to perform for a dead ass crowd alongside Slash, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), producer Andrew Watt, and Duff McKagan (Guns N‘ Roses). Covering only two tracks, “War Pigs” (Black Sabbath) and “Start Me Up” (The Rolling Stones), he quickly traded off to Brandi Carlile. Who then passed it on to Anthony Kiedis, and then Eddie Vedder, before debt-riddled Bruno Mars took to the stage to perform Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” That’s already circulating online.

Todd Boehly has investments and key holdings in numerous companies, such as Dick Clark Productions, A24, previously the Hollywood Reporter–Billboard Media Group, Variety, SPIN, and other various financial and technology companies. He’s also responsible for the merger between Billboard, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Music Business Worldwide in 2020. We all know what mergers do. He also partially owns the LA Dodgers and has a stake in the Chelsea FC in the UK. Boehly‘s Eldridge Industries, a holding company for all of these investments, handles over $70 billion in assets. His net worth personally is almost $9 billion.

Beyond the odd lineup rock line-up, the idea of any kind of alternative artist performing for people who push the status quo and capitalist agenda, people who hoard wealth and resources, the very person who has made getting publicity harder, feels like the artist has lost the essence of what it means to be in the alternative genre. Maybe if Boehly was more of a philanthropist, I’d be more sympathetic. But to allow yourself to be paid with the very money pinched, not only from the very people you’re performing for, but the people they screw over in their business deals… maybe you should step back and reevaluate your morals. Alternative music means pushing back against that, having issue with the way our government favours the rich.

I like Yungblud, however, this is so far from what it means to be any way alternative, it’s not even funny. The rest of them? Eh. Typical.