Harry Styles and the Return Backlash
Since Harry’s long anticipated return to the music industry fans went wild with the announcement of his new album, Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally. However his return hasn’t been plain sailing. His return announcement came at a time when his former bandmate Louis Tomlinson was amping up promo for his long anticipated 3rd album and many fans felt that Harry returning during this process stole the lime light and left Louis floundering, according to some fans.
Louis however has had a lot of promotion during this album cycle and a lot of positive press, and Harry’s return has saw the two former One Direction Alumni mentioned together for their music for the first time in years. Most of the time when Harry and Louis are mentioned together it’s because Louis is denying a romantic relationship between the pair again, although it should be noted he never actually denies it, but that’s another story for another day.
Harry’s new music is different and a lot of fans aren’t sure of his new direction, however the song is EDM themed and actually grows on you the more you listen to it, but many fans dislike it and have made their complaints vocally and loudly on Social Media. The new direction isn’t the worst of the backlash Harry has faced though. His tour was announced in the midst of a long January with the presale on the back of the announcement and the ticket prices kept under wraps until the sales went live.
Harry is facing masses of backlash over the cost of the tickets with regular fans feeling priced out of the shows as the tickets are 3-4 times the most expensive tickets of other big artists. For example pit tickets for Together Together are £400 which is double and then some of his last tour and seated tickets from £40-300 and VIP tickets £700 in the UK and with premium tickets in play, it’s a way for ticketmaster to sell the tickets are double to triple their face value and exploit fans of Harry who will want to see him because he is incredible live.
It’s worse in the USA where Harry is performing in Madison Square Garden for 30 nights and the prices there are insane with dynamic pricing in play meaning pit tickets are as much as 1000 dollars and seated $120 plus. The thing about the Garden and the residency there is that his manager has a vested interest in Harry playing there since his father part-owns MSG and Ticketmaster so they will be making an exorbitant amount on the back of the fans who are willing to pay through the nose to see their Idol.
Residencies are okay as a short term thing but they are becoming more commonplace and fans are having to travel to see their favourite artists on tour instead of the artist coming to them which puts the costs more on the fans than the millionaire artists. Fans are willing to travel, to pay for hotels and travel and tickets but when prices are this high, only the very rich or those willing to get themselves into debt can afford to come to Harry’s shows and when other artists like Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, The 1975s and Louis Tomlinson are reasonably priced you have to question why Harry’s shows have become so expensive now. Taylor’s tickets were expensive and seem to have set a precedent that big artists should charge more to be seen, however it should be noted that her tickets still weren’t quite as high as Harry’s at face value.
Has Harry really lost touch with his fans so much that he thinks that these prices are okay? Does he know that because his concerts are trendy and the place to be seen that he has excluded his regular fans from coming to see him while he performs? This doesn’t seem like something Harry would do, but he’s not saying anything despite the backlash and fan fury all over social media. Fans are calling Harry greedy, out of touch and elitist for not making his prices more reasonable and his concerts more accessible.
We all know how much the 1D alumni are tied into contracts but did Harry have a say in his concert ticket prices or not? That is the question because if he did then he has really lost touch with who he is and who his fans actually are. Fans who’ve been there 16 years feel priced out of his concerts and unworthy of seeing him, loyal fans feel either exploited because they are paying so much for tickets or simply cannot go. Has Harry really lost himself during his time off? Does the sweet, kind and lovely Harry really want to perform to people who don’t know his lyrics and who are there to see Harry Styles ™ and not Harry?
Honestly I think the prices were set between Ticketmaster and the venues with Harry having little to no say. His concerts have always been at the pricier end of what fans can afford but it shouldn’t be normalised that concerts for any artists are that expensive. Music is supposed to be for everyone, not only rich fans with big bank accounts and parents who can pay excessive prices.
There comes a time when fans need to stop, step back and say no. If we allow this kind of excessive pricing to continue, it will become the norm and regular fans will be priced out of shows and it’s not the artists who will be making bank on the show, but the promoters, management teams and labels. Artists are paid last of all and usually get the least of all the aforementioned groups even though it’s their talent that people are there for.
The music industry needs a shakeup and Ticketmaster needs to be broken up because one party having a monopoly on any artists’s ticket sales makes it an unshakeable and unreasonable industry where artists either lower their bottom line for the shows or let their fans be exploited. It’s a sick and corrupt industry and when you sign on the dotted line the industry own you and you become a puppet of these powerful moguls who decide where you go, what fans you see and how you act.
Has Harry really lost touch with who he is? Or is it being made to appear this way to alienate a huge part of his core fanbase and exploit him more than ever? Harry has been exploited and used to make the suits rich since his early days in One Direction and their contracts were the worst in the industry, so has nothing changed there? Does Harry have more say now than before or is he still bound by the contracts he signed at 16 years old?
He certainly has more freedom to be himself on stage and in his clothes, but his music and his persona are still owned by Sony because he’s still their golden goose. He became a ™ instead of a person a long time ago in their eyes and they separated him from the band who made him, keeping him quiet and not talking about the other men who he grew up in the industry with. There's definitely more to the story and even when Liam passed Harry’s solo fans were convinced he hated Liam and was just at his funeral because he had to be because of the disconnect between him and the other boys in public.
He rarely talks of them in interviews or praises them for their achievements. Louis always praises Harry when asked and Liam loved him loudly, but Harry either can’t or won’t do the same. Why? Is it because it’s part of his contract to not speak of the other boys and if that’s part of his contract- controlling what and who he can speak about then why would he have any more say on ticket prices than his fans? He’s abused by his contract and has been since he joined the music industry and now instead of his team facing the backlash it all lands at Harry’s door.
While I refuse to pay the exorbitant prices asked to see one of my favourite singers and am as angry as the next fan about the seemingly out of touch nature of the prices, I’m also aware that Harry doesn’t have as much freedom as people assume and after Liam I worry about his mental health. He lost someone he loved deeply just over a year ago and Liam was attacked constantly online, so let’s not do that to Harry.
Yes the prices are ridiculous and fans should not be expected to pay that much to see any single singer, nor should they be expected to travel thousands of miles and pay for hotels and travel to see any artist unless they choose to. However let’s remember where the blame truly lies. Instead of blaming the artists, lets blame the music industry which has made it impossible for artists to make any money from their music unless they tour. Let’s blame the labels who bleed artists dry and who refuse to treat artists are living breathing humans and instead treat them as a brand and a product to be sold to the masses. Let’s blame the management companies and the conglomerates who own the venues and the ticket selling sites because even if Harry does have a say in ticket prices, he may feel he has no choice but to charge what he is, but I doubt that. No artist wants their fans’ backlash and hate, so in my mind the blame lies in the industry and not with the individual artist.
The music industry needs to change, but until people stop and realise that artists are overworked and exploited then nothing can or will change. Blaming artists without considering the system they work in and how labels and management teams get rich on the back of their talent with them coming last in the payouts should be a wakeup call, but it won't be until people wake up and see the music industry as smoke and mirrors. It’s not all glitz and glamour and we too often forget that there are people behind the ™ who still deserve our kindness so instead of blaming Harry let’s work together and call out the music industry as a whole and maybe then fans won’t be priced out of seeing their favourite artists live and the artist will be fairly paid for the work they do.
Life is short and we need music and artists, but not at this cost. It’s time to work together and stop ourselves and our favourite singers being exploited and used by an industry that thinks of them as commodities and not people.
We need to be kinder and remember that while we have every right to be angry about the tour prices the blame needs to be placed accordingly and it’s not on Harry, but on his team, label and promoters.
BTC
Add comment
Comments