I’m so sorry for not resisting the urge to be a jerk, but here we go. It’s far from a hate post but it’s just that I’ve seen things about The Killers, specially for Brandon Flowers, that made me wonder what was going to come out of it. Just like in any other business, to succeed in the entertainment industry, talent may not be enough. If you release a new album and you don’t get enough promotion, if nobody opens the door for you to talk about your new work, you’re done. Except if you can work your way to make it go viral on the internet, but it’ll hardly happen and it still can have a short lived effect. So the things is, you need people willed to open the doors for you. And if you have the “wrong” political views, specially now that the world is going through an orange-man-bad syndrome, don’t you even dare to not claim to be a liberal. Well, back in the mid to late 2000s, when the problem was Bush and Iraq War, anti-americanism was very trendy, but The Killers didn’t take advantage of it at all. I actually remember Brandon saying he refused to say “fuck Bush.” Was he a conservative? Or maybe a liberal? It really doesn’t matter to me. But I enjoyed seeing his interviews because it wasn’t predictable. He actually had something to say. By releasing The Land of the Free, in my useless view, The Killers officially joined the Hollywood world. That world where people who think and say the exactly same thing, then praise themselves for the courage to be a “rebel” while knowing they’ll get accolades from the MSM media. The worst thing that could happen to these people is a “nobody” calling them a libtard on social media, which will obviously be an amazing opportunity to show how they’re victims of hate-speech. Oh cruel world... Remember when Brandon made that beautiful video about being a mormon? Or even how Flamingo had a “couple” of references to the Christian faith? Then what happened next? That Swedish tv show tried to humiliate him by inviting TK to promote Battle Born and suddenly Richard Dawkins (the god of atheism) showed up for a debate with BF about Christianity. Now, none of these things will happen anymore - as long as he keeps playing by the rule. The Killers made their way to the top because of their talent, but after Battle Born I was wondering what they’d do to keep their position. Rock music is no longer mainstream. Hip hop and pop artists in general are taking over all music festivals (I think Ariana Grande will headline Lollapalooza Chicago this year?), I’m glad we still have The Killers. I’m glad Brandon and Ronnie decided to carry on with the band. Things don’t stay the same and sometimes you need to sacrifice something to keep what you have. Fair enough.
I just hope Brandon doesn’t start pulling a Bono Vox or Roger Waters.
