i don’t mean to bring up jeff again, but i saw this on twitter and it lowkey made sense:
“jeff is not a monster he is just really good at his job there is a difference...so when i say i do not like jeff i say it bc he is so damn good at his job”
“just look at what the media says about harry all the narratives they push and what the gp says about him that is all jeff, we hate those narratives so he circle around and say we hate jeff but in reality we just hate how good he is at his job”
“I don’t hate jeff but I do think he uses what columbia and sony are doing to him to his advantage for him to be the androgynous singer who dates models to his advantage. bc before he’s harrys friend he’s his manager”
“yeah I hate him bc he is a capitalist and is responsible for how commercial harry has become which isn't a complete bad thing except that his public image isn't fully authentic but tbh I just hate the fucking system and he's the name that I know”
Well, I've been meaning to make a post about this for ages and here's an excuse to do it!
First of all, let's look at the definition of a manager and what managers actually do:
I think a lot of the Jeff hate comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what a manager does. They're not some all-powerful being that controls every aspect of a celebrity's life and image. Their main responsibilities are pretty boring: scheduling, hiring and firing, planning, negotiating contracts, etc. Of course Jeff has a seat at the table when it comes to the issues with Harry's branding that we hate. I'm not saying he's free of all responsibility, but he's also not holding all the cards. That's why I use the term "tptb" or, "the powers that be" because there are SO MANY MORE people involved in this than just Jeff.
Ok, now I will address each of the paragraphs one by one.
1. Why would I hate Jeff for being good at his job? Harry has had incredible success and is accomplishing everything a fan could dream of for their fav. As far as commercial success and general public recognition go, I only WISH that the other boys had a manager like Jeff. Harry's presence on SNL, the Late Late Show, and other fun shows and interviews is because of Jeff! Someone had to book those shows, right? That's a manager's job! And I don't hate Jeff for that, in fact, I love getting content from Harry, so I'm GRATEFUL for that!
2. Although Jeff definitely has some say in Harry's public image and the things printed about him, the main responsibility of that goes to Harry's PR team, (which, by the way, is also excellent.) The way a PR team operates varies greatly, but oftentimes it's the label itself that does the promo, not the management, or it's some combination of the two. As always, yes, Jeff has a seat at the table in this. But he is not personally calling the Daily Mail asking them to print that Harry is a homewrecker. He's not laying in bed at night thinking up new lies to tell about Harry. There is a team of people involved in that process.
3. Now this is where it gets interesting. The mention of Columbia and Sony is important here because they all work together. They're not working independently. There are meetings with all of them and they move forward together. In fact, in many cases, the manager is supposed to fight for the artist when in negotiations with the label. The manager and the artist are supposed to be on the same side here.
The thing about being "the androgynous singer who dates models" or having an ambiguous sexual orientation is that I honestly think this is the best situation we could have with Harry, given the circumstances. Think about it. For five years, we've had a Very Heterosexual Womanizer Harry who sleeps with ten girls a week. Now as a solo artist, it's like that still exists, but the volume has been turned down like 70%. Harry can't exactly come out as gay the second he leaves the band. 1, it would look weird to completely do a 180 the minute he leaves. He was setting up to be more open about his sexuality and more expressive with himself towards the end of the band ("not that important") and we even see a progression in his clothing style from 2015 to now. 2, he's tied up in all sorts of contracts that would prevent him from being able to just say "I'M GAY!!" and not to mention how it would completely undermine the womanizer image they'd worked so hard to give him. (and would lose them their biggest moneymaking tool: highly publicized fauxmances).
So imagine you're Jeff. You've been handed this kid whose main selling point is his womanizer personality despite him being in a monogamous gay relationship for 5 years. Harry wants to get out of the strict closeting he's been in for so long, so he goes out of his way to find someone who will give him what he wants. (Remember, Harry sought out Jeff. They hung out for a while before the band even broke up. He was shopping around for better management.) How could you possibly give him what he wants (to be free of closeting) while still maintaining a believable narrative to the gp?? The best possible solution is to let him be free with his self expression, be "unlabeled," and have some winter girlfriends (much less publicized than, say, haylor) to give some justification about who his songs are about. I think Jeff is doing the best he can with the circumstances given to him, and I dare you to figure out a better way to make your client AND your boss (tptb) happy. So yes, before he's Harry's friend, he is his manager, and he has to do the best he can with what he's given. And yes, I do think they're friends at least at a professional level. I mean look at this:
4. This last point is the most important. Yep, I dislike Jeff because he is a capitalist. The Azoffs are problematic af for lots of reasons. I hate the system as well, but unfortunately, the system still exists (although I have hopes that our boys will burn it to the ground) and under The System, Harry's about as well off as it's possible to be.