#soapbox time

[eirabach]

Anti negativity rant under the cut. Yes, I appreciate the irony.

I think every time you go off on a public rant about how terrible a show is or became or whatever you should remember for half a second that you are insulting every member of the cast and crew working on it and not just the one guy you hate. And you should think "is this necessary", the same way you presumably dont go slapping "i fucking hate this" reviews on fic. Because exactly the same way a fic has a back button a tv show has an off button. And you can. Say. No. I'm done. And switch it off.

"It's necessary because I'm mad." Is not a reason to disrespect the creative work of hundreds of people, sorry. Be mad. Be furious. Burn your merchandise in a ritual sacrifice if you want. Put your venting under a cut so your people can sympathise with you without loading the tags with bile.

Then peace the fuck out.

And you can peace the fuck out without insulting the talent or intelligence of either the people who make it by review bombing or sending shitty messages to those who still find a way to enjoy it.

I know. I've DONE it.

Hth.

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Just learned about how massively controversial POCALOID is in my search to find out where to buy Crypton voicebanks now that they’re no longer on VOCALOID...

So like, the music industry really does have y’alls fucking brainwashed, huh? Piracy from major art software developers is fine because “they’re big companies and art tools shouldn’t be inaccessible to those who can’t afford it!” but the moment it’s VOCALOID suddenly it’s morally reprehensible to try to use voicebanks people love and connect with for free?? Because fucking Yamaha will lose out on some sales towards it’s 3.8 BILLION annual revenue??? I’m sorry but I cannot fucking relate.

People call the VOCALOID fandom toxic because of petty shit like shipping wars and thirst, but I swear to gods we’ve gone too long in ignoring it’s massive kiss-assery towards billion-dollar corporations who will never give a shit about them. 

[spaceorphan18]

Hmmm, I’m not sure how to reassure you guys that it’s okay to enjoy the story even if people on the internet have different opinions.  It’s fun coming up with headcanons to make the story work, and it’s fun filling in the blanks.  

But I used to spend a lot of time agonizing over what critics used to say about Kurt, Blaine, Glee, etc, and then I got to the point where I realized it’s just not worth it anymore.  I liked what I like, and I’ll keep creating and discussing.  

You guys are more than welcome to come keep chatting with me -- I promise, this isn’t commentary about how I don’t want to answer your guys’ fun asks! But I wish I could somehow validate things for you in a better way, so that you don’t have to feel like you need to subject yourself to the nastier side of the internet. 

[apriorisea]

~sorry, not an imagine~

--I apologize in advance, because I know this is neither an imagine nor a scenario, but I came across this interesting little opinion, and I just couldn’t let it go by. (And yes, before anyone points it out, I am aware that this opinion was sent into an “unpopular kpop opinions” blog, so it is meant to be polarizing and inflammatory and attention-grabby, but hear me out.)  

Music is important to me. My life has been spent studying music and I am one of those perhaps naive people who honestly believes that music can save the world, because music isn’t just important to me. Music is important to humanity. Quite simply, the music you need finds you at the time you need it.  Aside from all of the medical and scientific studies that have shown music’s impact on the mind and body, it is a truth universally acknowledged that music is an integral part of our being. When we speak, it’s music. The way our hearts beat is a rhythm. Music is a part of us. It touches us and heals us in a way very few other things can. 

Which is yet another reason I wanted to speak my piece here. If the original opinion-er has truly never had an emotional reaction to a BTS song, I genuinely pity them---but it simply means that it isn’t yet their season with BTS. However, to ignorantly assume that this means *no one* has had a strong emotional connection to the music is a step too far. 

Yes, people are drawn into a song by the way it “generally sounds and flows”---that is the point of music, is it not? But what OP is missing here, is that the affinity for the “sound and flow” of a song is a part of the emotional reaction. It feels good. It reaches some part of you that clicks in some way. Sometimes it makes you want to cry. Sometimes it makes you want to take on the world. And sometimes, it just makes you happy. Happy is an emotion. Happiness is an emotional reaction. When you nod your head along to a song, that’s an expression of happiness---an emotional reaction. The thing is, music affects every person differently. What is important to you may not be important to another person. You can hear a song and have it strike you to your core; someone else may hear nothing but pleasant sound. Even “repetitive” songs. Even “poppy” ones. Even “generic” ones. The idea that someone thinks they can determine a song’s (or artist’s) value for the rest of the world simply due to their own opinion is quite distasteful and ignorant. 

As is the implication that international music fans are unable to have an emotional connection with the music because they “don’t understand the underlying meaning.” This is just......🤦🏻‍♀️Is the implied opposite of this opinion that you must be innately able to understand every underlying message of a song in your native language? Because, believe me, I have been speaking English from birth and I’m still not sure what the “underlying meaning” of Who Let the Dogs Out is? This is why music is important---because you don’t have to speak the language in order to feel that connection. Because there doesn’t have to be “a language” in order to feel that connection. There are no words in classical music. Most operas are in Italian. Film score is typically wordless. Are you really suggesting that such music is unable to reach a person’s soul because it must have plain/familiar language to be understood? 

The first time I heard “First Love” from the Wings album, I was driving home during one of the most difficult years of my life so far and I started sobbing. 15 seconds into “Epiphany” (Love Yourself: Answer) I knew what it was about, what it meant, what it was. From the end of my first listen to “Make It Right” (Map of the Soul: Persona) I immediately craved another listen, hooked on the way it made me feel. The very first time I heard “Euphoria” (Love Yourself: Answer) in its abbreviated form in the Love Yourself: Wonder video, I knew it was precious to me, that it was something meant for me, that it touches my soul and reaches me in a way I will never be able to explain. All of this happened without knowing the language, without being told the “underlying meaning.” Now, I know these are just my experiences---but that is precisely my point. Music is there for each person to experience in their own individual way. For anyone to assume that it is meaningless or generic based on their own experience is the epitome of narrow-mindedness.

Finally, I have to disagree with the main sentiment of OP’s point. BTS’ international success seems more likely to be an indication of their ability to connect emotionally, across language and cultural barriers, rather than a sign of their “generic, repetitive sound.”  Music is individual---but at the same time, it is also blessedly universal. Because for every person who feels something different, there is another who feels the same. It is because BTS’ music has the power to connect, to mean something, to make you feel something, that they have gained such attention worldwide. A simple, generic, poppy drivel would not achieve the lasting success and loyalty that BTS and their music have garnered. 

Anyway, off my soapbox now. Thanks for reading 💜💕

[squelchsquelch]

You know those posts that say something like “the quickest way to an update/new content is to comment/kudo/engage in some way”?

100% accurate.

Coming up with new ideas and actual content can be challenging, but super rewarding. But being met with no feedback? It’s like presenting to a perceived empty room, and that just doesn’t bode well.

I’ve come across so many fics or arts that have seemingly been abandoned despite being spectacular, and I need only look at their (lack of) note count/kudos/comments to see why.

If you like something, express it somehow. You have nothing to lose, but something to gain.

[anna8910]

ROYAL FANDOM SOAPBOX TIME!

Also I HATE this idea that there’s something “wrong” with Kate allegedly using sex to attract William back in the day... like A. I don’t think it’s true and B. .... AND?!?!

It makes me feel very uncomfortable as physical affection and yes SEX is how I show a partner that I’m into them in the beginning stages of a relationship. Because of YEARS of abuse from romantic partners it’s my love language. I’m not saying everyone needs to be fucking on first dates (though I do and there is NOT A FUCKING THING WRONG WITH IT) but that there is nothing inherently wrong or bad with being physical with the PERSON YOU ARE DATING. IF that’s how she “bagged him” (which I don’t believe for a fucking second but sure) that gets you a second date.... not a ring and 3 kids 

[teddy-the-queer-wizard]

i think i spent too long wanting to carve myself up for not being good enough - hating myself for my failures and inability to do things that not only other people wanted from me, but that i wanted from me

that i cant possibly ever agree that taking myself out of the creative process entirely

- making something i desire either through my own efforts or the efforts i have inspired in others or the independent efforts of someone elses passion that i share -

is a desirable thing

i cant understand wanting to plug ideas in a machine and have it spit out the results like a math problem and finding that... worth while to hold on to or care about long term

i can't understand substituting a real connection for a sounding box and paying money for the privilege of talking to yourself??? or pretending to talk to others?

its just all really sad and disappointing and in my experience hurtful

i was avoiding the pain of failure and rejection long before ai got popular

im much happier now and not a whole lot has changed about my circumstances... just how i treat myself and interact with the world around me

ai just looks like an easier way to make excuses for not having to face the root of your problems and reasons for pain and give yourself a better way to lie to yourself or others about it

i don't have enough time to accomplish everything i want. i dont have the energy or head space. i don't have the attention span. my emotions get beyond my ability to cope and i end up not being able to do something the way i had envisioned because of that or lack of experience or talent.

which makes me value everything ive created despite all that more. makes me try to reprioritize my life so i can make time to create. makes me try and find ways to make it easier - talk to text while im doing something else, getting better accommodations for my issues so i dont have to work so hard to cope with them.

there are many things i straight up cant do right and probably never will be able to.

me plugging a math problem into a calculator didn't make me suddenly able to multiply 9*9 in my head and never will.

me plugging in a calculator a set of problems to figure out my next paycheck helped me budget between paychecks because i used it as a tool to accomplish my goal

theres no. real substitute for doing something yourself when it comes to creating.

maybe you can't draw a straight line but a computer can compensate and give you straight lines - you used a tool, they have those for paper too theyre called rulers. you can use a computer to dont things you can't on paper and thats fine if youre using it as a tool.

but if you just go online and look up "puppy" and grab a picture of a puppy you didn't create that. and if you tell a computer to give you a purple puppy it may be slapping a filter or combining things internally to give you that image but. you had no part in that. you had an idea and gave it to a machine and it did an elaborate google search or photoshop about it - none of which you contributed more than going "you missed a spot" to

if youre writing there are templates for what you want to do. to give you guidance onto how. to explain in depth and simply how to build what you want to see. and there are othe people to bounce those ideas off of and and and - if you tell a machine to play elaborte mad libs with your work or someone else's you still didn't create anything. i can't imagine that holding as much value to you as having the calculator tell you what 9 plus 9 is unless you take that information to go do something else with it

and if you want a base to build off, in art or in writing all the information is already out there you just dont know how to find it. figuring that out for yourself is so very important.

and hell if you dont have the time or energy to do that - make the laziest reinvent the wheel tool for yourself. i can grab like 6 references of things and slap together the shittiest looking base for a drawing by Frankensteining the images.

for writing i just grab all my inspiration knowledge and shove it into one spot and then start drawing lines on the other. im going to have to read a lot of wiki pages and more about ships and traditional sailing and pirates and nautical mythos to write one story just so i can write a completely different story where one character of that story shows up. you dont have to go that in depth but can just jot down a reference sheet of notes and vibes and look at it from time to time "he says fuck every three words and if he likes you youre pal and if he doesnt your buddy, favorite color green but wears yellow more because his gf likes it. will stab you if you point out thats cute. hates his twin brother"

you cant functionally sub a relationship with a person with a machine. you CAN functionally sub a relationship with another person with a relationship with yourself and doing so is healthy

i cannot express enough how miserable i was doing the same shit people are doing now with this thin veneer of legitimacy given to them by a creativity calculator

i cant understand why youd let yourself be sold something you could be doing for yourself when it wont actually make your life meaningfully better in any way.

its not a microwave in the scale of tools that make our lives more better than worse. its something that gives you sawdust with flavoring. but because it looks like a three course meal you think im telling you to starve when i point out a packet of ramen would kill you slower - especially since frozen veggies and ramen are cheaper and better for you than the machine that turns wishes and sawdust into something prettier to consume.

i just... life feels so empty already. why would you take your ability to fill it with meaning or beauty or connection and throw it away? why don't you value yourself more?

its an instant gratification machine. a drug. drugs have diminishing returns. drugs suck the life out of you. stop feeding yourself sawdust.

i understand why but ive been in that fucking hole and its a bitch getting out so i see people diving in and want to be ill about it

[snakeplantships]

Look, I just don’t understand why people will say they are a fan of a show with problematic characters and/or themes, and then make it their mission to sanitize all the problematic content out of it? And then tell other fans who actually like it that way that they are sick freaks etc?? This makes everything BOOOOORRRRIINNGG af.

Accept that your blorbo is a terrible person and move on. Love them because of it, not in spite of it. To engage properly with a narrative, you can’t just ignore the horrible aspects to prove to yourself you’re not like all those other weirdos.

When you refuse to truly engage with problematic aspects of a narrative, you end up rationalizing horrible things and perpetuating the very thing you seek to avoid.