Headbangers’ Brawl is a weekly column where Metal Insider’s Bram and Zach take a moment to debate and analyze two opposing sides of a topical issue occurring in the world of metal and/or the music industry.
Every Time I Die is currently facing possible legal troubles after posting fake tweets on their Twitter account from celebrities like Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Jimmy Fallon, Pee Wee Herman and many more. The fake RT’s (which in Twitter language means “retweets” for those who lack social networking knowledge/have a life) displayed messages promoting their new DVD Shit Happens: The Series?, which comes out October 26, as if the celebrity tweeted it. While fans have shown strong support for the band’s actions, many celebrities (namely Kanye West apparently) are less than pleased. The band has already been served numerous cease and desist papers to take down the fake tweets.
All the hoopla surrounding this lead Bram and Zach to ask the following in this week’s Headbangers’ Brawl: Did Every Time I Die cross a privacy line in an attempt to gain publicity, or is everyone making too big of a deal over a few silly tweets?
Zach: Sure, ETID acted a tad stupid, but they were obviously just goofing around. Singer Keith Buckley even admitted so to AbsolutePunk. The fact that everyone is making such huge hoopla over a few silly tweets is funnier than the tweets themselves. They probably could have found other humorous ways to “promote” the DVD via Twitter, but I’m sure it hasn’t done too much harm to the stars in question. Plus, as Axl from Metal Sucks points out, it’s hard to believe that some of these “endorsements” were actually taken seriously by anyone, especially the Justin Bieber one that went like this:
“for sure it will my man! RT @justinbieber: if I don’t have pubes by oct 26th, I’m sure the ETID DVD will give me a whole mess of em, yo!”
Bram: If you know ETID and their sense of humor, as most of their Twitter followers do, then you knew they were just being goofy. On the other hand, for anyone other than their fans, I can see how this might backfire. No one wants words put in their mouth, even if it’s just a stupid Twitter post. The upside would be pretty big for their name getting out there if Biebs were to actually denounce them, but at what cost? It’s pretty doubtful a Bieber fan, Roger Ebert or Kanye West would get turned on to them, but it could definitely backfire for them. Look at those douches that shut down traffic to play a one song show of their sub-Crazy Town rap rock. No seriously, look at their video, it’s awful. There’s amusing yourself and your friends, and then there’s losing goodwill with people that will probably never give you a fair shot because you’ve pissed people off.
