Macklemore has taken a lot of grief this week because folks don't like his music, but honestly he is really fun to watch live. He has enough hits and brings good energy.
I feel like most of the hate on Macklemore's music is because it's trendy to so and they think it's cool to. Not that he's my favorite artist, but Thrift Shop was catchy as fuck.
Downtown as well. It's fun as hell. Both songs have great videos as well.
People also forget that Same Love came out before the Obergefell decision that legalized gay marriage, and was a pretty important anthem in the marriage equality movement.
Exactly! Despite the parody version, I can understand why he was explaining his heterosexuality in that song. He was trying to show that it’s an important to be an ally for people who need it, not just leaving it to minorities or disadvantaged groups to advocate for themselves.
Using his position and privilege as a wealthy white heterosexual guy to draw attention to causes like LBGTQ rights and now to the plight of Palestinian people is a great thing.
Like, I’m queer and I distinctly remember looking at all those gay kids shitting on him for being straight and I was like… isn’t this what we want? Being supported and having someone on our side? I truly, genuinely never got it. I couldn’t even really chalk it down to it being performative, because at the time being cool with gay people was still kinda risky for a public figure. I truly, honestly never got it, but I was always team Mack. And like yeah maybe some of his songs sound corny but they weren’t ever really “bad”. He’s just a guy doing his thing. I like him. And if he ever comes to Italy to a city close by I’m definitely considering going to watch it even though I know at most 3 or 4 songs.
I honestly don't get the hate. This man is an inspiration for so many artists out there. He's completely independent with no record-label and never sold his soul like Sheeran has.
No one owns Macklemore. He made his money and is now speaking freely like a good and just human and this happens to him...it's a sad state of affairs when those in power try to silence good men.
It's evil behavior. There is no denying it.
Sheeran will have a hard time digging his way out of this one.
I've honestly enjoyed him for years! I think people take his music too literally sometimes, or not seriously for others. He's an artist with both satire party bops and serious quiet listens. It's hard to blend both, and he really is only known for the first group.
I don’t care for Macklemore’s music and I didn’t even know who Aaron Rowe was before this post but I appreciate them using their voice for good and I’ll always support/defend their right to free speech. On the other hand, I never liked Ed Sheeran and found him to be pretty forgettable as a musician. So now I have a legitimate reason to dislike him. My daughter likes an Elmo song that features Ed Sheeran but we’ll be fast forwarding past that one from now on. I’m hoping Elmo comes out with a statement soon.
"Well those kid's parents can't give me millions of dollars... now can they?"
-Ed
Seriously, Ed decided what he believes when He didn't do the bare minimum and stand up for his 'friend'. He decided that the money was more important then the people, and then doubled down with a mealy mouthed 'explanation' that confirmed how spineless and without integrity He is. He has beliefs, but he can't share them, because the people who give him money won't anymore. How brave.
We don't always have to support what our friends believe, but we can believe they have a right to say it and back them up. That's something everyone can understand, even people who are still ignorant of what is happening in Palestine and Gaza.
This is a guy who actually stands to lose by standing up for what he believes in. His career is just starting, and supporting Sheeran would have been the biggest break he could possibly get.
It would have been so much easier for the extremely rich, extremely successful headliner to say all this, but he decided not to. For anyone who has always disliked Ed Sheeran and felt a bit bad about it because he seemed inoffensive, this is a vindicating day.
You have Aaron Rowe, this small artist, calling what’s happening in Gaza what it is - a genocide. Meanwhile in Ed’s statement he kept referring to the genocide as a “war” or “conflict”
I've always found him such an overrated yet seemingly good-natured artist so I held my tongue and ngl the past few hours of watching the internet turn against him makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I'll make space for you guys on the hate train!
There are all kinds of mid level venues all around the country in cities of every size. Not everything has to be at a massive arena. Bring the music to the people.
Personally, for the longest time I didn’t listen to enough of Ed Sheeran’s music or know enough about the guy himself to have an opinion, but I was aware that he was the butt of a fair amount of jokes. I wasn’t opposed to his music or anything, but I never had the urge to seek it out, either.
Then someone introduced me to Nancy Mulligan, a song about Sheeran’s grandparents falling in love and getting married despite the backlash towards their different religious backgrounds. I honestly thought it was a super cool song about how grateful he was that his grandparents stayed true to each other and themselves despite the hardship that came with forsaking the approval of authority figures, and I couldn’t help but smile any time it came up on my playlists. But now? Now I can’t help but wonder if Ed Sheeran can’t be bothered to emulate the courage of his grandparents when it matters most.
Because Kanye is actually useful to Israel. They can point at him and be like 'look, this is why we have to be so militaristic. He wants to kill us'. You can't do that with Macklemore. Macklemore isn't threatening them in any sort of violent way, no matter what Pink thinks.
I said exactly this, Ed has leverage, and some commenters explained, "reeeee he cant he doesnt have money what about his team"
Yeah when your team finds out you support genocide i dont think it matters if they have work or not, because at the moment if this keeps going south they wont have a tour at all...
He could have called the venue's bluff, supported his friend and fellow artist against censorship, and taken the financial hit, and he ultimately would have probably earned a ton of credibility and a boost to his reputation for doing the right thing. He followed the money though.
Honestly, even reading that in my head in her voice was still more believable than her saying it on-screen. And that was her BEST take. Can you imagine the worse ones?
That imagine moment in the middle of a national pandemic/shutdown permanently opened my eyes to that absolute nonsense that is celebrity worship in my country. Working class americans fighting tooth & nail paycheck to paycheck for survival, while we look up people with fame that ultimately look down at us like children or even cattle. I dont even use instagram or watch tv like I used to when I was a teenager. Its all just slop served on lunchplate that we never even asked for. Everything ive ever heard about sexxy redd or the kardashians has been against my will. They force feed us bullshit and ask that we sing their praises. Even the concept of paparazzi is completely insane but we’re so desensitized to it here. I am absolutely blessed to be born in this country but I think about leaving permanently atleast once a week. If youre not a celebrity, high ranking military officer, or politician, than your a wage slave used to keep the gears turning for the privileged. I’m sorry for the rant, but 20s has been so eye opening. I cant believe i ever gave a fuck about what bella hadid was wearing or who a singer was dating. Absolutely pathetic. The tabloid magazines sold by the check out st grocerie stores. Digusting. And the irony that the celebs on those magazines dont even dontheir own grocery shopping. Somebody does it for them. Then to top it all off, the people that run these industries silence our voices on subjects that ACTUALLY MATTER. I will do everything in my power to make sure my kids dont fall into the hypnotization this country puts the masses through. Thats all we can do. This system is absolutely fucked.
Edit: this POST has become the most liked post this year and its only been up less than 24hours. This is incredible. This might end up being the most upvoted post in the history of this sub in a matter of days. Thats awesome.
"Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses." - Juvenal
"Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They've long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear." - George Carlin
"The things that matter in this country have been reduced in choice, there are two political parties, there are a handful insurance companies, there are six or seven information centers.. but if you want a bagel there are 23 flavors. Because you have the illusion of choice!" - George Carlin
Average people if they banded together can take these owners, billionaires etc., down. We just need to start one business at a time. Just Stop Buying And Don't Go Back to that business. Move on to the next. this will terrify them the most. But the billionaires keep us divided against ourselves . that’s how they rose to the top. Average people have always held the power. they just never realized it. JUST STOP BUYING…ONE BUSINESS to start. Target felt the pain but people got lazy and started going back. People love their bread & circuses
Imagine the wonders being support act for Ed would do for his career, because he is nowhere near Ed or Macklemore level. And he chooses to be on the right side. Nothing but respect.
This is an artist with less than 200K monthly listeners, this tour and the stage would have made wonders in expanding his reach, and he still chose to take a stand and do what is right and I admire that so so much.
Same, really not into that style of music, but I am going to give him an honest listen, even if just to give him 1 more listen, because he stood up for the powerless at a very great cost to himself.
Block Inc, CEO Jack Dorsey, has an 86% ownership share of Tidal, and neither Block Inc nor Jack Dorsey have investments with Israel or AI weapons technology. (Unlike Spotify)
That's literally what I did with Macklemore last night, don't care for his music one bit but I applaud him, so I shuffled his spotify on mute as I watched football and went to sleep
Honestly, it’s not my standard choice but wow, he’s really good and Hey Ma is a powerful song. I’d happily listen to this kind of music with my wife on a road trip.
Also his voice is really cool. I think Jakob Dylan has a cooler voice but his is really cool too.
I think if you want to see this kind of change then you should do your part too, which can be as small as supporting the artist’s work and sharing it to friends.
What an amazing thing. He could have benefited from this tour financially and culturally and he chose to take the high road anyways. I applaud him to the ends of the earth.
This honestly makes me want to check out his music and I hope a lot of others will end up doing the same because of this. I'm not sure if it will be my thing or not but I would love to give it a chance if this is the person behind it.
What I heard from him wasn't for me, but I can't be sure. Because wouldn't you know it, I just can't figure out how to turn up the volume on my external speaker thats suddenly gone quiet, while Aaron Rowe's entire discography streams through this evening.
Totally, I can't imagine his stuff might jump out to me since I imagine it fits in with Sheeran's style of music. But I can definitely check out an artist when they take a principal'd stance on something like this.
I've seen him live in local bars in South Dublin and he's incredibly talented. At that point he was doing covers so I don't know what his original stuff is like, but he puts on a great show
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽precisely!!! I’ve never heard of this guy but I know his name now! Someone else on here noted that he has less than 200k monthly listeners. The absolute set of cajones on this guy— offered a life changing, career changing opportunity like opening for ES, and pass es due to principles. Paradoxically this decision will likely build him a much larger following than singing before Ed ever would have—-and I love that for him 😍
Getting to play stadiums is literally a dream come true for any smaller artist, massive kudos to him for doing the right thing despite losing that opportunity. Just sucks for him that it even had to come to this.
Yeah, even Macklemore is basically going to be unaffected by this in terms of his reach. He's never going to be the biggest star in the world, but he's going to have a career basically as long as he wants one and this will get him as many gigs as it will cost him because everyone already knows what he's about. Good on Aaron Rowe for having principles as a smaller artist.
Exactly right. I don't think a lot of people realize that artists at that sort of middle tier (somewhere between indie and major act) are pretty much barely hanging onto having a career in music at all times, even if they have had some success. Maybe they have enough recognition/reach to get tour support slots & a label deal (who can drop you at any moment) but not quite enough to where you are fully established and have a dedicated fanbase that can sustain your career longterm without those bigger opportunities coming in. Backing out of this knowing what it could cost him is truly commendable.
Hijacking a higher level comment because many folks don't know that subscribing to a channel and then not watching content from it actually hurts the channel's algorithm rankings, meaning that content won't be served to users as often.
Fucking right on, Love Aaron Rowe and while he's obviously getting some attention and big stages lately, he's at a point in his career where this is huge for him exposure wise so even more respect. He's a good lad. For those curious check out this video and enjoy:
whatever he loses from dropping out of the tour, I hope he gains tenfold and more from the people who know what standing on the right side of history means
Bet he could get Snoop. Snoop has proven time and time again that no matter what the gig, if you give him 20 bucks and some gin & juice, he'll show up.
Snoop gets paid easily high six figures to play, and he'll still show up 30 minutes late and play 5+ cover songs. Still salty about him at riot fest in 2015. "snoop is playing doggy style in full" * plays 3 songs from it and 6 covers.
true, but Ed’s PR team is going to have to think long and hard about how to play this one, he and Taylor Swift are up there on the top of “you better not fuck up the money train”
It's fun to imagine but presumably at least 90% of the people buying tickets are doing so for Sheeran, so he'll either just do the show solo or (more likely) find some genocide-supporting act to open for him.
Funny how those who have more to lose got integrity while Ed, who has gotten his bag times and times again, caves. What a total pos that fuckhead is for not standing up for the little guys
People with fewer financial resources rely more on social networks and community support to navigate daily life, which builds higher emotional intelligence and social attentiveness.
Greater wealth creates a sense of self-sufficiency, which can disconnect individuals from the immediate needs or feelings of those around them.
This was most noticeable when I was collecting items for Haiti during the 2010 earthquake. One large box at Walmart, one large box at Kroger, one large box at Whole Foods. Each had clearly listed what items were being requested. Whole Foods had like less than a dozen items. Kroger had theirs about halfway filled. Walmart had so much overflow it filled the box plus 3 more carts they had saved in the employee break room.
To be fair if I'm giving to Haiti I'd rather do it from a cheap store. Like, better get a 20lbs bag marked "white rice: bulk" from walmart than a 3oz "Wild-Harvested Aged Organic Basmati" from whole foods, both costing the same price. The haitians will thank you.
Yeah a huge tour like this means the world to a small artist. That’s a tough decision for someone small time and it could potentially affect the rest of their career.
I have mad respect for an artist who would have benefited to an insane degree by staying silent, but chose to stand on the right side of this topic.
I never heard of Aaron Rowe prior to this whole incident, but now will make it a point to find his music and support him. Kudos to him for having morals and the spine to back them.
Because the number one fear of people with money and status is losing money and status. That's why many politicians start out as firebrands, but turn into ice cubes once elected. Kraft called his boy and told him that they would ruin him.
Artists are no different, once they hit that 100 million mark, once powerful people start inviting them to do private shows, their ethics disappear, and suddenly they see "both sides of the issue".
Ed Sheeran remains a bitch. He has enough money to cancel the shows and pay out his staff himself and he wouldnt notice a change in lifestyle whatsoever.
Instead, he cowers behind others and shifts the blame to promotors rather than admitting he won't stand up for what's right.
As deserving as Sheeran is of the contempt he's receiving, don't forget that this only happened because a cadre of Epstein-named billionaires forced it to, because they are financially and morally invested in Israel's genocide of Palestine. Robert Kraft just the name we know. Fuck Sheeran, but remember the Espstein billionaire class is behind this genocide.
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u/Narrow-Medium-9339 Sep 15 '26
Imagine: Macklemore starts a new tour, Aaron Rowe opens. Portion of ticket sales go to supporting children, the biggest victims in the wars.
(children italicized as Sheeran made a point of saying how many children come to his shows and need protected...)
https://giphy.com/gifs/hAcDHEhZHA2bu