The Failure of Billie Joe Armstrong’s Nepo Babies: When Fake Woke Goes Nuclear
The Failure of Billie Joe Armstrong’s Nepo Babies: When Fake Woke Goes Nuclear
In July 2020, SWMRS were “canceled” following allegations leveled by Lydia Night of The Regrettes against SWMRS drummer Joey Armstrong, and Night’s statement came amongst a wave of similar allegations against musicians affiliated with the now-defunct label Burger Records. For context, SWMRS drummer Joey Armstrong is the eldest son of…
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Thank you for this video. To add a couple of minor (no, no calm down Joey…) notes on that Network song – Carolina happened to be where Lydia's then-boyfriend was from. Who was famous for… a /Netflix/ show. The song also mentions a telecaster… which is what Lydia played usually. It's also very Billie that something like that might get quietly put out on a side project. The timing for it being written as something current to his life then also perfectly lines up.
Oh Swmrs. Mexico now? Time to bop them back into their hole again. Write to venues. Link this video. Make them aware.
commenting this a bit late bc im just getting around to this video, but oh my god thank you . i went through all this with you across a border and was 13 in 2016 just kind of waking up to how utterly entrenched misogyny was in the world, and the one-two punch of their allegations and brockhampton's killed parasociality and the idea of being saved for me forever lmfao. from my perspective you make the most interesting and important content on here rn; i found you from the panic video and its like you know the exact lore thats important to me. ive archived these vids on hard drives so i can show my children bc u lay everything out so astutely. anyway paragraph over, keep up the insane work
not related but your cat looks like shes never had a thought in her life. i love her
this videos so important to me thank you souryogurtgirl
Idk have the words but thanks for making this. The Cole email thing was spot on, such a weird fucking time
ive never been happier for not knowing a band before lol
Finally got around to watching all of this video and god
Being a huge fan of almost all the bands at the time they were exploding in popularity then to see the complete implosion of the scene
I loved swmrs and the regrettes the most but after the allegations came out I felt so hollow inside especially after seeing how swmrs responded to it
Thank you for the video 🫶
i’ve never heard of Destroy Boys but your anecdotes about them make me wanna check them out
i saw SWMRS open for All Time Low in 2017, and they did that whole punching people who grope women at shows thing. I remember when I heard what came out about them I was like "omg seriously?! the band that made a big deal about being feminists ON STAGE?!". It really made me upset because I really really loved Drive North and had a great time watching them perform. like good lord guys you had every possible advantage and then threw it all away. AND its so sad because THIS IS AN ISSUE IN THIS SCENE. I have grown up entrenched in this culture and have seen firsthand how men go to these shows to take advantage of young girls who love these bands. I've seen bands I've idolized treat women worse than the dirt on their shoes. Its just heartbreaking.
40:09
This characterization is spot on
I will wait to have more succinct thoughts until i have heard your essay but i must admit that i saw their upswing even earlier by virtue of being in the bay area, and so far, i and fascinated by your experience of their rise.
The more I read those zines and hear those speeches, the more transparent it becomes that none of their "feminism" was ever actually about… women. It was about nobody but themselves, and presenting themselves as brave, cool, strong, and trustworthy for girls. Woke baes. Consent is sexy. They're so brave for speaking out about this. They'll punch any abuser, and look really cool doing it, and still get to have their masculinity validated through violence. Their teenage girl fans will think they're so sexy for it.
If any of this was ever about uplifting women and queer people and standing up for gender equality, they would have hired women or mixed-gender bands to open their shows, adequately paid their women artists, raised funds, or collaborated with local political collectives at their shows. Like how the DIY punk scene does it.
But they're fundamentally incapable of a radical analysis of the system we live under, because they're millionaire nepo babies.
Really sorry for you guys. I always felt something was wrong with the Emily’s Army to SWMRS switch, and was really more of a FIDLAR fan. But I’ve never seen a more dedicated fanbase get let down like that.
there's a prominent brazilian feminist theorist called Valeska Zanello that i follow and one of the things she's been warning us about lately is mainly that men who profit off of feminism aren't really feminists. it's very important that we have men who are vocal about feminism and call out other men, but if their entire thing revolves around that, then it's an issue. would they still have that opinion if wasn't profitable? this is mostly a warning and a lesson to learn rather than blaming you for falling for it, fandom spaces do get wild, and the fact the band was purposefully manipulating their young audience and saying exactly what they wanted to hear is an aggravator of the issue at hand. i used to be a fan of green day but wasn't active at all in the fandom so i had no idea who those people were, i only sorta knew about the situation when the allegations agains joey came out but didn't really pay much attention. very diappointed in billie for writing that song, but i guess it makes sense why his son acts like that when his rich and famous father supposedly never believes his son could do anything wrong ever… this was a really great video, congratulations on dissecting this topic in such a detailed way! i'm sure it took a lot of work but the result is great even for someone who knew absolutely nothing
01:59:53 no but seriously iagine it: you're seeing swmrs on an uncool halloween concert. everyone is having a great time. swmrs seem a little excited. "we have a surprise for you guys" max says. all of a sudden they announce a second uncool halloween concert in LA…
01:12:44 as a waterparks fan who knows a little bit of drama but i'm not that deep in the fandom, i was NOT expecting them to show up in this video, but also it does makes a lot of sense they would be here
12:00 ouch. that hit an old wound in me 😬
1950's rock band The Doors
Rockabilly artists used to be cool
You actually don't know what you're talking about.
Modern Feminism is Toxic and so was SWMRS Fan base good riddance to garbage 🗑
Hello!!! This was a very well put together video essay. I was only a casual SWMRS listener back in the late 2010s, was a bigger Regrettes fan around their first album cycle, I casually listened to other burger scene stuff. When the accusations dropped it wasn’t really just SWMRS I was frustrated with but more how they fit into the bigger picture of that scene as a whole as well as their hypocrisy in contributing to it. I didn’t really keep up with the fandom or inner workings of SWMRS so all of this commentary was very insightful. I appreciated not seeing just the screenshots/footage but also your physical evidence (albums, merch, zines etc) and your personal anecdotes of when you observed these things that happened with the band. You painted the full picture, showing that through it all you were a fan and while you’re not proud of that anymore the evidence of this doesn’t have to be a skeleton in your closet. As shit as SWMRS are there were moments in your time as a fan that you still enjoyed. I can really relate to that with how I’ve felt about other bands I once called a favourite. All the complex feelings. Anyways, fuck those guys and may they continue to remain irrelevant. I hope Lydia has found some peace too.
this is such great research and well structured. it’s so funny, i was around 13/14 in 2016-2017. i listened to SWMRS but was in a totally different internet space and missed this entirely. it’s crazy how separated we are from artists today (which is an entirely different topic). im embarrassed that i just thought they were a sorta cool band i listened to every once in a while a few years ago. thank you for your work <3
as someone in an indie band this video just reinforces for me so hard that there needs to be boundaries between fans and the artists. as we get into an age where we expect more and more of every aspect of artists' life shown through social media, it's good to remember that the good ones always stay OUT of that shit. just look at MCR. yes their fan base is huge and very into their individual lives but the members don't feed into it/use it as a cash cow to milk teenage girls of the little resources (both financial and emotional) that they have.
thank you for the videos you make <3 they are super helpful in putting a name to a lot of the difficulties i've felt both as a fan and as a rock girlie in a male dominated scene. i can see the emotional labor you put into them and want you to know u are not alone. keep it up !!
so floored at how good the research and writing is for this video. i never fully got on the swmrs sound, but it makes me so sad to see what they could’ve been and what them and their fanbase eventually became. i’d love to see a vid elaborating more on burger records as a whole, i myself LOVED so many of the bands coming out at their peak and when a bunch of allegations started coming out, i vividly remember quite literally not being able to keep track of every scandal from every band
Great video I'm glad the algorithm fed me this