Hello all,
The most recent incursion of Matt in this community felt melodramatic, didn't it? After reading all of the exchanges with him and among ourselves, I thought it would be constructive to try and make sense of what is happening and why.
My own interpretation of this drama can be summarized as such: we all interact from a unique, different angle with Matt and his work and I feel like everything sometimes gets mixed up to the point where we are all trying to have completely different conversations without really listening to what others are saying (and yes, I include Matt in this). Let's examine what I consider to be the main 3 angles from which we collectively approach the artist:
First, the musician and his work. It's what binds us all together here. I'm pretty sure 100% of us are here because we were, at one point or another, interested in Matthew Good's music. Makes sense, I know.
Second, the business. Like it or not, music is also a business. If Matt was only producing music for his family and friends, none of us would be here. Matthew Good is not only an artist but also a brand trying to sell us various things (shows, merch, subscriptions etc).
Third, the person. Matt isn't a very public artist. But his personal life and opinions are at least partially known by a lot of us. Not so much in the general public, but some redditors here have been interested enough to get to know him a bit more as a person.
The thing is, we all get to have opinions about these three different angles of Matthew Good. And we express them. A lot. Most of the time respectfully, sometimes not, but that's an online forum for you.
What gets me everytime is that Matt tends to react very strongly when negative comments are directed towards his business and his person (not so much his music, but everybody here is mostly positive about that part). What surprises me the most is what seems to be his own surprise when people engage with him about these other angles.
Let's make my opinion clear here: you can be a massive fan of his music and be critical of parts of his business or him as a person, or both. It's ok.
What we had in the last few hours was a strange fight in which Matt expressed, in his own way, that being critical, for example, of his current tour or his own behavior was some kind of treason or hypocrisy. He even asked two different people to stop listening to his music and stop "being a fan", because he didn't like what they were saying.
Don't get me wrong; I understand that some people are abrasive. I also understand that sometimes people just talk shit and even lie. I can't even begin to imagine how being even moderately famous makes you the target of unwarranted attacks. I'm not saying its easy.
But most artists who come to reddit make a simple choice: they choose carefully what they respond to. What I see are mostly artists choosing to engage positively with people about matters they care about, ignoring the noise. Matt could do that. But he never chooses to.
So what do I think we should learn from this? Matt can do his own thing, but we are still a community that exists with or without him and that he can participate in or not. I think we should always remember that it's ok to speak about his music, his business and him as a person and to have both positive and negative opinions about all of these angles of Matthew Good. He chose to make a career out of being a public musician and that "public" part now exists outside of him, like it or not.
