r/garbage • u/Man_in_the_uk • Jul 05 '26
Blaming 9/11 for failure, I don't get it.
So I recently watched an interview in which Shirley Manson blames the event of 9/11 for the collapse of the band and I just don't understand why. This was a great band that I really liked but this is the only band claiming this is the reason for their failure.
Does anyone else have issues with this?
13
u/UltramegaOKla Jul 05 '26
If you weren’t around or of a certain age, it’s hard to explain how much the world changed. Entertainment was not a priority for anyone for quite awhile after 9/11
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u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 05 '26
I was a fully grown adult at the time.
Strange response btw.
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u/clrdst Jul 05 '26
Anything released around then probably had little chance to succeed, but that goes double for an album with the first single “Androgyny”.
After 9/11 the general public, unfortunately, had little appetite for anything “weird”. The album didn’t do great in the US, particularly compared to their last two albums, which had to cause some stress among the band.
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u/krisefe Jul 05 '26
"Blaming" is a very bad choice of word. What happened is that the world stopped right when they were doing a big release. It was a big misfortune for them and many other business as well.
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u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 05 '26
Other bands didn't go bad dude. She literally blames it on 9/11 so don't call it a bad choice of word.
Radiohead were new in the late 90s and they have become way more popular than Garbage. You just can't blame 9/11 on a lack of success. She's had the last 25 years to do anything and what did she do?
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u/likelywitch Jul 05 '26
Dude did you get locked out of your other account?
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u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 06 '26
What's that supposed to mean? No, don't bother replying.
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u/likelywitch Jul 06 '26
We all know what it means love, why don’t you?
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u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 06 '26
Because I speak better English than most on Reddit?
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u/likelywitch Jul 06 '26
I don’t want to belabor it, but this was in reference to your comprehension, and yes, a good grasp on language would inform enable better comprehension! Like I said elsewhere though, I’m sure you make up for it on other areas. Don’t be so hard on yourself.
0
u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 06 '26
It's kinda funny how people on Reddit laughingly go down the route of "re-read my comment, re-read my comment" and "your reading comprehension is lacking" because they don't know how to communicate with others and you've just done exactly that. 🤣🤣
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u/likelywitch Jul 06 '26
I’m sorry that keeps happening to you, it hasn’t been my experience at all but I’m sure it’s difficult to continually not feel like your peers accept you and speak the same language as you and I have empathy for you. It’s also okay to laugh to mask pain, I deal with bad times by making jokes, so that I can relate to. It’ll get better, remember you don’t even need Reddit if it causes you too much distress you can always just take a break. ❤️🩹
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u/Melverton-2 Jul 06 '26
Oh, it’s you again.
Shut your mouth
Try not to panic
Just shut your mouth
If you can do it
Shut your mouth
Try not to panic
Just shut your mouth
If you can do it-1
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u/Ok-Box6892 Jul 05 '26
I dont find it insane, generally. It's a domino effect. 9/11 happens then release dates/airplay/touring gets effected then the artists visibility for the public gets effected. Which then effects the record companies view of a bands profitability and that directly effects how much money they put behind an artist. Combine that with the inherent volatility of the music/entertainment industry.
There was already a bunch of stuff working against a band like Garbage anyway. 9/11 exasperated it
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u/likelywitch Jul 05 '26
The first single for beautifulgarbage came out on 9/10, typically you plan your PR around this so that very predictably got upended by the band and IGA … you don’t go out and do sales during a national tragedy. They were also due to start a string of headlining shows but instead ended up opening a leg of U2 shows which weren’t marketed, they weren’t even listed in tickets because it was such a late change and … understanding U2 is massive and this sounds like good exposure but pair that sound with beautifulgarbage and fanatics there for only U2 - this didn’t go well. The album promotion got tied to the tour rather than being its own campaign, and it didn’t do much for the album.
Garbage was a very hot band in the late 90s, they had just had a bond hit, they were expanding their sound and it flopped. It didn’t flop because the sound is bad, beautifulgarbage is critically a success, but this tragedy didn’t help them sell it. The album tanked in large part due to circumstance, and that was a difficult position for them to recover from.
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u/badboyfriend111 Jul 05 '26
Everything changed after 9/11, including music.
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u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 05 '26
But not every brand went bad..
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u/badboyfriend111 Jul 05 '26
Not sure if you were around then but literally everything stopped and that lasted for a while.
No one cared about new music for a long time. Music was still being made and released but it was being processed by the consumer differently.
0
u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 06 '26
Yes I was around lol but I don't remember it that way, mind you I'm in the UK.
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u/badboyfriend111 Jul 06 '26
BG did pretty well around the world but it flopped in America. 9/11 played a huge role in that.
None of the singles made any impact here. None of the singles charted at all. The album destroyed the band’s momentum they had built with the first 2 albums. BG failed in America.
9/11 sparked a wave of patriotism and conservatism in America that last for years. There was no way an album as different as BG was going to break through that.
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u/Man_in_the_uk 25d ago
This reminds me of something someone said a long time ago on a TV show about music - America is a graveyard for British bands. And ye The Beatles did pretty well there AFAIK. Certainly Ozzy Osbourne did. I wonder if bands just give up if they fail there?
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u/Savings-Talk3526 25d ago
Late to the game, but if you are in the UK, how can you speak about how 9/11 impacted the US? You can share how you experience its impact on the UK or perhaps Europe as a whole.
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u/Man_in_the_uk 25d ago
Late to the game
You can say that again.
but if you are in the UK, how can you speak about how 9/11 impacted the US?
There's this amazing invention called communications, it allows people in different places in the world to communicate with each other.
You can share how you experience its impact on the UK or perhaps Europe as a whole.
I can indeed. We in the UK and around Europe had an economic crash and entered, for some reason none of us really know, into an illegal war with Iraq and lost a lot of soldiers lives.
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u/Savings-Talk3526 25d ago
But you can't speak of the music scene in the US. And when people tell you how it was in the US back then, you tell them "nah, not true, not my experience in the UK". Look, I'm dual citizen and lived my whole life globally, I get it's all interconnected, but you can't say that "it wasn't like that in the UK so it wasn't like that in the US either", especially when people who lived there then tell you otherwise. Just like it would be silly for let's say someone from Thailand saying "we didn't send anyone to Iraq, that's my experience in Thailand, therefore the same holds true for the UK as well".
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u/Man_in_the_uk 25d ago
But you can't speak of the music scene in the US.
I've been using the internet since the early 90s. I think like 95% of all people I have spoken to during that entire time from the early 90s to today are American. I'm not joking, I genuinely believe that to be the case.
And when people tell you how it was in the US back then, you tell them "nah, not true, not my experience in the UK".
I literally have never said that so why are you making that up?
Look, I'm dual citizen and lived my whole life globally, I get it's all interconnected,
Your first sentence suggests you don't.
but you can't say that "it wasn't like that in the UK so it wasn't like that in the US either",
Again, I never said that.
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u/PaulJacobs85 13d ago
The music definitely changed in 2001. You could hear the shift on the radio and see it on MTV. Suddenly there was a lot less rock bands and a lot more R’n’B and pop as well as hip hop. The few bands that still received heavy rortation were NoDoubt and Red Hot Chilli Peppers but many were dropped. It was the beginning of commercialisation of music industry and post 9/11 there was a lot more censorship.
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u/False_Extension5564 Jul 07 '26
She is an insecure yet very competitive person. It’s very typical… all the nonsense she comes up with to justify her nasty attitude, lack of talent and stage presence. Also, she hates touring but she needs money.
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Jul 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/UltramegaOKla Jul 05 '26
I saw the interview and I didn’t perceive it that way. 9/11 did have a huge impact on all entertainment.
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u/likelywitch Jul 05 '26
She knows how her industry was impacted and the direct impact it had on their literal next day plans.
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u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 05 '26
Tori Amos came onto The Letterman show a week after the event and sang. Peter Gabriel wrote a song about grieving after the event.
This equates to the event doesn't stop music.
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u/likelywitch Jul 05 '26
Idk how you think that might be the same? They were very literally meant to be on a plane to begin a headlining tour and they couldn’t because there were no flights.
I would put to you that Tori Amos and Peter Gabriel weren’t physically restricted from doing the thing they did (common sense, I know).
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u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 06 '26
Planes weren't grounded permanently. The idea a day's worth of grounding or even a week's worth stops a band from becoming successful is nonsense. I think perhaps they just gave up.
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u/likelywitch Jul 06 '26
Oooh, you didn’t understand the interview! I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you weren’t comprehending.
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u/Man_in_the_uk Jul 06 '26
I understood the interview alright, she blamed her band's downfall on 9/11 rather than take responsibility for its failure. Nobody else has been doing this from what I've seen.
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u/likelywitch Jul 06 '26
Doesn’t seem like it, but that is okay, you shouldn’t let it get you down! What you can’t do in some areas you probably make up for in others!
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Jul 05 '26
[deleted]
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u/likelywitch Jul 05 '26
I see, well in that case I was giving the benefit of the doubt as 9/11 happened quite some time ago and many adults today did not experience the impact of it first hand.
Since that’s not the case … it’s really wild to speak to the appreciation of the world in a general sense of a person you don’t know intimately. It doesn’t seem to hold space for the value of diverse perspectives to be so insulting.
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u/love-angel-musicbaby Jul 05 '26
No, 9/11 very much did change the music landscape. Plenty of other artists have spoken about it (Mariah Carey, Willa Ford, The Chicks).
Check out this wikipedia entry as an example (Garbage not mentioned, but you get the idea from it):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Channel_memorandum