Adele, "Are you f#ckin stupid"?

[FallandPray]

Adele had some choice words for an audience member at her Las Vegas residency who hurled an anti-LGBTQ+ remark.

The singer, performing at the "Weekends with Adele" show on June 1, was caught on video reprimanding the heckler who reportedly yelled out "Pride sucks," apparently referring to LGBTQ+ Pride Month which is in June. The video, which was shared on several social media accounts, quickly went viral.

Adele, situated at the piano, addressed the fan on her microphone. "Did you come to my f****** show and just say that Pride sucks? Are you f******* stupid?

 

[MrDawn]

While I'm glad that she is a supporter, unfortunately she misheard the fan. They said work sucks, not pride sucks.

Another video, posted on TikTok, seems to show the audience member yelling “work sucks,” not “Pride sucks” — a direct response to Adele’s monologue on her exhausting work schedule. It appears that the singer misheard them. Other concert attendees corroborated “work” on social media.

'Are you f—king stupid?': Adele defends Pride before Vegas crowd

Adele's swift and impassioned response drew praise from an LGBTQ advocacy group and fans on social media. But it may have been a misunderstanding.

www.sfgate.com

 

[MamaFrankie]

Exhausting work schedule, Adele? Don't make me laugh! Celebrity is easy money.

 

[MrDawn]

Exhausting work schedule, Adele? Don't make me laugh! Celebrity is easy money.

I disagree. Those songs are not easy to sing or produce. Neither is traveling all around the country and setting up concerts and negotiating deals for albums or finding a company that won't rip you off over a hidden clause in the contract. Bands and singers have a chaotic work schedule.

 

[Dead2009]

I disagree. Those songs are not easy to sing or produce. Neither is traveling all around the country and setting up concerts and negotiating deals for albums or finding a company that won't rip you off over a hidden clause in the contract. Bands and singers have a chaotic work schedule.

Adele does about 5% of what you just mentioned, which is singing and traveling lol. She has an agent or a manager that takes care of the other logistics like setting up the tour dates and album planning and someone to produce her music, unless she's an indy artist, which I dont think she is.

Outside of that and appearances she may have to make, she has an incredibly easy job.

 

[MrDawn]

She has an agent or a manager that takes care of the other logistics like setting up the tour dates and album planning and someone to produce her music, unless she's an indy artist, which I dont think she is.

Managers and those services come at a huge cost. I'm sure you heard about how TLC went bankrupt?

Firstly, Arista Records, LaFace Records, and Pebbitone recouped their investment for recording costs, manufacturing and distribution, which is a pretty standard practice in the music industry – the label will foot the upfront bill for getting the album off the ground, and take it out of the artist’s cut of the sales later on down the track.

This becomes troublesome if you lash out and mismanage funds – which TLC definitely alleged.

Both Pebble’s production company Pebbitone and LaFace Records then went on to charge for a host of other expenses, including airline travel, hotels, promotion, those neon-shiny definitively-’90s music videos, food, clothing, and more.

According to the members of TLC, the more successful CrazySexyCool became, the more they were in debt. It didn’t help that Watkins also required money for serious medical attention and Lopes had insurance payments to make after an arson incident (long story).

After these costs, managers, lawyers, producers, and taxes had to be paid, leaving each member of the group with less than $50,000 a year for their efforts – which isn’t great, considering they’d had one of the most successful multi-million-selling albums of all time.

In the end, TLC’s 1991 contract with LaFace saw the trio receiving 56 cents per album sold, and even less for each single – which they then had to split three ways.

The dark tale of TLC going bankrupt in the '90s

According to the members of TLC, as their success mounted, so did their debt. With four career Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards and five Soul Train Music Awards, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and the late, great Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes are legends in their field...

beat.com.au

 

[Dead2009]

Well that article says the record labels were mismanaging their funds...not every label or manager does that. Even when TLC were at the height of their popularity though, I doubt they arranged everything themselves.

 

[MrDawn]

Well that article says the record labels were mismanaging their funds...

Sony has been known to be very bad about this, especially when they signed on with Spotify. Spotify paid 70% of the revenue that it made off of those songs to Sony alone. The artists on the other hand, weren't making very much. When an artist makes an album, they sell the copyright to that company and they collect a fee on it. The artists no longer own that album. Sony owns it. If the artist tries to back out on a contract, Sony sues them. This has resulted in numerous lawsuits between Sony and several artists. The issue comes down to the artist not getting near the amount of money that they should be getting.

In 2019, a group of musicians—led by David Johansen of New York Dolls, John Lyon, and Paul Collins—filed a class-action lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment, seeking control of their master recordings. The parties have now reached a settlement agreement, court documents obtained by Pitchfork show.

Sony Music Settles Years-Long Class-Action Lawsuit With New York Dolls’ David Johansen and More

Johansen, John Lyon, and Paul Collins alleged that the label was engaging in copyright infringement by not granting them ownership of their master recordings

pitchfork.com

 

[Dead2009]

To be fair, everyone shits on Spotify in general for not paying artists enough. Sadly the days of going to a Best Buy and buying CDs for 13 bucks is long gone.

 

[MamaFrankie]

Touring isn't mandatory. The Pet Shop Boys never tour and Kate Bush tours only occasionally. Had I been allowed to pursue my dream of being in music, I wouldn't have toured either.

 

[Ashley]

I disagree. Those songs are not easy to sing or produce. Neither is traveling all around the country and setting up concerts and negotiating deals for albums or finding a company that won't rip you off over a hidden clause in the contract. Bands and singers have a chaotic work schedule.

Not to mention looking out for severe/dangerous weather forecast in practically all locations. Half the time what they say will happen isn't even accurate even if the chance of it happening is really high.

 

[Mendalla]

Touring isn't mandatory.

Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish announced before the end of their last tour in 2023 that they were going off the road indefinitely. That's even with a new album due this September. Their last album came out just as COVID hit in 2020 so they did not tour for it until 2022 (though did get in a virtual gig and couple small concerts in 2021) and still got platinum in their home country by the time the tour started, with good sales elsewhere where they are strong. And I think there are other artists having the same realization. Apparently, more and more venues are trying to take a big cut of merch (which used to be a cash cow for the artists and their management), costs of touring have skyrocketed, and it can be a tough slog even for a big band like Nightwish (their lead singer went through breast cancer surgery and a pregnancy on the last tour). So, yeah, outside of mega-tours like Swift and Beyonce, expect to see more artists doing residencies, using social media to promote albums rather than live appearances, and generally scaling back touring.

Which, I think, is not great for fans. For instance, Nightwish, and lead singer Floor Jansen in her solo and side projects, are at their best in front of an audience. Floor herself has made it abundantly clear that she loves being on stage (she will be doing solo gigs during the band's break) and missed it badly during the pandemic. But if touring costs more in time, money, and energy than artists get back, they aren't going to do it or at least use more discretion in how much they do it.

 

[MamaFrankie]

The Pet Shop Boys never toured though and Kate Bush toured very rarely yet their record sales didn't suffer.

 

[Dead2009]

Not to mention looking out for severe/dangerous weather forecast in practically all locations. Half the time what they say will happen isn't even accurate even if the chance of it happening is really high.

That's more of a venue thing, they're the ones in charge of whether or not something should be shut down or cancelled.

 

[Dead2009]

The Pet Shop Boys never toured though and Kate Bush toured very rarely yet their record sales didn't suffer.

Not everyone are the Pet Shop Boys and Kate Bush, though

 

[Mendalla]

The Pet Shop Boys never toured though and Kate Bush toured very rarely yet their record sales didn't suffer.

Knew about Kate (I'm a big fan, though her long droughts between albums have kind led to my love of her fading a bit). She did do some live work early in her career but, yeah, she seemed to decide quite early that touring wasn't for her and just did the odd live appearance at things like the Secret Policeman's Ball concerts. And, of course, that multinight stint at O2 a decade or so ago. It's kind of too bad because I remember Live from the Hammersmith Odeon being a pretty good concert video but I wasn't complaining. She was not that big here outside of a couple hit singles so unlikely I would have had a chance to see her anyhow.

Did not know the Pet Shop Boys didn't tour.

However, they are kind of exceptional. The conventional wisdom is that touring sells records and also provides another revenue stream for the artist.

 

[MamaFrankie]

True but were I a recording artist, I wouldn't tour either due to social phobia issues.