Earlier quoted context omitted.
These parties are absolutely in tech...
Go on... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
551–560 of 643 posts
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#552Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of serious, dedicated folks in the upper ranks of most businesses... and then there are other types of folks. Ex-CEO of Broadcom is one example. I worked at a startup where the well-connected CTO invited me to come to Tijuana with him and the secretary for a night of indiscretions. I've found having long hair and looking like a partier gets people to open up to you and you find out s…
Of course individual cases happen - I know of a few. I was more thinking about the way corporate parties are depicted in media (Hollywood movies, mostly). I am French and worked for French, German and US companies (tech) and I never witnessed what was discussed above. Flights in corporate jets were convenient and everyone was either chatting, or reading, or working. Multiple week travels in great hotels were pleases…
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#553Earlier quoted context omitted.
But it's interesting. Do we like artists due to marketing only ? Or seducing feature over artistic quality. A small but gifted artist on Spotify could, in theory (in theory), generate word of mouth at quickly get known. Sometimes I believe that labels were filters for that. They could see who was just very good and who had some 'it factor'.
In German we distinguish between 'Interpret' (the one interpreting or performing an art) and the 'Künstler' (artist). I think this explains it very well: Most of the popular 'Interpreten' are not famous for their exquisite music, but for who they are, as a brand, and how they perform in public and on stage. The movie Yesterday is such a farce because it suggest The Beatles songs are super successful no matter who per…
> Künstler
reminds me of Gunnm / Battle Alita Angel, where the author coined the term panzerkunst as a martial art name.. first time I read about the real life term.
slight anecdote: some people really do have a glow that we can feel but not really explain, something electric and immediate, that will either catch an audience or even stop the air in the room. I don't go to concert often but the few time it happened I was quite shocked. You can put all the best vocal or musical technicians next to them and they would not be able to create that.
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#554Earlier quoted context omitted.
'Some factor' was usually the previous generations' equivalent of virality - typically a blend of sexual charisma, personal charisma, theatricality, entertainment value, and shock value. Without that packaging music is a very tough sell. Being competent and creative on its own isn't enough. I can't think of anyone who has made it on musicality alone without at least some of the above OR enthusiastic and regular promo…
I think movie/game composers might fit this criteria, unless you count the movies/games themselves as gatekeepers
Actually interesting, I think we all remember some video game scores deeply even though they were never sold to us, never relied on naming or branding .. it was just 'that music that captured my brain for hours so well'
Some people today do acapella renditions for SNES F-Zero soundtrack.. that says something :)
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#555Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually I'd bet that neurologically sex is far from power games, but along each growth the system gets used for personal benefits rather than union. Might be a cultural lens too.
Actually, in a human hierarchical society, power is all about sex.
Explain that to me, is that a self gene natural ladder ?
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#556A article with no new content about celebrities debauchery in the 80/90's?
Is this vanity fair or HN?
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#557It depends on the company. I worked at a large international bank where we had a couple dozen project managers that would travel abroad for 2-6 weeks at a time. We had server set up in a storage closet with a huge porn cache. When the project managers came back to the US we would copy all the porn they had collected to the server, replace the porn on their laptops with new porn from the cache, then send them back abr…
Lost in this comment is how brutally inappropriate that Tumblr office would have been to work in - and beyond illegal in so many ways but it's just all cool because it's LGBTQ? I thought they were suppose to be 'just like us' and that 'transitioning pantihose urine fetish' would a gross, charicatured misrepresentation? YouPorn you'll find is completely not like that, super professional to the point wherein the 'conte…
I just ignored most of it - the only time I was really insulted was when I found out the real reason the office manager went around lighting candles everywhere was that she thought the engineers smelled bad. I overheard her taking to the receptionist while I was downstairs foraging for a favorite snack one day. They didn’t realize I was there, but not cool just the same.
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#558It depends on the company. I worked at a large international bank where we had a couple dozen project managers that would travel abroad for 2-6 weeks at a time. We had server set up in a storage closet with a huge porn cache. When the project managers came back to the US we would copy all the porn they had collected to the server, replace the porn on their laptops with new porn from the cache, then send them back abr…
>Tumblr had a lot of LGBTQ "diversity hires"
Out of curiosity, what is your basis for thinking that they were hired only for being LGBTQ? As a gay man I wonder how I can avoid my colleagues thinking this. (It sounds like it's not just the gay folks who were engaged in inappropriately sexual behavior, so it can't be that.)
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#559Earlier quoted context omitted.
I worked in tech companies, this is why I was mentioning how this is different between companies and organizations.
I believe the reason you don't see this kind of parties in tech is because the industry is filled with people who are introverts, not specially groomed/attractive and/or not very good reading social cues.
No, I don't think so. That's a 1980s era explanation. There are people who aren't especially attractive in all industries. Even in Hollywood, look at what Weinstein got up to, and he isn't exactly Adonis reborn.
I think the explanation is simpler: music and acting jobs are easy. Lots of people can sing, dance, semi-convincingly repeat lines written for them by other people, or even write scripts. It's just not a very skilled set of jobs. It doesn't take 5 years of study to become a great actor, people just luck into it all the time. Anywhere you get the intersection of a lot of money and easy jobs, you get jobs being parcelled out according to criteria like looks, knowing the right people, having the right parents, having the right party attitudes, or how easily they get into bed. After all, what other criteria are they going to use to differentiate between the masses of hopefuls applying for their chance at fame and fortune.
In contrast, tech is hard. It takes years of study to even get in on the bottom rung. Then it takes many more years of obsessive-level study and work to climb to the top. The difference in skill between a newbie and a master is enormous. If you're interviewing for a master software developer, and say "hey, you party much?" and they reply with something lame and boring like "no, I prefer to spend time with my wife and kids" then in a well functioning organisation they will still get the job. In quite a few other industries, if the interviewer is young that reply could easily cause you to be ranked lower than some other candidate who said "I'm always up for a good time!"
Re: 'Sexual favours were the norm in music industry'
#560Earlier quoted context omitted.
sounds like poor management. Why do you think the same individuals overseeing the private utilities would do a better job of managing public utilities? Public utilities rot on the vine and get bailed out as well.
The market rewarded short term thinking that resulted in lower prices at the expense of much more expensive repairs later. Companies that were properly managed were outcompeted and got bought out by the short term thinking competitor.
Doesn't politics favor short term thinking as well?