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Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

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21–30 of 39 posts

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#21
post #4

This is the network he was plugging: http://modlife.com/ There are a lot of other sites in this space and I can't say this one stands out as being particularly impressive.

Amazing -- you have to create an account to read a blog post.

It's like the people who made this had never used the internet.

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#22
post #5

The way I see it, this is just an entrepreneur being very passionate about his product, and some too-cool-for-school kids make jokes about it. I submitted the (full) source article to HN a couple of hours ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1034444

The journo's point wasn't about the pitch, the site itself or a "too cool for school" reaction from VW, it's about the band staring their own future in the face.

Blink-182 was a massively (far more so than VW) successful act, yet one of the members of the band is now hawking a web site instead of making music. It's an anecdote about the state of the industry and how that affects those currently caught in the machine.

[I can't imagine why he would even pitch to the artists in the first place; for an act of that size, that's the management, label and booking agent's territory.]

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#23
All I can say is good on him for having a go, no matter how awkward it seemed.

Being successful means being willing to look like a weirdo from time to time. I'm not seeing the smarmy reporter types achieving too much beyond saying nasty things about someone who's actually trying.

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#24
post #22
post #5

The way I see it, this is just an entrepreneur being very passionate about his product, and some too-cool-for-school kids make jokes about it. I submitted the (full) source article to HN a couple of hours ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1034444

The journo's point wasn't about the pitch, the site itself or a "too cool for school" reaction from VW, it's about the band staring their own future in the face. Blink-182 was a massively (far more so than VW) successful act, yet one of the members of the band is now hawking a web site instead of making music. It's an anecdote about the state of the industry and how that affects those currently caught in the machine.…

You nailed it.

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#25
post #22
post #5

The way I see it, this is just an entrepreneur being very passionate about his product, and some too-cool-for-school kids make jokes about it. I submitted the (full) source article to HN a couple of hours ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1034444

The journo's point wasn't about the pitch, the site itself or a "too cool for school" reaction from VW, it's about the band staring their own future in the face. Blink-182 was a massively (far more so than VW) successful act, yet one of the members of the band is now hawking a web site instead of making music. It's an anecdote about the state of the industry and how that affects those currently caught in the machine.…

I think 'successful act' should be changed to 'profitable act'.

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#26
post #5

The way I see it, this is just an entrepreneur being very passionate about his product, and some too-cool-for-school kids make jokes about it. I submitted the (full) source article to HN a couple of hours ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1034444

I've been pretty good friends with one of the band members of VW since college, and I don't think the comments stem from a "too-cool-for-school" mindset.

I remember one of my nerd friends and I talked about our approach for a poker bot to this member of VW, and he was extremely interested in the idea, even though he didn't have a technical background.

The thing that really bothers him, though, is "inauthenticity", and having a mainstream music band member play a web entrepreneur would probably elicit jeers.

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#27
post #5

The way I see it, this is just an entrepreneur being very passionate about his product, and some too-cool-for-school kids make jokes about it. I submitted the (full) source article to HN a couple of hours ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1034444

I've been pretty good friends with one of the band members of VW since college, and I don't think the comments stem from a "too-cool-for-school" mindset. I remember one of my nerd friends and I talked about our approach for a poker bot to this member of VW, and he was extremely interested in the idea, even though he didn't have a technical background. The thing that really bothers him, though, is "inauthenticity", an…

Does he consider Blink 182 to be more "mainstream" than Vampire Weekend?

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#28
post #17
post #5

The way I see it, this is just an entrepreneur being very passionate about his product, and some too-cool-for-school kids make jokes about it. I submitted the (full) source article to HN a couple of hours ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1034444

Perhaps, but the social dynamics are made extra interesting by the fact that the "passionate entrepreneur" is the too-cool-for-school kid of a dozen years ago, and he's having trouble coping with it. I'm not sure whether it's pathos or schadenfreude, but there's something fascinating about the weird approval-seeking behaviour exhibited by this former cool kid towards the new cool kids, especially given the enormous s…

Not sure when Blink-182 was ever too cool for anything. If you listen to their concert record, you'll see that they did not take themselves very seriously.

Everyone seeks approval. I don't understand what slight Blink-182 did to you or the other people on this board that you would feel schadenfreude towards them -- normally such is reserved for people who have done you ill.

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#29
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been pretty good friends with one of the band members of VW since college, and I don't think the comments stem from a "too-cool-for-school" mindset. I remember one of my nerd friends and I talked about our approach for a poker bot to this member of VW, and he was extremely interested in the idea, even though he didn't have a technical background. The thing that really bothers him, though, is "inauthenticity", an…

Does he consider Blink 182 to be more "mainstream" than Vampire Weekend?

Hrm... one writes songs about handjobs, the other, the Oxford comma.

Vampire Weekend is definitely more current, I'll give em that.

Re: Blink-182's Tom DeLonge tries to sell Vampire Weekend a social network

#30
I had a band in the 80's. Never famous except locally. We played the same clubs as They Might Be Giants.

In the 90's I had a startup that got some buzz. TMBG came and pitched us for tour support. There was lots of "remember the good old times?" which frankly was bs, we had some common fans but never really hung out or anything.

Bands are weird.

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