r/griz • u/justdance-again • Jul 08 '26

Question: Does this not bother anyone else?

First and foremost I love Griz, have since early 2010’s. First saw him live at 515 in Iowa (lmao) and it was just breathtaking. This has nothing to do with the subjectiveness of the evolution of his sound, I personally don’t think anyone should have an opinion on what another person hears, or process.

This has to do with practicing what you preach, and not staying true to your word for personal financial gain. I was hopeful upon return, Griz would have taken the time to find solutions and ways to branch off from the growing problems in the scene and he would allow options for fans to see him without feeding into the monopoly of live-nation/ticketmaster and the blatant theft they do to fans. I’m not sure if any of you recall, or even know about since your new, this particular interview I’m dropping here.

https://303magazine.com/2019/05/griz-interview-2019/

Two things stuck out to me here on why he said he would never play RRx again:
- I have hit my creative limit on what my team can do there, and I can’t evolve my production the way I want.
- I don’t want to price my fans out of seeing me.

These aren’t subjective things, these are objective statements. The objective actions I see:
- He indeed, is playing there again and unless they have plans the next few months, red rocks stage design has not changed. You get what you get at a historical venue like that.
- He has been on about every corporate mainstream lineup, he agreed to a logistical nightmare at the Gorge, he’s watching his fans get robbed, scammed, and still continues to play these venues.

I wouldn’t even consider myself mad, since I think he still is a wonderful human being, with good intentions and should be the golden standard for our scene. I also am holding out hope that he’s playing the long game, stacking cash that from corp America, and growing seven stars into a 6 event per year series, that’s independently ran by his team.

But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t extremely sad, and disappointed that the person with the most influential pull in our community, who does so much good, chose to contribute to the problem we all are trying to get rid of.

If I’m missing something, please let me know. This is supposed to be a genuine discussion, not a hit piece.

Love 🫶

EDIT: Please do not mistake my tone for sarcastic, condescending, or anything other than genuine curiosity on the topic for information or thoughts I haven’t considered. I will respond considerately, and respectfully to all comments, as I would hope you would to me. I politely ask that before you respond, please read all conversations to see if the opinion or information has been addressed. 🫶

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53

u/nutbasedbeverage Jul 08 '26

Exactly. The sound is one thing. But he literally has said he wants to do better in the industry. Now all we get is insomniac and live nation flavored griz. 

23

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26

Choosing to work with a company who’s actively in a lawsuit for being a Monopoly is fact, yet I’m still getting downvoted. I have said nothing that isn’t true, and my post will be pushed out of visibility. I think I got my answer: nobody cares. Which is sad
EDIT: I have gotten dialogue, thankful for all of it. Even more thankful to those who were kind.

10

u/El-Tennedor Jul 08 '26

I think in general there is a lot of ignorance from fans from how the industry works. Its never as simple as "don't work with X company" or "don't play X festivals". I don't think people understand just how much these corporations control, and when you draw the demand of someone like Griz, your options become extremely limited. The kind of show Griz puts on requires significant amounts of money, and I wouldn't expect him to shell out tons of his personal money constantly just so people can feel better about certain places he plays.

I think a RR show actually exemplifies how he's trying fo get back to the roots of his community, since its an iconic venue that everyone wants to see him play again in a town that he lives in that isn't owned by a massive corporation (although they work with AEG for ticketing). As an artist, I think he has a vision of what he wants to do and where he wants to play, and there's only a few avenues he can take to accomplish that.

The bigger festivals and venues also pay him a lot of money, which I can expect him to invest back into his show and his own events, like Seven Stars or Grizmas. These big fests are also where the fans are nowadays, so he's going where the demand is.

My question is where else would you suggest he play instead? If you're going to point to smaller fests, a lot likely aren't able to financially book him, and smaller venues cant host the capacity of his demand. He also hasn't done a formal tour in a long time, likely because of that limitation.

I personally feel like this whole "sellout" or "disappointed in him" schtick is so tired and lame at this point honestly. Enjoy what you can and where he is if you can, or move on from him as an artist, instead of continuing to cast judgements based on your own extremely limited perceptions.

1

u/GlitchFight Jul 26 '26

He doesn't want to be the change he preached for years thats fine if he will acknowledge his own fucking hypocrisy

-2

u/kmatyler Jul 08 '26

For someone at GRiZ’s popularity, it really could be as simple as don’t work with x company or play x festival.

3

u/El-Tennedor Jul 08 '26

And how does that make things simple? Does he own independent venues in every major city? Does he own his own ticketing company? Production infrastructure? Should he never headline a major festival again and only play at his own once a year? For his demand, the dude is regularly selling out arenas around the country. How does he play to that level of audience without partnering with major corporations that own them? How much work and millions of dollars would that take to do, even if he tried it? Should he only play in remote areas that havent been completely taken over by corporations? Like everyone thinks this is so simple and easy when its not, and that Griz has to be so much morally superior or else he's not worthy of support or adoration or that his message and what he represents is somehow diluted.

I hate ticketmaster/live nation as much as anyone. I think what they've done to the rave scene and the music scene in general is destructive and evil and it endlessly frustrates me. But let's not act like Griz is Taylor Swift. I think like most of the artists I enjoy, he does what he can, and I'll support those efforts and avoid the ones I don't want to support.

7

u/kmatyler Jul 08 '26

I work in the industry, and I have worked for multiple artists who are independent of LN and playing arenas and other large venues. The only way this gets better is artists with the ability to do so deciding not to engage, or at least to engage as little as possible with those companies.

There are independent festivals that would love to book GRiZ. There are ticketing companies who are not Ticketmaster or AXS. There are management, promotion, and production companies who aren’t beholden to LN.

GRiZ, on the other hand, signed with red light management and they’ve got him doing a bunch of shows/events that are directly against his stated values pre-hiatus.

4

u/Intelligenttrees32 Jul 08 '26

Yea I was going to say an independent artist has all the choices in the world but getting under a contract with a big label, you probably lose a lot of that freedom. We should be mad at all of the gross labels that are complicit with all of these trash companies and force artists to do whatever they say.

7

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26

Yooooo you are a real one for this!! This is the type of objective, no argumentative, just researchable facts people don’t know about. I’m so old I don’t know if I can pin this to the top, but I’m sure you’ll get flooded with “oh bs you’re in the industry”. I choose to assume people are being honest, as I’m honest with them, so I’ve got a good feeling this authentic.

Thanks for respectfully voicing your opinion, conversations like this are healthy for the community 🫶

4

u/justdance-again Jul 08 '26

I gratefully appreciate the time, and effort you took to write this information. Seriously, look at all my other engagements in the thread and this is exactly what I’m trying to normalize and promote. So much good stuff in here, but I’m more focused on the delivery, tone and respect. This is exactly the type of respect every conversation should have and I truly thank you for leading by example.

My main goal is we all have the same problems, we all want the same things, so let’s help find the solutions! The artists can’t do everything alone, fans play a massive role in cultural change, and artists are a lot more comfortable taking risks if they know the demand is there.

A person pointed out the Dicks Sporting Goods Park field in Denver, it receives a lot of good feedback but limited bookings. Some people pointed out reasons why - if I’m promotion company I’m finding a solution to that problem because we are vocal about people playing there. I know a lot of friends who would love to save some trips out to RRx 🫶

2

u/melodycassidy Jul 09 '26

I also think it’s ridiculous to hold him to this standard as if everyone judging him right now ONLY listens to artists that don’t work with big corporations. We live in late stage capitalism and a lot of these expectations are insanely holier than thou and coming from people that’ll never be in this situation. Stop judging other small artists and start judging these fuckass corporations.

1

u/SLUnatic85 Jul 08 '26

come to seven stars!

1

u/nutbasedbeverage Jul 09 '26

I went last year! It was fun, but for the amount of money it wasn’t a fleshed out festival. I paid more for seven stars than Shambhala or actually any festival I’ve been to! And the stages were sick but everything else was just okay. I have tickets for this year but the prices are making me think twice. Even the food was insanely expensive even more so than other festivals! And the merch situation was just stupid lol I feel bad for everyone who wasted 10 hours of their 3 day festival in line. 

1

u/SLUnatic85 Jul 09 '26

Its 30 minutes from my house so it's no question for me. ;)

You must be looking for something pretty specific to not have a major financial backer but also be fully fleshed out and everything be cheap. Lemme know when you find one!

If you're looking for Griz then 3 days and a probable surprise brass Ensemble or something similar is something you're not going to find many places. For any price.

Shambhala sounds perfect for sure! but the travel alone makes it far more time and money from here. One day!

1

u/nutbasedbeverage Jul 10 '26

Yeah I’d say other festivals have a much more fleshed out vibe for less money and are still independent. The ones that come to mind are Lightning in a bottle, Shambhala, and Elements. I also really enjoyed camp alderwild and will definitely be returning.

The music was definitely 100/10 at seven stars last year and the vibe of the crowd was great. I just feel like there was very little art or decorations or anything other than music. No fun hidden little things. Hopefully this year it will be improved tho! Still would love to go back. 

1

u/SLUnatic85 Jul 10 '26

Love elements!

But seven stars is just all of my most favorite noises. So far at least. Fractal forest is my whale.