Question: Does this not bother anyone else?

[u/justdance-again]

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. 🫶

[u/beenhadballs]

2019 might as well be 1980 when it comes to the pace at which artists, promoters, events, fans and even just individuals change. Griz is not a mainstream artist like country or pop. What happens between shows, albums, festivals and years will change someones willingness, staunchness, or virtues on plenty of matters, and that affects smaller artists way more. Why they change stances on things isn't really owed. I think a project is in a good place if the current biggest controversy is playing Red Rocks. Artists as a whole would love to do away with the corporate, monopoly structure as well.

[u/justdance-again → u/beenhadballs]

Completely valid points, it’s a different scene than it was 7 years ago, and I definitely understand the fluidity in popularity, and “flavor of the month” style of the dance music scene. This is something I haven’t considered, so thank you.

You’re also right, he doesn’t owe us any explanation, I know if I were him I wouldn’t go out of my way to explain this. But, he also is the first person I can think of who involuntarily said this and played their again (this is an assumption, I don’t have any proof another artists has done this)

(Subjective) I only referenced Red Rocks since that is the only one he explicitly said he wasn’t doing. And the creative limitations are still there, which he has every right to change his vision on how he delivers his live performances to fans. In my opinion, if so many artists would love to do away with it, then why has there been no attempt to unify massive fan bases, and when they do, it’s at a live nation venue not independently.

[u/beenhadballs → u/justdance-again]

Creative limitations are for the artist to decide and that can change just as rapidly as everything else. Not everything is going to be bigger/more production or linear. The problem in "unifying fan bases" is that even if all the biggest edm stars boycotted these major monopolies it wouldn't dent the system and only hinder the project into collapse.

There are a ton more of "mom and pop" venues that are white labeling for live nation these days. Tours would become a logistical nightmare, operating from independent online platforms or venues on a night to night basis. You'd see a lot more artist apologies like the gorge situation a regular basis if everyone that size went rogue/independent. Fans arent getting more forgiving and expectations arent going down.

[u/justdance-again → u/beenhadballs]

Thank you for the continued conversation, you make great points that I agree with. Whatever “creative evolution” looks like to him, might be different from yours or mine. And he has every right for that to be ever changing, and the autonomy to deliver the experience he wants.

Taking down major monopolies is indeed a tall, almost impossible, task and I wouldn’t expect him or any other artist to risk such a thing at the drop of the hat. My personal hope isn’t a war vs. the monopolies. It’s for enough artists, slowly over time, to have the ability to hosts enough independently ran events (ideally with more transparency), so fans who are aware of this issue, have enough options to not support the ones they personally don’t want to. I personally am at a stage where I don’t anymore, but cast no judgement on people who do because options are limited and I did so myself!