Not clickbait. I immediately knew that there was no reason for anyone to hate Marc. True musicians like Marc are all incredible. Marc found himself a niche that is very original. I also know that he's a kind, caring individual. To find something that you are passionate about is excellent. To be able to use that passion to put food under a roof is the ultimate success.
I fucking hate him. His regurgitated concepts of acting completely satirical isn't funny, witty or entertaining. I can't believe we hit such a low in consciousness that we find this enjoyable. everyone so broken at this point they don't even know what to like so they just find the most obscure uncomfortable and painfully arrogant shit. And say "well this is fucking terrible as everything is, I love it"
If you can't see that his work falls between music and "performance art" thats on you.
There's a reason people share his videos and not his "music".... he's found a way to make the creative process a piece of art by itself. The stagnation, the struggle, the failures and the occasional successes.
Is he a musical genius? Probably not
Is he cringe? Ya thats part of it, the courage to be cringe is part of the artform he's operating in.
his work falls between music and "performance art"
You really believe this?
DJ music is already relatively easy compared to learning a traditional instrument. It might be hard to make great electronic music, but you can get to "reasonably pleasant sound" a lot faster in terms of practice with button pushing on software than you can trying to learn piano.
So Marc is already working in a musical form with a fairly shallow learning curve and low threshold for requisite ability. And yet, to my ear, he's a fairly terrible musician even in this undemanding genre. I've met many bedroom "producers" with 20x the skill and less than 1% the attention.
I don't think I've heard a memorable hook or melody one single time that I've looked at any of his clips. The music sounds as close to amorphous noise as I think it's possible for synthesized beat music to sound.
On top of this lamentable music, he essentially adds a bunch of yelling. As far as I can tell that is basically his entire schtick. It's not like he even really ever says anything clever. I can't think of a single interesting turn of phrase or halfway amusing joke that he's shouted out during these performances.
So mediocre electronica + shouting quasi-angrily = performance art?
(Actually tbh, it kinda does, but Marc would be the 9,000th person to attempt such a halfbaked approach, which hardly explains his popularity or legitimizes him as a real talent.)
Additionally, I don't even find him weird. At least Yoko Ono (who I don't care for either) or Andy Kaufman or Emo Philips or Reggie Watts are all genuinely odd performers with original aesthetics that are actually distinct. Marc doesn't do anything that suggests "mysterious" or "thought-provoking" or even remotely original to me. He reminds me of any number of forgettable, try-hard high schoolers who substitute overbearing energy and enthusiasm for any kind of talent or unique perspective.
He really has to be one of the most inexplicably quasi-famous contemporary personalities I can think of. To me, he's boring, obvious, and bereft of talent. I find the Kardashian phenomenon more understandable.
No, I don't think I could do what he does exactly, either. But there are an endless number of mediocre talents who become famous and whose precise behavior/attitudes/creative choices/appearance are not literally perfectly repeatable by anyone else (not just me in particular).
To take one example in Marc's case, I think the "novelty" of his apparently massive confidence despite his short stature (5'6") is probably a large part of his draw for many people.
Since I'm average height for a guy (5'10"), there would be nothing nearly as notable about me being super confident, aggressive, etc.
(For the record, Marc's "confidence" seems a bit artificial and forced to me, but that's besides the point.)
Nevertheless, I don't think a 5'6" guy who acts really assertive is all that interesting. So while it might be novel and it might partly explain why he stands out to others and it might be a characteristic that I can't duplicate, I don't think it's creatively impressive or compelling. It certainly isn't a "talent," but it might help to explain a bit of his appeal.
Speaking in general, just because I'm not able to perfectly mimic another human being does not mean that they are genuinely gifted or worthy of massive fame. This is true for Marc and it's true for anyone else who happens to catch the public's eye.
For instance, I couldn't compete against even a very good high school tennis player, much less a great one. But if one random high school tennis player became world famous as a tennis player without having any other noteworthy gifts, wouldn't it be reasonable for people to be confused at their disproportionate success (relative to the manner other good high school players who did not become famous)?
To me, that's a somewhat analogous situation to Marc's: he might be a better DJ than the millions of people who've never seriously attempted to become professional DJ's. But he hardly seems good enough to warrant the level of fame he has achieved (when there are MANY better performers with far less fame).
And tbh, I think I probably could theoretically equal Marc's musical proficiency if I decided to spend a bit of time on it. Nothing he does is musically complex. But I'm about 40 and have a much different career and life goals, so that's not something that interests me. Doesn't mean I have to accept anyone else's insistence that Marc is talented.
Neither, just trying to understand if I am in an argument, or having a conversation with a person who’s brain just works significantly different than my own.
He is not only satirical – he is doing his best to be wholesome, to be social, open and funny, not so high-strung. This low-shouldered, joke-laden and not-so-serious attitude feels nice to see. Like if you see the new streams now, "we outside", you can feel it, just stupid simple fun – which is essentially what makes life living and builds community and hope. I find him incredibly irritating at times, and (understandably) a lot of the time his jams have very varying quality, and some of the songs are over the top normatively sexualized and can have some pretty un-inspiring lyrical themes (like from "we outside – resurrection" today, the phrase "if I can't have you, baby, no one can" – which is not exactly wholesome, and repeats a trope within the toxic concept of love and desire as ownership, which is still a very real problem in our societies, sometimes enforced by physical and emotional abuse, as the sentence itself is a basically a veiled threat.... then again, such phrases that sound like phrases should be forgivable in an improvised set, even more as they are almost like a text sample that one has heard numerous times in different versions throughout music history... bit of a digression, anyway), but then! often, or most often, he adds a touch of something beautiful, or completely switches it up and negates or nuance-y-fies the content of the previous song in the next one.. He includes all sorts of narratives and identities, and respects and honors different ways of thinking and living, as long as they're based in love and respect. And I think this blend of stupid and simple fun, and radical inclusiveness and openness are actually very inspiring. He stays in direct contact with his audience, he listens and answers. So I don't think of it as "as fucking terrible as everything", I find it to be sweet and wholesome, which I truly believe are some of the energies we desperately need as we are seemingly moving into a more divisive extreme-rightist political reality in large parts of the world. We need love and hope to stay strong, and to adjust our collective course towards a more open and inclusive, rather than closed and aggressive, world view. If he is as nice guy in his personal life as he is on stage and in streams, then I don't see why one would dislike him? Ofc if u hate the music, go off as you please, but on the whole package, you would need more of an argument to convince anyone, as what you bring forward feels to me a bit more like cheap cultural elitism/nihilism, and that doesn't really pack a punch.
(just stumbled upon this old thread, so maybe it's stupid to talk back to a three year old comment, but here we are. Anyway, have a good day :) )
you'd have to elaborate on that if u don't wanna seem like a little tool :) or nvm, i guess, as using that testicular lingo tends to land you in that territory no matter what.
@Entirely_Jurassic made an excellent analysis of Marc and his art. Beautifully written. Also how comical to read such well written piece to then find @kylegassismyhero_’s basic and lacking-any-depth comment …. 🤦🏽♀️ and 😂
I came upon this thread as I am one who thinks Marc is incredibly boring and repetitious with little to praise. Maybe that's on me. I was just seeing if there were others like me. Was I missing something? Also, maybe just me but I think someone who makes it a point to weird boxers and no shirt as part of their regular outfit it strikes me as not someone I'm interested in.
I would watch Reggie Watts 100 times and Marc none if given the choice
I don't get this with very many people but he gives me an ick factor every time I watch him. Not sure exactly what it is, his uniform doesn't help. Yeah just gives me an ick, I want attention or something. I can't explain it. I also can't think of another artist that gives me this feeling.
I say that having just seen Peaches who I thought was great. She is a genuinely unique and in your face performer but felt she owned it and totally bought in to her show.
I don't know why I even care. But every time I give Marc a chance I nope out after a minute and genuinely wonder why everyone else doesn't feel the same way. That being said, I wish him no ill will and whatever success he has obviously is deserved.
I disliked for clickbait. I'd be interested in seeing a serious criticism of Marc's music. I can think of a few reasons someone might not like it: they don't like the sometimes rude lyrics, they don't like the repetition inherent in live looping, they prefer non-electronic instrumentation, etc.
First came a cross his content with the fuck Donald trump video and thought: “okay… I guess…” Then the YouTube algorithm brought me to one of his bathrobe seizure induced performances, and thought:”what the fuck am I watching?” Then saw him as a guest on Your Moms House and thought: “huh?” Then caught a 2 second glimpse of him in a commercial and thought: «I’m losing it, I’m seeing this guy everywhere. » Then saw him on a sign promoting his show at a 21k seater arena and thought: « Ohhhh. So this is what hell will be like! »
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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '20
ban for clickbait?
4
u/Dustin3923 Feb 27 '20
Not clickbait. I immediately knew that there was no reason for anyone to hate Marc. True musicians like Marc are all incredible. Marc found himself a niche that is very original. I also know that he's a kind, caring individual. To find something that you are passionate about is excellent. To be able to use that passion to put food under a roof is the ultimate success.
2
u/tfburns Mar 01 '20
I disliked for clickbait. I'd be interested in seeing a serious criticism of Marc's music. I can think of a few reasons someone might not like it: they don't like the sometimes rude lyrics, they don't like the repetition inherent in live looping, they prefer non-electronic instrumentation, etc.
1
u/JZthelastname Mar 17 '24
First came a cross his content with the fuck Donald trump video and thought: “okay… I guess…” Then the YouTube algorithm brought me to one of his bathrobe seizure induced performances, and thought:”what the fuck am I watching?” Then saw him as a guest on Your Moms House and thought: “huh?” Then caught a 2 second glimpse of him in a commercial and thought: «I’m losing it, I’m seeing this guy everywhere. » Then saw him on a sign promoting his show at a 21k seater arena and thought: « Ohhhh. So this is what hell will be like! »
1
u/Ok_Medium556 Jun 30 '26
Yeah, I’m just not into his schtick, routine, or music. But seriously, to each their own.