Roger Waters refused use of song for Instagram ad [video] | Hacker News Reader

Roger Waters refused use of song for Instagram ad [video]

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92 pointsDevKoala42 comments

The man wrote and recorded an album, “Amused to Death” [1] (inspired by Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” [2]), which contains some very pointed criticism of mass media in the 80s and 90s. Is Zuckerberg so out of touch with Waters’ work that he could not see this coming? Not only that, but Waters has been and remains very active politically in the fairly radical left. I mean, with lyrics such as these:

    We watched the tragedy unfold
    We did as we were told, bought and sold
    It was the greatest show on Earth
    But then it was over
    We oohed and ahhed
    We drove our racing cars
    We ate our last few jars of caviar
    And somewhere out there in the stars
    A keen eyed lookout spied a flickering light
    (Our last hurrah)
    Our last hurrah
    And when they found our shadows
    Grouped ’round the TV sets
    They ran down every lead
    They repeated every test
    They checked out all the data on their list
    And then
    The alien anthropologists
    Admitted they were still perplexed
    But on eliminating every other reason for our sad demise
    They logged the only explanation left
    This species has amused itself to death

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amused_to_Death

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death

On the topic of the album, it is in my opinion Waters’ finest non-Floyd album and very much worth a listen this Sunday. In terms of music, lyrical themes, and playfulness when it comes to the soundscape, it truly is an excellent example of great Progressive Rock.

First thing I thought. Amused to Death. A monkey watching TV. The re release album art is a young child in front of a tv that's even larger. Mass media has grown and we are still monkeys.

My father used to play that album all the time when I was a child.

Now as an adult + war vet The Bravery of Being out of Range hits home:

https://youtu.be/QDFTHiJR63U

radical left? Thats maybe a bit much?

What a tone-deaf message from Mark (his team) to Waters. As if they don't know what he's all about. That has to be so insulting, one Instagram is the opposite of The Wall and boatloads of money is the opposite of what makes Waters convinced something is worthwhile and to top it off, the whole control/censorship/conformity angle which Waters is the total opposite of and where FB sets the rules or tone of discourse and wants conformity.

Then there is Oculus and the whole part of having people immerse as much of their lives as possible away from reality.

So, yeah, no --but damn, how tone deaf can a person be?

Waters raises a good question in the video - how did someone who started off with with a project for rating women by appearance become one of the most powerful people in the world?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Facebook#FaceMash

History is full of buffoons in positions of power. Right people around you (network) + mindless ambition (ie persistence) and you have a good shot. Others more competent cannot compete with that combo whatever they do.

That said the theory of bounded rationality states chimps with 6 inch brains will blunder on any problem requiring 7 inch brains or 200 inch brains or 2 million inch brains. And since the chimp troupe has been wrangling with such problems ever since they started speaking blundering about in spectacular ways is the norm.

The theory recommends focusing on simple problems when faced with complexity, but you know us chimps...we are too full of ourselves and ofcourse from birth we are trained to blame others even when we have no solutions. Overcoming those 2 issues is how we get to nirvana.

No it's an awful question.

He was at Harvard, considered one of the best learning institutions in the world.

Studying psychology and computer science, during a revolution in humanity around computers.

Had a strong work ethic, drunk, late at night, in second year he got a site off the ground so popular it crashed servers.

The question is an awful lie, I believe it ranked people not women. It's just a cheap nonintellectual attack not a question.

Roger Waters is an artist, which is about emotions not logic or truth so I wouldn't fault him, but it's not a good question.

By making a subsequent product that was incredibly relevant to the times and which everyone wanted?

Which one are you talking about, Friendster or Myspace?

I don't get it.

No, not at all. Just look at some documentary about Facebook early years.

The internet before FB was just an unorganized collection of diverse opinions posted without regard for those that take offense.

Don't make me nostalgic for the good old days.

Back when it was unorganized, everyone on their soapboxes formed a background noise you could easily tune out. Now that it's been organized, it's become a set of echo chambers sorted by topic.

People have good and bad sides. I don't want to defend Zuckerberg, but it's not a particularly bad stunt for horny college dudes and you won't find anyone who is perfect in every way and has never done something bad. Plus, to lead a company to global success probably requires character traits that would otherwise not be considered fortunate.

1. Publically degraded Erica Albright on her breast size publically--because little Marky got his ego bruised.

2. Stole the idea for Facebook from paying clients.

3. Tricked his best friend in college into signing his (Eduardo) share of Facebook over to him.

4. Publicly stating his customers were stupid in trusting him with personal information.

5. Printing up "I'm CEO bitch!" while he was swimming in money.

6. Marrying his college girlfriend--most likely because he knew he would never know if the opposite sex liked him for his money, or his kind soul? (She was interested in him after FB was famous.)

7. Moves into a SF mansion and buys out every house in proximity to his home.

8. Buys a huge swath of Hawaiian land, and then put up huge fences so the locals will not be able to cross.

9. Does the usual wealthy boy 501c3 tax dodge.

10. Has the audacity to believe he could run run for president, and poses on a few tractors in the midwest, but gives up when it wasn't fun, and people found him insincere.

11. Tells congress to enact strict rules for Social media, knowing most startups couldn't afford enforcing the new laws.

12. Buying any competition.

13. Buy up prime commercial real estate in San Francisco during a pandemic. Telling his employees they can work at home. I'm counting the days he brings in the troops so he can monitor their performance.

14. Donates 20 million to a SF hospital, but demands his name is front and center.

15. I don't hate the guy. He's a product of his generation. Sorry---a small percentage of his generation. Marky is all about money, and most of you guys arn't.

A real role model?

> 1. Publically degraded Erica Albright on her breast size publiccally--because little Marky got his ego bruised.

I can't find any mention of this; in fact, it seems this person (Erica) only exists in the "the social network" movie. There seems to be a "real" Erica, but I found nothing about snide comment from his side.

> 4. Publicly stating his customers were stupid in trusting him with personal information.

I'm pretty sure he did so privately; that's not better, though.

> 5. Printing up "I'm CEO bitch!" while he was swimming in money.

That's a bit childish maybe, but if he enjoys that.

> 9. Does the usual wealthy boy 501c3 tax dodge.

I have yet to meet someone who likes to pay more taxes. Most of the people reading this are part of the most wealthy people of the world right now and yet they minimize their taxes as well. I can't blame anyone for using the system to their advantage; it's the system that is faulty.

But anyway. All of these don't picture him in a good light, sure, but overall none of these are absolute "killing blows". We have politicians with a criminal record that makes Zuckerberg look like a poster child.

As I said in my original comment: I don't think he is a particularly good guy and I don't want to defend him. But when you compare him to the overall political elite, that small smear is really not the end of the world.

I can't really fault him for 6 or 14. Or really for 9 - it's how the laws are written, not by him, and at least he's not, afaik, doing the hypocritical dance of "raise the taxes, I won't be paying them anyway!". The rest is plenty, though, and his wholehearted embrace of censorship doesn't add any points.

Umm he was hired to build an idea for the winklevoss twins and stole it. We celebrate such entrepreneurs ..semi smh

That's something I actually wouldn't fault Zuckerberg for. Too often someone with a vague idea and some money get more than they really paid for as the people doing the actual work discover what the real challenges are and solve them.

PS: Roger, We also need to rewrite the line "we don't need your thought control" to something more pro advertisements

I can see them asking that.

How much do you think the offer was to use "Another Brick in the Wall - Part II" in an Instagram add?

What’s the context here

Fb wants to use a pink Floyd song for Instagram ad. Roger waters is not a fan of Zuckerberg so he said fuck you to that.

"Another Brick in the Wall - Part II" is the song, and it's by Pink Floyd, not Led Zeppelin.

Being a rock star isn't what it used to be.

Roger Waters is from Pink Floyd, not Led Zep

*Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd not Led Zeppelin

Pink Zeppelin not Led Floyd

I think he is in the Julian Assange support tour when he speaks about Mark Zuckerberg asking him to use his song to support an ad campaign. Roger clearly doesn’t like the negative effects of Facebook in our society, so he rejected the request.

I wonder if Facebook wanted to use the song in a campaign against Apple.

Here is a video I took of this exact moment. I was there.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdNkyGpC/

I absolutely get where he's coming from but he should've taken the offer and help fund Assange legal defense or something like that.

He probably realizes that using his song for endorsement of Instagram would have deceived a lot of fans.

I don't think that came close to cross his mind. It's simply an absurd request, that's why people in the audience started chuckling.

Maybe the prevailing demographics of HN is getting too young to get it, but FB asking Roger Waters about nothing less than Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 to sell more of their business... that's either being cynically obtuse or being simply too dumb. In any case it's a waste of time for everyone.

I understand what you mean. The issue is that not everybody who likes Pink Floyd/Roger Waters looks deeply into the meaning of the lyrics.

I agree that it is tone deaf to ask Roger to support Facebook, but if Zuckerberg somehow got the rights to the music, some fans could be fooled.

For example, my first Pink Floyd album was Atom Heart Mother, and at that point I didn't realize that Pink Floyd/Roger Waters went deeper than the music.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Oh well.

> I absolutely get where he's coming from but he should've taken the offer and help fund Assange legal defense or something like that.

How much good would donating to that fund actually do?

Interesting Freud's sister went by "Rosa". Pink Freud.

It's just a video hosting site

Wikipedia claims otherwise.

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