Example 2: Michelle Branch
Journal EntryThere are moments when I stop and question if I should even keep the message boards around for the fans. I've had horrible luck with them and more often than not I end up going away from the computer pissed off. There are times though, that the fans within the boards do something to make me proud. I've got this love/hate relationship with a lot of people. Mostly because I speak my mind and I really do not give a fuck what people have to say. That doesn't mean, of course, that it's not going to have some affect to me. I guess you can say that I speak my mind but when it comes to the repercussions I sing a different tune. This isn't all of the time though, only some of the time.
Back when
Hotel Paper was coming out and the time inbetween
The Spirit Room and it, the fans were getting out of control on the message boards. They were antsy for the new record and the little clips that we'd sneak out to them. My father loved to play jokes on the members, like on April Fools Day he made the fans think that they could 'rent' my cat Gibson and he'd be flown to their houses and they could spend a week with my cat. (Seriously, the people who thought it was good and true and wanted to rent my cat scared me a little.) He'd do all these little things for them and was on the boards every day. I made a mistake one year, alright, so maybe not so much a mistake really but things happened and just go with me here, and I decided to wear to an event, The 2003 VMA's to be exact, a trucker hat, a white tank top and pants. Now, what was so bad about this, you might be asking yourself. Well, I didn't piece things together about my outfit and had 'accidentally,' for a better word, left out a bra. Now, those of you who know what bright lights and how see through white shirts can be, know the disaster that ensued. For
six months all that the fans could talk about on the message boards, that let me remind you once again my father was on daily, my nipples and having caught a glimpse of them of all things. This, along with many other things that would happen on my message boards, would start a strain on the relationship with my father, whom I was closer to than anything. We're still getting back to the spot that we used to be at, him and I, but we're getting there and I'm happy. There were a few months that we didn't speak. Between the message boards, and then me starting to date a man that was almost as old as him, I couldn't seem to do things right in his eyes, at least not for a bit. Another big thing that happened on those boards was the revolt after the MAXIM shoot and article. Ever since
The Spirit Room the fans had been after me to do something "sexy" to be something that I wasn't back then.
When I started out, I was this tomboy. Dresses? Hell no. You'd only catch me in one if I absolutely had to. Make-up? It wasn't really my thing but I had to wear foundation, all of the time too if I was going outside somewhere that I could be recognized and didn't feel like fully going incognito. When I was first getting signed, there was issues with the band, and I know that one other person's been through this with their agents, and it's nice when you finally win on something like this. Most people don't know, but I was born seven weeks premature. I couldn't wait to get out into the world and as a premie there are health issues and the like that we have to be concerned about, parts of our bodies don't develop all of the way and you can see little reminiscences of those. This though, has nothing to do with that, but it does concern birth. I've got a birth mark on my face, and the label found it rather unattractive and wanted me to get it removed. I refused. It's something special to me and I'll be damned if anyone's going to take that from me. I don't let too many people see it though. The make-up's become like a mask though, a mask that I take off around those that I feel the most comfortable with, the ones that I trust and believe that they won't wrong me. Usually, it's the same people that I'll trust around my daughter. I've come a long way, since that little girl that I started out as, not like I was really little, but I've matured a lot in the time that I've been around. There's been relationships, friendships, and heartaches on both accounts. I've grown, become a mother, changed my clothing style, but through it all, I'm still the same old person.
That paragraph veered off the subject just slightly, but I had to mention some of those things. At least, in my head it sounded better than what it came off across as, I'm sure. When the MAXIM issue hit the shelves where was a complete uprising at my boards. So many people left, saying that I'm not the innocent girl next door that they thought that I was. I changed completely and they didn't know this person that I was. Honestly, they knew only what the label wanted them to see of me. They never knew, until that article, the inner perverted side. Shit, if they'd gotten the BLENDER magazine a few months prior they'd have learned when my friend and I used to go down to the nude beaches, never on them but on the dunes over looking them, just to see if there was anything good down there, and I even told about one particular story. Anyways, the pictures were a big hit with some, flops with others, and it got me out there for a little bit as someone 'sexy.' It really went both ways, the response that I got from them, but I was at a point in my life where I wanted to do it, and yeah, I maybe even used them as a way to go to an ex who'd hurt me deeply, "Hey, buddy, look what you just lost." I think the only ones that really understand who they were for can make the connection or I've been the one to tell them of at least on specific photo that was to the person.
Fast forward a bit, and Jessica and I are starting off as the Wreckers and we're getting ready to get this duo off and underway. We've got the website, that doesn't have much up on it, and the message board. We wanted to be able to interact with the fans, to see how excited and ready they were for the joint venture and to gradually ease the fans that the other had that we might not have had, into the idea of the fact that we were joining forces, and yes, were going to put out a country album. As a songwriter I've always felt that my music fits in more in a country genre than any other type. Jessica though, she was the country girl through and through of this duo though. The message boards lasted for a bit, mainly through my pregnancy and onto the birth of my daughter. I ended up closing them down in December of '05 because people went crazy. First it was attacking us for waiting around all year wanting the album. That we had no control over. First while pregnant we were forced on a tour that we didn't really fit on although we were on it with on of our good friends, Mr. Tyler Hilton, and everyone wanted to touch the belly and feel Owen, if they could. Then there was the song with Santana, and as muc as I love him that's not really one of our proudest moments or a song that I'm for. I didn't write it, my name being put on it was a bargaining tool, and then they placed us as "Michelle Branch and The Wreckers" and they hid Jessica throughout most of the video. We got past that and over it, and then suddenly it was them attacking us, for all things, our clothing style. Apparently, I can't dress myself and need to hire a stylist to dress me at all points. It became a way for the fans to bash us for the smallest of things. I'd just had a child a few months before, a cd that we'd had finished and had been shelved for a year the fans were anxious for and we couldn't release and everything, and I do mean everything, had finally begun to wear on me. I shut the boards down that day and didn't open them again until we'd finally released "Stand Still, Look Pretty" and even then I wasn't around on the boards too much due to my experiences with them in the past. Jessica was the one really keeping everyone in touch and I'd pop around here and there, but that was it.
And now finally we get to the part that all of this bitching has led up to, because let's face it you, we all know that I was bitching so there's no need to hide that fact. I'm just upset and off on a tirade. I find writing really lets me get it all out so that I can move on with the day and forget about it. Aside from wanting to see everyone that I know out this way, family and friends included, I was also doing a show on the 18th in San Francisco for a Global Green USA event. I'm really big on this 'going green' issue. Since becoming a mother, the reality of the state of our planet has become a very real fear. It has inspired many changes in my own family's lives. We've changed to a mostly vegan diet, I've given up meet, which is something that I love. In a few months I will be launching a "green" tour. Not only will we be using bio-diesel for our tour buses but our other goals are having a full "green" set and merch made of recycled and organic, re-useable materials. As you can tell,this is very close to my heart. Check out
Gobal Green USA. There was one person on the boards who decided to state their opinion and I take offense to what they said to me personally. Just because I'm young, does not mean that I don't know about the things that I believe in or that I haven't researched the causes that I support, which aren't that many because I only devote myself to things that I'm passionate about as I believe that everyone should. So, I decided I'd share what they said in response to my post which was basically the things that I've said about Global Green here. Padriag over at the message boards responded with:
Michelle,
I definitely love your music and do anticipate your new release and tour. I think you are very talented and have a great voice. As one of your older fans I am begging you to think very hard about voicing an opinion that may not be shared by all of your fans. You are too young and too idealistic to really understand that the issues you stand for today are not new issues just re-done in an attempt to further promote a socialistic view. I don't care what you eat but do care when you start promoting a view held by leftist that own mansions and fly around in gas guzzling jets. Leftist that will do almost anything to get more of the public's money. If you really want to promote an issue you'd be smarter to really research both sides of the debate. If you don't educate yourself you just end up sounding like every other whack job from Los Angeles. There are lots of internet and youtube videos out there for you to read and learn that will teach you that although things may be heating up it does not mean, as the lib's would have you believe, that it is caused by Man. Furthermore, look through history and you'll find this is normal change that happens periodically. In the 70's, before you were born, all the whack jobs had everyone believing we were headed into another ice age. Look it up and educate yourself before you lose some of your base by standing for things that really show your age.
I, like most people, am interested in your music and not your opinions. Of course the fans that believe in me and what I'm doing decided to stand up for me because I've been busy with other things and just now had the opportunity to look and see what they've been saying. They, of course, in defense to make good, posted:
Ok everyone.....calm down!
Just because everyone is freaked out that I might scare Michelle into hiding again I will shut up, eat a vege burger, not bump a Hybrid out of the fast lane tomorrow, hug some trees, not use paper.......er.....plastic bags, buy the right light bulbs and hide my WMD's.
Jeez......I would just rather hear her sing, that all!!
PadriagStill, the only thing that I can think to say to this is, well, nothing. But somehow, I see the dread messageboard curse happening, all over again.
AIM Example 