More about: The Smashing PumpkinsNirvana
Pumpkins star says 'next Kurt Cobain will fail'
Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has launched an angry rant at leading US indie website Pitchfork, blaming it for crushing careers of upcoming rock artists.
The outspoken rocker says the website dictates the US music scene, and compares the site to the cool kids in a high school - and likens rock stars to outsiders.
"If you're 20 years old and you aspire to be like me or Kurt Cobain or Courtney Love or Trent Reznor, you're not going to make it that way, you won't succeed," says Corgan in an interview with The Daily Beast. "Let's say you're the next Kurt Cobain. You will be appropriated on your first album by the Pitchfork community. Your record company will rally round that idea because that's your marketing platform. But the minute you're in that world you're frozen."
"Those Pitchfork people are very much about social codes, about whether you're wearing the right t-shirt. That orthodoxy is no different than the rigidity of the football team at school. You can't break the social order if you're preaching to the choir – and the choir already has cool haircuts!"
Corgan continued his high-school parrallel as he showered praise on Kurt Cobain.
"You've got to want to subvert the social order of the high school. That's why Nirvana was so fucking dangerous," he added. "They had the jocks listening to them. Kurt Cobain used to talk about how weird it was to be performing, and see the people who used to beat him up cheering along."
Corgan recently criticised his own fans, saying he wished they would accept his new material - and not just want to hear classic Smashing Pumpkins hits at his gigs. He also called Radiohead 'pompous'.
Below: Smashing Pumpkins, live in Amsterdam
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 2
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 3
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 4
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 5
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 6
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 7
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 8
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 9
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 10
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 11
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 12
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 13
Billy Corgan - 'The Other Side of the Kaleidyscope' tour at the Heineken Music Hall. Amsterdam, the Netherlands - 08.11.11 - 14
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