PWR BTTM & sexual assault allegations

It feels somewhat worrying that whilst they’re rightly being castigated by their peers and fans it seems unlikely that legally there’s going to be any repercussions.

I can understand that due to the platform they occupy it’s hard for the victims to come forward and certainly I don’t think the onus should be placed on them to, perhaps what I’m really bothered by is just how people can take advantage of situations where there’s a clear imbalance of power.

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Jesus, awful stuff. I’m sorry CC, amazingly brave of you to talk about it here.

Actually felt compelled to email metacritic to try and get their album taken off the front page over this.

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If it’s stuff that’s been printed, or old reviews that are being picked up by metacritic, then you feel a bit of sympathy for the publications for how it looks now. People tweeting positive stuff about them after this has come out can fuck right off though

one of my good friends is releasing their record in the uk (came out today)…aiiiiiiiie

tbf is there a chance that people might have listened to/tweeted about the record without hearing the allegations?

but yeah, fuck these guys, and i might say fuck their weird self-regulating bullshit non-apology thing too

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If you Google their name atm all of the top results are about the allegations, but it’s possible I suppose

They are on bsm I think. I’ve heard of them by following bsm on twitter. I notice there’s been no tweets about the album today.

ja.

People don’t always google band names of records they like. Easy to have missed it I think.

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Yeah you’re probably right. Just want to tell everyone to stop it though innit

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I have to admit, I listened to the album this morning. I was aware there were allegations of something, without knowing the full details. Since reading the allegations proper, I won’t be giving them any more of my time. I’m also hoping that End of the Road drop them from their bill this autumn.

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More fall-out. Not sure I’ve ever see the wheels fall off a project so spectacularly - especially considering that today is literally the launch of their new album.

Question to people more versed in this: what should they do? And could they have done anything to prevent this week’s revelations derailing them?

Seems from here that the only thing they can do is split up and leave this guy to it. Perhaps that’s the only way to deal with an abuser?

I think if they do anything more, they have to admit to the allegations and explain that they want to change their ways, that they’re ashamed of their behaviour and realise how horrendous it is.

Which could do nothing good for them at all, but then again… do they deserve to still be working in the industry? If this stuff was known from the start, would they have made it this far?

Something that’s a bit upsetting is that the reaction to this has been a lot more negative than when the same allegations are made against straight male abusers. I do think PWR BTTM are getting harsher treatment because of them being in this minority… but when I say harsh I mean that it’s the kind of treatment that all bands should get in this situation.

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I think they definitely are getting tougher treatment - and it almost certainly has some grounding in their sexuality/appearance/band name.

That said, from a lot of what I’ve seen they really co-opted accountability/safe space practices and language. As such they have a fan base uniquely versed in this stuff. Also, sadly, it seems a lot of people were drawn to them because they were supposed to be the opposite of all this - so the fallout would seem worse than with a (for example) cisgender rock band.

Also - as a two piece in which he’s essentially the frontman - they can’t really kick him out as bands in the past have done to other members when stuff like this blows up. Thinking New Found Glory as a recent example.

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Nailed it there, I think

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Dropped by their label now.

I respect the fact PolyVinyl are offering full refunds on the album. Classy act that

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Agreed. And apparently are working on getting it pulled from Spotify etc, which seems incredible to me (from a quick look, Lostprophets are still on Spotify (181k monthly listeners!))

Surely all that’s left is for the other band member to distance them self from Ben? The band is finished.