LOL, didn't mean to come off defensive either, so we're even. I just get passionate on the subjects of Ryan And Brendon And How They Are And Also Probably Aren't Screwed Up. (You should be grateful you didn't start me off on Brendon, really. Brendon and sex and girls are a topic I go off on for days.)
I do think Pretty was counterpoint to that, an effort to reach beyond it, and I think the mixed reception it got was--well, okay, I don't really know a lot about music as music, but from the reviews I've read etc. I think a large part of that mixed reception was that people were expecting something so entirely different from him, and I think that touring with Pretty--particularly the RBL tour, because of a few things some fellow Zackgirls and I put together in the course of our M&G comparisons--sort of drove home the point that he was never going to shake having to be the Fever-Ryan, that what he could do with the other parts of himself weren't going to measure up to that in the eyes and minds of the public, and I think--in a way I really hope--that it was the driving force behind the breakup, that really insistent need to at least try to see what kind of person he could be and what kind of music he could make if he stopped being that guy from Panic at the Disco, you know the one with the goddamn door and the harlequin girls.
(Also, I think Ryan is kind of fucked in the head about how the passion and emotion of Fever could be applied to the joy and freedom of Pretty, because...there's a reason Fever sold, there's a reason so many people were moved by it, you know? I think he comparmentalises too much, and if he'd give himself permission to be that happy, as much as he was that angry, that his music would be just as wonderful. I think Pretty--and I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved Pretty, but...even I the music-ignorant can tell it's a little derivative and large portions of the lyrics don't make sense--I think Pretty was too much, there was too much pressure, and so when he went this new direction he was totally and completely unsure of himself, and he didn't put himself on the line lyrically in much of it (and the ones he did are unquestionably the best songs on the album). I think if he'd trusted himself to dive into happiness the same way he did into teenaged angst the album would have had the same kind of success.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-12-08 04:33 am (UTC)I do think Pretty was counterpoint to that, an effort to reach beyond it, and I think the mixed reception it got was--well, okay, I don't really know a lot about music as music, but from the reviews I've read etc. I think a large part of that mixed reception was that people were expecting something so entirely different from him, and I think that touring with Pretty--particularly the RBL tour, because of a few things some fellow Zackgirls and I put together in the course of our M&G comparisons--sort of drove home the point that he was never going to shake having to be the Fever-Ryan, that what he could do with the other parts of himself weren't going to measure up to that in the eyes and minds of the public, and I think--in a way I really hope--that it was the driving force behind the breakup, that really insistent need to at least try to see what kind of person he could be and what kind of music he could make if he stopped being that guy from Panic at the Disco, you know the one with the goddamn door and the harlequin girls.
(Also, I think Ryan is kind of fucked in the head about how the passion and emotion of Fever could be applied to the joy and freedom of Pretty, because...there's a reason Fever sold, there's a reason so many people were moved by it, you know? I think he comparmentalises too much, and if he'd give himself permission to be that happy, as much as he was that angry, that his music would be just as wonderful. I think Pretty--and I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved Pretty, but...even I the music-ignorant can tell it's a little derivative and large portions of the lyrics don't make sense--I think Pretty was too much, there was too much pressure, and so when he went this new direction he was totally and completely unsure of himself, and he didn't put himself on the line lyrically in much of it (and the ones he did are unquestionably the best songs on the album). I think if he'd trusted himself to dive into happiness the same way he did into teenaged angst the album would have had the same kind of success.)