Greed Theater ft. John Petru¢¢i & Jordan Rude$$
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- In recent years, John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess have been engaging in one ridiculous cash grab after another, ranging from $10,000 guitars, to a $375 leather jacket, to $30 rings, beanies, and drinkwear, to a $75 Astonishing novel. All of these things would be indefensible even if Dream Theater was still making great music, but this recent bout of greed from Petrucci and Rudess is especially irksome considering Dream Theater’s sharp decline in musical quality which began with the cardboard box snare on the 2013 self-titled album. Petrucci and Rudess care more about endorsement deals and gear than they do about making good music (i.e. having a competent singer and producer/engineer), and THAT is what sickens me.
Contrast Petrucci and Rudess with Kevin Moore. Moore has no endorsement deals as far as I know, hasn’t played in a popular band for over 20 years, and still seems to be living comfortably enough off the royalties for Pull Me Under that he was able to go to medical school.
One innocent explanation of Petrucci and Rudess’ money-grubbing is that they’re just trying to recover financial losses from the orchestral and choral arrangements on The Astonishing. Well, that would be sad if true since The Astonishing wasn’t good, but both Petrucci and Rudess are multi-millionaires, so how deep in the hole could that album really have put them? In fact, I believe The Astonishing was conceived of specifically because Petrucci saw it as a money opportunity. Under the banner of calling it “an immersive experience,” he could commission a book, a video game, trading cards, possibly a movie and Broadway musical.
Then there’s the Images, Words, and Beyond Tour. There was no reason whatsoever why this tour should have happened. LaBrie is no longer vocally fit to sing songs from Images and Words, the songs from that album have been played to death, and the band even did 15th anniversary performances of Images and Words 10 years ago. So why do it? To syphon more money from the fans who they’re taking for mindless chumps. Plain and simple.
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About the $10,000 Astonishing guitars you see in this video. According to Dream Theater's fan club president on Twitter, these only costed $3,000 to make, but Music Man sold them at a $7,000 markup. Even he thought this was insane, but defended the right of people to buy them if they had the money. One thing I can say for sure is that if it's not John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess driving the exorbitant price tags on some of these items, they are being preyed upon by opportunists looking to make a lot of money off of Dream Theater's hard work. Peter Orullian, the guy who wrote The Astonishing novel, is another example. He apparently approached the band himself and offered to write the novel since he's a Dream Theater fan. Could have been him who slapped the $75 price tag on the book, realizing he had a "captive audience" of Dream Theater fanboys who would pay an arm and a leg for it.
The Ravenskill Rebel Militia sounds like somebody is butt hurt because they're broke...
The Ravenskill Rebel Militia dude....you just refuted your own video. How about realizing these things beforehand? Welcome to the industry...the irony is that you’re using a song about that very thing as a “fuck you” to the artist who probably finds a lot of this shit even more cringeworthy. You know how much money these guys are probably making off this stuff? Almost none...this kind of thing goes almost entirely to the record label 9 times out of 10.
A dream theater book for 75$? It must be written in 7/8
People don’t buy albums anymore, so that might have something to do with it.
OK, so let's say Dream Theater is losing money because of internet piracy. Why don't they at least sell something cool like they used to do with the Ytse Jam Records site? Why does it have to be all of this cheesy ass shit related to The Astonishing, which is their least popular album to date? DT has only released one "official bootleg" (the Happy Holidays CD) since Portnoy left, and chose to give it away for free. Odd.
I got the exact same feeling that you have when they came to Mexico City a few years ago, charged like $500 for a "greet and meet" VIP pass with the band. But I thought it was brutally expensive, I'm a self indulgent, 40-year-old prick who can afford it, but I was thinking about the teen fans and the 20-year-old fans who can't get $500 to waste on that. And as for the experience, they were all behind a large table, you were not allowed to touch any of them in any way, an autographed poster and a photograph where they all stood on you side without touching you and a book of the self titled album. I'm a long time fan of this band, but I have to agree that the declining, both in the music they are producing and specially in the way they are treating their fans, is palpable. They have become this distant almighty guys, who are too god to shake your hand, or as I saw it with my own two eyes, wouldn't sign a 20 year old fan his guitar because it was "not approved" to take large objects to the M&G. Horrible attitudes, and looks like Rudess, LaBrie, and unfortunately Petrucci are getting devoured by their egos and possibilities.
With that, I understand it being expensive because if it wasn’t they’d be there for 36 hours meeting and greeting every last fan, they’d never get anywhere on their tours.
I completely disagree with the IWAB tour. I’ve had an experience of a lifetime there. Got to meet mike Mangini after the show. Asked him about the snare. He said “we will fix that criticism when we work on the new album”
Sounds like you need a hobby.
No one is making Ravenskill buy anything and no one is whining about he makes a living. This is pure attention/affirmation seeking trolling.
Please learn what an "appeal to motive" fallacy is. Let's I am making these videos purely to get a rise out of people or get attention. The general points I am making could still be correct.
Your being a whiny bitch. Does it matter to anyone else how you make your income? Then why should it matter how some famous musician does?
I attended the Images and Words show in Bucharest. LaBrie was amazing and better that 15 years ago, when I saw them in Athens.
Hate to break it to you, but most likely you've heard pre-recorded vocals.
Well, those are some hefty prices.
lol i have the Ladder jackket and it is absolutely amazing
Careful, you can't say that out loud here! :D
I don't really have a problem with the signature stuff, it's normal. It's not fucking normal paying 75$ for a book or 32$ for some fucking rings. They should fire the managers
It frustrates me that Petrucci and Rudess care more about signature gear and endorsements then, you know, some fundamentals of good music, like having good sounding vocals and drums? Replace LaBrie, can the MIDI drums, then I will give you more leeway to line your pockets with cash.
@@theravenskillrebelmilitia139 if you had the opportunity to work with some of the best brands ever and make literally whatever the fuck you want, wouldnt you care a lot?
These things are all subjective. What you've described as being a "rip-off" in comments here could be appealing to someone else. I sure wouldn't pay 75$ for the Astonishing book, but if someone wants to, why not? I wouldn't pay that much to go to Petrucci's camp either, but if someone else really loves his work/has money, how does this affect anyone else?
As for Kevin Moore maintaining his integrity and not releasing signature equipment, I'd imagine any offers he got weren't as enticing as the ones Rudess and Petrucci received.
I have been watching your videos for a while and I totally agree with your opinions on LaBrie.. However, this is something different. Some of the fans will show interest to those items, whatever their prices are (i am not one of those fans tbh). Some people buy football jerseys or console games for 80 € every year.. From my point of view, they could be "shitty" stuff, which are sold by "greedy" companies or football clubs. But those fans think they have some kind of special connection. Buying a DT novel can be a priority for a DT fan (or fanboy as you said). In this case, I see nothing wrong against supply and demand equilibrium.
This isn’t really unique to DT. Petrucci goes a bit hard with his line of guitars, but that’s about it
It’s called Capitalism and business my friend! Good for them for capitalizing on the free market. Stop whining and do something with your life!!!
Good on pharmaceutical companies for cranking the price of prescription drugs through the roof. It's just capitalism. Stop whining people.
The pharmaceutical industry is anything but a free market, but keep on drinking that socialist kool aid ;)
@@theravenskillrebelmilitia139 Also, yeah, good comparison. Prescription medication and fucking band merchandise are _definitely_ comparable.
Unfortunately. Bands make nothing anymore on cd / download sales, concerts or airplay / writing royalties and, they do this now. Also, record companies take a large percentage of even these items. I don't think these guys are rolling in money from Dream Theater, they are getting money from other deals and, probably not a lot.
Remember, 12 million in sales over 25+ years is pretty much less than minimum wage. No, I'm not a fan anymore and tunes out after Images and Words but, these guys are hardly loaded.. If so, they'd be taking longer breaks between albums. They have to do this to make any money. Look at Portnoy... he is constantly working and, yes he loves music but, he needs money to live and anytime he does something it comes with $$$. And, it's not a lot so, he works all the time.
I agree. There's bands like Tool for example that definitely have a better income, I mean they literally took a 13-Year album break. Sure, Maynard did some other projects but it shows that the band can sustain itself without being too active. But Dream Theater? They're forced to be touring constantly and they need to be making albums.
No one forces you to buy any of these products. There is no "cash grab" nonsense. You are free to choose.
Yes, but there are gullible people who will buy these things, and also gullible people who bought tickets to The Crapstonishing + Images, Words and Grandma Tour despite LaBrie's voice being completely out. Rip off.
So? If they buy this stuff, that means they value it more than the money they part with. They get to profit then. If they thought otherwise they would not have purchased them in the first place.
Okay, but pay attention that every Music Man signature (from Steve Lukather to Steve Morse) had a similar price to the Petrucci's, and simple becouse it's the right price for such quality guitars.
Can't see greed here.
Liam McLaughlin it's a limited edition, 50 pices worldwide if I remember correctly, what did you expect? Steve Vai's last limited JEMs was 8000$ for make another exemple, and god only know the prices of the Music Man family reserv that came out every year in only 40 (or so) pieces.
Anyway in the video he also mentioned the Majesty Monarchy series, that it's a standard series and in USA it's 2600$ approximately, I was talking abuot mostly of this.
Also the Nomac one has literal jewels in it.
There's always been merch that costs that much, on either the six degrees or ToT tour (can't remember) I bought a DT football jersey for $100. And a hat that cost $50 iirc back then.
A DT football jersey? Damn I would love to see that
if these memorabilia and products you called greed, almost every goddamn band in the world doing it. Dream Theater is not just a band, but also a trademarked brand. If you have a famous brand, i bet you will do the same thing
You mention Kevin Moore not having endorsment deals is exactly because he hasn't played in a popular band for over 20 years. You sell the albums/tickets, you get brand deals. There are musicians who reject those, but there are many who would endorse toilet paper if it had their name on it. I won't defend price gouging (fucking 60$ tour t-shirt should be criminal), but pointing out that successful people can buy things is just petty.
They also have holiday programme with the group for some thousand dollars?
75 dollars migth be chump change for somebody else and this is the market they are targeting. It would be stupid not to use their fame for making money.
I feel like Labrie should call it quits, because his voice just can’t hold up anymore. He was a great vocalist imo, but maybe shouldn’t be the vocalist anymore. If they ever replace Labrie, they should maybe get the singer who did the Shattered Fortress tour with Portnoy.
This entire video is based on a fan’s perspective of what makes the industry work nowadays…which is fine, whatever…that’s a normal thing. But the premise is just so off-base, it needs to be addressed. Bands make essentially nothing off of records anymore. Everyone knows that. The only game left is social media, touring and yes, merchandising. It’s not “greed”…dude, that’s like a third grader’s perspective on this. This is literally the only way that “original material” acts can feed their families anymore. No one’s forcing you to buy this stuff if you’re so against guys making a living this way…
Dream Theater?...thought they died in 2009
1994
metallica?... thought they died in 1984...
idk man, I think the band's decline started in 2007
I never liked Systematic Chaos much, but even that album trumps Crapstonishing and the two subsequent albums with insidiously auto-tuned vocals and cookie cutter DT riffs.
@@theravenskillrebelmilitia139 what is your problem with Distance over time tho. I understand your opinion on vocals but otherwise its excellent album.
There may be some truth in it, but certainly not enough to set up a whole channel to hate DT as your day job. You seem to have been hurt by Dream Theater. Have you considered psychological consultation?
And if you had the facility to make money in this way, would I know I certainly would. Untill the day I can I'll just keep working away.
Sounds like you have a nasty case of sour grapes.
It would appear Dream Theater are entering a new age that many prog bands before them have. Especially Pink Floyd after The Wall. Its really not looking good for the future for them even though I did like The Astonishing overall. Not a masterpiece but decent and bold enough to give it credit. I still like it here and there and a few cuts are actually pretty awesome. But there are way too many problems that go unnoticed. And yes Labries time is up. He cant sing for shit anymore. Its always slow, ballady, auto tuned to hell.
merch has always been expensive - for any band. That they are endorsed and participate in marketing campaigns to help sell products from their endorsers - especially their signature lines - seems OK to me.
And yeah, people don't buy albums and artists get nothing from streaming, so I understand bands need to get new sources of money... BUT.
JP sells beard oil
JR sells himself on Patreon
JLB sells himself on Cameo
I know there's the pandemic and cancelled gigs and all that. But this is really pathetic.
I would love to see their books and how they've managed their money. I cannot believe they would be so broke they need to get so low...
Sounds like you're jealous that someone makes more money than you do.
I do not envy any members of Dream Theater, especially James LaBrie, who appears to be in failing health, and keeps making a spectacle out of himself on stage. The other four members are "glued" to him because of a legal technicality, which is that he owns a large amount of stock in the band. I have the freedom to pick and choose the musicians I play with, and I would not trade that for any amount of money in the world.
If a tree falls and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If someone that spends their time making anti-dream theatre videos on youtube plays in a band with whoever he wants, and nobody gives a shit, is he really playing music
This channel is pathetic. I dont know why it came up in my recommended videos. Also Dream Theatre has always been shit, so who cares. Go outside.
"Jordan Rudess was born in 1956 into a Jewish family. He was recognized by his 2nd grade teacher for his piano playing and..."
Just leaving this here :D
Big whoop. I was a childhood art prodigy.
wow, its facking racisim