Man, this whole self-isolation thing is really getting to some people. First it was Vanessa Hudgens who copped it for talking about how everyone should get coronavirus COVID-19 since death is inevitable anyway, and now it’s The 1975’s Matty Healy who is in a bit of hot water for tweeting out a joke about supporting artists who are in indie bands.
Speaking of coronavirus COVID-19, the GOAT team talk about dealing with self-isolating on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
This whole saga started when Matt Healy shared a (now-deleted) joke on Twitter about how indie artists are asking for much-needed support during the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, and he basically made a crack about how there are more important things to worry about in the world than supporting artists by buying their “EP and zine bundle.”
Given The 1975 and Matty Healy’s history of supporting good causes and showing compassion when people need it, this coronavirus COVID-19 joke about not supporting indie artists during the pandemic came off as a bit tone-deaf to some.
Unsurprisingly, a bunch of people on Twitter called out The 1975 singer for his “joke,” pointing out how not every artist and musician is as successful as he is and he seemingly doesn’t recognise the privileged position he’s in.
After copping the a wave of backlash, Matty Healy deleted his coronavirus COVID-19 tweet and explained in a follow-up tweet that he did it “incase anybody anywhere got offended”. That being said, he also wrote how he isn’t sorry for his joke and clarified what he meant by his now-deleted tweet.
While Matty Healy’s coronavirus COVID-19 joke didn’t exactly land where he expected, it did inadvertently start a very important conversation about supporting indie artists during the pandemic.
With concerts and events getting cancelled everywhere due to the coronavirus, the main income stream for many artists has been cut off and it’ll be a struggle for them to make ends meet without touring. Some artists have taken to Twitter to talk about the importance of buying merch and music directly from artists as a way to support them in the absence of live concerts.
What seemingly began as a slightly off coronavirus COVID-19 joke from The 1975’s Matty Healy has accidentally shined a light on an important issue currently affecting the creative industry. Granted that the path towards getting to the point wasn’t the smoothest but at least it got there in the end and that’s about the best outcome we could hope for in this weird little Twitter saga.
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