No matter who you are and what type of music you listen to, you could open up the Twitter app and search up whatever band or artist you want and probably find someone, somewhere accusing said band or artist of doing something. This is something that is all too common in the pop-punk side of the website, a new band being "exposed" every day and being "canceled" before everyone hears the whole story. I'm going to voice my opinion on 'cancel culture' and this whole thing with accusing bands of stuff that isn't true because careers are being ruined from it.
Moose Blood is a 4 piece emo band from the United Kingdom who were signed to Hopeless Records and are currently on a hiatus. About a year ago, accusations surfaced surrounding former Moose Blood drummer Glenn Harvey who reportedly sent unsolicited photos of himself. The band did not speak about these allegations and almost immediately kicked Harvey out of the band. You would think the problem would be solved right? The person accused was dealt with. Well, unfortunately, if you are a frequent Twitter user you would know that once you get accused of something its not the fault of that one person, but the fault of the entire band. Moose Blood did not come forward about these allegations for a few months. Personally, I think they dealt with the situation the right way. Instead of broadcasting to the internet they handled the situation in private and removed the drummer from the band. Time went on until Moose Blood was struck with another onslaught of allegations, this time the accused was vocalist Eddy Brewerton who supposedly stole nude photos from a 19-year-old fan's phone and sent them in the bands WhatsApp group chat. On February 23rd the band decided to write a statement about the allegations which read;
"We are aware of an allegation made against us concerning alleged theft of photographs and invasion of privacy. This allegation is entirely false and we strongly refute it. Until now we have resisted giving it any credence by commenting. However, the many repeats on social media have left us no option but to make our position clear.
We are taking legal action. The process to resolve this issue is underway. We do not propose to comment further at this stage.
We’d like to thank all our fans from the bottom of our hearts for your true loyalty & support."
Once again, I think Moose Blood did the right thing. They began taking legal action and even said the allegations were false as there was not any proof and that they did not want to take the situation to the internet and handle it themselves. If they simply wrote an apology saying the allegations were false I think they would've been in for more of a shit show. But of course, pop-punk fans on Twitter began saying they do not support the band anymore and that they are "canceled" even though Moose Blood admitted that the accusations were not true. A few weeks ago, the band posted another statement which read;
"It breaks our hearts to have to write this but it’s something we need to talk about. We feel as though we can’t stay quiet about this any longer.
We have been condemned in the absence of fact off the back of serious false allegations, and a situation concerning our former drummer. We are genuine, decent human beings who work hard at something we love. We take slight comfort in knowing that the people who do actually know us, knows this to be true. Rumours have escalated beyond belief and it makes us sick to our stomachs that we have been very wrongly labelled with these horrendous, incorrect terms. If certain people actually did their research and knew one ounce of truth about the situation then we would not be in this position. You can’t wrongly label innocent people. Your words have very real effects and consequences. You are part of the problem and the reason why social media can be such a toxic place.
It has been a traumatic past year or so that has left us feeling like we need to step away. We need to concentrate on all the good we have in our lives without constant concern of what may happen next. We need to be around the people we love, and the people that love us, and focus on our health and happiness.
To everybody that has supported us, stood by us, and spoken out on our behalf, we thank you and appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.
You’ll never know the battles people may have going on personally, so please think twice before you try to destroy someone over the internet. Actually consider the words you use and actions you take."
To say the least, Twitter was not happy with this. Calling the band "douchey" for blaming others when they're right! There was no proof of either of these situations and when told by the band themselves that it was false, nobody believed them. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that if these accusations were true that it would be okay because it wouldn't be! I'm just saying until the law gets involved or someone gets charged, why would you believe what someone says on the internet?
Here's the argument I always use. I could go on Twitter right now and accuse anyone of doing anything and 90% of Twitter would believe me and begin 'canceling' or 'unstanning' the band or artist, without having ANY proof. Sure, some bands do use their power to do things they shouldn't but not everyone is like that. If I were to accuse someone of something that I know didn't happen and they come forward and admit that it isn't true, I would feel pretty bad about myself for trying to ruin this person's career. Majority of the time when there is no proof provided the person doing the accusing is simply doing it for their own gain is disgusting. There needs to be PROOF before I 'cancel' someone or whatever. If you decide to stop supporting a ban because of some allegations that's fine. But please don't attack others for sticking by the band's side. Why would you stop supporting someone when there's no actual proof? If someone did do something to you, the first place you should go is the police. That is why they are there. Don't go posting accusations on your twitter account because something as serious as a sexual assault ALLEGATION should be handled in private and not broadcasted to the internet. Yes, of course, you can share your story on the internet, but in my opinion, you should only do so once the law has been involved.
If you're wondering how I currently feel about Moose Blood and all the other bands that have allegations against them, I still enjoy Moose Blood's music and believe that they did not do anything wrong. They are innocent until proven guilty. That goes for all bands. Unless a band I enjoy listening to admits to the allegations or is charged with something, I see no reason to stop supporting them.
