DID ROADRUNNER RECORDS DUMP AMANDA PALMER BECAUSE OF HER BELLY FAT?

“Contemporary UK Feminism” blog The F-Word is reporting that Roadrunner Records have dumped singer Amanda Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) “Because she refused to let them remove shots of her “fat” belly from the video for “Leeds United” (see above), and is therefore ‘uncommercial’.”

I call “bullshit journalism.”

While it would certainly be tempting for a hard-line feminist to make this accusation, the author of this piece clearly has no understanding of how the music business works nor does she cite a source for this information. If Roadrunner did indeed drop Amanda Palmer (which is certainly plausible) I’d think it might have something to do with… oh, you know, poor record sales, or the fact that as a metal label Roadrunner just isn’t equipped to properly promote and market a cabaret act. Those would both be perfectly logical explanations, right? But no — the F-Word would have you believe that Roadrunner paid Ms. Palmer an advance, paid for the recording of a new album, paid for the above video, and THEN decided to pull the plug because said video has 2 seconds of belly jiggle on a perfectly healthy/normal body? Um, yeah. Right.

I generally support feminism, and lord knows the metal world is certainly full of asshole dudes who don’t respect women, but articles like this just give credence to those who claim feminists are full of shit.

Oh, and for the record, I think both Amanda Palmer and The Dredsen Dolls are both pretty fucking cool, one-of-a-kind acts.

-VN

[Thanks: Van Arseface]

[UPDATE: Apparently Amanda herself posted a blog on her website in response to the above referenced story in which she explains what really happened. In short: the truth was greatly exaggerated, as I suspected. Also, she is still on Roadrunner but has asked to be let out of her contract. -Ed. Thanks: Mahkiavelli]