ICP are notable for their hustle, building their unpleasant but significant "brand", following, and culture from scratch. I'm reminded of Ani DiFranco, whom I respect enormously as a principled and successful producer and businesswoman, and whose music is like kryptonite for my ears.
You alluded to the beautiful months-long arc in the wake of Miracles, where the Internet derived considerable harsh mirth from ICP's admission of bafflement over how magnets work. Finally someone dug up an old video interview with Richard Feynman, wherein the question is posed. Feynman, master of exposition for a general audience, takes ten minutes to irritably summarize just the domain knowledge required to even consider any theoretical answer. And the Internet did fall silent.
I had a brief dalliance with them early on in the pandemic. I'm not a rap guy, and I don't really hold ICP in any high regard on a musical level. But they are fun novelty song purveyors for me, and if people want to be way more into it than that, that's cool with me.
Plus they manged to find Mozarts most dirty piece and cover it (with Jack White). I dont know exactly what to make of it, but I respect it.
Thanks for writing this, I’ve been saying for years they are the last counterculture because they aren’t trying to gain mainstream acceptance. Meanwhile pretty much every other countercultural signifier has been adopted by groups desperate for cultural hegemony (If they haven’t been homogenized already).
I used to be exactly the type of person to say, “Look, I want to make very clear that I am NOT, nor have ever been, a supporter of ICP, however this song is an absolute bop.” but I just learned to be down with the clown. They do have some tracks that go legitimately hard. I also completely support the clowncore movement. Maybe it's because of a perverse fascination with clown iconography and all things clowns stemming from a severe and irrational phobia of clowns in childhood, but I like seeing what would otherwise be run-of-the-mill e-girls dressing like clowns instead of whatever the fashion du jour is. It does make an otherwise bland, boring, and increasingly homogenized online scene and culture a little more interesting.
Ain't my thing, ain't supposed to be. But if regular folks knew even a bit of how much hard work it is to create and build your own subculture like ICP has, it'd blow their minds. Even building one 1% of that size is damn near lottery-ticket impossible.
Small note, they also influenced Homestuck, an absolutely massive multimedia webcomic that may be seen as a snapshot of early internet cultures. Newgrounds hosted a big update once, and its servers were crashed for the effort.
In it an actual insane clown character by the name of Gamza introduced many millions of gen Y and Z to the cultural trappings of ICP, getting high off faygo pies and such. Real recipe, real disgusting.
Unlike the real life ICP he is the principle villain for a chunk of the story and murders several characters. If I recall it was a murderous rage induced by watching an official ICP music video, which he understood as mocking his faith in the dark carnival.
It was a strange saga, and self admittedly "a colossal waste of everyone's time."
I have two friends who are juggalos. They're both from white trash backgrounds; but once you get past the exterior they are both salt of the earth kind of guys, the sort of people whom you know you could call at 2 AM with a crisis and they'd help you out. One of them has told me how the juggalo community got him through some really difficult times.
I'm not a rap fan in general, but one of the juggalo friends made me listen to a LOT of ICP over a weekend, and honestly their stuff doesn't seem any worse than the more socially acceptable rap I've heard. Our friends who are rap fans admitted that ICP's music was pretty good. I think the widespread scorn they get from normal people is mostly because they're obviously white trash, not because their music is uniquely awful.
It's a bucket list item of mine to attend a Gathering. Freaky clown outfits, music, amateur wrestling, and a crowd of jovial weirdos??? Sounds like a party to me idk
I must disagree. Juggalos are still poor white trash when they leave an ICP concert or festival. The way they act at shows is exactly how they act at home and at their jobs. Phish heads go back to their white collar jobs and stop pretending to be care-free bodhisattvas.
The "I Fucking Love Science" are often less about loving science than despising wonder and humility, which are signs of corruption by their Great Satan, religion.
ICP are notable for their hustle, building their unpleasant but significant "brand", following, and culture from scratch. I'm reminded of Ani DiFranco, whom I respect enormously as a principled and successful producer and businesswoman, and whose music is like kryptonite for my ears.
You alluded to the beautiful months-long arc in the wake of Miracles, where the Internet derived considerable harsh mirth from ICP's admission of bafflement over how magnets work. Finally someone dug up an old video interview with Richard Feynman, wherein the question is posed. Feynman, master of exposition for a general audience, takes ten minutes to irritably summarize just the domain knowledge required to even consider any theoretical answer. And the Internet did fall silent.
Yeah, I don't want to talk a scientist. You m***f***ers lying and getting me pissed.
I had a brief dalliance with them early on in the pandemic. I'm not a rap guy, and I don't really hold ICP in any high regard on a musical level. But they are fun novelty song purveyors for me, and if people want to be way more into it than that, that's cool with me.
Plus they manged to find Mozarts most dirty piece and cover it (with Jack White). I dont know exactly what to make of it, but I respect it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk2HD8-UtO4
Thanks for writing this, I’ve been saying for years they are the last counterculture because they aren’t trying to gain mainstream acceptance. Meanwhile pretty much every other countercultural signifier has been adopted by groups desperate for cultural hegemony (If they haven’t been homogenized already).
I used to be exactly the type of person to say, “Look, I want to make very clear that I am NOT, nor have ever been, a supporter of ICP, however this song is an absolute bop.” but I just learned to be down with the clown. They do have some tracks that go legitimately hard. I also completely support the clowncore movement. Maybe it's because of a perverse fascination with clown iconography and all things clowns stemming from a severe and irrational phobia of clowns in childhood, but I like seeing what would otherwise be run-of-the-mill e-girls dressing like clowns instead of whatever the fashion du jour is. It does make an otherwise bland, boring, and increasingly homogenized online scene and culture a little more interesting.
Ain't my thing, ain't supposed to be. But if regular folks knew even a bit of how much hard work it is to create and build your own subculture like ICP has, it'd blow their minds. Even building one 1% of that size is damn near lottery-ticket impossible.
Looking back, I can’t help but wonder if we actually hated them for their sincerity.
Small note, they also influenced Homestuck, an absolutely massive multimedia webcomic that may be seen as a snapshot of early internet cultures. Newgrounds hosted a big update once, and its servers were crashed for the effort.
In it an actual insane clown character by the name of Gamza introduced many millions of gen Y and Z to the cultural trappings of ICP, getting high off faygo pies and such. Real recipe, real disgusting.
Unlike the real life ICP he is the principle villain for a chunk of the story and murders several characters. If I recall it was a murderous rage induced by watching an official ICP music video, which he understood as mocking his faith in the dark carnival.
It was a strange saga, and self admittedly "a colossal waste of everyone's time."
https://youtu.be/8LhOLWM1eJQ
I have two friends who are juggalos. They're both from white trash backgrounds; but once you get past the exterior they are both salt of the earth kind of guys, the sort of people whom you know you could call at 2 AM with a crisis and they'd help you out. One of them has told me how the juggalo community got him through some really difficult times.
I'm not a rap fan in general, but one of the juggalo friends made me listen to a LOT of ICP over a weekend, and honestly their stuff doesn't seem any worse than the more socially acceptable rap I've heard. Our friends who are rap fans admitted that ICP's music was pretty good. I think the widespread scorn they get from normal people is mostly because they're obviously white trash, not because their music is uniquely awful.
It's a bucket list item of mine to attend a Gathering. Freaky clown outfits, music, amateur wrestling, and a crowd of jovial weirdos??? Sounds like a party to me idk
I live in LA, I'm really excited to start seeing the down with the clown 15%. I'll keep Faygo on hand.
I must disagree. Juggalos are still poor white trash when they leave an ICP concert or festival. The way they act at shows is exactly how they act at home and at their jobs. Phish heads go back to their white collar jobs and stop pretending to be care-free bodhisattvas.
The "I Fucking Love Science" are often less about loving science than despising wonder and humility, which are signs of corruption by their Great Satan, religion.
The Spin...
Based