The Pop Corporation

Geese shot to fame seemingly overnight, which can only mean one thing – we must don our tinfoil hats and assume something is up.

Or at least, that’s what the vibe is currently amongst the chattering indie classes, who think this must be some ‘industry plant’ thing going on, or in one instance, that the group are a “psyop”, which honestly, should be Geese’s next t-shirt on the merch stand, if they’ve any sense.

Anyway, what Geese seem to be guilty of, is the complete non-story that their PR firm got hired and did a good job, while working on their fourth album.

You’d think a real industry plant would have hit the main stage much earlier than that, right?

‘Getting Killed’ has been such a runaway success, that the group even got to perform some songs on SNL, while scoring heavily on last year’s critic Top 10 lists. Once again, a gaggle of good-looking kids from somewhere cool, have come to save rock n roll from itself. Phew. We almost lost it for a second there, maybe.

One thing is true, is that Geese, or someone at their label, hired a company called Chaotic Good, who know how to make things go viral. It would appear that it worked out for Geese, and that’s pretty much that. It says nothing of whether they’re any good or not, because music fans decide that for themselves – but it does give a reason for their sudden spike.

What Chaotic Good do, interestingly, is create a number of channels and accounts, and effectively use them to drive whatever they’re pushing through them, and work the algorithm. Some songs are used as background music, some as live clips, and burner accounts, comments and the whole ecosystem is run by the PR firm. Is it fabricated? Sure, but most marketing is. Here, it’s “trend simulation”, which might give you a similar icky feeling like the Payola Scandal once did, but honestly, they just got Geese heard, and then everyone figured they quite liked or hated this band.

For sure, there’s something we’re missing about The Whole Geese Thing, but we’re not in the market for a band that wears sunglasses inside and plays slow, detuned music, just like we’re not bothered largely about Sonic Youth or Radiohead – however, you’re not telling us that those bands don’t have their devotees, right?

Besides, a marketing department fudging the algorithm isn’t more grotty than the past, where tastemakers would be rewarded with dubious blow jobs backstage, bags of gear and steak suppers – there’s always been a greasing of the wheel – this one doesn’t really make a mockery of fandom, rather, the machinery of streaming services, and fuck those guys.

Is the problem here, that Geese are a rock band, and there’s still this ridiculous assumption that rock music is somehow holier than pop music, where god given talents and pluck still prevail? Get out of town!

At any rate, there’s been some noise about Geese long before their Coachella shows – Nick Cave said he was a fan ages ago, and sites like Consequence Of Sound fizzed about previous releases – Geese have been around a while, and have their fans. A firm has managed to take them to the next level, just like the showbiz sorts who paid girls to scream at Frank Sinatra.

We might not get the music, we might not even get the fuss, but this whole thing of nudging and winking about a band’s sudden rise is getting boring now. Sure, it’s fun to take the piss out of musicians when you find out their family has blue links on Wikipedia, but it’s not more serious than that.