A revealing look at fame from Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump
What becomes of a former rock star? Fall Out Boy vocalist Patrick Stump last week offered a warts-and-all look at his life since his famous pop-punk band went on a hiatus, writing, "it’s as though I’ve received some big cosmic sign that says I should disappear." The artist in 2011 released the well-received but commercially ignored "Soul Punk," an album of vintage, '80s-inspired pop.
Pop & Hiss is late to Stump's pouring of his heart, but reasoned that it was worth mentioning as suggested reading, as seldom do artists, even in this social-networking-obsessed age, offer such a revealing look at the effects of success. Fall Out Boy was always a band that took a direct approach with its fans, albeit one that was largely accompanied by a wink.
Promotion for the act's 2008 album, "Folie à Deux," was delivered with a mix of self-referentialism and self-depreciation. The video for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race," for instance, made a tabloid mockery of the band's history, just one example of the band beating critics to the punch and obscuring the line between art and artist.
Yet did such openness create a too-close-for-comfort relationship with his fan base?
