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I will copy-paste this from Wikipedia:

The terms top, bottom and versatile are used to describe roles for the duration of a sexual act, or may be used more broadly as a psychological, social, and sexual identity, as well as indicating one's usual preference.

Top is a partner who adopts the dominant role while the Bottom is a partner who adopts the receptive role in a sexual act.

I chose this analogy because... well, it was fun to read.

There are tops and bottoms in last.fm too and in the entire web but I will focus in last.fm for now.


At the Nightwish shoutbox a user called LadyWongraven said:

Opinions are one thing, being rude is something completely different. Clearly you are not mature enough to realise just because u have an opinion does not mean one should express it


There are different postures and tendencies when it comes to express opinions in the web, in this case, about music.

The online life can be as important to some people as daft or plain to some, the value of it depends on the person but one thing that we can be sure of is that online life can never be as important as real life and if it is then that person has a problem.

Anyway, online life is not as important and for some, it is not important at all, what you do in internet stays in internet. So it is easy for some to just go to last.fm, register and then start visiting the shoutboxes expressing their opinions in a way they'd never do in real life, we all have a different type of courage online, they can't see us, they don't know us, they don't go with us to work, it doesn't matter if you talk in a way or in other, you can just delete your account and start all over again like a new user.

So it is very easy to express your opinion and be done with it and express it in any way you may possibly want.

There is the valid point of "freedom of speech" you can express your like or dislike on certain artist because, well, you can! And the thing, as I said, works different in internet because you are not afraid of anyone, they can't do any actual harm to you.

All this is good and fun, but like I said in the Nightwish shoutbox,

The difference is settled not in the action but in the reaction.

Meaning, the real harm, the real importance of this trouble of "expressing your opinion" is not the actual comment but the effect it causes on people. And we don't really care about this, we don't know them.

When a person reads a bad comment you just made of this certain artist, that person can be catalogued as either Top or Bottom.

Being a Top or Bottom may depend on age, maturity or obsession, in my opinion.

A typical top would laugh at you, call you a fag and virtually kick your ass out of their shoutbox. They don't care about what you think, they actually enjoy your trolling, gives them something to do online (fighting that is).

A typical bottom would get chocked, take a deep breath and then close the window and immediately go to their artist' website to see some pictures of them or put the itunes on with them, their goal is to remember why they like their own artist.

Now, you may find this pretty weird, how can you get so affected by something someone you don't know says, by someone who probably hasn't even heard over 1 song of the artist they criticize. They do.

As I said, there can be 3 reasons to be bottom, "age, maturity or obsession". My brother of 12 years old can get really sentimental when I tell him that his favourite band, Deathstars is repetitive and childish. He doesn't know enough music of his own (that he had discovered by his own) he hasn't even been to his first concert.


Maturity doesn't necessarily come with age. I've met more than one person with the same taste they had when they were 15. Metalheads, most of them. They won't accept other musical genres.

And obsession, which is the most typical. Meaning that you take so serious this band or artist, and they are so important for you that even a "I don't like the shoes he's wearing in this video" affects you.

I said in the Arctic Monkeys shoutbox:

The band can be perfect and do everything they are supposed to do but if they don't, if there's something we don't like, if there's something wrong, in our opinions, we shouldn't express it because ultimately it won't change a thing. I can assure you that the members don't read this shoutbox, criticism is made to someone who can actually make a difference and that's the way the human and society can actually grow, but these kind of discussions are for nothing. Specially if we know nothing about music, about their very lives.

As radical as it may sound.


And ultimately if you don't like the music, the band, the way they pronounce "dark" (I swear that's my only problem with Placebo!) their looks if you want! You just don't listen to the artist, expressing your opinion is useless unless you express it to the band, to their managers, etc. What good can do if you just discuss it with the fans?


And when there are bottoms reading your comments you do make the difference of making them question their own likes.

If they are weak enough, they deserve it, you may say. Perhaps, but who are you to decide what they deserve?

And this is the problem of expressing your opinions.

Opinions won't get forbidden from last.fm, that goes against a lot of rules. But you should think twice before posting them.






3 months top artists:

The Last Shadow Puppets, Arctic Monkeys, The Vines, Placebo, The Beatles, The Libertines, Oasis, Athlete, Reverend and The Makers, Late of the Pier, Stereophonics, The View, Starsailor, dredg, Graham Coxon, Rammstein

Overall top artists:


The Last Shadow Puppets, Arctic Monkeys, Nightwish, Tristania, The Gathering,
Haggard, Ayreon, Octavia Sperati, Deathstars, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Leaves' Eyes

I don't give a heck if you don't like my music



(Ignore this please) Connect you mother fuckers! CONNECT!!! Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys Arctic Monkeys - I officially give up. My favourite band won't connect, hahaha.