Opinion: Dead Rock Stars Shouldn’t Tweet

It’s
Election
Day,
and
musicians
on
both
sides
of
the
political
spectrum
are
busy
posting
on
social
media,
encouraging
their
fans
to
vote.

That
includes
artists
such
as

Bruce
Springsteen,

Ted
Nugent,

Pearl
Jam,

Tom
Petty
and

Aretha
Franklin.
Which
is
great
overall
but

a
bit
weird
in
the
last
two
cases,
seeing
as
how
Petty

died
in
2017
and

Franklin
in
2018.

As
a
co-worker
explained,
it
can
easily
get “weird
and
gross”
when
social
media
accounts
that
were
once
actually
used
by
an
artist
remain
active
after
their
death
without
proper
acknowledgment
as
to
who
is
now
actually
writing
the
posts.

Things
get
particularly
weird
when
the
accounts
post
about
other
newly
deceased
rock
stars.
Take
this
recent
example,
where “Janis
Joplin,”
who

died
in
1970,
pays
tribute
to

Grateful
Dead
bassist

Phil
Lesh,
who
died
just
last
month,
54
years
later.
There’s
nothing
in
this
post
making
it
clear
that
it’s
not
Joplin
saying
this,
and
identifying
who
did
actually
write
the
tribute.

There’s
a
simple
solution:
Change
the
account
names
of
deceased
celebrities
by
adding “estate”
or “team”
or “management”
or “family”
or
whatever
is
the
most
appropriate.
And
include
a
quick
author
credit
at
the
end
of
each
post
for
further
clarity.
(The

Prince
estate
does
this
second
part
correctly
already,
as
you
can
see

in
their
tribute
to
Quincy
Jones.)

If
you
can
find
a
quote
from
Joplin
about
the
person
or
subject
in
question,
great,
use
that
and
let
us
know
it’s
her
talking
and
when
she
said
it.
Inactive
bands
are
a
slightly
different
situation,
but
one
that
still
requires
clarity.
The

Doors‘
official
Twitter
/
X
account
also

posted
a
tribute
to
Lesh,
without
saying
if
it
was
one
or
both
of
surviving
members
Robby
Krieger
and
John
Densmore,
or
the
estate
who
was
paying
tribute.

Admittedly,
today
of
all
days
we
as
a
nation
have
bigger
fish
to
fry
–

deciding
the
future
of
the
free
world
and
all
–
but
once
that’s
all
settled
let’s
add
this
easy
fix
to
the
to-do
list.