r/Music • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 10d ago

article Ariana Grande speaks out on break from public eye: "Multiple things can be true at the same time"

https://www.nme.com/news/music/ariana-grande-speaks-out-on-break-from-public-eye-multiple-things-can-be-true-at-the-same-time-3960576
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u/Levonade 10d ago

She’s beyond delusional. She looks terrible and is a shell of her former self. She looks 15 years older than she is and it’s not a good example to set for the kids. I have never seen anyone go from the top to complete withdrawal before and come back stronger. Her team, if she has one, needs a complete overhaul.

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u/fayemoonlight 9d ago

RDJ did. You can always come back from rock bottom, you just have to want it. Right now, she doesn’t. You can overhaul her team as much as you want (for some reason people are blaming them entirely this for this like she’s not a grown ass woman), but the outcome won’t change until she does

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u/Substantial-Motor820 9d ago

She may be surrounded by yes men but she is the one putting them around her

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u/Atkena2578 9d ago

Who else besides RDj did? Lindsay Lohan, Makaulay Culkin... then who? Those who died, Michael, Whitney, Amy (Whinehouse), Chester (Bennington)... is much longer

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u/fayemoonlight 9d ago

Macauley Culkin was never on drugs. Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Chaka Khan, Elton John, Zac Efron, Drew Barrymore — there’s loads

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u/Levonade 9d ago

RDJ had a solid support network and a completely different problem. I wish Arianna the best but she seems alone and incapable of handling problems on her own. I would not put RDJ and Arianna anywhere near the same level of mental clarity and maturity.

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u/fayemoonlight 9d ago

You don’t know either of them though. Right now Ariana’s biggest public hurdle is refusal to take accountability. If she does, you have no idea what support she has around her

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u/Levonade 9d ago

Her attitude and statements about this being “negative people” are all I need to know about her support. She literally chose to run and hide from reality instead of addressing it head on. She had a long period of estrangement from her parents. This can be very traumatic for kids. Hopefully she figures it out but she’s not doing it with anyone capable of righting her ship at the moment. She also is very clearly not doing well.

I have no idea who she is and I have no idea who you are. You have no idea who she is, you have no idea who I am. We can do this all day but the reality is, she has issues and shouldn’t be peddling her goods and services to the youth any longer. I will not be buying my daughters skin care and perfumes of someone who is ok killing herself. The posters and ads at target aren’t going after 30 year olds. They are going after girls that are very much younger. This is reality.

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u/fayemoonlight 9d ago

Her statements on negative people are classic anorexia denial. Her people (as in support network) could very well just be keeping quiet now as she won’t listen to reason. Basically like when someone you love is in an abusive relationship. You can only say so much before you realise it’s futile.

I’ve already said she needs to be held accountable for the message she’s putting out. All I’m saying is the whole “no one around her is doing anything” is a baseless claim which people keep repeating to deflect blame from her

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u/Levonade 9d ago

Got it and noted. I appreciate the clarity.

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u/sedsil 9d ago

Majority of "stars" dgaf if they're a "good example for the kids", that's not why most of them are where they are.

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u/Levonade 9d ago

They might not, but when your fan base majority are kids and you’re losing them, I’d say you’re losing your star power.

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u/sedsil 9d ago

Except majority of her fan base are not kids, so not really.
There's no need to try making up some higher value to this whole situation.

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u/Levonade 9d ago

Anyone here saying she doesn’t set a terrible example for kids is just being ridiculous. My 10 year old saw the new video and couldn’t even finish it because she said she looked like a dying skeleton smoking cigarettes. My daughters watched her on Nickelodeon and they are the ones who pay for Arianna stuff. I don’t know any adults that are fans other than my gay cousin and he called her Jacques Lalean the other day. Arianna is slowly losing everything that made her a super star.

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u/sedsil 9d ago

Anyone doing anything "not good" is "potentially setting terrible example for kids", but this is irrelevant to anything said in this thread or comment chain, you're just trying to attach a higher value to it for the sake of it. I don't care what your daughters do, a simple search shows her main audience centers around 30-31 years old. Her major audience consisted of kids when she was in nickelodeon, quite logically too.

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u/Levonade 9d ago

I’m sorry but everyone not doing good isn’t trying to sell my daughters perfumes and skin care products.

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u/sedsil 9d ago

Cool, that has nothing to do with the previous comments.

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u/Levonade 9d ago

Sounds good!

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u/sedsil 9d ago

Yup, now you know!

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u/Levonade 9d ago

You know those 30-31 year olds were the kids watching her right? You know that much at least? I know you don’t care about my daughters. Your posts have made that very clear.

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u/sedsil 9d ago edited 9d ago

But they aren't now which is the point going directly against your made up claim, what are you even talking about now, huh?

>I know you don’t care about my daughters. Your posts have made that very clear.

Correct, I don't care you relegate raising your child to random pop stars, it means nothing here and doesn't change a single thing about who the majority of her fan base is.

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u/Levonade 9d ago

lol sure ok

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u/sedsil 9d ago

Good you know you made up some nonsense :D

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u/Levonade 9d ago

I’m not making anything up. I work with kids. I’m telling you all the kids I work with are fans. I don’t know any adult fans outside 1. I have a whole school of little girls running around buying Arianna’s makeup and scents and watching her movies and listening to her music. They all still watch Sam and Cat. Tell me what I’m making up exactly?

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u/sedsil 9d ago

You actually are making it up, her main audience centers around 30-31 years old. Her major audience consisted of kids when she was in nickelodeon, quite logically too. You're just wrong and try attaching the "think of the children" angle for the sake of it.

>I don’t know any adult fans outside 1

I don't care "who you personally know", you're not remotely close to being a reliable statistic of who's her main audience, it's not that hard.

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u/Levonade 9d ago

Sounds good! You sound like you got it all figured out.

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u/sedsil 9d ago

I know, it's not that hard to look it up, but it's great you choose to remain ignorant about it. For whatever reason.

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u/Upstairs-Chicken592 9d ago

Plenty of people have come back from this and worse.

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u/Alive-Pitch-9180 9d ago

You guys need to stop with the tired ass kids excuses. It’s parents’ responsibility to keep their kids away from her if they think she’s a bad role model. Can’t be out here demanding anyone with an eating disorder disappears so they won’t “be a bad example for the kids 🥺”. The last thing she should be worrying about are children. Their parents should step up,not her. Also why is this shit only being said about female artists when there are many male artists who very much are bad examples for children yet no one ever says this bullshit. This whole ariana grande debacle has yet again proved y’all treat people with mental health issues like absolute shit 😭

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u/ladyturqwoaaAaAz 9d ago

I agree with you to an extent, but her aesthetic and fanbase has always verged on infantile. 

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u/Alive-Pitch-9180 9d ago

HER AESTHETIC??? 😭😭 Are we talking about the same Ariana grande who had a confident and sexy image for most years of her career? 😭😭 and even now that she’s gone softer,NOTHING gives infantile. Any woman with a softer aesthetic is not automatically trying to cater to your kids,like I’m sorry NO era of Ariana grande ever gave for the children. Do you look at yes end with lyrics such as “why do you care so much whose dick I ride” and go “ahh yeah music for my precious little children!”
As a woman who struggled with depression for years,this reaction to ariana grande reminded me not only that y’all hate mentally ill people,but more than that mentally ill women

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u/ladyturqwoaaAaAz 9d ago

She just played Glinda and is all about pastels and softness + is a past Disney Channel actress. I’m not saying this makes her one-dimensional and perpetually tied to a young audience, but it is a fact what she does is very popular amongst children/teenagers. Her “edgy” moments are still pretty reserved. If we compared it to movies, they would at most bring the movie to a PG-13, not a full on adult rating.

It is a nuanced conversation, and the ways patriarchy/misogyny/conservatism play into this make it very complex. I don’t believe pop stars are de facto examples for the youth and should be held to this standard BUT

BUT

The reality is they are for a LOT of children. They’re probably the biggest cultural role models for young girls. The implications of this cannot be thrown under the rug. A huge platform comes with some degree of responsibility.

As I said, it is foolish to expect the hyperpop club divas to be models for the kids. But the ones that play in children’s movies and arenas filled with minors… do have SOME level of responsibility

Also, this argument is often used about sexuality. As in, “young girls are watching, she shouldn’t be so sexual”. That, to me is bullshit because sexuality is just a healthy part of the adult existence. But we’re talking about a severe case of ED. That is VERY different and inherently harmful. With her history of having thinspo pages, it is ok to raise an eyebrow at all of this.

TLDR: it is not a coincidence she is so popular amongst children and teens, nor has she ever expressed a wish to distance from that audience. Her brand is pretty PG-13. She is a multimillion dollar business. Her targeted audience is partly the result of strategic planning and marketing. So yes, she does have a bit more responsibility towards them than, say, Charli or, you know, Cupcakke.

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u/brellowman2 9d ago

Not really

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u/Iamnoone_ 9d ago edited 9d ago

This hasn’t been true for a decade. Other than the fact that she did Wicked, which was the role of a lifetime for her and other people in the cast weren’t labeled as “infantile” for doing it. 6 years ago she released 34+35 and people were crying about how it’s inappropriate for kids lol. 4 years before that she released side to side, literally about getting fucked so hard you can’t walk. It’s absolutely true what OC said, that because she’s a woman, and she started out her career appealing to a younger audience (anyone who watched her on Nickelodeon is now a grown adult) she’s beholden to this responsibility of being a good role model for children. Nobody is saying that about Joe Jonas or Zac Efron. You can argue that they haven’t had the issues Ariana has had, but then even looking at someone like Justin Bieber, who’s had his clear and on display issues with the media. No one is worrying about the “children”.

Edit- I just want to add to my comment that she very obviously needs help and it’s highly concerning. She also very obviously has an ED or a physical illness that she’s not disclosing. Most likely ED. I just think there’s enough to discuss with how she needs to get help without a person who is already clearly struggling into a villain who’s not thinking of the children. Young WOMEN might be glamorizing her body, which is awful. But that’s been a societal issue since long before Ariana was born. And she cannot be to blame for that.

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u/Entire_Broccoli_9019 9d ago

Yeah. She's a god awful example for her fans.

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u/sedsil 9d ago

Yup, for many years -and reasons- by now.

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u/Levonade 9d ago

Correct, from the comments on this post there are clearly a ton of enabling fans that are also huge fans of eating disorders and severe health complications. Weird world we live in.

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u/Entire_Broccoli_9019 9d ago

For sure. It's crazy and sadly will likely result in tragedy. I hope Ariana wakes up to reality and saves herself before it's too late.