For Six Hours, Barry Manilow Was Punk Rock.
The news that Barry Manilow wasn't really leaving Spotify was disappointing. I've been around long enough to remember when Barry was at the top of the charts with "Mandy" and other ballads he wrote that all the cool kids claimed to hate ...while his records flew off the shelves. I wasn't a huge fan, but I've always liked the guy. He's a likeable person, and on the one hand I'm thinking, "Go on, Barry. Do it anyway." And on the other, I'm thinking, "How dare somebody try to back him into this? Why did somebody pick on Barry Manilow of all people?"
Tim Grierson does a great job of capturing the moment, all while being utterly fair to Manilow. Barry Manilow is a nice guy. He's just never nominated himself for badass of the day. Disappointing, but there is nothing wrong with that.
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/barry-manilow-joe-rogan-spotify-tweet
The world isn’t so cruel about Manilow anymore — and let’s not forget that a lot of that scorn probably was tied to homophobia, which prompted him to deny he was gay most of his life, finally coming out in 2017. But it’s not like you see a lot of “Actually, Barry Manilow Slaps” think-pieces, either. And yet, for a short time on Friday, Manilow seemed pretty awesome. It only lasted about six hours, and he actually had nothing to do with it. But it was a fun moment nonetheless. [snip]
To be clear, Manilow is not a “bad person” by any stretch, but a similar phenomenon occurs in pop culture whenever artists we write off as “lame” end up being cooler than we expect. Neil Young has made a career out of flipping off people in power, but nobody expects Manilow, whose brand is comfort and warmth, to protest Spotify’s support of a noxious anti-vaxxer who should never, ever talk about race. And yet, for six hours, it seemed like that was the case. It was easy to feel heartened. If someone as milquetoast as Barry Manilow, who has about 2.8 million monthly listeners on the service, was willing to speak out, it only underlined how dangerous it is for major media entities to spread misinformation on their platforms. Whether it’s Mitt Romney or Barry Manilow, the feeling is the same: If this guy gets it, why doesn’t everybody else? [snip]
But I also felt kinda bad for Manilow. For most of his very successful, highly lucrative career, he’s given uncomplicated pleasure to millions of listeners, never rocking the boat or, frankly, rocking at all. But for six hours on Friday, he was a rebel, an advocate, a man of principle. (Just imagine what all those 1970 punk bands who detested what he represented would have thought about that.) [more]
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most spectacular drummer of ALL TIME.
RIP Neil Peart. 
If you've ever not attended a rally or got out and done something because of your job, you have an idea what's going on here.
Barry: "I want to pull my music to support science and destroy misinformation speech."
Barry's wife and family and hanger's on: "Yeah but what about our rent and car payments and handouts and trips and everything else."
So maybe Barry was strong, but his posse and family were weak.
There are an awful lot of "rockers" still getting money from Spotify and shitting all over science. 
