Rob Chapman vs KDH vs Riff City: Prince Andrew approach to PR

[Kiwi]

OK it's three months old but I've only just discovered it.  Some of you might have missed it too. 

TDLR:

Basically an attention seeking youtuber called KDH goes after a few online personalities on his channel, including Rob Chapman, like some vigilante undercover tabloid journalist.  In Chapman's case, KDH claims to have exposed various perceived issues with both Chapman and Chapman Guitars, some of which may have some basis in truth and others didn't (with the benefit of hindsight).  Some of the points covered include QC issues and speculation dressed up as sensationalist fact around Chapman moving from Riff City to Guitar Centre as US representatives.

Chapman's online following see red and go after KDH like a blood thirsty vigilante mob. Chapman does nothing which is seen by wider internet as an abuse of 'power' after KDH removes said video (but has since reposted it).

Chapman issues an apology video which give's Prince Andrew's Epstein interview a run for it's money. 

Riff City subsequently post their own version of events, after Chapman apparently deletes their response on his vid.

Cue every other guitarist-youtuber out there jumps on the band wagon posting reaction videos criticising Chapman for lacking in sincerity and being more than a little economical with the truth, if not bypassing it altogether, particularly around the Riff City thing.

KDH subsequently posts a pointed parody of Chapman's apology, checking off every point on a video by Pewdipie on how not to apologise. 

Chapman can do nothing apart from sucking up the burn and chalking it up to experience.

This is the internet ladies and gentlemen, how different things are from 20 years ago.  Toss shit about and everyone directly involved gets hit.  The rest of the world jumps in on it salaciously, revelling in the smell and texture like it was Chanel face cream.

 One day my grandkids (IF, and that's a big IF, I survive into my late 70's-80's) are going to wonder what the world was like without internet in the same way I wonder what it was like without TV.

[ezbass]

Never heard of KDH and, from the above, I’m in no rush to look him up. I know of Rob Chapman and seems like a nice guy, although I think he often struggles in front of the camera for sincerity (he’s an ace player, not a personality). Rob should’ve just called this internet turd out to go mano y mano in the ring (RC is bit a of a martial arts practitioner IIRC) and cleaned his clock. It’s not like there isn’t precedent for this.

[Kiwi]

5 hours ago, ezbass said:

 (RC is bit a of a martial arts practitioner IIRC)

Yes but different styles of Kung Fu, which tend to be highly stylised. Anyone with a background in MMA or even Muay Thai would have made a meal of him.  BTW having a Dad who practices acupuncture is no substitute for living in China.  That's like saying 'my Dad has a PhD in Medical Ethics, so I know all about that science stuff'.

[ezbass]

I still say get in the ring, Rob is a fairly big unit and it’d make a change from keyboard/video warrior wars. Perhaps they could arm themselves with a guitar of their choice? I’d go Firebird (good reach) .

[Kiwi]

Hulk fists and wet celery...or a spot of mud wrestling as they did in the old days, with onlookers throwing guinea coins and making obscene or humiliating demands.

[Skinnyman]

38 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

Hulk fists and wet celery...or a spot of mud wrestling as they did in the old days, with onlookers throwing guinea coins and making obscene or humiliating demands.

Count me in!

[Kiwi]

10 minutes ago, Skinnyman said:

Count me in!

Any excuse for dirty writhing for money!



 

[Skinnyman]

40 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

Any excuse for dirty writhing for money!



 

What can I say? 

I was young and needed the cash. 

[Skinnyman]

12 hours ago, Kiwi said:

This is the internet ladies and gentlemen, how different things are from 20 years ago.  Toss shit about and everyone directly involved gets hit.  The rest of the world jumps in on it, revelling in the smell and texture like it was Chanel face cream.

I just watched the KDH video and some of the Chapman rebuttal.

Then I started to lose the will to live...

You're right - this is the internet in the 21st century. What was supposed to be the information superhighway has turned out to be an open sewer where we get to watch all sorts of random 5h1t flow past.  

I must admit that I didn’t really care for “Chappers” presentation  style when he was just doing them for Andertons (I still don’t care for their videos - good informative material rendered unwatchable by schoolboys as far as I’m concerned) but I get that that’s just my opinion and, if I’m honest, I’m really not his target demographic. It seems like a lot of people like his stuff so good luck to him. I hadn’t heard of Chapman guitars and I’m not really that interested in them - but, again, good luck to him. The market will decide if they’re any good or not - personally, I think he’s going to struggle but, hey, at least he’s giving it a go.

But whatever the accuracy of his statements, KDH is symptomatic of so many YouTubers these days - cynicism, criticism and sarcasm presented as “investigative journalism”. I’d have more interest if he’d bothered to check the spelling of “challenge” and could think of another way of editing his material without trying (badly) to be a guitar-centric version of Paul Joseph Watson; Shouty, outraged and sensationalist.

It’s easy to criticise anyone. It’s easy to take the p155, to lampoon, belittle and sneer - and pretend that you’re a consumer champion or exposing some hideous corporate malfeasance.

But if he gets a following and people are happy for him to be outraged on their behalf then, again, good luck to the guy.

Welcome to the 21st century

 

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 01/04/2020 at 06:46, Kiwi said:

 One day my grandkids (IF, and that's a big IF, I survive into my late 70's-80's) are going to wonder what the world was like without internet in the same way I wonder what it was like without TV.

It's already happening. My brother's kids are ten and thirteen, and they already cannot conceive of a pre-internet world; they were born on 2006 and 2010. This year my final-year undergraduates were born in 1998/1999, and none of them remember dial-up internet. I'm 45 now; I first used the web in the Summer of 1995; I was 22. There are already adults who can't remember, or weren't even born in a pre-web era and can't begin to conceive of it. My parents, both in their early-mid 70s, remember television as 'new' to them  in the early 50s. My mother has a very vivid memory of the first time she saw a television at the age of two, in 1949. I believe that the technology your grandkids will be unable to imagine a world without is likely to be something we don't expect to see in our lifetimes - like convincing VR. The interesting thing will be whether they know what TV (as traditional, linear broadcasting) or landline phones are, as I don't think either of those will last much beyond the next decade, if at all. Contemporaries of mine have had to explain the concept of a rotary phone to their kids when they see one in a museum.... they were the norm when I was a kid until I was about six in 80/81 or so - and we were the first anyone knew in our village to have a push-button phone because my dad worked for BT at the time (or GPO Telephones as it then still was). MY brother's kids don't see the point of landlines - phoning a building to see if the person to whom they wish to speak is in it rather than just phoning their mobile... 

[EdwardMarlowe]

On 01/04/2020 at 15:32, ezbass said:

I still say get in the ring, Rob is a fairly big unit and it’d make a change from keyboard/video warrior wars. Perhaps they could arm themselves with a guitar of their choice? I’d go Firebird (good reach) .

Gibsons are too delicate at the neck joint to use in anger like that. I'd opt for a Telecaster every time. Good enough for Keef.... 
 

 

[Jazz Club]

I’m afraid it’s 

 

[EdwardMarlowe]

TBH, my professional opinion (as an academic lawyer and something of a specialist in defamation), unless you're in a position like Chapman's and you're advised that there's an actionable defamation, I wouldn't consier it necessarily wise to acknowledge that sort of criticism publicly. Rather than a rebuttal, he'd probably have been better off playnig the bigger man and telling his own online following to leave the kid alone, a la Mary Beard.