Ariel Marcus Rosenberg, more popularly known as Ariel Pink, is an American musician and singer-songwriter. Drawing his musical inspiration heavily from 1970’s and 1980’s pop music, his works have proven to be very influential among independent musicians from the late 2000’s up to the present. His recordings, a majority of which were recorded at home, were instrumental in revitalizing the lo-fi aesthetic in music.
Pink is also credited as the “godfather” of hypnagogic pop or chillwave music. His landmark recordings like “Baby”, “Another Weekend”, “Lipstick”, and “Round and Round” sparked cultural memory and nostalgia for popular music of the 1980’s and often sparked a dreamy, escapist, and retro-pop sound. His musical craftsmanship was able to galvanize a larger musical movement combining popular media, sounds, and even outmoded technologies of decades past. He is regarded as a major artist of independent music, often resisting genre labels and commercialist conventions from the mainstream music industry.
He shot to fame following the release of his debut album Before Today, which was his very first recording to be done in a professional studio. He released three more successful albums namely, Mature Themes (2012), which was hailed by Pitchfork Magazine as one of the best albums of the past decade, Pom Pom (2014), which was also well received by critics, and Dedicated to Bobby Jameson (2017), which is his most commercially successful album to date.
During an interview back in 2017, Pink was asked about his political leanings and he retorted: "I would say I'm for America in whatever capacity that comes in ... If HIlary Clinton was going to win the 2016 election I would have been like, right on ... as long as we are a nation that comes together then that's all I care about." Furthermore, in an interview done in April 2020, Pink was asked if he was a Republican or a Democrat he replied that he did not believe in “party lines" and merely threw support at "whoever is in charge". For the presidential election of 2020, Pink tweeted his support for Donald Trump.
In January 2021, Pink flew to Washington DC and attended a pro-Trump rally that ended with Trump supporters stroming the US Capitol. Though Pink was in the area primarily to attend a meeting on a project that was not related to politics, he did join the rally to peacefully express his support for President Trump. He left after the president’s speech, returned to his hotel room, and took a nap. He was not part of the group that attacked the US Capitol. He later stated in a Fox interview that Joe Biden won the election fairly and publicly threw support on the newly-elected president.
After the controversy surrounding the siege of the US Capitol by pro-Trump supporters, Pink’s record label, Mexican Summer, decided to end its working relationship with Pink, tweeting a statement that read:
“Due to recent events, Mexican Summer and its staff have decided to end our working relationship with Ariel Rosenberg AKA Ariel Pink moving forward.”
In essence, Pink was fired from his label for practicing one of his basic freedoms and rights as an American - the right to peaceful assembly and the right to express his political views.
Ariel Pink was a major star in a minor record label called Mexican Summer. Mexican Summer is an imprint of Kemado Records, which was co-founded by Andres Santo Domingo and Thomas Clapp. Santo Domingo is the current president of Kemado Records/Mexican Summer.
Andres Santo Domingo, pictured above, is a billionaire Colombian-American who was heir to the wealth of his father, the late Julio Mario Santo Domingo, who used to be the second richest man in Colombia. He wielded great influence among social circles in New York City and had a hand in choosing indie acts to support and carry on his label. With a net worth of $1.8 billion, he also inherited his father’s multi-billion dollar stake at SABMiller, a British multinational beverage and brewing company. SABMiller was later acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev, a Belgian brewing company, where the majority of Santo Domingo’s fortune now lies.
Being the president of Pink’s record label, Santo Domingo had the final nod behind Pink’s sudden termination and departure from Mexican Summer. Together with Santo Domingo, other Mexican Summer/Kemado Records executives who collectively showed Pink the exit door were Thomas Clapp, co-founder and managing director, Keith Abrahamsson who headed the label’s A&R department, and Warren Konigsmark, general manager.
You would think that somebody who inherits $1.8 Billion, such as Andres Santo Domingo, would have the "cojones" to stand up to Cancel Culture. But Andres caved like so many before him, becoming yet another in a long line of Cancel Cowards to bow before a mob of mostly anonymous trolls. Let's hope he gets a lot of pats on the back at cocktail parties for rich kids.
Immediately following the controversy over the attack on the US Capitol where Pink was not even a participant, Pink chose to deactivate his social media accounts for 30 days. He has since resurfaced and his most loyal fans have rallied around him. They have continued to express their admiration and love of Pink’s musical genius, and had expressed support to get all of Pink’s music free from the control of his former label. Mexican Summer has refused to allow PInk to gain full control of his music, even though the lack of support for Pink was very apparent when the artist was still with the label.
Moreover, Pink is also considering going back to touring after the pandemic is over. In addition, he may very well be working on new material despite being a freelance artist at the moment and having no record label to carry his name. Nevertheless, in this day and age where the very existence and role of record labels is already being questioned, and at a time where Youtube and Spotify reign supreme and have completely changed the musician landscape, it is hard to silence the musical enigma that is Ariel Pink.
Because when all is said and done, nothing can really put down a musical genius. Ariel Pink’s legacy in independent music will always stand the test of time, irrespective of the individual’s political leanings and eccentric opinions.
If you are a fan and want to support Ariel Pink, stream his music on Spotify or Apple Music and purchase his albums online at Ariel-Pink.com.
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