What Attack of the Juggalos Means for Tila Tequila's Music Career

By Jason Newman Posted Aug 18th 2010 01:37PM

Earlier this year, pop singer, quasi-celebrity and obsolete social networking site spokesmodel Tila Tequila tried to revamp her image from a cooing, slutty nymph to a coquettish, sophisticated chanteuse named Miss Tila, presumably to shed the not-entirely-inaccurate conception that she was all image and no substance.

It didn't work.

Last weekend, hip-hop horrorcore group Insane Clown Posse (ICP) hosted their 11th annual Gathering of the Juggalos, a 4-day music festival in Cave In Rock, IL, that, until last weekend, was a relatively peaceful affair, where fans of the band -- known as "Juggalos" -- could congregate, get drunk and high and celebrate their musical insularity.

As you've probably heard by now, when Tequila took the stage late Friday night as part of the Ladies Night showcase, she was pelted with an array of objects, including beer bottles, rocks, firecrackers, sex toys and a watermelon allegedly filled with urine and human feces. A wall of security guards and Tom Green, who came onstage to try and pacify the crowd, couldn't stop the Juggalos, who forced Tequila offstage and subsequently followed the singer to her trailer to shake the vehicle, bust windows and cause general mayhem and harassment for Tequila and staff.

It's hard to pick winners and losers when a woman with no discernible talent gets attacked by a group unashamed to toss urine at a performer. As A.V. Club pointed out, "When the Juggalos attack Tila Tequila, nobody wins except the Internet." Yet for Tequila, it's another painful step towards the realization that she has a long, most likely Sisyphean, climb to any sort of musical respectability. (The total content of her record label's website is an outdated ad for a free Chipotle burrito. That pretty much sums up her musical career in one image.)

Why the events of the evening played out the way they did is fairly straightforward: Juggalos are devoted fans of Insane Clown Posse and any artist on the group's label, Psychopathic Records. Psychopathic artists all tend to swim in the same pool of gruesome lyrics, facial makeup and hard hip-hop beats. The further you go from the center -- like Tequila's superficial, saccharine hip-hop and pop -- the less tolerant Juggalos will be of your music. As Tequila herself told E!, staff members told her camp that because of the highly-charged atmosphere, she shouldn't go on stage.

Whether it was wise for Tequila to take the stage in the first place, though, is a different matter altogether. Of the new crop of reality stars-turned-singers, Tequila is far from the only one facing difficulties -- to say the least. Before 'The Hills' star Heidi Montag released her debut album, 'Superficial,' earlier this year, she told Entertainment Weekly, "I think it's gonna do great. I have a million Twitter followers and they're all very excited. So that's at least a million people right there."

Total first week sales: 658 copies.

So goes the new paradigm: The belief that online fame translates into tangible, real-world success. (It hasn't stopped Montag from going into the studio to record a second album for reasons that remain unknown to everyone but herself.) For further proof, see the disaster that was 'Perez Hilton Presents!', the 2009 concert tour organized and endorsed by the celebrity blogger that had to virtually give away free tickets just to make the venues look semi-crowded.

With Tequila's name more in the news this past week than the entire previous year, maybe she's perpetuating the "any publicity is good publicity" mantra that helped launch her from unknown to ubiquitous years ago. Admittedly, the festival was an unique performing opportunity for the singer, who's more used to performing in front of actual fans than a mob that, if reports are true, had been planning this attack for a while. Still, consider this a fairly large setback in Tequila's (or any other reality star, for that matter) efforts to establish any sort of respectable musical career.

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Comments

(19)

Wednesday 18 August

By Tequila

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Well here's the deal. iTunes thought she would sell a boat load of songs too because she had so many friends on Myspace. It goes to show you you can't fool the public into believing that because you're in the press you're good...Paris anyone?

By tpgbart

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what a bunch of hillbillies!!!!! even tho tequilla is a tramp(media and otherwise)...you wouldnt see this kind of crap at a Jeff Beck concert..or any other REAL musicians for that matter

By kevin daniels

skanky, skanky, skanky

By Tom

This is just a small bump in the road for a major talent like Tila Tequila. Some are saying she's the next Whitney Houston.

By okc5150

AAAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Thursday 19 August

By Geekoid

Is that you, Tom Green?

By Chappel

What do you expect from a group of inbred jugheads? Those clowns would have to evolve for a thousand years just to be white trash.

By Christian

Tila who?!

I think you missed out a couple of letters there... "re"

By scarrrrrred

Is it just me, or does this tequila thing look like a cross dressing vietnamese boy from outter space? Seriously, is it even female?? yuckyuckyuck!

By ead17

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"coquettish, sophisticated chanteuse named Miss Tila," A coquet is not a sophisticate. Tila Tequila was neither, nor ever will be. She is merely a trollop, a nuisance and a menace.

By salmo60

The funniest thing in this whole article is the use of the noun "Sisyphean" in the same paragraph talking about the "Juggalos". Do you think anyone at a ICP concert knows who or what Sisyphus was and what Sisyphean means? I don't think so.
Tila Nguyen aka Tequila made a very bad mistake trying to perform at the Gathering of the Juggalos. They, Juggalos, don't appreciate garbage music and respond in kind. I can not and will not condone that behavior but when you go into the lion's den expect to be bitten.

By xxrosexofxsharyn

Ok, I don't like her, but what they did is totally uncalled for.

By mw

She is one of the skankiest,nastiest woman on the planet. Her and Lindsay should be BFF's

According to people who were there, the crowd was upset over Tila dumping George Clooney. I can understand their being upset, I certainly was, but I can't see throwing rocks at her.

Can't... stop... laughing!

By Mob Attack Not Funny

End Insane Clown Posse concerts before someone is killed. This is not funny. Where are the police during these drug fueled mob attacks? Who is responsible for the safety of the performers and everyone else? Who has to die before this is stopped?

By eddie

hopefully icp. we can all dream right?

How about Tila Tequila, Justin Beiber, Kanye West, the Jonas Brothers, and, any other talentless douchebags we manage to convince that showing up to a Juggalo event is a good idea?

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