Staff Writer: Rena Danho
Email: rdanho@umassd.edu
Rex Orange County is a big name in the indie alternative music scene. Whether you call him Rex Orange County or Alex O’Connor, he has made a big name for himself and is recognized by many.
Numerous people turn to Alex’s music, as he is called a “comfort artist.” This means that whenever things are going south, Alex’s music is always there for the listener to come to.
So you can imagine the surprise when the recent news about him came out.
Social media blew up immediately when fans discovered that Rex Orange County had been charged with 6 counts of sexual assault in London.
Fans were devastated, and on Tik Tok, many videos of fans throwing away merchandise and even pulling stickers or posters off of walls and different surfaces quickly started trending.
Alex, as far as we know, hasn’t come out to say anything about this.
All fans have gotten for an answer was that due to ‘personal’ issues his tour was coming to an early end. Fans eventually put things together and realized what the ‘personal issues’ were.
As said before, fans are absolutely devastated and some don’t know how to react. However, sadly we have seen this before in the music industry.
For a long time, people have tried to “cancel” Brendon Urie due to sexual assault allegations being brought up every now and again. The latest resurfacing of this information coincides with the release of his new album Viva Las Vengeance.
I bring Brendon Urie up because Pan!c at the Disco had one of the biggest fan bases in the emo scene. It was famous during the times when bands like Fall Out Boy and Paramore were huge.
But, it’s not like that anymore. If you look at his Viva Las Vengeance Tour tickets, you can see that they aren’t selling like they used to. No sections were selling out and original tickets from Ticketmaster were still being sold.
Brendon Urie was never brought to court for all of the allegations against him. But, the fan base for Pan!c at the Disco crumbled underneath Brendon’s actions. He went from an artist who would sell out arenas as big as TD Garden to not being able to sell out at all.
What is happening to Brendon Urie is very similar to what could happen to Alex as time goes on. Although Brendon was never brought to court, Alex will be. And he will be pleading not guilty.
A court date has been set for January 3rd, 2023.
No matter what artist it is, it’s always sad to see this happen knowing that you or your loved ones adored their music. After tragedies like this occur, those artists’ music almost leaves a bad taste in the mouth of their fans, leading them to reconsider if they can support the artist at all.
However, for now, we’ll have to wait and see what happens to Alex in court and the final verdict of these charges. In the meantime, all we can do is wait.