Shayne Malone
Shayne Malone is singer/songwriter, and frontman for the band Malone. His music is self-described as classic rock with modern touches, or power ballads.
Htown.co.nz controversy
In May 2007, Shayne's label, EnolaMusic began a thread about his new single, describing it as a 'power rock ballad', and PM-d certain Htown.co.nz members with little regard for their musical tastes.
A newly-registered user called 'Fandangle' then posted the following:
Hey man, that song is pretty good. You don't hear songs of that calibre much these days. You are pretty talented. Are you a Hamilton band? Are you gonna post some dates on this site when you are playin'? I would like to hear the other songs you were mentioning. Do you consider yourself to be Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, etc.
Many members noted the strange tone of the post and Fandangle's newly-joined status, and suspected Fandangle of being involved with EnolaMusic, which they both denied.
The post was very similar to those found on Shayne's own website, such as:
I loved both songs , amazing, you have a great voice, and you're very talented
and:
This song (Who's Your Hero) was very good. The vocals and the guitar went absolutly perfectly together. The main melody was also great. The energy that the guitarists brought through really made me want to mosh.
The next day, another new user, called 'Rockchick', appeared on Htown.co.nz, and slagged off Hamilton bands she admitted she'd never heard before, and bemoaned the lack of professional mainstream rock bands in Hamilton, leading many to suspect she was also involved with EnolaMusic or Shayne Malone.
It was eventually revealed that the IP addresses of EnolaMusic, Rockchick and a number of others were all the same. After this was pointed out, Rockchick departed htown with short parting message.
External links
Maybe PMing people wasn't the correct thing for them to do - especially being new to the site and not even KNOWING people's tastes - but surely THAT can be forgiven. Either way, this site claims to be supportive of local talent - however, looking at the first post ever that EnolaMusic put up, there was no support whatsoever! Their artist was dissed from the start. No support from anyone on this site whatsoever. I think this is just a tight-knit community that is only interested supporting each other and putting down anyone new that comes along.
I work within the IT industry and it's common knowledge that your IP changes every time you log on to your computer, unless you have a static IP - which is generally uncommon. Anyone can type up IP addy's and say they're all from the same person. So really that is a moot point. Maybe Rockchick got sick of the crap? It's all kind of pointless anyway.
