Art & Creativity Quote by Jonathan Davis

It’s a brutal metaphor because it’s not trying to be polite; it’s trying to be accurate in the way artists whisper to each other backstage. When Jonathan Davis says the music industry can make you feel like a prostitute, he’s describing an economy of intimacy: the sense that your voice, body, pain, and identity aren’t just expressed, they’re sold - packaged into a product that has to be desirable on demand. The sting is in “make you feel”: he’s pointing to coercion that doesn’t always look like coercion. You can sign the deal, walk into the session, smile for the camera, and still feel traded.

Coming from Davis, this lands inside a late-90s/early-2000s rock ecosystem that monetized confession as a genre. Nu metal didn’t merely tolerate vulnerability; it turned it into a marketable texture. The industry’s genius - and its cruelty - is how it reframes self-expression as content strategy. Your trauma becomes a hook. Your authenticity becomes a branding asset. Your refusal becomes “difficult.”

The line also captures the subtle indignities: label notes that translate into “be more radio,” managers who treat your boundaries like inefficiencies, press cycles that demand a version of you that’s legible and sellable. It’s not a claim that making music is shameful; it’s an indictment of a system that rewards compliance and punishes autonomy while pretending it’s all passion and opportunity. The metaphor works because it’s less about sex than about consent, power, and who gets paid for your selfhood.