this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2024
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For example, I personally can't listen to Guns and Roses without immediately thinking "that Axl sure is an asshole", and that sours the entire experience.

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[–] Delphia 47 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I mean, theres 3 categories for giving them a pass on their transgressions (as a fan, not legally or morally speaking) IMO.

  1. The art/performance was just so far beyond good that you cant deny the cultural significance. E.g Michael Jackson, Elvis, Tupac.

  2. You had a personal connection to the art before they did the shitty thing or before it came to light. (In my case: early Chris Brown, Kid Rock) They were big in my late teens and early 20s and I have positive memories associated with their songs. Not the percieved quality of the art.

  3. They had their day in court, did their time and time has passed. E.g Mark Wahlberg, I dont know the guy, I dont know if he is a good person or not these days. But the last documented occasion of him being a huge violent racist asshole is 1992... 32 years ago.

[–] acetanilide 10 points 7 months ago

This is great. It's not perfect, but it's great. It feels like an impossible task but it feels more possible with a structure like this.

[–] Jakdracula 23 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (6 children)

Nope.

Eric Clapton is an anti-VAX conspiracy theorist and a racist. Van Morrison is anti-VAX conspiracy theorist and a racist. John Lennon is a serial abuser drug addict, beat women and abandoned his own son. Steven Tyler from Aerosmith is a pedophile. Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot chili peppers is a pedophile.

Etc.

Anytime I learned something horrible about someone famous, I write them off completely.

[–] EarWorm 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Wait, Anthony Kiedis!? That's news to me.

[–] metaphortune 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

It was to me too, had to go looking - guessing this from Wikipedia is what it was:

Kiedis acknowledges in his autobiography Scar Tissue that he had sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl when he was 23, before and after learning of her age, in the 1980s. This inspired him to write the song "Catholic School Girls Rule".

[–] c10l 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Not defending anyone here, but a paedophile is someone who’s sexually attracted to prepubescent children. I believe these days it’s extended to the early stages of puberty as well.

Most girls are well over that phase at age 14.

A 23 year-old having sex with a 14 year old may be morally and legally wrong depending on culture and jurisdiction, but the cases where it’s actual paedophilia are likely a small minority.

Again, I’m not defending anyone, but calling every person who’s attracted to minors a paedophile only serves to diminish the effect of the actual ones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia

[–] metaphortune 4 points 7 months ago

I love clarifications like this! Good on ya.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Already didn't like Steven Tyler, but that's news to me.

Guess he'll never change my mind now.

[–] Chainweasel 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Don't forget Ted Nugent helped funnel Russian money through the NRA for Trump and is a pedophile, Meatloaf is anti-vax, and Roger Waters openly supports Putin's actions in Ukraine.

[–] Jakdracula 3 points 7 months ago

Yup.

Don’t get me started on “Kid Rock”

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

Yes. It's a basic skill you need to learn before you can even attempt to change our hellworld.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yeah I can. Gonna get a bit hippie on you here but it really comes down to how the art make you feel and not the artist. One personal example is jeepers creepers for me. I love that movie but victor salva is a POS that deserves to be castrated. Now another question you should ask yourself is the actual companies behind the media could be evil too, overworking their employees, underpaying them, etc..., are you going to stop watching it? A good example of this is the anime industry or some record producers

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Generally I don't have a hard time separating the art from the artist. And it's probably bad and selfish, but if I had to stop listening to David Bowie, Eric Clapton, and John Lennon, I'd be so depressed. The world is deeply shitty, so I'm hanging on to whatever happiness I can find. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Eric Clapton is super racist, John Lennon abandoned his kid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

But what about Bowie? Why his name being dragged through the mud

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Alright which one of you is still listening to Lostprophets?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah there's definitely a line there for me.

I don't care if they are an asshole. They're just people at the end of the day.

But I can't listen to lost prophets or Gary glitter.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Same. I listen to a few bands that have had a member accused of sexual assault and of emotional abuse.

But Lostprophets are beyond tainted because Watkins is one of the most deranged convicted paedos in British legal history. It's impossible for me to separate his music from his utterly sick crimes. Gary Glitter is up there too.

[–] jecht360 3 points 7 months ago

This is the first band that came to mind when I saw this thread. Even though I liked their music when it came out, I would feel gross listening to it now.

[–] CaptainBlagbird 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I can live with artists having different views/believes/opinions, but when it comes to actions they did, then it's a different story for me.

E.g. I don't enjoy Rammstein anymore

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

Yeah, just do a little piracy

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

If I like the song then I don't care who the artist is but if I really don't like the artist and feel so strongly about it that I want to make a statement then I simply don't listen to them.

[–] mojo_raisin 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If it makes sense to consider the artist's actions and morality, it makes just as much sense to consider that of the producers et. al.

That leaves us with virtually no content tho.

[–] SkyezOpen 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just today I wanted to show a friend UnDeadwood, a western horror one shot by the critical role crew, and learned they've removed ALL content with Brian W. Foster because he turned out to be an abusive piece of shit. I understand it on a certain level, but at the same time that's an INSANE amount of actually amazing content just gone because one dude turned out to be a piece of shit.

[–] mojo_raisin 3 points 7 months ago

Fucking Pepe Le Pew is totally a creep! Absolutely does not get consent!

[–] rageagainstmachines 7 points 7 months ago

Originally I thought I could, but no. Because when I listen to the music, I'm giving that artist money, attention, and power.

That results in giving them a bigger platform to spew their bigoted opinions/actions is counterintuitive to my goals. I would rather not.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Yes I do this very easily. I listen to music and don’t spend any time at all learning about the artists.

[–] PP_BOY_ 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Depends, tbh. Most people's actions aren't an infallible series of conditional statements and will make concessions for this on a case-by-case basis (usually if the shitty actions came before or after they fell in love with the music).

Example: I never liked XXXTentacion's music and never will once I found about him being a woman beater, but I grew up listening to Burzum and can't imagine myself ever not throwing on Filosefum once in a while, dispite the fact that Varg might be the shittiest person in music, period.

[–] EarWorm 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Fair. I used to be pretty into black metal in my teens, but after realizing that you need to filter out like 90% of the bands just to avoid supporting literal nazis, I just couldn't anymore.

[–] PP_BOY_ 3 points 7 months ago

That's fair. FWIW, I download like 90% of my music and Varg doesn't tour, so there's not any real support going from me to him

[–] hightrix 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yes, always.

So many musicians and other artists are not only complete assholes, but also complete morons. But, I don’t listen to their music for their antics or their intelligence, I listen for the music.

I still listen to Johnny Craig and the Lost Prophets even though I know how horrible they are in real life. Because to me, the music is about the feeling that it elicits in me, not about the creator. I don’t care who made a thing, I care about the thing.

Edit: that said, I’ve not purchased music by those two, and instead pirated it.

[–] slazer2au 5 points 7 months ago

Yes, because I don't care for the individual.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes. You listen to music without knowing anything about who wrote it and you feel something. That feeling has nothing to do with the composer or performer. Now if you find out the composer/performer is a "bad" person, I would recommend not giving them any money that could contribute to them spreading their "bad stuff". I'd still enjoy the music because your enjoyment isn't furthering their bad agenda.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I think it’s crucial…

[–] Ohnobro 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Unless you're around your more sanctimonious friends, then you can but you'll never hear the end of it, and they won't apologize when, after deriding you for hours, it turns out Bob Dylan wasn't even in the same country at the time he was accused of committing those improprieties.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

If I liked them before I knew, yes. But if I knew going in, it’s hard not to think about.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I'd imagine so but I don't currently listen to any artists that have done anything bad as far as I'm aware.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I have to, otherwise I wouldnt listen to music at all...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Yes. It's fine.

[–] SuperSynthia 3 points 7 months ago

There is so much music now, once I found out an artist doesn’t align with my values it’s easy to drop them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Billy Corgan is that guy for me. He comes off as a total asshole in every interview I’ve listened to him give.

[–] theywilleatthestars 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Depends on how parasocial I am. Never gave much of a shit about Win Butler as a person, so I don't really think about the shit he's gotten up to, but the several months when I thought Conor Oberst might be a rapist were devastating

[–] metaphortune 2 points 7 months ago

Win's is still so tough to me. I read through each of the statements and my final thought was: he did some bad things, but nothing that's going to get him thrown in jail. Similar to Aziz Ansari if I remember correctly. Now whether or not punishment would be morally right is another discussion, obviously our legal system is Very Flawed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I just try to avoid giving money to the living bad ones

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

To an extent I can, like Axl is a complicated one given his mental health issues. Nothing excuses his behaviour but he seems to have grown as a person and managed to somewhat control his shittier side.

But there's definitely a line. I can't really enjoy rammstein or die antwoord anymore

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What happened with Rammstein and Die Antwoord?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Turns out Lindemann is quite rapey, and Die Antwoord had this whole (alleged) sex slavery thing with an Australian rapper.

Seems often they're not just making up their lyrics after all but singing from experience

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Die antwoord also adopted, abused and abandoned an ~~albino~~ (Edit: my mistake, he has hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia) child, Tokkie, who spoke out a few years ago. They're truly awful and Tokkie's documentary is worth watching.

Also Marilyn Manson has been evicted from my music library for sexual abuse. I have no interest in supporting known exploiters, and I can't listen to their music without thinking about how awful they are as people. No regrets, there's plenty more musicians out there worth my time.

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