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Best Posts: Separating the artist from the art

  1. SHUDEYE
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    SHUDEYE Kerser is the sickest.

    Nov 24, 2019
    I saw a post recently that reminded me of this debate. I've put it in Music but it apples to all forms of art/entertainment.

    One debate that comes up a lot is the argument of separating the artist from their art. These days every single indiscretion of an artist is broadcast to the world especially due to social media and people use these as reasons to "cancel" them or judge them.

    I've always had an issue with people that use an artist's criminal acts (for example) as a reason to not listen to them or enjoy them. I find it stupid. If you drew me a picture right now and I told you it was fantastic then one minute later I found out you were a murderer I'm not going to force myself to go "oh... actually nah it's s---." I liked the drawing because it was a good drawing.

    People are so scared to say they like a controversial artist because they think it means they condone every bad thing they've ever done. It doesn't just enjoy the music (or movie/book etc.), you don't need to starve yourself of potentially enjoying something just because you think it's morally right. The only people that care are people on social media obsessed with making themselves look like humanitarians and activists without actually doing anything but sharing hashtags.

    Where do you stand on the debate? I get the same annoyance with sports too when there's debate if a certain athlete should be inducted because of off-field indiscretions. It's a sports hall of fame, not a person hall of fame. Michael Jackson was most likely a paedophile, that doesn't mean his music isn't incredible and I'm not going to pretend it isn't if it's ever 100% proven he was. YNW Melly looks to have certainly killed two of his friends which is f-----, but I'm not going to prohibit myself from enjoying music because of that.

    I just don't get why people basically punish themselves by choosing not to enjoy something, when most of the time it's not even because they think it's morally right it's because they're too scared to deal with do-gooders ripping into them.
     
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  2. DKC
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    DKC hank trill

    Nov 25, 2019
    anyway I don't think most people are really depriving themselves of something they might enjoy, it's more that they don't feel comfortable promoting someone who's a r--ist/pedophile/etc because continuing to give someone like that money/celebrating them just normalizes that behavior and basically says that it's OK in our society because their bad deeds go unpunished

    I listen to tons of problematic rappers (like I love kodak's music but he's a deplorable human being) and what I've landed on is to just try to pirate their music and not support them through streaming or buying merch or whatever.

    The main thing I have problem with is people having issue with problematic rappers but don't care about all the old rockstars who f----- 13 year olds and beat their wife. Like I got into an argument about this with someone at my last job who loved david bowie and I asked her "well didn't david bowie f--- a bunch of 13 year olds" and she was like "I chose to forgive bowie because it was a different time" like f--- off the 70s weren't the middle ages when people were marrying off their 12 year old daughters.

    At the end of the day just do what you're comfortable doing just try to be consistent with it and don't make a show of making people feel bad about listening to a problematic rapper if you're still listening to child-f---ing rockstars.
     
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  3. DKC
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    DKC hank trill

    Nov 26, 2019
    I think you're right that we're not responsible for the actions of s-----y people, but I personally do believe we (or I at least) have a moral obligation to not celebrate rapists and pedos.

    Idk, when I heard about Gibbs' r--- case I was so genuinely disgusted by the allegations that I didn't listen to his music for almost a year. But luckily that turned out to be one of the rare situations where I actually believe it was a false allegation based upon the video evidence that absolves him from the scene + some other circumstantial stuff. And Gibbs has been A1 by saying "this is an extremely rare case and is not a reason to not believe women."

    I've never heard people pretend they never liked an artist when sketchy stuff comes out about them, but when they stop listening I think it's just a feeling of guilt or disgust that outweighs their want to listen to an artist. Like @Winter said I can never listen to R. Kelly again. Like how can I listen to these songs where he's talking about f---ing tons of women knowing he has hundreds of tapes of child p--- and is probably referring to children in a bunch of these songs?
     
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  4. Michael Myers
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    Michael Myers Moderator

    Nov 24, 2019
    100% agree w you.

    I don't give a s--- about what an artist does if I enjoy their music. If its good its good. Like, no matter how much of a r----- Kanye is now , his CD - WTT run still makes him top 3 for me no matter what he does or says. Same goes the other way around.

    I do however get annoyed with 'free ....' posts when someone did a horrible thing, just because it means no new music. If jay z , or emimem or whoever would k--- someone tomorrow I would never defend them for being thrown in jail. Justice means, to me, a lot more than some new songs.
     
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  5. Fire Squad
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    Fire Squad Boss Don Biggavel

    Nov 24, 2019
     
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  6. dkdnfbdjdkdddjdjfvcgfl
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    dkdnfbdjdkdddjdjfvcgfl

    Nov 27, 2019
    If someone whos a piece of s--- made a good song, then by god they made a good song. Usually the song has nothing to do with what they did anyway, so you can make your own interpretation of the song.

    But i do understand when its an artist whose controversies are a part of their music, when Kanye wouldn't shut up about Trump in his songs, when --- would rap about beating b------s. A little more understandable to not wanna listen to the artist in that case.
     
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  7. Sav Stanfield
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    Sav Stanfield

    Nov 25, 2019
    Exactly what @Big Cuntry said.

    I mean 2Pac assaulted women and shot police but I still love his music. Same for Kodak (and to a lesser extent ---). Big Lurch was a f---ing CANNIBAL but I'll still bump his music lol.
     
    #14
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  8. SHUDEYE
    Posts: 16,632
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    Location: Melbourne, Australia

    SHUDEYE Kerser is the sickest.

    Nov 25, 2019
    I think he's trolling ha
     
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  9. SHUDEYE
    Posts: 16,632
    Likes: 30,044
    Joined: Mar 16, 2015
    Location: Melbourne, Australia

    SHUDEYE Kerser is the sickest.

    Nov 24, 2019
    I think he's referring to the characters Em plays ha
     
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