I’ve never understood why singers, actors, authors etc. should think that people should take any notice of what they think about things that are so far outside their field of expertise (which, let’s face it, is often a very small field). Only matched by my lack of understanding why anyone takes any notice of their prognostications.
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Pair of over privileged prats, whose views on COVID restrictions I strongly disagree with. I certainly won’t be buying the recordings in question, but will continue to happily play all the albums I already own.
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God yes! And Actors… !!
I’ve found that separating the art from artist as much as possible beneficial for my enjoyment of music in general. I’m convinced that if you look close enough into anyone’s personal life you’ll find something that runs contrary to your personal politics.
Most of our sources of information about those artists are suspect anyway.
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Is it conscionable to still enjoy music by and artist that predates their later behaviour?
Ryan Adams’ early music is terrific
Morrissey obviously
Early Michael Jackson
Any number of others
When I was younger I would actively search out reading material on my favourite bands and read all the sleeve notes but now not so much. I just listen to their music.
The media seems to like building up ‘celebs’ and then tearing them down.
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Interesting. Roman Polanski, utter scrote of a human being, but that does not mean that Chinatown is not one of the greatest films ever made. And according to some sources, Hitchcock could be a bit of a creep towards his leading women, but that cannot alter the classic status of Vertigo. Best just to make peace with the fact that great artists are not immune from the same human failings that reside in us all.
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tbh, IMHO, the problem is not that these artists have these, to some, objectionable, viewpoints… I’m sure we all have some opinions that others might take offense at. No the issues are they a) have a platform to spread these wacky/offensive/objectionable ideas and b) they think because they’re ‘artists’ they must be more intelligent than and everyone else so they’re must be 100% in the right.
However, in hind sight, isn’t this what social media is all about?
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Never meet your heroes just love their art
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Yeah, fer sure. My respect for the musician definitely affects my thoughts on their music.
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Not forgotten. I am a huge admirer of Clapton the musician. One of the very few white artists who both genuinely understand and and can play black music forms. He was and is accepted as a peer by musicians of the stature of B.B. King and Buddy Guy. He also pretty much helped reggae break through to a mainstream audience in the UK by covering I Shot The Sheriff. I find it therefore a complete mystery as to how he can hold such odious views on race. It genuinely saddens me and is one of the strongest examples where I have to completely disregard my opinion of him as a person when enjoying his music. Moreover, he maintained for over forty years that he was right in what he said, refusing to recant or apologise. He made a half-hearted apology of sorts a couple of years ago, but even then it was all about him; how much pain he had been in and how f*cked up he’d been on booze and scag. Until he states unequivocally that what he said was wrong, obscenely offensive and caused great hurt to those it was directed against and that he deeply regrets his behaviour, I won’t ever be able to forget his racism.
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I’ve been a huge fan of Matt Johnson and The The’s music for nearly 40 years. I always thought he was quite worldly-wise and one of life’s good guys. That being the case it is bitterly disappointing to see his twitter feed full of retweets of anti-vax and Covid hoax conspiracy theorists and nutters.
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Likewise Van the Man, who incidentally appeared on stage with Clapton on the night of the infamous Birmingham gig, and continued to tour with him thereafter. I was disappointed to discover that.
However I wasn’t particularly disappointed to learn of Morrison’s promotion of anti-lockdown propaganda, as he’s a figure I look to for spiritually uplifting music rather than any progressive political message.
So if Adolf Hitler was an amazing musician and made fantastic music…
It isn’t actually. Chris Blackwell made a conscious effort to market Bob Marley & The Wailers by making them more palatable to a western rock audience, i.e. as album artists featuring guitar solos. He achieved moderate success but it wasn’t until Clapton scored a top ten hit with Sheriff in 1974 that mainstream, daytime U.K. radio audiences got their first real taste of reggae. Yes, Millie Small and The Beatles execrable Obli Di, Obli Da predated it, but because it was Clapton, white rock fans, who ordinarily would have been either unaware of or uninterested in reggae, started giving it a hearing and became more receptive to the idea of Marley & The Wailers as artists that could sit alongside their Clapton, Allman Bros and Delaney & Bonnie albums. Sure, mods and skinheads would have been well acquainted with ska and early reggae prior to that but it was very much a cult and the preserve of West Indian immigrants and those youth cults attracted to West Indian and U.S. Soul culture.
That’s not what I’m suggesting. And the patronising and racism lies in the fact that Blackwell felt he had to dilute reggae and ‘rockify’ it before he believed it would sell to a white audience. Ok you don’t like Clapton, I get that. But you’re confusing your personal dislike of him with the fact that he was part of a musical movement who popularised black music by bringing it to a white audience.
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Then it would be highly unlikely that he would have done what he did.
There are a few I used to like but seeing, for example, interviews etc, have put me right off. Their music is still part of my collection but is unlikely to get airtime.
All the more reason not to read about these so called ‘stars’, or watch vapid documentaries where their, generally speaking, uninformed opinions are sought and fawned over! I have next to no interest in the politics, sex lives, spending habits or drug / alcohol consumption of any musicians - I just listen to their music. Strange, eh?
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I’m really conflicted about Clapton. I have loved his music for years but then learned about his utterly unacceptable racism from Dreadatthecontrols whose opinions I respect. I’m at a loss to reconcile my feelings about this. Should I bin all his records Dread? Oh, by the way, I have Mikey Dread’s DATC arriving today, can’t wait.
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