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What are you willing to ignore when listening to music?


Prince Myshkin

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OK, so after the passing of Bowie (an artist whose work I adore) it got me thinking of exactly what aspects of an artists personality you are willing to let slide whilst listening to a song or body of work. It's something I've contemplated for a few years after what happened with Lost Prophets and seeing some of the fans reactions to the news of what Ian Watkins had done. I wondered whether I would still be able to listen to music that had meant so much to me if the lead singer of a band I really loved turned out to be a paedophile. Would I be able to block that out and still appreciate the music for what it was or whether it would be tainted? I wondered whether it depended on the music that was being made. Say it was a very intimate performer or lyricist; that would be a hell of a lot more difficult to block out than an electronica band without vocals. Or would it be? Would I want it to be?

 

More recently I've become more aware that I listen to music by artists that others would find questionable. If I was very religious how would I justify listening to music by drug users? If I was a climate change denier would I be able to listen to music made by those with such a conscience and who create music that surrounds that idea?

 

Even more recently I've become aware that I often listen to music by people who I find questionable:

 

  • Jimi Hendrix beat his girlfriends
  • One member of Queens of the Stone Age did the same until he was kicked out for it
  • A member of the Rolling Stones married an 18 year old whom he had been in a relationship since she was aged 13 and whom she claims had sex with him at 14 years of age
  • David Bowie was purported to have had sex with an underage groupie who was passed around the top artists back in the day and who was allegedly abducted and threatened by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin
  • Aphex Twin is a 9/11 truther
  • Beck is a Scientologist and Mick Ronson of David Bowie is a Mormon - this does not bother me now but there was a time when I was quite anti-theist, and whilst I would have continued to listen to their music I think it would have changed the way I would have listened to it had I know during that period of my life
  • Maureen Tucker, drummer of The Velvet Underground is a Tea Party supporter

 

Then there is music I don't particularly like the works of but have certain songs I can appreciate:

 

  • Michael Jackson gets plenty of airtime and is respected but charge sheets show that he at the very least showed pornography to minors. He claimed it was because he was friends with them and he had done wrong. This is the very least of his wrong doing
  • Cee Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley admitted on his Twitter that he had sex with a woman who could not consent but that it wasn't rape because he wore a condom

 

 

Are there any artists you listen to that have questionable histories and how does it affect the way you approach their work? It does not have to be completely about music. Charlton Heston is huge with the NRA, Roman Polanski admitted to sodomising a drunk underage girl and refuses to reenter the US as he will be arrested, many sports stars have been guilty of all sorts of crimes. How does this affect the way you watch them or how you view the teams they play for?

 

 

I'm just interested in where people draw the line, where and why they might let some get away with others. I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong to do so, simply interested in the way that art can shape that opinion.

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I'm pretty simple. I will listen to artists regardless of what they have done, but I probably won't become a fan of them.

 

Would you say then that you transpose your own meaning onto the songs rather than taking it as an artists piece of music? So if a paedophile sang a love song would you be able to ignore that idea? Remember, no wrong answers or judgement, just curious.

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Would you say then that you transpose your own meaning onto the songs rather than taking it as an artists piece of music? So if a paedophile sang a love song would you be able to ignore that idea? Remember, no wrong answers or judgement, just curious.

Yeah, I'm willing to ignore the actual hidden meaning of the lyrics unless they're explicit. And I don't really pay attention to lyrocs anyway.

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I suppose I don't care too much about the people behind the songs that I listen to. I mean I obviously care about Coldplay, but not for the rest of my music collection. So, if the song was nice and the melody lovely, I would continue listen to it, even if Hitler himself had personally composed it. But then I wouldn't sing it out loud in the public and only listen to it quietly via headphones.

 

I'm honestly only here for the music's sound itself and how it makes me feel, and everything else comes second, or I don't really care.

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I suppose I don't care too much about the people behind the songs that I listen to. I mean I obviously care about Coldplay, but not for the rest of my music collection. So, if the song was nice and the melody lovely, I would continue listen to it, even if Hitler himself had personally composed it. But then I wouldn't sing it out loud in the public and only listen to it quietly via headphones.

 

I'm honestly only here for the music's sound itself and how it makes me feel, and everything else comes second, or I don't really care.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

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I suppose I don't care too much about the people behind the songs that I listen to. I mean I obviously care about Coldplay, but not for the rest of my music collection. So, if the song was nice and the melody lovely, I would continue listen to it, even if Hitler himself had personally composed it. But then I wouldn't sing it out loud in the public and only listen to it quietly via headphones.

 

I'm honestly only here for the music's sound itself and how it makes me feel, and everything else comes second, or I don't really care.

But then out of everybody, why Coldplay? And if you feel like that for one then do you not feel as though you could be missing out on that with at least one other?

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But then out of everybody, why Coldplay? And if you feel like that for one then do you not feel as though you could be missing out on that with at least one other?

Because when I started listening to music and really get into it, the first song I listened to that I actually understood was a Coldplay song. It was the first English song that I understood the lyrics of and I had a significant Eureka effect. I never listened to music for the lyrics, but for the melody, because my English was very bad when I was in my teens. And during this time I was like "woah not only does this song sound really nice, the text is also very heartfelt!"

And then I just tried to get every song of them and that eventually led me to this forum and to the international music world itself.

 

Now I can't get this emotinal over bands and their members anymore as I have passed this phase of my life where music is like a revelation to me. And now I think of it, I don't think I could expand my emotionality and passion I feel for Coldplay to any other band because being this fangirlish over one band is already emotionally exhausting enough to me.

 

It's really weird though, I love a few bands and musicians for the music they make, like I really look forward to everything they produce. But if they were to split up or even worse, if something terrible would happen to them, I wouldn't get emotional at all. It would be sad of course, but I'd just carry on and try to find similar sounding music.

Now if something bad were to happen to Coldplay, I'd be seriously depressed.

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I agree with @Batman and @Rickulus there is something about Coldplay that makes me act like a fangirl, perhaps their actions and attitudes towards fans. But, I wouldn't care at all about other artists, I might enjoy listening to them or even dance. Maybe, the main reason is that I like songs where music and the singer's voice sound good. The only exception I might consider is if the song has explicit lyrics I won't download the song, but if it is played by someone else in the same room I'm in and if it has a good sound I might enjoy it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

To me, it does matter who the musicians are as human beings.

As soon as I find out something bad about an artist, this negative undertone begins to stick with it when I hear the respective music. Doesn't mean I can't like a song by them, but it always hugely disappoints me. For example I like a few songs by The Mamas and the Papas, and I was very disappointed when i read that Papa John apparently abused his daughter. I still love those songs but sometimes these thoughts creep up and spoil it a little bit. I love Carl Orffs Carmina Burana, but sometimes I have to think of the fact it was huge in the Third Reich, and then I feel a bit guilty about it. I like "Poupee de cire, poupee de son" because I think it has a great melody, but the fact it was written by Serge Gainsbourg who was an asshole in many respects and that he snuck in sexual undertones without France Gall (the singer, then a very young girl) realizing them gives it a bad taste too, if you know what I mean.

 

In short, I can listen to and even enjoy songs that were written by questionable people, but I could never call myself a fan of such an artist. It is not coincidence that of all bands out there I became a fan of Coldplay. I could enjoy their music, sure, but if they were a band that, say, had intolerant views, or were right wingers, or notorious for sleeping around with groupies, I would not be able to be a fan of them.

The wonderful thing is that Coldplay not only are great musicians, but also great and very, very decent and good-hearted human beings.

 

@Batman : Out of interest, which song was the first one you understood ? Was it We Never Change ?

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I don't know if it is just a coincidence,but I've been lucky to love music created by good,inspirative and healthy personalities. I've never had a problem of having doubts about it. Well,I've always loved hip hop,rap and reggetton because of rhythm and dance,and yes it bothers me if they sing about violence,sex and cheating but I still enjoy the song. Still it stops me from being a fan,like FAN. The other ones which i love are not questionable at all.

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