Quote:
Originally Posted by Matata
I try to tell myself it was a different era and that it was more acceptable at the time, but it keeps getting harder to listen to Bowie and Zeppelin. Then I start wondering if/how much worse that is than guys like John Lennon or Lindsey Graham beating their women, then I wonder how many other guys have skeletons in their closet like that that haven't seen the light of day. How many guys are really able to run the gauntlet of easy access to women, money and fame without coming out a complete piece of #### on the other end? How do you still respect women after going on a world wide tour where scores of women are fighting for the opportunity to degrade themselves in front of you? Daron Malakian (System of a Down) joked about how women were so eager to do whatever the band wanted that they eventually ran out of ideas and got bored with it, where do you go once you've become bored with a thing like that?
It's pretty much impossible to enjoy pop culture without being able to forgive the fact that a large portion of the people involved have done horrific things.
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You absolutely have to separate the art from the artist, in almost all cases.
I enjoy Bowie, Zeppelin, films that Woody Allen, Harvey Weinstein, and Kevin Spacey have been involved in. Not to mention the hundreds of films, albums, songs, pieces of art, and many other things abusers, criminals, etc have been involved in or produced.
I understand why some people can't, I don't think any less of them for it, but I enjoy pieces of art for what they are, not who made them. I don't think you have to forgive anyone for what they did, but good things are good things, regardless of anything else, just as bad things are bad things. I think it's important to be able to talk about them together, but with the understanding that they still exist on separate planes.
Do we have to forgive Phil Spector for murdering someone to enjoy the Beatles "Long and winding road"? Or enjoy the countless artists who were inspired by his wall of sound, for example?
I hope not. I don't. But that'd be a shame.