I understand the desire to judge an artist’s/musician’s/athlete’s/actor’s work on its merit as art alone and to totally disregard who the performer is/was and how he lived his personal life. If one is solely interested in the art/music/sport, that does seem proper and the personal life may seem irrelevant.
But the truth is, performers are often judged on their personal lives. Consider the following:
Peewee herman getting busted masturbating in a porn theater
George Michael cruising for gay sex in public parks
That crappy british actor who does sappy movies with Julia Roberts who got caught having sex with a hooker in LA
Rick James’ holding hostage and torturing some woman while they were freebasing coke
Michael Jacksons various pedo lawsuits
Kobe Bryant’s rape lawsuit
The allegations of Gunter Grass’s former nazi past
I suspect each of those substantially affected the performer’s career, diminishing fans/viewers/buyers and ensuring that every time people listen to or watch their art they will think of those other facets of the performer’s personal life.
It might be nice if one’s art could be viewed/listened to in a vacuum, devoid of connections to the performer’s personal life, but that’s not the reality.
I’m not going to listen to it because it’s an monstrously overplayed piece of idiotic crap. Geezeus, do they have to play the damn tune at every single American football game? I got sick of it years before he was outed as a ped. I doubt Glitter’s going to sell out any stadiums because he’s a washed up one or two hit wonder 30 years ago whose music is gobshite. Not because he’s a pedophile.
I don’t listen to Sid Vicious, either. I prefer the songs written by a guy named Glen Matlock. Sid’s contribution to the Sex Pistols was nil. He never learned how to play bass and he wasn’t even plugged in half the time the band played live.
I still listen to Sam & Dave, even though Dave shot his wife. After that incident, Sam said that he’d keep on singing with Dave, but never speak to him again - and he kept his vow. Sam & Dave toured for many years together, but the only time they so much as looked at each was when they hit the stage.
Frank Sinatra was a mafioso goon. Jerry Lee Lewis was a incestous pedophile. Chuck Berry secretly videotaped women taking a poop in the public toilets. So what?[/quote]
Erm… yeah. It was supposed to be humour.
But as for old Sid, sure he couldn’t and mostly didn’t play, but to say he didn’t make a contribution to the Pistols is to completely miss the point, like. The bloke WAS punk personified.
Which is why the aspect of his personal life that you mentioned – that he mebbe killed his ole lady – couldn’t possibly harm his reputation, it could only enhance it. He wasn’t just singing about depravity and self-destruction, he was living the life.
I’m no saint and I’m not condemning anyone who commits crazy acts or whose lives seem to be out of control. I’m just saying that, contrary to what a few said earlier in this thread, I’m not sure that an artist or performer’s personal life is irrelevant. I agree there’s a strong argument in favor of judging music, literature or art as an isolated work separate from the person who created it and to judge it on it’s merits as such. There’s a lot to be said for that approach. But at the same time, I think it’s also legitimate to examine the person who created the work and see his/her development, influences and personal life, and view the work in that context. I don’t believe either view is right or wrong; both seem valid.
With some of your examples, I’d say: although a certain incident may have permanently damaged an artist’s career, the value of their work remained high. And at the same time, the certain incident tends to be put on the back burner temporarily, but after a few years, depending on the severity, it comes back into fashion.
For example: Not that I like them, but the Dixie Chicks made an anti-war comment at one show and had a huge backlash against them in their target base, southern Americans. Certainly, at the time, their music would have been pulled from playlists aimed at that base. But some of their fans must have become even MORE loyal because of this incident. And also, it could be argued, that 50 years later, if anyone listens to them, the music still could be enjoyed (if you like that sort of music).
Thanks to the digitalization of music, the work that most artists make will be able to outlast their reputations, for better or for worse. Public scandal generally fades in 3 to 5 years (exempting OJ) and in certain cases, the artist who made the music is forgotten too — ie. those americans at football games listening to “rocknroll pt 2” aren’t worried about glitter’s pedophilia.
Art may not exist in a total vacuum — but at the same time, certain works of art can become detached from the storyline of personal events that led up to them. Luckily, we can still enjoy and appreciate works by artists that have had their names erased from history… i.e. the men or women who created Beowulf, the Tao Te Ching, the pyramids, stonehenge … we’d never say, ‘well beowulf is a nice poem but I can’t read it because I’m worried about whether the artist was a pedophile or not and there is no way to tell’
For years I could not watch Woody Allen movies because he married his stepdaughter.
Even though, logically, I think it is irrelevant to his art.
Most of popular music is popular not just because it sounds good - but because of some connection we feel to the artist, rightly or wrongly. Just look at that duo who had their Grammy taken away when it was discovered they were just front men and someone else was singing their songs. People were outraged and demanded their money back - but why? The music itself is good or bad, to my taste or not. It shouldn’t matter whether the guys singing it are cool or not.
Anyway I believe you are talking about Frank Farien and the whole Milli Vanilli thing. Farien had a a history of doing similar things with other groups he signed.
But yes JB was seen as an autocratic bastard by his band…regularly fining members who weren’t “on the one” during performances etc…
