Where Do You Draw the Line?: Cancellation and Music
Something that I've been thinking about lately is musicians, cancellations, and drawn lines. In other words, where do you draw the line with artists that are "canceled"? Do you abandon an artist if they say something dumb or have political opinions that you disagree with or does it have to be something more egregious to get you to stop listening?
To me it all depends on the artist and what caused their “cancellation.”
Two examples:
1. Dicky Barrett has seemingly fallen down some conspiracy rabbit holes and in the process gotten a bit radicalized about a few things. For some, this is a big enough offense to disavow The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. I still listen to the Bosstones. Having wacky opinions is not enough for me to drop a band.
2. James Alex was accused of emotional abuse by Beach Slang's tour manager Charlie. Based on what she said about the situation and my interactions/observations of Alex over the years, I stopped listening to Beach Slang. I won't pretend that the band wasn't hugely important to me for a number of years or that some of their records are all-time favorites, but I honestly don't think I'll ever be able to listen to their music again. Especially since Alex's treatment of Charlie goes completely against the message of the music that he wrote.
Obviously, victims should be believed and treated with respect. That goes without saying. Where things get slippery is that the vast majority of us do not know what really happened because we weren’t there. Even if/when the event/situation is filmed and put on the internet, we don’t have all of the context. Sometimes things are pretty cut and dry, but not always. In other words, just because you read about it online doesn’t mean that you know what truly happened.
So much of modern culture, especially online, has become more and more knee-jerk with their reactions. There is also so much certainty and demonization floating around, it is a miracle that anything gets done or anyone with even the slightest of differing views gets along. This is not sustainable, nor is it healthy. Furthermore, collectively we have seemingly lost the capacity to forgive or allow for growth, atonement, and redemption.
At the end of the day, people who do bad shit, especially when it hurts someone else, should be held accountable for their actions. Additionally, everyone has the right to stop supporting an artist or business or whatever for any reason. It is not my place to tell you to stop listening to some band just because I disagree with their politics nor is it my place to shame you about it. That is not my job, and truthfully, I don’t care enough to bother. You do you. I am far more concerned with whether or not people are assholes to each other because that actually matters.
I still struggle with this entire subject and fear that we as a society have lost the ability to understand nuance. Maybe there are no answers. Maybe none of it matters. Who knows.
Back to the original question, Where do you draw the line?