The cliche “actions speak louder than words” is a cliche for a reason.
Many artists have created songs to help individuals cope with issues in their life, getting them to sympathize with the artist, and their issues.
But when that said artist has done inexcusable things the question on whether to continue in supporting them is difficult.
The Neighbourhood, with more than 32 million listeners on Spotify, recently had an incident when drummer Brandon Fried was accused of groping another woman without her consent. Fried was kicked out, but the remaining members are still associated with Fried, making their image look bad.
If listeners of the band still wanted to enjoy the Neighbourhood’s music they could separate the art from the artist. Doing this is necessary to appreciate the band’s music, but not to support the artist’s action.
“I’ve listened to the Neighbourhood before and have a few of their songs on my playlist,” junior Katie Drogaris said. “If I’m being completely honest, I’m probably not going to skip one of their songs just because of the band’s controversy. If a song is good I’m going to listen to it.”
Playing the music of controversial artists might make it seem that the artist’s actions can be forgotten, but this doesn’t mean it has been forgiven.
Recently Kanye West has shown that he is an anti-Semite and has shared his thoughts on social media.
“I gotta get the Jewish business people to make the contracts fair or die trying,” West said on Instagram.
Making a Jewish trope so casually shows listeners what kind of person is making the music they listen too.
“Due to Kanye’s antisemitic comments I won’t be listening to his music any longer even though it’s fire,” junior Liam Mays. “I don’t want to give an individual as himself that support.”
Separating art from the artist can be impractical. Musicians express themselves through their songs creating a very personal feel to allow listeners to enjoy their music, so you can’t just take away the artist from the music.
Popular artist Rex Orange County, who has more than 16 million listeners monthly on Spotify, has been charged with six accounts of sexual assault and his trial is in January. A majority of his songs were about love that many could relate to but it seems his view on love was distorted that none would now want to relate to.
“I liked Rex Orange County a lot,” senior Teagan Kozek said. “But when I found out what he did I decided to stop listening to his music.”
On the other hand many artists have sung many degrading lyrics and people still enjoy it. Popular rapper NBA Youngboy in his song Green Dot rapped, “His family knows we stepped on him, I wish I could spit in his casket.”
Music like this is problematic to some but YoungBoy has accumulated more than 17 million listeners on Spotify monthly.
“I like YoungBoy because he is the 38 baby,” junior Woodrow Gray said. “His music energizes me and motivates me to do better things within my life.”
The question on how to separate the art from the artist will always stand but overall it’s what the listeners decide for themself, of what they consider right or wrong.
“Some actions can’t be defended by artists,” senior Edwin Isais said. “I think it’s probably better to separate the art from the artist because it’s more realistic than to stop listening to an artist completely.”
