Random Music Thoughts

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I'd be surprised if anyone has listened to Lostprophets in the past decade.

[METALMAN]

I’ve not sure if this has happened to me. John Martyn was notoriously an abusive bastard, for instance, but I think that was widely known before I first listened to his music.

Some unsavoury derails emerged about Ryan Adams last year and I’ve not listened to him much, though I was already going off him so I’m not sure that can be attributed to his behaviour.

Then there’s Michael Jackson, though again I didn’t listen to him too much anyway.

It’s interesting you brought up Pete Doherty. I’ve always got a soft spot for him because it was through the Libertines and Babyshambles that I first got into music in a big way. He has tested that at times with his behaviour, but again I don’t listen to his music so much anymore anyway - not because of his behaviour but because I played it to death when I was younger.

But I’m not sure it affects me in a visceral way. I can for the most part separate it. I listen to a lot of Richard Wagner, despite some of the horrible stuff he wrote. There may be a point where the disgust is a bit too much. Maybe if I were a Lostprophets fan, for example.

[gunnar hendershow]

It's a tough spot. After he went full-lunatic I haven't really listened to much Morrissey or The Smiths but I've also listened to the two so much before it may just be normal attrition. But at the same time it's not like he hasn't *always* been that way, and his very uncomfortable relationship with bigotry wasn't an open secret among his fans. He just finally had an interviewer who was glad to let him slide into total madness about how really felt about POC. The Smiths are probably my favorite rock band ever so it's extremely hard to fully distance myself from them. But at the same, it is such a shame it turned out their lead singer is a dolt.

Plenty of other artists throughout history have a lot of allegations about them, a lot of domestic abusers for example. Where I tend to draw the line now as I've gotten older is on racism and sexual abuse. But that's likely because I spent so long just accustomed to musical artists being too wild for their own good. Maybe as I get older I'll distance myself from those types too.

[Colly]

After searching my conscience I've decided I'm going to continue never listening to Kasabian and not knowing what a Bassnectar is.

To be honest given the way I consume music these days tends to be through spotify recommendations (I doubt I even know what the last few bands I've started listening to even look like) I'm probably oblivious to anything wrongdoing wise, and I've no doubt some of the older bands I'm listening to have some skeletons in their closets ("it was a different time"). That said I struggle to listen to the Smiths anymore, of any band you really can't separate Morrissey from the sound of those songs, though I wouldn't be aversed to Johnny Marr doing a best of covers album, saw him with the Cribs doing Panic years ago and it was lovely.

[Kyle]

2 hours ago, Jericode said:

I'd be surprised if anyone has listened to Lostprophets in the past decade.

I saw them live the month before he was arrested and my skin only crawls a little less eight years later.

[METALMAN]

Oh the Smiths and Morrissey are good ones to bring up, can’t believe I forgot. I used to listen to them loads but have kind of stopped, but I think that might be more to with getting bored of them rather than Morrissey’s remarks. After all, I’ve always known he was a bit of a dick.

I popped into a Morrissey fan forum out of curiosity a few months ago. It’s fascinating how his fanatics try to tie themselves in knows to justify what he says. Very funny.

[gunnar hendershow]

4 minutes ago, metalman said:

Oh the Smiths and Morrissey are good ones to bring up, can’t believe I forgot. I used to listen to them loads but have kind of stopped, but I think that might be more to with getting bored of them rather than Morrissey’s remarks. After all, I’ve always known he was a bit of a dick.

I popped into a Morrissey fan forum out of curiosity a few months ago. It’s fascinating how his fanatics try to tie themselves in knows to justify what he says. Very funny.

I was definitely one of those who would go "he just says outlandish stuff because he's self-promoting and knows it'll make headlines" but then after years of him saying more and more things that veered on him actually being kind of a racist ass I realized that he was, actually, a bit racist. Such a shame. Maybe Johnny Marr can re-record the entire Smiths catalog with a Morrissey impersonator.

But, yes, his die-hard fans are never letting go. And they'll treat him the same way Kanye's die-hard fans treat him. It's all self-promotion, it's all an act, etc. But even if it is we're so far past a climate where that kind of act can ever be remotely considered appropriate.

[apsham]

John Darnielle wrote this in 2013 and it’s what I carry over to just about anything.

Quote

this is exactly my position on this kinda thing by the way. I don't need to separate an author from his work if the author’s a truly terrible human being. nobody's perfect - I don’t ask anybody to be perfect; I just ask them not to be, you know, nazis, or virulent homophobes. But if they are, then I don't care how good their work is purported to be. I don’t have to listen to Burzum; there’s no shortage of amazing black metal that isn’t written by racist murderers. the amount of tremendous black metal that meets the “not the work of an appalling horrible person” yardstick is sufficient to excuse me from having to listen to the stuff made by assholes. so when people go into the “I separate the art from the artist” thing, I’m like - why? if we live several lifetimes, we should all be so lucky, we won’t read all the great books or hear all the great music. we can allow artists to be human and make mistakes, even big huge everybody-has-their-personal-lows mistakes, while still saying “artists who are just worthless garbage as people, who actively and unapologetically campaign to make others’ lives worse, don’t deserve to have their work read.” we will not actually miss much; we can put our attention elsewhere. there’s just no shortage of amazing books to read, incredible music to hear. unless one wants to claim “no no, these terrible-people artists are actually the best artists,” in which case I think one might want to more closely examine one’s aesthetics.

 

[RPS]

I literally made the same post 3 times, got finicky with what I was writing and deleted it.

I loved Michael Jackson. I thought he was the greatest of all time. Finding Neverland was released and I have never gone out of my way to listen to him since. I don't think about his albums or his songs. I blacked them out in my mind. Thriller was my second favorite album of all time. I used to listen to it front to back. Now, it is a distant memory. 

There is no need to lionize Michael Jackson or Thriller. There are hundreds of thousands of great singers, song-writers, musicians, rappers, etc. Michael Jackson was a very good one. But he molested children. My mind will never separate Michael Jackson the artist from the the terrible things he did. It was not even a distinct choice I made where I announced loudly "I will never listen to Michael Jackson's music ever again". His songs stopped being added to my playlist. I skipped his albums. I hear the songs sometimes in public, but I fade out. 

Perhaps others can separate the music from the awful things he did. I don't think everyone else has to forget Michael Jackson's music. It is excellent and unparalleled. I just cannot listen to him any longer. It is not even about not supporting his legacy or providing his estate with money. I could torrent the albums and listen to them. But I will not. 

I don't think every artist who does something bad needs to be canceled or exiled from my memory. It is not all or nothing. But I just cannot unlearn the things I know about Michael Jackson. 

[Colly]

Slightly weird aside to that, I've never been a massive Michael Jackson fan but a few songs would pop up in my playlists (the obvious one being Thriller in a party we had near Halloween). I've slowly been filtering them out, but there are still a few Jackson 5 songs on, where I almost have been able to separate that Michael Jackson from his older self. Am I weird or does that make vague sense?

I just really like I Want You Back.

[DanishmadePunk]

6 hours ago, Jericode said:

I'd be surprised if anyone has listened to Lostprophets in the past decade.

i had forgotten all about that band to be honest. 

[METALMAN]

42 minutes ago, RPS said:

I literally made the same post 3 times, got finicky with what I was writing and deleted it.

I loved Michael Jackson. I thought he was the greatest of all time. Finding Neverland was released and I have never gone out of my way to listen to him since. I don't think about his albums or his songs. I blacked them out in my mind. Thriller was my second favorite album of all time. I used to listen to it front to back. Now, it is a distant memory. 

There is no need to lionize Michael Jackson or Thriller. There are hundreds of thousands of great singers, song-writers, musicians, rappers, etc. Michael Jackson was a very good one. But he molested children. My mind will never separate Michael Jackson the artist from the the terrible things he did. It was not even a distinct choice I made where I announced loudly "I will never listen to Michael Jackson's music ever again". His songs stopped being added to my playlist. I skipped his albums. I hear the songs sometimes in public, but I fade out. 

Perhaps others can separate the music from the awful things he did. I don't think everyone else has to forget Michael Jackson's music. It is excellent and unparalleled. I just cannot listen to him any longer. It is not even about not supporting his legacy or providing his estate with money. I could torrent the albums and listen to them. But I will not. 

I don't think every artist who does something bad needs to be canceled or exiled from my memory. It is not all or nothing. But I just cannot unlearn the things I know about Michael Jackson. 

Yes, I think I feel the same way. With Michael Jackson there is just something that makes me go "eww, no", while I might not react in a similar way to someone else who did a terrible thing. Sometimes I can separate the music from the person, and the person from the things they did. Sometimes I can't. It's involuntary and I can't really explain it.

Edited July 8, 2020 by metalman

[LittleDaniel]

The big one for me is Chris Clavin, the dude who ran Plan-It-X Records and was in Ghost Mice and a shitton of other bands that were really influential on me when I was in high school and college. Then it came out that he's an manipulative asshole who would groom teenagers and I haven't been able to listen to any of his music since then, plus a lot of bands who were on Plan-It-X because, like, it was a very tight-knit scene and community, so how the fuck didn't some of those people know? 

[RPS]

2 hours ago, metalman said:

Yes, I think I feel the same way. With Michael Jackson there is just something that makes me go "eww, no", while I might not react in a similar way to someone else who did a terrible thing. Sometimes I can separate the music from the person, and the person from the things they did. Sometimes I can't. It's involuntary and I can't really explain it.

I try not to think about it a lot because it is incredibly sad. I am probably a lot like other people in this thread that music is integral to my life and has shaped me. I probably have listened to Michael Jackson's Thriller 500 times in my life and I will likely never listen to it again. 

[Hobo]

Ever since Garth Brooks was in the news yesterday or the day before about possibly having COVID, I've had Chris Gaines songs stuck in my head.

I will forever say that In The Life of Chris Gaines is the best Garth Brooks album.

[=BK=]

Found something... Interesting.

 

[Hobo]

Steve Earle's son Justin Townes Earle has died at age 38.

I kinda fell out of listening to him (as I also did with his Dad) but I really liked his early stuff.  

[Draevyn]

3 hours ago, Hobo said:

Steve Earle's son Justin Townes Earle has died at age 38.

I kinda fell out of listening to him (as I also did with his Dad) but I really liked his early stuff.  

I honestly had no idea who he was until today but I started listening to his stuff and god damn. I read some stuff about him and then listened to this song and if it doesn't hit you in the feels then I'm not sure if you have a heart.

 

[RPS]

I have always been a fan of System of a Down, but listening to them today and man oh man are they great. Hypnotize and Mesmerize are underrated. 

[apsham]

4 hours ago, RPS said:

I have always been a fan of System of a Down, but listening to them today and man oh man are they great. Hypnotize and Mesmerize are underrated. 

The various chord progressions from BYOB always get stuck in my head at the most random times.