Episode 49: Love The Art, Hate The Artist

"Would've never come so far/without someone there to start it/can I truly love the art/when I kinda hate the artist?"

                                                        -AJR, "Role Models"

   They say to never meet your heroes. They say that because you'll just be let down. Someone you idolize and admire may end up to just be overwhelmingly normal, or even worse, a bad person. Of course, "heroes" in this context often refers to someone prominent in popular culture whose work you really enjoy. By this definition, I haven't really met any of my heroes. Unless you count the time I talked to Murr from Impractical Jokers on the phone. But, from my interaction with Murr, he seemed to be a genuinely good person. Plus, if you're willing to personally call a bunch of fans and send them signed copies of your book, you can't be that bad of a person.

   The song I mentioned has another lyric that says "look at this mess. Wake up, Mr. West." Here, I'm fairly certain they're referring to Kanye West. They want him to stop acting pompous and crazy because they miss when he was an actual talented musician who made good music. (Yes, Mr. Hardy does like some of Kanye's old stuff). But I like to think of it as about Adam West. When he died, he was a nice old man who had led a long and (to my knowledge) clean and respectable career. They are sad that he's gone and wish that we'd "wake up" and come back so we have another genuinely good celebrity among us.

   (Lol I just said "among us". Sus.)

#MeToo

  It's great to bust people who committed sexual assault/harassment, and they definitely should be held accountable. The song I quoted above is largely about the Me Too movement, and how it revealed some famous people to be predators. The song mentions Louis C.K. by name. 

   It's hard to tow the line of loving the art but hating the artist. It sucks to know that James Franco is a sex criminal, but I still like 127 Hours, 11/22/63, and the original Spider-Man trilogy. Just because he was in those doesn't mean we can't enjoy them. He was involved, sure, but art is more than the people who make it. Plus, those were the products of months of work from tons of people, not just James Franco.

Adam Levine

  I do not like Adam Levine. He's arrogant and very extra. But, I quite enjoy the music he makes. For me, Adam Levine is very much a "love the art, hate the artist" deal. 

  To emphasize more of how much of a butt-wagon Adam Levine is, it was recently revealed that he likely cheated on his wife. What's more than that, the supposed mistress says that he offered her to name he and his wife's baby after her if she kept the affair secret. That's right, if that's true, Adam Levine offered to name his wife's baby after his mistress. I think Adam Levine also unfairly steals the spotlight from his bandmates. He makes a spectacle of himself while throwing the people who carry him aside.

   But, that doesn't mean Maroon 5 doesn't absolutely bang. V is one of my all-time favorite albums and they have many songs that simply never get old.

Nate Ruess

  He was the lead singer of my former favorite band, fun. However, since fun. broke up, Ruess has undertaken somewhat of a corruption arc. He repeatedly echoes hatred of his own fans on Twitter, shoves his intense socialist beliefs on his own children, and acts like his past music doesn't matter. fun. meant so much to me in middle school and high school and to see the lead singer act like it was nothing hurts.

   I still love the music of fun., but I no longer like Nate Ruess. Even his solo album is great, but I do not like him as a person. Jack and Andrew are much better than you, Nate.

In Conclusion

  I think in several instances, we all should be careful to not associate who an artist is with the work they do. A trash person can make beautiful art, and you can enjoy the art without enjoying them. Anyway,

see you next week!