Does An Artist's Flaws Keep You From Enjoying Their Art? (1 Viewer)

[Emanresu]

Does An Artist's Flaws Keep You From Enjoying Their Art?





Does an artist's personal or moral flaws, actions affect your enjoyment/consumption of their art?

Do you "stop" engaging with their art if you find out they did something you feel is immoral?

Do you believe continuing to consume their existing art or new art endorses them personally? Or is the art separate?



Me:

Spoiler

I'm a believer in separating the art from the artist.

Humanity is flawed foundationally. Art transcends those flaws.

I don't see consuming art in of itself as a personal endorsement.

I can still admire Michael Jackson's library and enjoy listening to thriller.

R. Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly still brings me near tears.

Those works go beyond their personal failings in my view.


Even though I have this position. I think it would be different for me if I admired the artist personally. For most artists I don't really care about them as people. I only engage with their art.

But if I loved not only their art, but them as a person... I think that would make it harder to continue to consume their art if I found them out to not be who I thought they were.

I wouldn't encourage anyone else to stop appreciating their art though. It would be a personal thing.

 

[Lovely_Cornchips]

Not really-sometimes I wish it did because I hate thinking that I'm supporting them by liking what they produce but oof

 

[Mangoey]

It doesn't matter much for me. Outside of kpop, I don't really pay attention to celebrities either, so I don't know what they're like.
But, in kpop, it depends on what they've done or what their flaws are. If they've done something that goes against all my morals, then in turn it ruins their music for me as well. But, if it's a flaw on the milder side, then I can still listen to their music.
It's like that for me with other forms of art too.

 

[Hera]

Yes when it involves something illegal

 

[NogaNono]

honestly, i tend to separate the art from the artist because people can change. at one point in their lives, an artist may have made a beautiful piece and over the years they might have grown up to become a shit person. that doesn't mean that we're obligated to not enjoy their art simply because they have changed over the times. art is timeless and even if the creator is a horrible person, the message and beauty of the artwork will still carry through, and there's no reason it shouldn't be enjoyed. you just don't need to support them, if they've done something that you don't agree with. that's just what i think though, and its completely understandable to not want to enjoy art of someone you don't support.

 

[Emanresu]

Yes when it involves something illegal

What if they say made one of the most emotionally important songs in your life?

 

[Hyunjin]

If i casually listen to an artist then i usually dont pay attention to them as a person only as an artist. If i like a song i will listen to it even if i know the artist is maybe a bad person but i wont support them by going to their concerts or buying their music etc

 

[jasque]

I agree with you eman

 

[Suzy]

For me it does. I don't support anyone that breaks the law. I don't care what it is and I don't care how much I love their music. I just feel disgusted as soon as I find out someone did something immoral and I don't have it in me to continue listening to them because I don't want to support them in any way. So I delete all their music from my playlists and I don't go back to them again. Stuff like drugs, I can get over since they're mostly harming themselves (although it really does ruin my image of them) but if they do anything that harms another human being, I will not listening to their music ever again no matter what.

 

[VillageIdiot]

It really depends.
95% of things, I don't mind. From bad attitude to bank robbery idgaf.
But in no way shape or form will I devote time, money, streams or views to people like R Kelly, Seungri etc. They're Monsters in my book and anything they create is a reflection or deflection of that. It's a facade and to continue to listen to it is lying to myself.
I understand your way of seeing it but I don't think I can see it that way

 

[Hera]

What if they say made one of the most emotionally important songs in your life?

I'd be sad af but it still wouldn't be the same after knowing the artist committed x crime, it just doesn't feel right to keep listening to it.

 

[Emanresu]

It really depends.
95% of things, I don't mind. From bad attitude to bank robbery idgaf.
But in no way shape or form will I devote time, money, streams or views to people like R Kelly, Seungri etc. They're Monsters in my book and anything they create is a reflection or deflection of that. It's a facade and to continue to listen to it is lying to myself.
I understand your way of seeing it but I don't think I can see it that way

I respect your view.

So you see the art as irrevocably connected to them as a person?

Like even if the song touches on truth or true feelings everyone experiences, it's negated by their personal actions?



EDIT:

I hope this doesn't seem like I'm attacking your view. I'm not at all! Just clarifying so I can understand.

After I posted it I looked at it and it seemed maybe I might have made it seem like that.

Sorry if it seems like that Wishes!

 

[VillageIdiot]

I respect your view.

So you see the art as irrevocably connected to them as a person?

Like even if the song touches on truth or true feelings everyone experiences, it's negated by their personal actions?



EDIT:

I hope this doesn't seem like I'm attacking your view. I'm not at all! Just clarifying so I can understand.

After I posted it I looked at it and it seemed maybe I might have made it seem like that.

Sorry if it seems like that Wishes!

Art, music especially, is another form of a person. Often a more transparent, consumable version. Whether it based on fictional events or actual adversity, the artists experiences (or how they would behave in said hypothetical) thoughts and feelings are what makes the piece and makes it relatable. If that wasn't so, then all of the millions of break-up songs and love songs would be equally appealing. It's almost like a fingerprint. Because no two people are the same, no two songs are inherently the same.
The emotional connection of a song is in some way built on the interpreted emotion of the artist.

The way I see it, I Believe I Can Fly, an admitted empowering song is just as much R Kelly as Age Ain't Nothing But A Number, the song he wrote for an impressionable, underage Aaliyah while he was in the process of grooming her.

It's hard for me to separate because when I find a song that strongly emotionally appeals to me, there's also a slight comfort in a stranger being able to relate to me in such a way. So I would honestly take it personally against the artist
Also, I was in no way offended. I get what you mean

 

[Mew]

Not really. I've always separated the art from the artist, i tend not to care about the person they show themselves to be, but then I don't really hold anyone on a high pedestal enough to think that they must be an amazing good person, just a person like everyone else flawed.
i can only recall one time where I was wary of listening to a bands music again..due to their frontman/lead singer being a convicted pedophile.
I would say that's where my line would be.... But even though I probably wouldnt listen to the artist anymore, doesn't mean they didn't create something I enjoyed or still do, it would have such a bitter after taste though.