No matter how progressive art scenes get on the surface, underneath there is always an undercurrent of toxicity. It’s easy to point a finger at Jason Aldean, because he’s both popular and his new song “Try That in a Small Town” is a regressive, violent call to action. It’s a harder finger to point at Anti-Flag and their fans because of what they purported to stand for.
In a week loaded with pop culture politicking, it can be overwhelming to unpack. That’s not even touching on the Barbenhiemer storm swirling over movie theaters this weekend. We’re still dealing with the QAnon psyop that is “The Sound of Freedom.” We’re ramping up for another supercharged election year, in a time when EVERY election has been supercharged. Just another souvenir from 9/11.
One common refrain amongst pop culture anthropologists is separating the art from the artists. That’s easy to do when the artist is dead and no longer profiteering from their “baser instincts.” I don’t feel bad listening to Ramones songs, Johnny is dead. I do feel bad for friends who began a lifelong journey to being a better person (or at least better politics) from the band Anti-Flag.
I get it, I build intense emotional relationships with bands too.
I’ve been really getting into a young band from Minnesota called Inconsistent. First of all, let me say that kind of antagonistic naming in the age of SEO is endearing to me. Beyond that, their song “Problematic” feels refreshing in a sea of self-righteous songs all too eager to point their finger at the wrongdoers around us (see “Apology Note” by Bonsai Trees or “Notes App Apology” by Heart Attack Man).
The song’s introspective chorus, “It’s not my fault that I have problems, it’s my fault I’m problematic,” resonates with me more and more as I get older. The wisdom of youth sans any irony in this instance.
From Jank to Dogleg, I’m regularly left in a position of finding a band I love being guilty of a crime I don’t. And worse, their songs tend to call to light the worst parts of me. It’s part of what draws me into them in the first place. Art is filled with people trying to bring their darkness to light, to deal with their trauma and angst. It’s also filled with people desperate for affection, trying to fill a void that the world forces open wider every day.
The fans too are vulnerable, they find solace in people struggling with their same issues. Artists are rewarded for their vulnerability, fans are exploited for theirs. A song as old as time, as much as we want to decry Led Zeppelin for their atrocious behavior (and it was an atrocity), we still have to deal with Burger Records and Plan-it-X Record’s Chris Clavin.
While Hollywood is still grappling with the #metoo movement there’s hope that the film industry might one day do something that the music hasn’t. Protect vulnerable people. I exist in a subculture of music - indie rock, punk rock, post-hardcore and emo - that is a supposed safe havens from the blights assailing our cultural consciousness. And yet, we STILL have abusers at the highest ranks. Talent trumps humanity almost every time.
The worst part is that we don’t have a path to accountability for artists who put harm in the world. I have hurt people, cross boundaries and been a bad person at various times in my life. I had to learn, grow and accept that I hurt people to the point that I ruined those relationships.
These abusers get enabled, their crimes explained away and there is no accountability. As someone who grew up in an era where the prevailing cultural mentality was that women WANTED men to be persistent, it’s nice to see enthusiastic consent as a conversation topic. Wearing women down till they say yes is not consent, but it certainly was purported to be in my formative years. It’s easy to explain away crimes in youth as a product of the era, but when it comes to extreme violation of boundaries it’s hard not to know.
The more successful the band, the worse the crimes permitted. No one who paid attention to Brand New’s lyrics should have been shocked to find out Jesse Lacey was grooming underage fans. As I learned more about power imbalance, grooming and control, I learned more that yes isn’t always yes. These “leftist allies” that are creating these unsafe spaces would know if they would just listen to their victims and confront their own behavior.
Why do they keep getting away with it?
Because those bands make people money. There is a lot of money in the music industry still, even if an overwhelming majority of it doesn’t go to the artist. And people have short attention spans when it comes to their favorite songs. Brand New currently has over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. They still make a lot of people a lot of money.
I think a lot about Kobe Bryant in times like this. His public apology was better than most, but this article from the New York Times does a good job of summing up a lot of my issues in the aftermath of his trial -
Sports obviously have a long way to go to dealing with the issues of violence against women. Just look to Miles Bridges returning to the Hornets, a sad day for me a lifelong Hornets fan. They don’t hide it the same way the music industry does, though.
How do we move out of this cycle of abuse? How to we get from retribution to rehabilitation, especially when the judicial system in America is so fundamentally broken? It’s something I think a lot about. For now, I’m comfortable not separating the art from the artist, even if my lack of support does little.
Here’s an hour of music from smaller bands that I hope I don’t have to block from my playlists one day:
I'm still salty about Brand New because their music means/meant so much to me. And we were just vacationing in Lovecraft country, and I have been making a steady effort to separate his work from our family life. There's a lot of soul searching involved in separating the art and artist -- how much should we allow? What lines should absolutely not be crossed? All humans are flawed and are a result of their time/environment, but that shouldn't be used to excuse horrible behavior.