The Politics of Performers

[WhistlerMCMLV]

I hark back to something Norman Podhoretz wrote in The Bloody Crossroads: Where Literature and Politics Meet. He wrote in the introduction to that book that he found it was entirely possible to adore an artist's point of view even while deploring the manner in which it was expressed, just as it was possible to deplore an artist's point of view even while adoring the manner in which it was expressed.

I still find that just about the best way to phrase it when it comes to, say, listening to music whose message you would despise or whose messenger holds views you would deplore. The Clash, for one example, had lyrics chock full of meathead Marxism, but their music was phenomenal. Still is. (You could say likewise for Rage Against the Machine, whose music is remarkable even if their point of view would compel you to remember Frank Chodorov's admonition to let Communists [his specific subject, during the 1949 Smith Act trials] and others whose views you deplore rant their heads off---it's their right, which we cannot afford to infringe---while keeping from them the political means of depriving everybody else of the same right.)

[Thursday007]

I could care less about their personal lives. It has no bearing on their product and whether you should like it or not.

Ask yourselves, do your politics have any bearing on your job? How well or not you do it? Whether or not you make that sale or not? Whether you were hired or not? (skipping over elected officials).

Artists are story tellers. The stories are not always about themselves. They are relating events. Recalling a thread at another site on who was the "I" in the song. It wasn't the artist it was the person who the story was about. The songs are sung in the second and third persons.

[nimchimpsky]

No. For me, music is music and that matters most. If there is a story behind a piece of music, it can enrich it for me, cause it helps me understand where the musician is coming from. But in general, music is bigger than life. Music is about empathy. Music can connect you to other human beings that you would otherwise have nothing in common with. Music is about uniting people, communicating, breaking down walls. Politics is about dividing lines, putting up walls, identifying oneself in terms of others. With that said, the political views of a musician doesn't affect the music for me. The way I see it, music soars in a whole other plane above politics. Music can reach places, emotionally and spiritually, that words can't.

[soupson1]

For me - performers should perform and then shut up.They perform and entertain for a living. Yes, they have a political opinion. Most of us do. But, expert opinion? I think not. Just because Mainstream Media gives them a bully pulpit does not validate their opinion in the slightest.
Those of you of my generation will remember Walter Cronkite. He was called - "The Most Trusted Man in America". Why? He earned that designation because no one knew his politics. He never tilted a story, hiding his political opinion, as is the practice among many TV anchors today. He stepped out of his neutral role only once. He went to Viet Nam and saw the carnage for himself and spoke out against the war. It was done in a way that was thoughtful and fact-based. It was not a shoot-from-the-lip opinion.
If you agree with the performers, you have every right to spend your money to support them. If you do not agree with them, you have every right to reject them.

[TheyCallMeDerek]

Performers, librarians, writers, golfers, teachers....doesn't matter what you do for a living. To say something like "For me - performers should perform and then shut up" shows a lack of understanding. They're people just like we are and have their opinions, never claiming to be "experts" that I've heard. I know alot of rednecks that love country music but overlook the fact that Willie Nelson is one of the most liberal performers ever. I know consevative NRA members who love the rocker Ted Nugent, never mind his R rated songs about sex... O'Reily is a performer for sure, and a pervert...once again, overlooked. Humans area weird.