Certain artists' personal history affects my enjoyment or my prism used to view their work.

Miles Davis (domestic abuse, berating band members, generally being someone you probably would like at a family reunion and not talk to for the rest of the year)

ATCQ (my most favorite group of any genre, but the documentary really distorted my image of the group. I know groups are breeding grounds for infighting, but it was sad to see and I feel more melancholy listening to their last two records.)

R. Kelly (does not need an explanation)

Wu Tang Clan (maybe the opposite effect of the other musicians. Not a fan of the crazy drug use, but considering the really bad situations they came up in and the dynamics of maintaining a group with Nine people, it's amazing the run they had)

My main issue is that on some level I sensed the chaotic, Twisted conditions that a lot of musicians live with and in to create brilliant music.

I like the illusion that a great artist is a better person than I am. That an artist with a gift is more purely human. When the reality hits that great artists are great artists because the music is the only arena where they seem to not be destructively messy, I feel saddened and a little sick.

This may have been discussed in the Lesson in the past, but do you feel the same? Don't care about what process created then art? Fall somewhere in between?

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http://www.twitter.com/chriscjamison/

People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

Peter Drucker

If any other on the street person behaved like some of the musicians I enjoy, I would never fuck with them. But the art is something I get into and though I do know of some of the behavior of some of the artists who I listen to (and watch), I guess I give em a pass and keep on listening and enjoying. I guess it's the old adage of enjoying the art but not the person. But more hypocritical is that some artist I am more damning to regarding if I like their music or not.

I think it has to do with the "authenticity" of the message that an artist is conveying through their music.

If you break it down to people that you know it makes this easier to understand.

I'm sure we all know people who make music and when there are people you don't like or don't "rock with" on a personal level, you view their music differently.

In hip-hop for instance, if you grew up with someone who you know is creating a false image through their music, regardless of how good the music is, you're not going to like it because it isn't authentic to you.

As fans, when we learn more and more about artists and the lives they lead, we start to change our opinions based on this theory because we feel like we know them personally.

It's hard to take a love song seriously from someone who beats women.

This is why some of the "conscious" rappers like Mos catch some hate because some of his personal life conflicts with the message in his music.

Sometimes it's a hard thing to separate.

I think what's important is to remember that music is capturing moments in time and they are these artists' actual thoughts and feelings. It's somewhat unfair to hold them accountable to what they record every single moment of their lives.

Sure, ATCQ had their arguments and perhaps the way they came off in the documentary told/edited through one director's perspective doesn't mean that both Tip and Phife didn't want to have a perfect relationship in the group. Life happens and people react to situations.

I don't think we should diminish their recordings for individual situations. We can't define them personally like that.

Yes, Miles was most likely an overall piece of shit as a human being judging from stories that we've heard. But that doesn't mean he didn't know that and wasn't ashamed of himself. Maybe he needed help. Shit, maybe he wanted to be like that. Either way, music was his outlet and he may not have known how to communicate outside of that form of express.

Artists are interestingly strange people most of the time.

I could go on...but hopefully I made my point.

Don't let outside instances influence your love of the music.

<--- Big Baller World Order

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https://93millionmilesabove.blogspot.com/
https://rateyourmusic.com/~Kosa12

With that said, the emphasis is "if you want", which for many is a non-issue because if most casual music fans cared about the personal lives and thoughts of the artists involved, the music heard on the radio, TV shows, movies, and video games would be much different.

My point is, artists are real people too. I'd rather see them for who they are, but that is if they're willing to show who they are, that they're more than what they want the public to know. They put on a persona, they fit into the costume people are familiar with and "put on an act". Does that or should that change the way we as fans listen to and think of them? It shouldn't but it can.

We tend to forget that artists are people and not entertainment machines who are meant to surprise and tantalize us. They work, but they just happen to make much more money than most of us. We see the celebrity and tend to think "oooh, they are great people". We'd like to think every celebrity is great, but are you celebrating their music or art, or are you celebrating the celebrity, the hype, the myth?

I don't specifically want to know, or have to know everyone's business, a part of me says "keep me within the pillows of the myth" but a part of me also wants to know what that person was like before they became "iconic rapper" or "influential guitarist", "fantastic drummer" or whomever. I want a bit more background, which of course boils down to what they're willing to reveal, if they want to reveal it. At the same time, I understand the reason for not telling it all because I'm sure what I've written comes off like I'm some tabloid writer. "John wants to find out more, let's see how investigative he can be." Sometimes, all I want are the stories, and part of finding out those stories has to do with peeling a few layers of the people behind the curtain.

If someone is an asshole, they're assholes, but should that stop me from liking their music? I love Miles Davis' work. There are a few artists whose work I'd like to explore but I think "well damn, Gary Glitter was convicted of child molestation, can I remove that from the equation and simply listen from a creative aspect?"

Or maybe the issue is we want factors or extra factors, we want more reasons to listen when all we really have to do (and we're not obligated to do that either) is just listen. We can listen beyond the myths publicists and managers create, we can associate the hype if we want, or we can hear a sense of truth in the recording, or at least everything accumulated to create "a truth". Which is still what the artist and producer wants to create as an image for themselves, which can also be a partial wall or boundary. Take what you want and enjoy, or find out the more you want/seek by going down that path. I like going down that path, even if it leads to dead ends.







THE HOME OF BOOK-NESS:
http://www.thisisbooksmusic.com/
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http://www.facebook.com/book1


http://i32.tinypic.com/kbewp4.gif
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MJ and R Kelly, I can still listen to their music which is funny cause I find Kanye to be so annoying that I don't really listen to his music anymore. Generally speaking though, I just try to enjoy the music for what it is.

“So back we go to these questions — friendship, character… ethics.”

The more people turn the other way sometimes, the more it empowers an artist to keep being and doing whatever they want
choosing to not buy an artist's music because of their behavior is certainly reasonable

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CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!!
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Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell
Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this