Although, Granted, Not An Atypical Grammy Winner
You know the dilemma, which we may call the Polanski Problem — what do you do when you find out that a gifted artist who has done a lot of a great work you admire is a terrible person? My answer, in general, is to not deny oneself the art while also not exonerating the artist personally.
Anyway, with Chris Brown there’s no talented asshole problem, since he’s just an asshole.
OK, I’ll bite. So what specific “Polanski Problem” behavior are we talking about here?
Google “Chris Brown Rihanna.”
Or “homophobia.” Or “destroys dressing room.”
But you just said that by definition there is no problem, because you do not consider Brown gifted.
I was starting to wonder what the hell Billy Bragg did.
He’s a socialist, so that’s awful enough just by itself
Hey now!
Oh, so it’s not Billy Bragg that’s at issue here?
*whew*
You had me worried that someone from CPAC got to you, Scott.
On the other hand Billy Bragg is tremendous and Levi Stubbs’ tears is my favorite song of his, so thank you
Seconded.
Thirded.
“Greetings to the New Brunnette”. Best. Song. Ever.
In a way, professional artists are often treated like professional athletes: their personal shortcomings are quite often overlooked as long as they’re producing–wins in the case of athletes, dollars in the case of musicians and actors.
(This is not to say, of course, that Chris Brown is a great artist or even a good one. Merely that as long as his act makes money he’ll probably be able to get away with violent asshole behavior more often than not.)
what do you do when you find out that a gifted artists who has done a lot of a great work you admire?
Seems to be a clause or something missing here. Like “also collects Toby jugs”.
i completely missed the billy bragg thing here. i thought for a minute he won a grammy. jesus, that’d be messed up.
My wife and I agreed that Chris Brown’s (solo) performance tonight most resembled a lame YouTube clip.
Bruno Mars, however, was surprisingly awesome.
I agree. Mars was remarkably great (although it shouldn’t have been surprising if you’ve ever seen him before)
I haven’t really, except SNL a year or two ago.
He’s a great live performer. His records are so-so but he’s stunningly good live
Mars was the only portion of the Grammy’s I caught. What a fun performance! The choreography of the band and the outfits is totally old-school.
Reminds me of a time I saw Junior Walker at a dive in St Paul, MN. For the first half of the show he wore one over-the-top outfit, and then he changed into another for the second half. The fact that he put in the effort under the circumstances impressed me.
Scott, I don’t say anything when you have typos in a long post (which you do in all of them), but when it’s this short and it’s this sloppily written, you need to spend at least some time proofreading.
I generally agree with this, with the caveat that I won’t SUPPORT their art in any way. I’ll watch Polanski movies, but I’ve stolen them, not paid for them, and I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty about it.
There’s also a sliding scale involved. People who are simply giant mannerless dicks or reactionary neanderthal throwbacks? Yeah, those guys I’ll consider giving money to. Also people who have done wrong but paid their debt to society somehow. Actual unrepentant criminals who got away with it and seem proud? Not so much, although fortunately the specific Polanski situation is very rare.
I can’t agree. While I have no problem with watching his films legally for free (like at a friend’s house) justifying “theft” that way is like stiffing your mechanic for his work because he beat his wife. If the artist did work you’re consuming, it’s worth paying for. If that bothers you, then make a donation to a charity that opposes the harm they do.
Great art or great deeds should not exempt one from criminal prosecution, but the market is a shitty substitute for a functioning justice system.
I can totally separate the artist from the person. Do it all the time. Cant imagine being a fan of music and art without doing that. My record collection has records by at least ten convicted murderers (Leadbelly and Phil Spector are the most prominent) and I can’t imagine not listening to them or buying their records because their personal lives werent’ exemplary
The Grammys were on tonight?
Defiant “on”.
Where is Saurs?
Since meta is apparently the new black here at LGM, here’s what appears to be the current state of play: SEK and Robert Farley want us to know that they don’t give a shit about Whitney Houston, while Scott wants us to know that he doesn’t give a shit about Chris Brown (who?).
May I propose a “musical artists I don’t give a shit about” open thread?
I’m really fucking tired of Foster the People already.
[...] standpoint), Chris Brown isn’t a very good musician, thus this version of what Scott Lemieux terms “The Polanski Problem” is a very simple one to [...]