With the rise of “cancelation culture,” many fans of canceled artists are left unsure how to proceed as listeners – or whether they should listen at all.
I’ve been dwelling on this for months: on whether you really can separate art from the artist, or of whether it’s moral to even attempt it. It’s been something personal for me, as someone who invests so much of themselves, so much of my memories, into the music I love.
I was eighteen years old when I got my first tattoo. It was a simple black line design of a lime wedge on my right rib, my little secret. The symbol was an allusion to one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, “Soco Ammareto Lime” by Brand New. Real creative, I know. Here’s the catch: hours after getting my tattoo, news broke that BN’s frontman, Jesse Lacey, had assaulted and coerced underage fans. I had five hours of post-ink joy and then none.
Music can be an especially difficult thing for people to let go of. We invest and project so much of ourselves, our emotions, into the music we listen to. It’s different than boycotting movies made by a sleaze-bag director or a morning television program’s creepy host. Music is an art in which we uniquely insert ourselves, at least in my experience.
It just sucks. Not to be cliche, but with depression, music makes all the difference. When you’re 15 and your brain suddenly just stops working right, it’s terrifying and isolating. So, having a musician articulate what you’re enduring when you don’t even understand it yourself is invaluable. Sometimes songs are a roadmap, sometimes it just reminds you that you’re not the only one.
While many artists are being called out for a wide spectrum of offenses, emo, punk and DIY scenes are being revealed as especially rampant with inexcusable behavior. Artists are being exposed left and right, and the foundations of the genres I love are buckling under the weight of misconduct. It begs me to wonder why exactly the music that built me is seemingly the worst of the bunch.
These genres are already fragile by nature. DIY depends on small communities building a scene themselves. Of amertaurs coming together in their friends’ basements and literally doing it themselves. When the foundation rests on the shoulders of toxic individuals, the music genre itself can easily buckle. As far as emo music, the kind of people who make emo music are often deeply troubled individuals. They are allocated as being plagued with internalized self-hate and deep insecurity. These traits are also prevalent in the kind of people who hurt other people – in abusers.
I know I’m not the victim here. I’m not the one who was assaulted or coerced or any of the other horrible things that have been inflicted onto innocent people. But it does feel like a genuine loss all the same. When a song you’ve loved for years, that you have memories attached to and love for, gets tainted. When you can’t listen to it the same way.
HAVOC MUSIC 