It's a bit of a tendency to fixate on it that everyone from Fascists to Communists has nowadays - the people accused of bad stuff usually get outraged and go fash at the backlash or whatever.
Pure opportunism, and attempting to salvage a source of high income.
Ultimately, a lot of art is made by people with questionable ideology - often without saying anything about it. I know comrades that enjoy Varg's music (literal Nazi murderer), but I also prefer not to listen to say the Smiths or Ramstein, despite knowing I'd probably enjoy it.
It's a lot of bickering and kind of a dead end in the world of art, but a huge part of modern lib politics where that's the almost only thing you're allowed to truly question and argue about. Listening or not listening to a decent but overrated rock band isn't really going to change much, except for being an offshoot of the lib saying from 10 years ago "vote with your wallet"
AFAIK, Morrissey only went fash after leaving the Smiths, and Johnny Marr is still fine. My dream is to see a Smiths reunion tour where Rick Astley replaces Morrissey.
I'm going to be pretentious and say that I think it's because modern capitalism makes people create and cultivate their identities based upon consumption. People also tend to think that being a good artist and being moral are the same thing, and we also tend to think of art as an extension of the artist. This means that if you consume a piece of art by David Bowie or Radiohead or whatever, you are metaphysically assimilating the artist, and that also makes you immoral by extension.
Yes, I agree completely. It is also a symptom of a wider issue, which is the good vs bad worldview on politics, society, etc. (and people have preconceptions about what "good" and "evil" mean - which: the prevalent ideas in society are those of the ruling class)
I dont like them, but tbf the smiths used to be based. Rammstein has decent politics, but one of the members is problematic iirc like antiflag. Its not hard not to listen to cringe people. On the other hand i like to jokingly enjoy stuff like the charlie daniels band.
i think rammstein is more for the sex recruitment thing, but also a german acquaintance had previously mentioned the singer saying a bunch of weird shit a few years ago
Cancelling politically suspect mediocrities is fine because fuck ‘em right, but cancelling great artists over politics is myopic and undesirable, when there art is not directly political. In relation to that I would say, for example, that it was fine and good not to publish the anti-Semitic propaganda Celine wrote during WW2, as some publisher wanted to do a few years back; but it would be silly not to read his literary work because he was a Nazi, just as it would be silly to ignore Wagner or Heidegger for the same reason. On the other hand I don’t have a problem with anyone trying to cancel Radiohead, humanity doesn’t really miss anything if we lose them, although I’ll probably still listen to their music.
At the poets’ panel,
after an hour of poets
debating Ezra Pound,
Abe the Lincoln veteran,
remembering
the Spanish Civil War,
raised his hand and said:
If I knew
that a fascist
was a great poet,
I’d shoot him
anyway
There not objectively bad but I do think Thom Yorke’s plaintive melancholy dirges benefit a lot from the way Radioheads rhythm section and Greenwood’s instrumentation transform them into something new. They’ve also kind of hit a late/mature stage groove since in Rainbows where I don’t think they really push themselves the way they used to, and their music is becoming less interesting and more predictable.
That they are ‘objectively bad’ is a classic hot take, although usually in response to their crossover appeal/ the amount of ‘normie’ listeners they have, rather than there being Zionists.
Nick Cave is another one whose come out recently refusing to boycott Israel (I think he likened the pressure to bullying or something ridiculous).
Peoples politics are really made by experience. Like a lot of actors for example have reasonably left wing politics because, at some point early in their career they often did experience struggle and exploitation. But a rockstars life is about as pampered as you can get, and the ones that are successful usually find success while their young, so it’s not surprising so many of them have shit politics.