Is there an artist whose work you love but was a shitty person?
Is there an artist whose work you love but was a shitty person?
It can sometimes be hard to separate the artist from their art. Are there any artists who were bad people but whose work you still enjoy?
Feel free to answer if you're in the opposite scenario: an artist who you love personally but don't enjoy their artwork.
Feel free to respond more than just music artists!
Tom Cruise. I don't know what weird pathways cross in a brain to get that deep into Scientology without realizing what bullshit it is, but he is an amazing actor. He understands the craft, he is not shy about poking fun of himself, and by all accounts he is a consummate professional and treats the film crew well and has given gifts/thrown parties for them, etc.
But Scientology, yeesh....
Billy Corgan.
The music of Smashing Pumpkins got me through some very dark times as a teenager, but finding out he hates me because I'm gay snapped that personal connection. I'm usually able to separate the art from the artist and still enjoy good stuff made by bad people, but I'm not able to enjoy them anymore. The connection was too personal and the betrayal was too great.
JK Rowling 😔
JK Rowling
Joss Whedon
I would say Kevin Spacey. The man can act: Usual suspects, Seven, first season of House Of Cards. Shame how he turned out.
Marilyn Manson - he had a slow slide from alcoholism to lecher creep to serial abuser. he spent 2009-2011 doing the worst shit to women that you can imagine.
Brand New - turns out that Jesse was a groomer of underage girls.
Arcade Fire - Win Butler is a sex pest.
Smashing Pumpkins - not at all in the same category as the others, but goddamn does Billy Corgan suck. he was always known as a first-class egotist, but he just kept being an asshole long after his prime had become a distant memory. then the weird shit started: crackpot conspiracy theories on Myspace, palling around with Alex Jones on Infowars, dropping alt-right buzzwords in interviews. the latest album is an extended allegory on cancel culture. worse, it's mostly unlistenable.
Johnny Craig, the former lead singer for the band Dance Gavin Dance. Dude has repeatedly fucked up and ripped off fans, but damn did he have a great singing voice.
And for the opposite, T-Pain and Post Malone. Both of them just seem like the coolest, and most chill people but their studio music is just not for me.
A lot?
Tom Cruise is the easy answer for obvious, cultist, related reasons. And as much as I love Donnie Yen in basically everything he has ever done, he is a hardcore CCP shill at best and there is a LOT of really creepy and questionable shit in his casting and "writing" that makes me wonder when he fucks up so bad that even China cares.
But, generally, the rule that a friend "coined" is: How bad are they compared to Mel Gibson? And while that is mostly a "funny" way to look at stuff, it is also useful to keep in mind regarding the different scale of assholes. And it also depends on what they are bad about.
Also, I still like pro wrestling. That shit is a minefield.
But to provide an answer that didn't seem to come up yet:
Nobuhiro Watsuki. Creator of Rurouni Kenshin and such a pedophile that even the Japanese government gave a shit (and... just spend five minutes on the fifth floor of any manga shop and you'll understand how massively fucked of a scale that is. Or walk down the streets of Akihabara at night).
But also? The Rurouni Kenshin anime is still one of the GOATs... for the Kyoto arc. Even if there is a lot of shit in the arcs surrounding it and the overall story of Kenshin that REALLY makes a lot of sense when you understand how evil the creator is... And the live action adaptations are a must watch for any fan of action movies because it is probably still the greatest blend of wire work, fight choreography, and "style" to ever exist (I hear the Yu Yu Hakusho live action taps into the same vein).
One of those things where I will be a lot happier when that piece of shit is dead and unable to benefit from sales.
This thread has already mentioned a lot of artists I was already going to mention...and I'll add a semi-recent one for me, Scott Adams. I started reading Dilbert while I was still learning to read and my exposure to it helped me recover from my literacy anxiety (which I sometimes still have to an extent). I've mentioned a bit of my associations of it in previous posts but to recap, my mom worked at another "Baby Bell" company, Nynex, later Bell Atlantic then Verizon, (like Scott who worked at Pacific Bell and Dilbert and friends who worked at an unnamed company implied to be in the telecom sector) I liked the simplistic designs a lot, as well as the introduction of new vocabulary. I soon started making my own comic strips. Scott Adams' views on race, medicine, politics and several other subjects are perplexing. If I could logically follow them, I'd be offended. My dad's high school experience was diminished by segregation apologists during Boston bussing mandates of the 1970s when they would protest at school campuses. The fact that Adams was on board with such a stupid practice in that infamous vlog is upsetting. Then again, Adams is a contrarian so I can't be sure if he sincerely feels that way, especially since he tweeted something afterwards saying "I'm not actually bothered by black people. I am actually just annoyed by white people who advocate for black people" (paraphrase). Maybe it's a true clarification or maybe he's just trying to walk back his statements. He needs help. There's probably something traumatic in his life that made him snap. Off hand, I know his wife filed for divorce from him and his stepson died of an overdose, and he may still be mourning in a strange way. Still, if I see Dilbert merch at a secondhand shop or in the library, I'd gladly take them out. I will not subscribe to his new pay-walled comic, but if his distributors and publishers ever decide to re-sign their contracts with him and start printing new Dilbert books again, I may buy them. Anecdotally print publishers seem to do more vetting than web publishers, so I'd hope that if they ever reunite he'd be in the right headspace. Anyway, great comic, troubled person. Hope the guy gets some help.
Crystal Castles. Keith is an asshole.
Robert Heinlein. His works were all over the place, and it would be a mistake to assume that he believed in something just because he wrote it in a fiction novel, so on that front I think he gets a fair amount of undeserved heat. He was pushing the limits of progressivism for his time, tossing out and seemingly defending everything on all sides from fascism to anarchy to direct democracy.
If we discount his fiction, though, since it can be hard to tell from that what he actually believed, then he still falls pretty short by modern standards. A homophobe, almost certainly racist, and although he was practically a feminist by the standards of his time I would have to admit that he's pretty misogynistic by our standards.
Cee-lo Green. He's brilliant, and has an amazing voice, but dude is a rape apologist and doesn't believe that an unconscious partner is unable to consent. An article from the Guardian where he apologized, but it's still out there.
Asimov, from all accounts, was quite a creep but dammit if his writing isn't good.
Aside from dictators (who are by definition very, very shitty people, but almost always have an art career for some reason), assuming actors don't count as artists, I'd have to say the only example I can think of is Butch Hartman, not shitty because of his character but because he's like the other JK Rowling.
To answer the second question, literally all the e-artists I've ever met, though art is relative enough I don't feel like art can have a "negative" value. I trust they will never see this.
Definitely not shitty-bad, but it seemed like a Seinfeld moment. Looks like he's still a small artist so I won't name him here - but a guy I sat next to on a plane turned out to have drawn/designed the shirt I wore that day. We were having a nice chat when the discussion turned to the CCP and his admiration for their authoritative actions.
I definitely Noped out mentally from the conversation, but we still kept talking for a while because.... well we were on a plane. Was still a nice guy (to me) - just ...interesting.. views.
My favourite book is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. My edition has a foreword about how Lewis Carroll wasn't really a pedophile. He just had so many pictures of naked kids, spent so much time with them and wanted to marry the real Alice while she was young solely because he had soooo much love for children. Not in a creepy way at all. No no, not at all creepy.
It's the an artist that doesn't fall into this category?
Micheal Jackson and his songs had a massive influence until the child abuse allegations came out. Then I didn’t care about his songs.
I like the music by Demons & Wizards, a metal band, which was formed as a collaboration between Blind Guardian's Hansi Kürsch (vocals) and Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer (guitar). Their first album from 1999 is legendary imo.
So let's see what Jon has been up to since... Oh. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55626148
This thread is bumming me out.
Zakk Wylde. A violent drunk redneck with the mind of an overgrown 15 year old.
Like many mentioned, lots of examples. First one to come to mind for me was Exurb1a. Sarcastic and witty videos about science, philosophy, futurism, etc. I remember one video had a joke about tossing an ex out a window I found uncomfortable, but he also used a bunch of self derogatory humor etc, and his style did include exaggerated characters etc.
Then some convincing evidence came out that he was an abuser and iirc also raped someone. I don't have the link now and as usual don't believe stuff a random anonymous person says on the internet, but it was disappointing to say the least.
Lostprophets were one of my favourite band during my formative years, and I still love the music, but any time I hear it now I can't get past the fact that the singer was a literal baby rapist.
It's kind of a big list. Mostly actors and filmmakers, but also game designers and developers and executive producers. Some of the biggest pieces of shit have played a role in some great movies and other artistic projects. 🤷🏻♂️
Roman Polanski comes to mind.
nekozuna, turns out she's a child predator. yeah i no longer listen to the music since i don't wanna support her.
Eric Gill. Great sculptor and of course typeface designer but would be better regarded were he 'sans' the sex with his sister, both his daughters, and the family dog.
I enjoy a lot of books written by Larry Niven. But in real life he seems to be a bit of a pro-government totalitarian.
Tom Otterness, the sculptor. He might not be a shitty person anymore, though (it's really up to you).
The person who made Skyrim OST
Josh Whedon - firefly, serenity, dollhouse, etc.
Adolf Hitler
Pablo Picasso was apparently a misogynistic shitbag who preyed in young girls
I only found out they were shitty persons afterwards.
No