In pop culture today, a common question arises: should the art someone creates be separate from the artist? Should and are an artist’s character, beliefs, and actions considered by BSM students when deciding what songs they add to their Spotify playlist? Many of today’s top artists’ opinions are extremely controversial, and in some cases, discriminatory.
Kanye West has openly praised Hitler, made countless comments on the news, and has discriminated against Jewish people in his song lyrics, yet he has a total of 49,480,714,373 streams and 11 different albums on the top of The Billboard 200 charts (BusinessInsider). One of West’s monthly listeners, junior Rainier Gillis keeps his music taste separate from his opinions on the artist Kanye West’s behaviors and beliefs. “My favorite artist, Kanye West, has said some things I don’t agree with, but I still like his music. Just gotta separate the art from the person,” Gillis said.
Another controversial music artist, P Diddy, has been charged by 120 accusors of sexual assault, and is currently going through court cases where he is accused of sex trafficking, rape, and sexual intercourse with minors (Biography). Again, his views and listens have hit 226 weeks of songs in top 75 and 46 weeks of top 75 albums in the UK (OfficialCharts). He has had 11 No. 1 hits, and on Spotify he has 12.65 million monthly listeners, and recently a 100k increase in TikTok likes, and 7.3 million in YouTube views.
Agreeing with Gillis, sophomore Megan Lamers believes that though she doesn’t agree with some artists, including West and P Diddy, she doesn’t use her opinions of the artist to change the music she likes. If people were to use their opinions to determine everything they enjoy, especially in music, it would be difficult to find a perfect match. Therefore Lamers explains that she wouldn’t boycott or restrain from listening to certain artists. “I think it depends on who you are. If you feel like not listening or not doing something will make a difference, then yeah, but for me personally, I just feel like that doesn’t really change much. Just because I like something that someone made doesn’t mean that I agree with their views or who they are as a person,” Lamers said.
Conversely, junior Nadia Ehlert uses her opinions and beliefs to shape the music she listens to, and that the artist’s music and lyrics are influenced by who the artist is as a person. By not agreeing with West or P Diddy, Ehlert doesn’t listen to their music. Ehlert believes she is upholding her morals by letting them guide who’s music she supports, and not listening to an artist will make a difference. “[The artist’s opinions] changes their reason for making the music … [listening to their music] I think it’s giving them money and giving them fame, that if you’re a bad person, you don’t deserve,” Ehlert said.
Gillis, Lamers, and Ehlert are all in agreement that Zach Bryan and his former girlfriend’s potential cheating drama going on in the news today won’t stop them from listening to Bryan’s music. Unknown whether true or not, there are rumors of Bryan cheating and being registered on dating apps while dating Brianna Lapaglia, commonly known as Brianna Chickenfry, yet still BSM students don’t use Bryan’s actions to take away from the effect and genuineness of his music. “Some of his lyrics do say that, ‘I love her, but the biggest mistake you made was thinking I was a good person.’ Those kinds of things [lyrics] I think he’s always been kind of honest about. [Cheating] doesn’t really change my perception of him. Seems like something he would do,” Ehlert said.
Another fan of Bryan, Gillis believes Bryan’s personal life doesn’t change the effect of his music on other people. He comments that just because Bryan might not be completely truthful in his lyrics, people can still connect with them. “Maybe he [Zach Bryan] doesn’t mean it [the lyrics], but that doesn’t mean the people who listen to him can’t resonate [with the lyrics],” Gillis said.