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Michael Jackson, Melly, R. Kelly, Ryan Adams streams/plays all up or steady after they were "canceled"

TheGhost

TheGhost

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,137
Long Island
I mean these songs have had an impact on my life since the 80's. I'll probably never not listen to Smooth Criminal or The Love you save or hell...Rockwell's Somebody is Watching me.

when those songs come on at a wedding or party it sends waves to my brain that makes me smile.

the infectious nature of those songs are deep rooted. Is the man a monster? Probably? But it's too late for me. His catalogue was soundtracks to the younger years of my life.

now R-Kelly? I knew he was a pedo since the early 90's from hip hop radio and interviews so i never peeped his records.
 
DanteSparda504

DanteSparda504

Member
Nov 2, 2017
4,518
Birmingham, AL
A lot of this stuff is so iconic, and regardless of how shitty the person who made it was/is, doesn't change the mark on history it has made. Some of it was legitimately great music, and listening to it doesn't make someone a bad person.

Going out and calling yourself like a #1 of these people. Denying what they have done. That's a different story. But listening to their music and contributions to the World is okay.

Never been a huge fan of any of the artist listed, and most of them I would skip just because I don't like their music. But if a MJ song pops up on occasion, I wouldn't object to listening to it.
 
MrHedin

MrHedin

Member
Dec 7, 2018
6,894
I was thinking about this the other day. I love MJ's music, just based on music he's easily in my Top 5 artist/band rankings. I don't think I could support him financially if he was alive and doing new albums and/or shows but since he is deceased and does not stand to benefit it kinda feels OK to keep listening. It is something that I do think of though and I don't think I will ever have a course of action either way on this that would make me completely comfortable.
 
Scarlet Spider

Scarlet Spider

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,812
Brooklyn, NY
Soupman Prime said:
These threads are always interesting. Are people more comfortable listening to the music of despicable people over eating at a place with despicable owners or playing games made by terrible people.
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I dunno about eating at places with despicable owners but when it comes to games I'm not gonna skip a game because a terrible person was involved in it lol. Same with music, I just can't not listen to MJ's songs.
 
Umbrella Carp

Umbrella Carp

Banned
Jan 16, 2019
3,265
Sweeney Swift said:
You can keep supporting trash if you like. I know trash people do. I know I never will, because I'm not trash
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tenor.gif
 

MPrice

Alt account
Banned
Oct 18, 2019
654
Gegz said:
R.Kelly is a despicable human being and deserve to rot in jail, but he's still one of my favorite artists and a musical genius, and there's no way i'll ever stop listening to his songs.

In fact, the Spotify "interdiction" kinda sucks for me because i really enjoy the daily playlists based on what i'm listening. But having a slow jam r&b playlist without R.Kelly feels kinda off.
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See I can understand this for MJ but Rkelly has never seemed to be iconic to me. He had some great records early on but his mid-late career was completely forgettable. And the guy couldn't dress for shit. I don't think I've listened to RKelly in at least 10years.
 
R dott B

R dott B

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,147
Their music didn't suddenly become trash so it's not really that crazy. I've never been a fan of MJ though but to each their own.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,536
Right, and Chick Fil'a is one of the most profitable, fastest growing, successful fast food restaurants. If the chicken music is good, people mostly don't care about what the owners artists do or think, at least they don't care enough to change their behavior over it.

But if it's not good, people are fine removing it from their lives... See: Papa John. If Papa John made good pizza, rather than bottom tier cardboard shit that's overpriced even for bad pizza, then Papa John would still have his job, still be on TV, and wouldn't be eating 40 pizzas in 3 weeks. But Papa Johns is bad, so their business went down, he got fired, and now he's eating 40 pizzas and getting divorced.

It's also the case with Uber. They can underpay their employees, undercut their employees, treat their employees like human AI, Uber can permit their cars to be mobile rape stations, but as long as Uber gets you there the fastest and the cheapest, people are going to order Ubers instead of their more expensive and less reliable local cab monopoly; Maybe they'll download Lyft but the moment the Lyft app has only 1 driver in their area and Uber has 6 drivers, the moral or ethical priorities are gone and they want to get to the bar to meet their friends on time.
 
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OP
OP

Deleted member 8860

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,525
Why is music so different?

We're all on Era because of what the owner/admin(s) of the old site did. We all jeer at Polanski's work and supporters. We don't watch Spacey. We boycott Chick-Fil-A. Many of us refuse to give more money to Blizzard. Right?
 
Surfinn

Surfinn

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
28,590
USA
I personally will never be able to enjoy an MJ song again after learning the details of what he did to children.

People have to make that decision for themselves.

But at least be able to recognize that Michael Jackson was a child rapist and that his person and life should not be remembered or celebrated.
 
asmith906

asmith906

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,801
I dont know why people are surprised. We've literally known about r kelly and MJ for decades. Serial killers literally have fan clubs.
 
SpankyDoodle

SpankyDoodle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,082
tadale said:
The Michael Jackson documentary was so affecting to me that every time I hear a Jackson song now I can't think of anything else. So year, I've stopped listening by choice, but I still hear it in restaurants and stores.
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I haven't even watched the documentary but I read some of the posts about it when it came out and holy fuck. I *loved* MJ's music, I still think the music itself is amazing, but I can't listen to it anymore. I'll hear it when I'm out and about on the radio in stores and I almost instantly remember the things I read and it just kills it for me.

I wanted to ask about this in one of the last MJ threads, if still listening to his music just automatically makes you a piece of shit now that everything has come out about him. It's not like the music itself is suddenly not good music y'know? But I sure as fuck don't want to be giving any money to him or his estate anymore. Or what about listening to a cover of a song by a shitty person? Alien Ant Farm's cover of Smooth Criminal, the [surprisingly awesome] cover of "Somebody's Watching Me" from those Geico commercials with the stack of money, etc.
 

Deleted member 39374

Banned
Feb 1, 2018
5,083
The sad truth is that outside of twitter/social media/era, people at large don't really care.

Emotions > facts, and music is very emotional especially when you're nostalgic about it and have grown up listening to a certain artist or had certain songs associate with parts of your life.

My mom, for example, is a hardcore MJ fan and anytime I bring up the allegations she gives me the old "white-owned media always tries to destroy successful black men" conspiracy theory
 
Umbrella Carp

Umbrella Carp

Banned
Jan 16, 2019
3,265
For those who don't want to give money to the Jackson estate, you can still listen to his stuff on Youtube with Adblock on. The most you're doing then is bolstering views but it isn't like a typical MJ video isn't in the millions already.
 

sapien85

Banned
Nov 8, 2017
5,427
Soupman Prime said:
These threads are always interesting. Are people more comfortable listening to the music of despicable people over eating at a place with despicable owners or playing games made by terrible people.

My music taste is so weird that I wouldn't go and listen to these artists but one day out of the blue I might wanna listen to Off the Wall. Kinda feel like it's alright to listen but still say these are horrible people but there are levels. I've never watched a Benoit match after what happened so maybe.
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It's because people take music more personally so they justify it.
 
MazeHaze

MazeHaze

Member
Nov 1, 2017
8,656
I mean even people here don't have a problem listening to Tupac even though he was accused of rape and convicted of sexual assault.

"Cancel culture" will never be a thing because it's mostly people cancelling shit they dont like in the first place, while ignoring the transgressions of shit that they like.
 
M.J.

M.J.

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,059
R. Kelly, still very much alive and still guilty of terrible shit. Does profit off of his great music being listened to and tolerated.

I don't feel comfortable listening to R. Kelly and other current serial abusers, as much as I love their music, so I don't. I also don't want to support R.Kelly with my streaming spins, but mostly just doesn't feel right listening to his music anymore.

MJ made Thriller. In my opinion, that statement always meant that he's one of the few where his work is so timeless and classic, that it's detached from him as a person and all of the fucked up shit he's accused of. It doesn't mean that because he made Thriller he's excused of anything. Just means you really can't deny music as great as his. I can't say that's the case for really anybody else though. Plus he's dead so it's not the same, in the sense that you're supporting a bad person by listening to their music anyway.
 
MindofKB

MindofKB

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
1,091
Bay Area
No one is around to hold people accountable to the idea of not supporting toxic artists, so cancel culture isn't a real thing.
 
TSM

TSM

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,858
The world has known about MJ and R Kelly being pedophiles for decades. Them being in the news is basically an advertisement for their music at this point.
 
Umbrella Carp

Umbrella Carp

Banned
Jan 16, 2019
3,265
MPrice said:
See I can understand this for MJ but Rkelly has never seemed to be iconic to me. He had some great records early on but his mid-late career was completely forgettable. And the guy couldn't dress for shit. I don't think I've listened to RKelly in at least 10years.
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Literally the only song I have ever heard from him is I Believe I can Fly. He is not iconic lol Space Jam is more iconic than he is.
 
wenis

wenis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,182
ive never actively contributed money to the Jackson family, not once. the records i've purchased have always been second hand. that's pretty much where I stand on this. i just dont do it.
 
BarringGaffner

BarringGaffner

Member
Nov 11, 2017
2,260
TSM said:
The world has known about MJ and R Kelly being pedophiles for decades. Them being in the news is basically an advertisement for their music at this point.
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This. It's publicity that gets people thinking about them.

Personally I can't hear MJ anymore without thinking about the horrible things he did to those kids.
 
Stinkles

Stinkles

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,459
The Albatross said:
Right, and Chick Fil'a is one of the most profitable, fastest growing, successful fast food restaurants. If the chicken music is good, people mostly don't care about what the owners artists do or think, at least they don't care enough to change their behavior over it.

But if it's not good, people are fine removing it from their lives... See: Papa John. If Papa John made good pizza, rather than bottom tier cardboard shit that's overpriced even for bad pizza, then Papa John would still have his job, still be on TV, and wouldn't be eating 40 pizzas in 3 weeks. But Papa Johns is bad, so their business went down, he got fired, and now he's eating 40 pizzas and getting divorced.

It's also the case with Uber. They can underpay their employees, undercut their employees, treat their employees like human AI, Uber can permit their cars to be mobile rape stations, but as long as Uber gets you there the fastest and the cheapest, people are going to order Ubers instead of their more expensive and less reliable local cab monopoly; Maybe they'll download Lyft but the moment the Lyft app has only 1 driver in their area and Uber has 6 drivers, the moral or ethical priorities are gone and they want to get to the bar to meet their friends on time.
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Chick Fil A has radically changed its behavior as a result of negative reactions in press and social media though so pressure and complaining work too - as does corporate and retail boycotting.
 
mael

mael

Avenger
Nov 3, 2017
17,265
kikiribu said:
Except it is, because people still try to do this especially on social media. It's happening to a lot of people these days and that's why it even became a term.
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On social media?
if it's not by the social media platforms, it ain't a thing.
Even freaking Channel Awesome is trucking along like nothing happened.
 
Massive Nights

Massive Nights

Member
Oct 30, 2017
970
I am, or was, a massive Ryan Adams fan and I haven't listened to a single one of his songs since all that shit came out. Every time a song of his comes up on Spotify it immediately gets skipped, if it's Whiskeytown I'll let it play.
 
Vagabond

Vagabond

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,436
United States
I thought people who were fans of R Kelly knew about all of his under-16 dealings way before it hit mainstream news. He 'married' Aaliyah at 14 and told all the media press. Plus his older catalog might be doing well but he's released newer music since that has been all but ignored. And MJ's docuseries has its own doubt circulating around it - way too much to cancel him because of it. No clue who the other two are. I notice that the article leaves off a lot of other 'cancelled' acts like Chris Brown and analyzing how his sales are.
 
Bio

Bio

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,370
Denver, Colorado
EvilChameleon said:
Just because someone is a piece of shit doesn't suddenly make their music shit as well, unless it has shit themes like homophobia and transphobia.
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Every time you stream an R. Kelly song you're putting money in the man's pocket and enabling him to keep being a piece of shit.

"He makes good music" isn't a justification for that. Have the courage of your convictions.
 
hey it's that dog

hey it's that dog

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,163
emag said:
Why is music so different?

We're all on Era because of what the owner/admin(s) of the old site did. We all jeer at Polanski's work and supporters. We don't watch Spacey. We boycott Chick-Fil-A. Many of us refuse to give more money to Blizzard. Right?
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Why on earth would you assume every era member feels the same way about any one of these issues, let alone all of them?
 
MrRob

MrRob

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,671
When are people going to realize that the very loud very "passionate" Twitter-verse is a very small minority. People really need to step outside the bubble. Especially the "Era Bubble" the vast majority of the planet are not passionate defenders of anything.

Also, Murder on my Mind is a fuckin banger, MJ shaped my musical interest and tastes as a teenager, and Chick-fil-A is delicious.
 
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