Should We Separate the Artist From Their Art?

By: James Southworth

The year 2017 has not been an easy ride by any means. It feels like more controversies than ever have arisen, and people are becoming more divided and conflicted by issues that they feel to be important. One of the biggest issues that I think I could talk about on my website because it has to do with art is this: should we separate the artist from their art? It feels like such a loaded question. But I'm going to look at several different relevant artists from this year. No matter how I feel about these particular artists' works, I won't let that get in the way of my legitimate opinion. My personal opinion will come at the end of this commentary/discussion.

We'll look firstly at the most recent example, and the one that I quickly established an opinion on. The biggest YouTuber of all time, gamer/comedian PewDiePie, aka Felix, just got huge backlash after a live stream. Now what did he do on this live stream that got so much controversy? Well, he dropped the n-word, with a hard "r" at the end of it. Essentially, in the first-person shooter game he was playing, he got killed by someone, and clearly got frustrated. In that moment, he surprisingly just blurted out the n-word, and briefly apologized afterwords before resuming his stream. I'm not sure whether Felix deleted that part of the stream or anything. However, on the upload he put on YouTube of streaming highlights, it sure wasn't there for obvious reasons. The actual stream is on Twitch, but that doesn't matter. It makes sense why so many YouTube creators are concerned for their job positions. There has already been a shortage of ads on YouTube, which was ignited by another PewDiePie controversy where Wall Street Journal basically tried to call him a racist Nazi (I personally did not agree with what the WSJ did, it was a totally shady move and took all his videos out of context). So, Felix making yet another mistake (this one is debatably worse in my eyes because it wasn't associated with a comedy bit) has some pretty heavy implications to it. The creator of the game "Firewatch" has already stated that he's going to do a take down of all the videos Felix did of his game. In general, a lot of people do not like what he said, because the n word obviously has a lot of history attached to it. Many are calling for him to be deleted off YouTube or to just boycott his channel. Should this be a time where the artist is separated from the art? I think  that if people still want to watch Felix's videos, there's nothing wrong with it. I don't think the guy is a racist, but he made a big mistake. He shouldn't be crucified for it, but it's no surprise that he will have to suffer consequences. Still, I really think that some people are blowing this out of proportion.

The next example is a little tougher for me to fully decide on, as it's regarding Taylor Swift. Not only am I not a big fan of Swift's music, but I'm also not a fan of her personality. She seems like a person who just can't be trusted, as she thrives on having drama with other women in the industry, particularly Katy Perry. Her drama with men is in no shortage either, as she likes to make songs that target her exes. I also don't particularly like her new song "Look What You Made Me Do"; in fact, I detest it. I will still try to be fair to her, though, in some of the backlash she's gotten. A lot of people have called out a specific part of her new single's music video as racist. It is a little suspect to see that most of the white people are on one side and black people are on the other side in this dancing formation. An even bigger controversy that has arisen, however, is people think that Swift needs to speak more on politics as one the biggest female artists out there. Many think she has lived in a privileged shell for far too long. In a way, I see where they're coming from, but in another, why do they care so much that Swift doesn't speak on her politics? She is a singer, not a politician. Her songs have never been political, so I don't see why it's necessary for her to speak on any political topic. I have a feeling if she did say anything, the Swift dissenters would still attempt to destroy her anyway. I think people hate her media image, and I once again see where they're coming from. But to the people saying they don't listen to Swift's music because she doesn't speak on politics: why? Why does her opinion really matter that much to you if you want her to be irrelevant in the first place?

I'm going to put the last three artists together, because all three of them are somewhat similar cases in the fact that they are all criminals/alleged criminals. It fascinates me that any of these three are controversial or that their art is supported: Chris Brown, XXXTentacion, and Tim Lambesis (of the band As I Lay Dying). The first two artists have a history of abusing women, and both have been arrested for it. Lambesis might even be worse, as he hired a hit man to murder his wife, and just got released from prison this year. And yet, there are STILL people out there who say that the artist should not be equated with their art. Defenders of the first two artist tend to claim their music is good, so why shouldn't they just enjoy it? Because it gives literal criminals validity. You are supporting the art of people who should be in jail. It just blows my mind that there are actually some people who are perfectly okay with listening to their music. I used to like As I Lay Dying. But when I heard what Lambesis attempted to do to his wife, I became disgusted and couldn't listen to anything the band put out; it made me feel dirty to even think about listening to them. I do think artists like this perhaps deserve a second chance, but a second chance doesn't mean supporting them in a way that will get them a lot of money.

The question of whether the artist and the art should be separated is a loaded one. Here's my opinion: I think the more extreme the situation, the more the artist should not be separated from their art. I think art reveals a lot more about the artist than we think. We have to be careful. Art is valuable, and when artists become controversial, it is entirely possible that the art can become a perverted version of itself.