A few weeks ago I downloaded the Vampire Weekend album after hearing a song on WERS. I listened to the album a few times and liked it - then I saw them on Letterman, the cover of Spin, and finally on SNL. The group looks like your typical pretentious rich college kids who vacation on long weekends and bicker over which type of cheese to bring to a picnic. Basically, I like their music but hate their image and am wondering whether that matters?If you like a band's music but probably wouldn't want to be friends with the band in real life, are you still a fan? If yes, is there anything lost in not buying into the whole package - both image and music- or can you simply take what you like and leave what you don't?
Conversely, what about artists whose music and image you love but know that in real life they
wouldn't be friends with you? One day back in the school cafeteria my friend asked me what was wrong and I told him that I didn't think Young Jeezy would want to hang out with me. At the time, I was listening to Thug Motivation 101 everyday on my walk to class and every night before I went to bed. Jeezy, known more for his ad-libs than his verses, and his claim to not be a rapper but a motivational speaker, has an uncanny ability to fill me with the desire to seize the day like a kid from Newsies. I basically went through a month of life with Young Jeezy as my imaginary life coach - pretending to hear him yell "ha-ha!" and "let's get it!" after every clever thing I said.Does realizing that in real life Jeezy would probably just cast me aside as a fool mean that I shouldn't be a fan? I don't know why but the answer is no. I'm a Jeezy fan despite the fact that I probably wouldn't even get a nod if we were the only two people in the hallway and I was screaming I'm a T-R-A-P-S-T-E-R. Ha-ha!
On the side: Didn't want to bring this into the discussion - but - can you be a fan of someone like Wagner, who was an anti-Semite, Hitler's favorite composer, and a strongly criticized character in Nietzsche's Human, All too Human? Can you take the music and leave the man? I don't know.
1 comment:
This is a really interesting question.
If a listener likes an artist's music but not the artist himself there has to be a breakdown of the artist's authenticity or communication between the artist and the listener.
I am a firm believer that a person (and therefore an artist) is a combination of all of his previous experiences, interactions, and thoughts.
If you like the music of an artist but not the artist himself, or viceversa, I would venture that either there is something fabricated (e.g. lacking authenticity) about the artist or the music or the artist is not fully connecting with you via the music (e.g. lacking communication).
To put it another way, if the artist is expressing himself with authenticity there is no way the scenario you describe can occur.
-g (previously aka gulla)
blog.myspace.com/mikeg617
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