Opinion: "Should Classic Rock Songs Be Toppled Like Confederate Statues?"

[TTL News 308]

Quote

 

A long, long time ago — I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.

“American Pie,” Don McLean’s generation-defining ballad, was released on vinyl 50 years ago this October. The first time I ever heard it, I was with my sister in our kitchen. I was 13. I was eating a bowl of Alpha-Bits cereal. It came on the radio, and my sister — only a year older but centuries cooler — told me, “This is the greatest song ever.”

It’s impossible for me to hear that song now without thinking of her.

But when Patrisha McLean, Don McLean’s ex-wife, hears “American Pie,” she isn’t reminded of golden moments of adolescence or even the classic age of rock ’n’ roll memorialized by the song. Ms. McLean says she was subjected to years of emotional and physical abuse from her former husband.

Ms. McLean was married to her husband for 29 years before the night five years ago that she made a 911 call. In the aftermath, Mr. McLean was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. He was charged with six misdemeanors; he pleaded guilty to four as part of a plea agreement in which the domestic violence charge would be dismissed after a year. For the other three charges — criminal restraint, criminal mischief and making domestic violence threats — he paid some $3,000 in fines.

Since then, Ms. McLean founded Finding Our Voices, a Maine-based nonprofit dedicated to educating people about domestic abuse and providing services for victims. Meanwhile, Mr. McLean was honored in August with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.He denies having ever assaulted his wife, and his lawyer has saidthat he pleaded guilty “not because he was in fact guilty of anything but to provide closure for his family and keep the whole process as private as possible.” His iconic song still plays on the radio.

 

See the rest here.

What do you think? 

[MsKreed 1,185]

Can't read the rest through the paywall..... But if the gist is to remove the work like "toppled statues"......thus preventing anyone from accessing it in future generations; whether for good or bad, for enjoyment or debate, etc? 

Nope. Don't agree with that idea for statues, or books (Huck Finn), movies (Dumbo, GWTW, et al), TV (Dukes of Hazzard, Cosby).

 

It's up to consumers whether or not to consume any of it, but pressure (particularly from Hollywood/media) aimed at threatening corporations to cease distribution/sponsorship for what is typically a vocal but tiny minority that does not "represent" any community on any substantial level.

 

That said....For all the influence and attention that the entertainment industry throws behind movements to Blacklisting and 'cancelling' careers and bodies of work...they really are sporadic and fickle when it comes to applying their pressure (and on whom).

And the Music Industry largely seems to be given the biggest pass.

Is there any doubt that there are dozens of artists who [each] took advantage of more women than Bill Cosby or Harvey Weinstein....giving them drugs before having their way with them [many under age]?

And even though Tom Hanks was never forced out of his career for Bosom Buddies (I guess "Philadelphia" exonerated him for that), there are plenty of stage/screen entertainers having old work removed from circulation and new work denied for being "insensitive to the LGBTQ community"

But no plans to cancel artists that went platinum being insensitive to them?

Aerosmith - Dude Looks Like Lady
The Kinks - Lola
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
Led Zeppelin - Royal Orleans
Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side
 

 

[Chris 2,172]

Hmm... Either I didn't read the entire article or somehow got passed the paywall. Either way, there's enough quoted above to get the gist of it for discussion. 

What I was thinking was, if we blacklisted every musician who did something terrible, at least according to someone, there'd be nothing but dead air on the radio. And truth is, I've been able to separate someone's art from the person anyway. And Bill Cosby is a great example. 

His "America's Dad' image sure took a beating, and his pontificating about behavior versus his actions shows he was a hypocrite. But his comedy still stands the test of time and character, at least to me. Funny, I was just thinking about this yesterday, and was thinking I'd pull up his comedy specials online, if they're still available. Because "Noah" is frickin' hysterical! And I was thinking it's funny that no one's come down on Eddie Murphy for his comedy sketches about gay men and AIDS, which honestly, are more cringey than funny now. 

But back to music, I think we have to be even more discerning and, yes, forgiving. Although admittedly that could be the musician in me talking. And even then I'm slightly hypocritical I suppose because there's music we won't perform due to it's politics ( ie: "rebel songs" that glorify the IRA ) or because of a lyric ( Shane MacGowan's "Fairytale of New York" which other than a homosexual slur is brilliant, lyrically speaking ).

[MsKreed 1,185]

1 hour ago, Chris said:

Hmm... Either I didn't read the entire article or somehow got passed the paywall. Either way, there's enough quoted above to get the gist of it for discussion. 

I got "You’ve reached your limit of free articles."

Apparently you haven't reached whatever the weekly or monthly NYT limit is.

[Chris 2,172]

26 minutes ago, MsKreed said:

I got "You’ve reached your limit of free articles."

Did clearing your cache work or have they smartened up to that?

[MsKreed 1,185]

On 11/5/2021 at 1:55 PM, Chris said:

Did clearing your cache work or have they smartened up to that?

Clearing cache changing to Edge browser and incognito browsing didn't work. But installing DuckDuckGo extension seems to have worked - will see how long that lasts