When Bad People Make Good Art

I offer six guidelines on cancel culture

I try to avoid the subject of cancel culture.

I don’t even write negative record reviews anymore—I only tell you about music I enjoy, and forget the rest. And I have even less interest in probing into the unsavory details of a musician’s private life.

But ignoring these controversies isn’t easy in my line of work.

As a full-time critic, I often feel like that meme dog trying to drink a cup of coffee in a burning building.

That fire burns constantly now. And it’s not just mobs trying to cancel the culprit of the week. There’s an equally large mob trying to destroy the cancelers themselves.

Meanwhile, like that calm canine, I try to focus on the art—not the less-than-perfect artists who make it.

But is that even possible?

• If I listen to Michael Jackson’s music, am I endorsing his alleged crimes and failings? Do I need to study the evidence—devoting days to reading court transcripts and legal depositions—before I click on a playlist?

• Can I watch a Woody Allen movie, and enjoy it as a movie, without first deciding if he is guilty of sexual abuse allegations?

• What about Miles Davis, accused of domestic abuse?—and here I’ve heard firsthand testimony from an actual witness. Do I now need to give up Kind of Blue and Sketches of Spain?

• Or how about Chuck Berry, who spent two years in jail for sex trafficking and punched a woman so hard that she needed stitches?

• And classical music is no better. Can I listen to my Met Opera albums after the charges against conductor James Levine—or do I wipe out all forty years of his tenure from my record library?

• Or what about Bob Marley (accused of rape) or David Bowie (called Hitler a “rock star”) or Cardi B (drugged and robbed men) or Jerry Lee Lewis (bigamy, married underage cousin), etc.

• And don’t forget the famous musicians who committed murder from Carlo Gesualdo to Sid Vicious to Phil Spector? Must I change the station when their songs get played on the radio?

And I haven’t even started on the artists who tweeted rude things. Their number is legion.

The more you dig into this subject, the more complex it gets. Who even has time to investigate all the allegations and rumors?

And what about guilt by association—do we punish all the cast and crew when a director falters? Should the whole band get cancelled when one member does something bad?

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This whole subject is so thorny, I’d like to avoid thinking about it. But people keep asking for my opinion on cancelling.

They want me to explain how I deal with these situations as a critic and fan. That’s a legitimate request.

So below I’m sharing my six guidelines for dealing with artists who have done bad things.