Aibu to wish more artists adopted Dolly Parton’s philosophy?

Olivia newton john was very similar, didn’t get into politics and did a huge amount for charity - in fact helped set up a cancer hospital in Melbourne, donating huge amounts of cash personally and also fund raising such as her Great Wall of china walk. Lots of artists and rich people do the same.

I agree. However, Ed S does explicitly position himself as non-political; he just got dragged into it by Macklemore and the odious stadium owner.

YABVVU

There have always been musicians that used their music and platform for political reasons. Even the Beatles had some political songs.

There's no reason to stop now. In fact I'd anything, we need more of it!

I 100% agree - can’t bear to be lectured to by actors and musicians most of whom barely finished school. It’s utterly nauseating..

I agree. So many celebrities these days seem to think that it's their responsibility to be politically active (or vocal, at least), while most of us would probably rather they focused more on their jobs as entertainers. They don't seem to care that they risk alienating roughly half of their potential fans when they 'take a stand'. 🙄 Nothing stops them from making donations privately, if they feel strongly about something.

Dolly isn't free from political comment either - she has made comment on song and folk about feminism, she's made comment on Black Lives Matter, LGBT issues, poverty...

Concert tickets are bloody expensive; people are paying to be entertained, not lectured.

YABU Art has always been political. Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Bob Geldof

Did you mean “don’t say anything against Israel”?

I guess there’s two things

does a singer have the right to express political opinions? I would say yes because of the second point

Do people need to listen to or care about the opinions of celebs? Personally I don’t but just look at comic relief etc - a lot of people do look up to celebs and base their opinions around theirs

in the case of a concert - I don’t think it’s right to make it political unless that’s been stated as going to happen as that’s not what people are paying for

but let’s face it - you’re not hearing celebs giving opinions on other areas of conflict around the world - and if you did I imagine it would get very little publicity

I guess the lesson for music promoters is not to book people that are known to be political (Macklemore has quite a few political songs) if you don't want a political musician on the tour.

I know. It's a mind blowing idea.

But yet he performed at a Ukraine benefit concert so I guess he's political when he wants to be 🤔

Good film to watch with 13 and 12 year ikd

Dolly Parton was one of a kind. Amazing individual, amazing benefactor, lots of children in the US can read now only because of her legacy with books. All today's shitty performers can't touch her.

All art is political.

I think expressing views is up to the individual.

Nothing wrong with Dolly's approach, but it's not a requirement.

It's a difficult one because Ed Sheeran is receiving a huge backlash for something he didn't do. Macklemore had the platform for his comments because of Ed Sheeran, yet it appears his comments may have helped to ruin Sheeran's tour. Which seems monumentally unfair.

See also girl group whose name I forget who are distancing themselves from Ed Sheeran even though he wrote the song that got them noticed.

Ed Sheeran has done nothing wrong, just tried to support musicians, but finds himself embroiled in a situation not of his making.

I think the thing that had ruined the tour is how Macklemore's comments have been dealt with - not the comments themselves.

The much bigger backlash came because Macklemore was removed from the tour, and Ed's 'it wasn't me' response, rather than because of what Macklemore said.

Yes! They should all shush and allow the super- wealthy say who gets a voice. What could be bad about that? 🤔
Ed Sheeran is surely big enough to have said no to this stadium owner.

Bringing attention to something you believe is wrong is hardly lecturing btw, Macklemore literally has at least one song about Gaza. If he's not your thing go to the bar and wait for Ed's nice safe songs.

Dolly Parton took several public political positions, she just didn't explicitly signal support for one political party over another.

But they shouldn’t be obligated to

Totally agree. Have your beliefs and views but stfu about them when performing thanks.

🤣 Has anyone suggested that?

Would you have said that to the Beatles, to Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Nirvana, the Beastie Boys, the Dead Kennedys, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, or indeed Macklemore, or any of the very many other artists that have written and performed political songs. Including Dolly Parton, and all the artists that sang 'Do They Know it's Christmas'?

Do you just want, what, love songs and instrumentals?

Er, you did

When?