To still enjoy songs that I know are politically incorrect?

[Thisismynewname123]

Sitting here watching MTV's Christmas hits. My favourite song is still Band Aid's Feed the World, despite knowing it's clearly ignorant and racist (or at best, no longer appropriate). Then next co es on Michael Jackson's Earth Song. I usually make an effort not to listen to MJ anyway, but I still love singing to his songs. Can you separate the musician from their life, or their message, or just enjoy listening to a song that is no longer politically appropriate?

Michael Jackson was an amazing talented artiste and dancer - people who get all poe- faced about listening to his music are cutting off their nose to spite their face (imo).

@maddening I agree, rape culture is fine but old songs are not?

Personally given the huge variety of songs available for radio I think it’s probably best for commercial music publishers to avoid ones which dish out old fashioned stereotypes but anything goes in private/with friends and family.

@maddening what are you on about? “Gangster rappers” () certainly get cancelled too. Search for Octavian or Solo 45. No one listens to them anymore after their abuse of women came to light - you’ll have to try again to push your agenda

@LadyFlumpalot

I used to love the LostProphets, but after the news came out about Ian Watkins I couldn't listen to them again.

Yup, same. They were great so I feel for the rest too the band but what he did was so vile I can't separate it.

Very different from some dodgy lyrics that don't hold up to today's scrutiny

@TriflePudding

I’m not enjoying this recent slide into Puritanism whereby everything that doesn’t fit into society’s current norms must be erased from existence.

I’m completely with you. It’s a very slippery slope.

@TroysMammy

Feed the World - "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you" not racist but quite nasty.

I always thought it was a reflection of how the public felt when they first saw those images on the news of starving people.

As in omg isn’t that awful but thank god it’s not me.

Attitudes change. And it is good that they do. But.

It will not stop me enjoying and belting out some songs when I’m in my own company.

I cannot sanitise my whole life. I will not cause offence if I can help it but I won’t erase memories either.

If someone insists that I can’t watch or listen to x, y or z because they think it is this or that then I find that unfair.

My teens/twenties were of a different time. I loved them. I don’t want to edit my memories to suit others when I’m on my own.

The ‘baby it’s cold outside’ addition makes it sound so much worse than I’m sure it was originally intended.

There is offence in everything now it seems.

I have ‘Two little boys’ and ‘Jake the Peg’ by Rolf Harris on my car CD and still song along to them

Re cancel culture, I accept that many want the statues etc to stay as they are part of our “heritage” however I am really bothered by fact that the British empire made catastrophic decisions which still have long lasting impacts today however those moaning about the “woke, virtue signallers” say we need to move on and not mention it.

Yet if anyone was to suggest “moving on” from say the Holocaust they would (absolutely correctly) be pilloried for it - we HAVE to learn from history.

So we seem to be selective on what bits of history we are allowed to bring up - basically any mention of British badness - and there was plenty - is now not allowed.

So I actually think that cancelling is happening by those decrying “cancel culture”. Ok keep the statues, but teach our children about the British Empire and the impact of its policies and decisions too.

And I also think just shouting down (as perhaps I will be) others as woke virtue-signalling is a bit pathetic. It’s akin to the “everyone who voted Brexit is a racist” argument (I was a remainer btw). We don’t need to polarise every argument.

'Exactly. Michael Jackson was talented. His songs were brilliant and he was an excellent entertainer. I can separate the music from the man's actions.

Jimmy Saville was dire. I remember as a child thinking his shows were awful and that the man was dreadful.'

You can separate his music from his actions. I, and many, can't.

I don't consider myself woke because l don't want to listen to the music of a paedophile. I'm not concerned that he wasn't convicted. Neither was Saville but no one is defending him.

@VeniVidiWeeWee

"it's clearly ignorant and racist"

You seriously think Bob Geldof and Midge Ure are racist?

If they try hard enough they can make anything and everything 'racist' because they define the term to suit their own prejudices.

Feed The World - well meaning, but naive.

Michael Jackson - well, Earthsong is one I could easily pretend never hapened, but he can't be written out of pop history as he had such a pivotal role within it. They played Earthsong on TOP2 the other night, and I thought it was odd that they didn't trim the intro by MJ.

It's easy to cancel popular culture figures, or centuries dead slave traders. It's less popular reviewing the war record of national 'heroes' responsible for the deaths of thousands. Complicated, isn't it?

Feed the World - "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you" not racist but quite nasty. I always thought it was that we should be grateful for our luck and realise it is just luck, it could be any of us.

I think this year of all years we must recognise disasters can happen anywhere, it isn't the other it is any of us.

Scautish, I was referring more to "cancelling" celebs when I posted about cancel culture- eg JK Rowling being "cancelled" by the woke recently for her views. (twitter users claiming to switch over when HP comes on TV, thrown away her books etc)

Statues etc I don't consider part of Cancel Culture as such. I do agree that the bad parts of British history need to be taught. I was an adult before I had even heard of the massacres and etc Britain committed.

@DontStopThinkingAboutTomorrow

Ah - thanks for clarifying- and I totally agree with respect to JK Rowling - it’s absolutely appalling what’s happening to her online.

So woke in that respect - I’m definitely not woke. But I’ve got my guide badge for wokeness and virtue signalling when it comes to calling out racism/ableism/sexism. Hence my problem with the word woke - people use it to benefit their own argument - which usually means defending a racist/ableist/sexist viewpoint.

yes i still listen to band aid and mj theyre songs thats all

if cancel culture carries on the way it is we wont be able to listen to or read anything anymore

@ancientgran

Feed the World - "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you" not racist but quite nasty. I always thought it was that we should be grateful for our luck and realise it is just luck, it could be any of us.

I think this year of all years we must recognise disasters can happen anywhere, it isn't the other it is any of us.

Spot on

“Feed the World - "Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you" not racist but quite nasty.
I always thought it was a reflection of how the public felt when they first saw those images on the news of starving people.

As in omg isn’t that awful but thank god it’s not me.

I can only speak for myself but I can’t remember thinking anything of the sort.

It was just utter shock and disbelief that things had got to that stage without us having heard anything about it. Masses of people forced to leave their homes and everything they had to go in search of food. And basically turning into living skeletons. It was horrific and at least amongst those I knew (I was a young teen at the time) talk the next day was of how we could raise money to help these people.

To be consistent, people would have to continually cancel artists as contexts change....nobody surely is arguing that their aesthetic taste in 2020 is the pinnacle of moral composition, which shall never be judged by history?

Artists are not their art - art is more than the fallible human making it - it's very ignorant, really, to think that one must approve of the maker to engage with the art.

Additionally, engaging with art forms isn't a approve/disapprove binary. We can enjoy aspects of a song, for example, while critiquing it!

@x2boys

Indeed *@cornbread*, but Ethiopians were starving to death at the time I remember the footage it was horrific I doubt they cared it was Xmas .

That's kind of the point isn't it? The song is saying that these are people / Christians in such dire straits that they couldn't possible celebrate Xmas.

The lyric "Do they know it's Xmas?" is about that contrast - us in the UK partying and feasting, and those in Ethiopa starving to death. Of course Xmas wasn't on their priority list that year, and the stark contrast was what prompted people to donate.

Band aid was done quickly to stir the emotion of mainly the wealthy white listeners. It was white saviour because it had to be. The images were already on the news but it took band aid and then live aid to turn empathy to money. As the years have progressed there are new ways to deliver aid and money. At band aids time there was not that benefit and as ever hindsight and especially hindsight decades later is pointless.

I have always loved ACDC even though everything I know about them suggests they are repugnant: sexist, boorish and backwards. I can just about make peace with that because they had their heyday in 1970s/1980s Australia but I'm sure if I looked to closely it might give me pause.

Michael Jackson: I still love the sound of Billie Jean even knowing what I know. But that has crossed a line for me really.

The threshold I have is whether I could justify it to my daughter. ACDC probably yes just about. MJ nope.

I am guessing you are all under 40. I will listen to Cliff Richard, Band Aid, Michael Jackson and R. Kelly if I want to. The last time I checked this was a few country so you can all jog on.