Horrible abusers in the music industry - R Kelly verdict [title edit by MNHQ]

[RickJames]

Well, R Kelly is off to jail. Thank goodness. He was evil! But he made some great music. Like Chris Brown, Michael Jackson and to a certain extent James Brown. Ike Turner, Phil Spector, Gary Glitter.. even David Bowie was after it in the 60's. Jon Bonham they were all at it. Either or both abuse of women and children. Even that chap from Kasabian beat his wife up. It seems to be a thing. Loads more examples possible.

AIBU to expect that despite the enjoyable music they created/ sang on they shouldn't be played on commercial/ public radio anymore. Maybe if we protested then (im not innocent, I know it would be purely for the money) record companies would insist on non-criminal behaviour. In much the same way that say, for example, Siemens or Haringey Council would as employers.

Part of me feels like the music should stand for its musical value. A larger part of me feels like 'this is why we can't have nice things' and we shouldn't tolerate any part of their legacies.

AIBU?

It really is sad when the art you admire is created by an abuser. Eric Gill has been mentioned a few times. The BBC has one of his sculptures above the main entrance of BBC Broadcasting House and is deaf to the demands of removing it, especially in the wake of the massive Saville scandal you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/remove-bbc-statue-by-paedophile-eric-gill

I just don't want to hear R Kelly crooning about shagging women when I'm buying ham.

completely agree with your post. I also resent them receiving any more royalties from the music being played in public spaces.

@ speakout
While Freddie was VERY promiscuous I don't think there have ever been any allegations against him of underage or non consensual sex.

@Valeriekat Absolutely. It's so offensive that @speakout would suggest that when what is known is that Freddie was a frequent victim of domestic abuse, and also himself a victim of non-consensual sex (including abuse as a child).

@BalthazarImpresario

I’m not sure if it’s the case but lost prophets music was removed from Spotify after his convictions so I wonder if other artists will suffer the same fate, however I’m unsure if that was a label/rest of the band decision rather than a Spotify one.

It's still on there

@ Innocenta
I loved Queen!

@Valeriekat me too. I was so upset to find out about everything Freddie Mercury went through in life before he even got ill. It's understandably not a focus in the Bohemian Rhapsody film which wants to celebrate the band.

@Famousinlove

I'm surprised John Lennon hasn't been , no idea why that guy is celebrated so much

i like his music, but can't stand him, just have to watch this disablist twunt

When I worked as a legal secretary I helped with the estate of a music composer. His work was mostly used in adverts and documentaries but there were some bits played in public places. The amount of money received by the estate was impressive. I have no objection to people making a conscious choice to listen to someone's music but I don't think it's appropriate for the music to be played publicly where the listeners have no choice .

[quote Innocenta]**@Valeriekat* Absolutely. It's so offensive that @speakout would suggest that when what is* known is that Freddie was a frequent victim of domestic abuse, and also himself a victim of non-consensual sex (including abuse as a child).[/quote]
Its a standard and fairly common homophobic trope I’m afraid.

@Simonjt I totally agree with you - I'm sure that's what led the poster to say that. Very sad and very unfair. I wish MNHQ would delete their post, it's the only one in the thread where a known victim/survivor is being lumped in with abusers (with no justification).

Lori Maddox said she lost her virginity to Bowie when she was 14...

Yep should ban them. Also the n word. Hate it,

And Chuck Berry 🤮

www.throwbacks.com/chuck-berry-restaurant-scandal/

Don't forget Iggy Pop and Sable Starr....

Ive been reminded here of many horrible historic cases. And for anybody that has said yeah, it was just the times - I'm not aware of Karen Carpenter getting access to a care home and molesting young boys, Bananarama visiting Thailand to access child victims or Elaine Page beating up men that refused to have sex with her. Probably because they didn't.

This is about power and I'm happy to stand by my original comment that if you worked for the council or Siemens you would not be allowed to carry on like this. You would get grassed up and management would sack you.

Obviously, Siemens did some shitty things with Hitler but DH worked for them for years (post WWII 90's and 00's) and frankly, their shady past has made them excellent employers in terms of ethic and treatment of employees. Most big German companies like Krupps, VW etc are the same.

By that I just mean for moral reasons or for money-making reasons they have taken a very ethical route these days. We know and they know we know.

Although, you do have the fairly recent VW lying scandal..

I'm sure you know what i mean. Like if DH went out and beat someone up and crashed his car on drugs his company would sack him. If he was the lead singer of a band that was touring or brought in good royalties, he'd get a pat on the head and a bunch of flowers.

Well now this has been interesting because I read this comment

There's another metoo scandal in the music industry, which is young men being sexually exploited by men, but no one on mumsnet will give a single solitary fuck about that

half way through and kept reading to see how 'we' were going to prove the poster @Marguerite2000 wrong but no, not one single person commented.

So , I, for one, am not ignoring it. I know the vast amount of sexual offences are perpetrated by men against women but the plight of these children should not be ignored simply because they too will one day be men. They are our sons, nephews, grandchildren. I think the long echos of gay men being seen as 'deviant' still ring out, those men who prey on young boys aren't seen as deviating from acceptable behaviour as far as men preying on young girls now are.

It also harks back to dangerous stereotypes of male victims of rape being perceived as 'weak' for 'allowing' it to happen. When the victim is a male child, that premise is even more offensive and absurd and we would never say it about a young girl.

The problem with these famous abusers (oh we all loooooove Boy George now, conveniently forgetting his history of abuse of a young man, kidnapping and beating him ) is there is a culture of protection around them because they are money makers and money is the root of so much evil behaviour.

Oh and FFS it's not 'child pornography' it's videos of child abuse. There are no 'porn stars' in these videos, just victims of terrible abuse at the hands of criminals. Please stop using that awful, outdated terminology.

@PamelasPantsAreHuge Are you completely ignoring my comments about the sexual abuse and domestic violence that Freddie Mercury was subjected to?

I do agree that the attempted rehabilitation of Boy George's reputation is horrifying. He's an abuser and that should be front and centre.

I did see that but I didn't know you were saying he was abused by figures in the music industry.