Refuse to support and artist/band because for moral reasons?

I would never not listen to an artist based solely on their general political stance, conservative or liberal. I mean, that makes no sense to me.

I am as liberal as it gets. But I have many friends that are conservative as hell. As long as that political stance, whatever side, doesn't morph into weird hate-fueled ideas and whatever, then who cares. Alice Cooper is my favorite artist ever, and he is a known republican (I often wonder about how hardcore to the right his social views are, though--but considering he's not spouting off about his political views every 10 seconds, I don't really know). There is no way I would NOT listen to the 30 fantastic albums he has recorded, that as far I as I've ever been able to discern have no political slant, just because in his private life his political stance is the opposite of mine.

Of course, if you are a conservative, then yeah, RatM, Springsteen, Neil Young--their politics shine through in their music. Works for me, as Springsteen and Young are two of my favorite artists as well.

I won't listen to any Morrissey because of his willful abuse of vegetables. That and his music sucks.

deathisgain wrote:

I won't listen to any Morrissey because of his willful abuse of vegetables. That and his music sucks.

HAHAHAHA!

A couple of threads here worth picking up:

Lyrics vs. Lifestyle: This can even get kind of dodgy. I know the one remark about Varg buying guns was probably half tongue in cheek, but even if he was literally assembling an arsenal with his record royalties, I really don't care unless he's shooting at me and mine or mobilizing a militia to go out ethnic cleansing. Much as I'm probably on thin ice for saying so, he's got more in common with the 2nd Amendment crowd in the US than the Neo-Nazis when it comes to his gun ownership, at least from what I've been able to ascertain.

Ditto for a lifestyle I wouldn't condone. I mean, a guy like Gene Simmons. Dude professes to love sex and sleep with anything that's got legs and says "yes." If he happens to sleep with a 16 year old girl (presume I'm talking about young Gene or someone else of a similar persuasion because otherwise, EWWWWWWWW!) because he neglected to check her ID and thought she was older, it may be skeezy, but I can't morally fault that. It's careless and uncool, but not willfully deviant. Now, someone else who gets their rocks off chasing jr. high school kids for sexual kicks... That's someone I'd actively distance myself as far from as I could. That's someone saying, "Yeah, this is gross and I LOVE IT."

I do have to concede a basic point though when it comes to political lyrics, and this is even as a fan of some of these bands. Liberally tinged lyrics are so ham-fisted and morally superior that it makes me want to puke sometimes. I am seriously sick of these people - the Vedders and so forth. I mean, conservatives can be bad too, but most "conservative" lyrics tend to be "leave me and mine alone, we have the right idea if you'd just bugger off and leave us alone." The entire "show biz" liberal thing is, "You'd better do what I'm saying or else you're a moron and a racist antisemite homophobe and you should walk off a cliff." That said, moral superiority from rich people is about guaranteed to make me see red. A few extra zeros on the bank balance sheet don't exactly make you Mahatma Ghandi, friend...

Actually, scrap all that. This is what we need to get back to:

manny wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

For me personally,  I tend to be more offended by the outspoken liberal artists. Eddie Vedder and Tom Morello tend to get on my nerves, but l can't say I've ever been a fan of either of their bands (aside from a couple songs).

Thank God I am no longer in a band, my liberal viewpoints would win few fans or friends here!!!

Was it a Springsteen cover band?  
 

Troublezone wrote:

manny wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

For me personally,  I tend to be more offended by the outspoken liberal artists. Eddie Vedder and Tom Morello tend to get on my nerves, but l can't say I've ever been a fan of either of their bands (aside from a couple songs).

Thank God I am no longer in a band, my liberal viewpoints would win few fans or friends here!!!

Was it a Springsteen cover band?   
 

Manny was in Menudo

Runicen wrote:

I do have to concede a basic point though when it comes to political lyrics, and this is even as a fan of some of these bands.  Liberally tinged lyrics are so ham-fisted and morally superior that it makes me want to puke sometimes.

Not relating to bands/artists, but it's weird to me when I here people who are conservative make comments like this about liberals being this way. Maybe we all live in our own bubbles where certain things are brought to the forefront, but take Facebook for example. I have many, many liberal friends and family there and tons of conservative friends and family. Some on both sides, some more extreme than others.

I rarely see much of anything from liberal friends. However, I've had to unfollow some of my conservative friends because they can't refrain from sharing hateful memes posted by pages called stuff like "All liberals are retards" and "Liberals must die" and things of that nature.

Some times I just want to comment back, not with any retort to whatever the meme is, but just to be like, "hello, dude, I'm pretty sure that you like me, at least to some extent, right?" But pretty much anyone that posts that kind of stuff gets unfollowed (or unfriended if I'm not actually even real friends with them).

Everyone knows the low IQ of most people that post on Blabbermouth. Well, from what I've seen over the years, it's no secret that the majority of them are extremely liberal. Everything from throwing Christians to the Lions to anyone that doesn't subscribe to the gay lifestyle is a horrible hate monger. And not only Blabbermouth, but most mainstream news sources and a lot of Hollywood celebrities.

Troublezone wrote:

Everyone knows the low IQ of most people that post on Blabbermouth. Well, from what I've seen over the years, it's no secret that the majority of them are extremely liberal. Everything from throwing Christians to the Lions to anyone that doesn't subscribe to the gay lifestyle is a horrible hate monger. And not only Blabbermouth, but most mainstream news sources and a lot of Hollywood celebrities.

I guess the noted conservative media and celebrities never spout off about anything and are known for being open-minded, compassionate, sensible individuals.

Again, those bubbles we create for ourselves.

I don't let politics in music bother me too much, since I'm too conservative for most liberals and too liberal for most conservatives.

I fall on both sides of the argument half the time as my social views are liberal and my views of government tend to be very conservative. I don't place much stock in people I don't know, so an entire mob of them taking my money "for a good cause" just smacks of so much    

In the end, I probably should take back my distinction of conservative vs. liberal. It's never that simple in politics or even among preachy musicians. I mean, take Pearl Jam for example, one of their big preachy lines in song seems to be pro-gun control (Glorified G). But the message seems to be "We need these to go away because the only people who use them have tiny dicks and they make people dead *sadface*." So, you cast aspersions on people who disagree with you and then make an argument that wouldn't pass muster on a schoolyard. Hurr Durr...

When you look at outspoken folks who tend to be tagged "conservative" in music, they seem to personally cast aspersions on people who disagree with them, voice their view and then go back to making music that has little if anything to do with their politics.

Maybe it's just my inborn hatred for the hippie/Woodstock/yuppie thing, but the older I get, the more I'm just offended by stupid arguments from the self-righteous. I can deal with someone disagreeing with me on a logical basis. Hell, I might even learn something or *gasp* change my mind given new information if someone approached me in that way, but it seems more like the cultural tendency is, "You disagree with me, therefore you're a horrible person."

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong side of the coin, but these seem to be coming from what I'm told is "the left" in this country more than "the right" these days. Don't get me wrong, I agree with both on some issues and disagree with both on just as many, but the left seems to like couching arguments - even for points I agree with them on - in ways that just insult my intelligence and kind of make me feel ashamed for having points of agreement with them.

This might be a baby out with the bathwater thing, but it's my "gut" reaction to it. I may just be really well insulated from equally annoying things coming from the "right."

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

Everyone knows the low IQ of most people that post on Blabbermouth. Well, from what I've seen over the years, it's no secret that the majority of them are extremely liberal. Everything from throwing Christians to the Lions to anyone that doesn't subscribe to the gay lifestyle is a horrible hate monger. And not only Blabbermouth, but most mainstream news sources and a lot of Hollywood celebrities.

I guess the noted conservative media and celebrities never spout off about anything and are known for being open-minded, compassionate, sensible individuals.

Again, those bubbles we create for ourselves.

Of coarse they spout off as well. But they tend to compensate for being outnumbered by the liberal media sources and celebrity puppets. It's not a level playing field.

MetallicSeminarian wrote:

I don't let politics in music bother me too much, since I'm too conservative for most liberals and too liberal for most conservatives.

You're balanced. That's a good thing!

Troublezone wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

Everyone knows the low IQ of most people that post on Blabbermouth. Well, from what I've seen over the years, it's no secret that the majority of them are extremely liberal. Everything from throwing Christians to the Lions to anyone that doesn't subscribe to the gay lifestyle is a horrible hate monger. And not only Blabbermouth, but most mainstream news sources and a lot of Hollywood celebrities.

I guess the noted conservative media and celebrities never spout off about anything and are known for being open-minded, compassionate, sensible individuals.

Again, those bubbles we create for ourselves.

Of coarse they spout off as well. But they tend to compensate for being outnumbered by the liberal media sources and celebrity puppets. It's not a level playing field.

Heh, alright well I kinda disagree with this, but whatever. It's not like any of this discussion matters.

Yeah, I was just gonna say that I don't want to get into a long meaningless debate that won't change either of our views.

Changing to a different tangent, I think I'd be far less bothered by politics in music if they didn't come across so preachy.

I mean, I am a HUGE fan of The Final Cut by Pink Floyd (not a popular album by any stretch) because what Waters does is simply paint a really unflattering picture of war and those who wage it at the highest levels. He's not attacking the soldiers or making the listener feel like a moron if they're not just going to nod and mindlessly agree. He's not just repeating slogans.

He made ART that was reflective of his viewpoint, not just a political rant with a beat behind it.

That kind of thing has been lost somewhere and where a lot of the overtly political acts fall flat is in the same way people make fun of really bad Christian music - there's no craft behind it (there IS good Christian music, so it's said, just talking about the crap here). This gets exponentially blown up by the musician in question also being a preachy self-righteous knob. Either of these factors alone would be enough to hate what someone is doing and not wanting to support it. Put both together and that's a new and special kind of hate. The kind of hate someone's grandmother would lovingly knit by firelight.

I see what your saying for sure. Though someone like Neil Young...I feel like his forthright-ness about stuff is part of what's endearing (besides the fact that his voice is cool and he plays an angry, fuzzy guitar when he wants to). I like hearing him calling out specific things and people, not just blanket ideas.

Most people don't want to hear hardline political views when they listen to music. Maybe some do... but most don't. No one wants to be preached at or scolded by a musician. Sometimes things get carried away.

Some artists learned early on that being provocative or outspoken is great publicity to sell records. It gets people talking.

TrogDawn wrote:

David Benson is someone I will no longer support due to the way he hires musicians to play on his albums and then stiffs them what he owes them after the recording is done.  (Victor Griffin, Dan Lively and Russell Lee have STILL not been paid for their studio time on the Evil Killer album). His output is also substandard both musically and in the actual quality of the merchandise...if you ever receive what you order from him, that is.

I won't support him 'cause his voice sucks!   

Hmm... Trying to think of some other "political" music that actually does what it needs to do.

There's a lot of great stuff out of the UK from the 80s that managed to be both tuneful AND speak its mind without being overblown. Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" is a great example of this. It doesn't hurt that the tune is mind-blowingly heartbreaking on its own, let alone married to some great lyrics.

Coming out of the states, there's not as much good stuff kicking around. I mean, most US bands either bury their politics in 8 layers of metaphor or go the route of a band like Crass (UK, I know) and say, "screw the music, we have a MESSAGE." Then the trolley goes off the rails - at least for me.

I was recently listening to Ixnay on the Hombre by The Offspring though and found that, when they did venture into overt politics, it was much more general - almost a character sketch that illustrated the view rather than something preachy. Didn't hurt that there's not a bad song on that album.   

I lean heavily libertarian so I'd be screwed if I only listen to stuff I agree with 100% politically.......

(The differences between the parties are minor anyway.... and mainstream media talking heads are annoying on both sides of the fence)

Spiritually, not into the church burning lyrics... but that's me. Since I 100% believe that free speech (all of it) is necessary, artists can say what they want. If I don't like it, I don't have to listen.... No need for thought and speech police - that leads us down a very, very dark path that I want no part of (yes, both sides do it)

thejokeriv wrote:

I lean heavily libertarian so I'd be screwed if I only listen to stuff I agree with 100% politically.......

(The differences between the parties are minor anyway.... and mainstream media talking heads are annoying on both sides of the fence)

Spiritually, not into the church burning lyrics... but that's me. Since I 100% believe that free speech (all of it) is necessary, artists can saw what they want. If I don't like it, I don't have to listen....

I'm going offer a heavy thumbs up on this post.   

I don't care about artists' personal lives/beliefs. If I like the music, I listen to it. In a lot of cases, I don't even know the names of the band members. Sometimes particularly stupid or childish lyrics turn me off, but political or moral lyrics on one side of the fence or the other don't bug me, especially if they are somewhat intelligent.

I have Paul Stanley's signed autobiography, but I don't know if I'm going to read it. I haven't read any of the other books by KISS or other bands I like. I don't really want to know what goes on behind the scenes and in their heads. I'd rather just listen to the music.

deathisgain wrote:

I won't listen to any Morrissey because of his willful abuse of vegetables. That and his music sucks.