some monsters
Once upon a time there was a story about Rammstein. It revealed atrocious and horrific behavior by the lead singer and that every one else in the band essentially let it all happen.
Then one of my favorite artists made a song with one of the more famous members of Rammstein. It was generally not seen as a good thing and basically sucked. This artist has been essential for my upbringing and supplied not only some of my core memories around shows, but I know so many of his lyrics by heart and they mean a lot to me.
Which leads us to a few days ago when Farin Urlaub released a new single for an upcoming record. It is a bad song and he used AI in it. So we had him make a song for a musician who knowingly supported a (supposed) rapist. And now there is a AI background in his music video. This guy never has to work again in his life. He could just pay someone to draw it. It is bullshit and it sucks.
During a recent holiday I read Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer and really enjoyed it. There is this bit I think of when I look at said music video.
“We each bring our subjective experience to art and to love. If I were to give an exhaustive list of monsters and tell you my response to them, I would be acting out a kind of falsehood. I would be suggesting there is a correct answer in each particular case. I would be telling you what to think, and, in telling you what to think, I would be telling you what to do. And I don’t want to enshrine my own subjectivity in that particular way; don’t want to cloak it in the garb of authority.”
And that is a bit of a cowards way out.
“There is not some correct answer. You are not responsible for finding it. Your feeling of responsibility is a shibboleth, a reinforcement of your tragically limited role as a consumer. There is no authority and there should be no authority. You are off the hook. You are inconsistent. You do not need to have a grand unified theory about what to do about Michael Jackson. You are a hypocrite, over and over. “
You are a hypocrite over and over is what gets me. I am selective in what I like. I have Keine Lust by Rammstein perpetually stuck in my head because it speaks to something very specific inside of me. I will never not have a lot of feelings when I hear OK/Kein Zurück by Farin Urlaub. I will go and see die ärzte with my parents and maybe also my sister next year, even though they are old asshats. (Farin Urlaub is a member of die ärzte).
“Solving this unreconciled contradiction. In fact, you will solve nothing by means of your consumption; the idea that you can is a dead end. The way you consume art doesn’t make you a bad person, or a good one. You’ll have to find some other way to accomplish that.”
I guess what I want to say is that I think some art is part of your life and that is okay. Pick a different hill to die on than to make it not a part of you. I want to be able to articulate why something is important to me and still critique it. I think of Nalo Hopkinson who said:
“I may love these things too. I just don't think love should be blind.”
What does that mean for me in particular? Good question. I am still figuring it out. But I think you can love something and still see it's flaws. Spending money on it is a different beast though.