Recording artists - ever avoid for personal reasons?
 

I was talking with a friend of mine about the new Santana CD of covers and he said he won't buy his stuff because of his politics and how outspoken he is.

So I thought this would make a good thread. Are there any artists that you don't buy because of something related to the personal artist?

For me, the only one I can think of is Amy Winehouse. After her dad asked the public not to buy her stuff until she kicks heroine I decided to honor that request....

If most musical artists parents made the same request and the buying public honoured those requests, not many people would be buying stuff.

Not being much of a Santana fan apart from his Woodstock era stuff, I`ve no idea what is political views are, what are they?

Honestly, I don't care about the persona lives or messages of my music. I don't let music tell me how to think, and I realize the people who make it are just normal human beings. Most of them spoiled with money, drugs, sex, and worship. Because of this, mainstream musicians are extremely outspoken and believe themselves to be self entitled. Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes it isn't. However, it's the fault of people who need to put their musicians on a pedestal, or feel they must meet a certain criteria as human beings to be judged. This, to me, is entirely bogus. I mean, if you're looking for a hero, look to Ghandi. There's no reason why musicians need to be anything more than people who produce art you like.

Fact of the matter is, The only reason I'd ever avoid listening to a recording artist is over the quality of that artist's music. Even if I didn't agree with the person, or think the person was a good human being, I would only judge on the music.

On rare occasion, I will accept a guy like Mark Hosler as a hero. Not for his personality but for his opinions and fights for artistic freedom. However, again, this is still an extension of the music/message of the music. This is a very rare case, since I care nothing of the "personalities" of the people behind my music or their opinions. Just how well their collection of sounds effects me emotionally.

However, for the sake of discussion, As for the album covers, there's an awful lot of vagueness you're presenting. I mean, the latest album cover I could find was called "Guitar Heaven", and it was Santana with a guitar... Not too outspoken. I'm curious, what album covers in particular are the issue?

A musician's politics only affect my enjoyment of their music if they're in the music.

Politics and social stances played apart in my apprehension towards listening to Propagandhi for the longest time, but this is usually because of their forceful, topical, in-your-face lyric style. I decided to finally give them a go last year, and my favorite song from Supporting Caste is the title track which is critical of Christianity. So I figure now if the music is good enough, I can let disagreements slide.

I'm curious about this too. I've never heard anything one way or the other about Santana's political views and Wikipedia seems to be mum of the subject so I'm guessing he's not that outspoken, whatever his views are.

i've never heard anything about his political views but i've definitely heard about his spiritual views. the dude is WAY out there. not sure if he's a full on scientologist but his belief system seems to be just as strict. i recall an article about having fired a long standing band member for philosophical differences. he also apparently keeps at least 1 spiritual adviser permanently on hand. his performances are supposed to be religious experiences....

he's very much the kind of philosopher that thinks right-ness matters.

having said all that though, his views are not the reason i don't buy his music.

i'll give him props for having an immediately recognizable tone and style, it's just too bad it's immediately recognizable because he's pretty much been playing THE EXACT SAME THING since about 1972 - that's why i don't buy his music.