It’s a tale as old as time; a midwest emo band exists, and the lead singer is the most disgusting human being imaginable. Of course, bands full of angsty white men aren’t the only culprits in music industry controversy. I haven’t even read the Kanye tweets and I know that guy is delusional — and a Nazi, if you choose to separate those ideas. Naturally, it seems less people want to talk about what happens when the artist under fire is one that they’re attached to. So what do you do when one of your favorites turns out to be a Nazi, a cheater, a groomer?

I remember my 9/11 a couple of years ago: one of the EDM artists I’d been getting into had been discovered sexually soliciting a minor. Yikes! I should have known better than to trust an artist with a name like Mr. Kitty, but I had bought into that “After Dark” hype. I guess it’s good I hadn’t gotten that invested — his only good music seemed to be off the Time album anyway. 

After I found out, I wondered where to go from there. I didn’t plan to continue investing my time in this creep, but what about the songs that had crept into my regular listens? Was I just going to drop “XIII” like it was trash? Like we were nothing? But on the other hand, could I continue financially supporting a groomer? That didn’t sit right with me either.

People invested in their music taste encounter this issue more often than we’d all like to admit. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has been openly pro-Israel for years. Rex Orange County was implicated in multiple sexual assault charges in 2022. Similarly, Melanie Martinez has been on-and-off the grill for rape allegations since 2017.  And then there’s Brendon Urie. We don’t need to discuss bigoted diaper guy. 

Facing this issue myself, I got to wondering: what does everyone outside of the TikTok echochamber do? Plenty of people preach for and against the idea of “separating the art from the artist,” but that logic can only be pushed so far. I turned to none other than my fellow media interns to get their hot takes on the do’s, don’ts, and maybes of handling a problematic artist. 

Today’s Case Studies:

Dominic Fike

Rex Orange County

All Time Low

Lizzo

Mark Kozelek (of Red House Painters)

1. Dominic Fike 

His Crime: Cheating on Hunter Schafer

His Punishment: General disdain

Why this response?

“I don’t support Dominic Fike cheating on his girlfriend, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not as severe as sexual assault allegations. I hope he’s changed now and I still don’t support him as [a] person, but I will still stream his music because I value it more than the practically non-existent consequences he will face from the loss of my support.”

Opinion & submission from Lola, KSDT Media Intern.

Similar scandals: Ariana Grande & her borderline extramarital affair

2. Rex Orange County / Alexander O’Connor

His Crime: Sexual assault

His Punishment: Boycotting streams & other financial support

Why this response?

“To me, boycotting an artist’s music is the most immediate way of showing that you no longer support them. Since I’ve never been to one of Rex Orange County’s shows, streaming his music is really the only way I’ve ever financially supported him, so I decided to remove that support.”

Opinion & submission from Lola, KSDT Media Intern.

3. All Time Low

Their Crimes: Grooming, sexual assault, distributing drugs to minors

Their Punishment: Banished to the nostalgia playlist

Why this response?

“I can’t fully remove the memories and emotions I had to the band’s older work… and I have to give my 12-year-old self some grace for not knowing/understanding the full gravity of the situation. Consciously streaming a song or two every here and now is basically negligible as far as support goes (not to discredit it as a form of support, point blank period), but I think the distinction is clear between that and buying a record or shirt.”

Opinion & submission from anonymous.

4. Lizzo

Her Crimes: Sexual, religious, & racial harassment

Her Punishment: Boycotting streams

Why this response?

“I can’t support and further someone’s career if they’re discriminating against any group of people.”

Opinion & submission from anonymous.

5. Mark Kozelek (of Red House Painters)

His Crimes: Sexual misconduct

His Punishment: Boycotting streams 

Why this response?

“[It’s] hard for me to not think of an artist’s controversy when I hear their voice… which inherently ruins the music for me. Plus, there is so much good music out there that avoiding the musicians that are terrible people isn’t really that much of a hassle.”

“If Kozelek’s lyrics weren’t the center point of the music, I may be more inclined to listen to his work. But since [they’re] the focal point of most songs, are particularly personal, and reflective of his character/actions, I can’t justify listening to his music.”

Opinion & submission from William Beltramini, KSDT Media Intern.

Alternative Approaches

If the above methods didn’t resonate with you, there are a couple other options that were thrown around in discussion and that I use myself. A personal one that I follow is streaming things as indirectly as possible. When the abomination that is Viva Las Vengeance came out, I was curious to know just how bad it was — without fooling Brendon Urie into thinking I wanted to listen to his music. I found a reupload of the title track on a YouTube channel three-times-removed from the artist. Monetization works in tricky ways, but the likelihood of someone seeing your money appears to be smaller when you take the long road. 

Along that vein, downloading MP3s or burning CDs of your doomed artists is another way to prevent the benefits of your support. Something something, in the privacy of your hard drive, Marilyn Manson can’t earn money off your streams. Burning CDs is a bit out of my own skillset, but converting YouTube videos to MP3s has been free since the dawn of time. As unhinged as it is, making Google Drive playlists for your phone is possible. How else do you think I was listening to Lana’s “Go-Go Dancer” without Wi-Fi in high school?

One of the interns I spoke to also mentioned the pros and cons of purchasing physical media (specifically CDs vs. expensive media like vinyls). It was said that “I would rather give my $10 once than provide continued support with my streams.” Honestly, I understand the viewpoint. But the above method does allow you to bypass donating anything!

Separating the Art from the Artist: Morality in Consumption

As evidenced from our case studies, listener reactions will vary widely depending on their perception of the crime (literal or figurative) and the perception of media consumption itself. While there’s a general consensus that there is a difference between sexual crimes and cheating/saying something controversial, some interviewees criticized the performative element of cancellation itself. One intern brought up the point that “the culture of fully denouncing the artist and their art is unnecessary and comes off as performative/inauthentic virtue signaling,” but also addressed how engaging with artists who had done genuine harm did not feel comfortable at all. You might distinguish this by separating people who are announcing their opposition for social credit versus those who stop listening for moral reasons. Kind of like how I grappled with my position to Mr. Kitty’s music, it didn’t feel right to support him even though it “could have been worse.”

As far as separating the art from the artist, it once again becomes a situation-based problem. Will underscores how it’s difficult to divorce an artist from works that are deeply personal to them. Others mention how the political views and severity of the artist’s misconduct determine how possible it is to disentangle the art from its origins. I myself often second-guess the immorality of checking in on an artist whose controversy took place over a decade ago (and can only be roughly approximated by conflicting Reddit threads about the topic). I don’t know the artist’s face, let alone any significant details about their personality — How can you pick apart something that’s abstract to begin with?

Multiple interns pointed out how streaming by itself doesn’t do much to help or harm an already popular artist. I can dog on Matty Healy of The 1975 all I want for being a racist, sexist POS, but I still know five guys from high school that are still going to be shamelessly attending those concerts. Does that make it okay to keep listening to their music? 

Ultimately, that decision is up to the individual. Only you can decide what feels “wrong” and “right,” but I can encourage you against throwing any more money than you have to at the artists you know are complicit. As my fellow interns have stated, there’s a difference between letting a song play versus buying merch or flaunting what you already bought. Nobody is blaming you for owning that All Time Low t-shirt; you might just want to save wearing it for laundry day.