A few years ago I attended the concert of one of my favorite childhood music artists. Yesterday, I unfollowed him. He posted something political that I strongly disagreed with, and I decided that I didn’t want that content on my feed ever again.
This decision felt extremely significant because music has always been embedded in my life. This love and appreciation for songs and their sounds has been greatly influenced by my father, who worked in radio throughout most of my childhood and has always been passionate about music. It’s still exciting when he happens to be friends with an artist we’re listening to on the radio.
This artist whom I unfollowed yesterday has long been a part of my childhood. A few years ago, we had the opportunity to attend one of his concerts and even meet him in person. I loved every minute and was awestruck when I had the opportunity to interact with him after the concert. He was extremely energetic and seemed caring as he asked about my opinions on his show and caught up with my dad like an old friend.
Reflecting on that moment, my perspective has shifted based on what I now know about him. After the recent inauguration of the United States’ 47th president, strong emotions and opinions have been running high. While they might be intense, overwhelming, and even cause us to lose focus on our work, we all have our ways of processing new information and events. For me, that means listening to music with the high volume of my AirPods drowning everything else out. Originally, I believed this method to be a private form of escape from the world around me, but I didn’t realize that that same world would ultimately alter and censor some of my prior music taste.
Shortly after unfollowing, I began reflecting on my reaction upon learning that someone I had idolized for years wasn’t who I once thought he was. This was incredibly disappointing because I had put my trust and support in him and his music for so long. It prompted me to think about what supporting the work of specific celebrities says about ourselves and the standards that we hold ourselves to. At what point do we, or should we, let politics get in the way of our music taste?
I believe that these scenarios are highly personal; therefore, people are going to have varied reactions. I’ve narrowed it down to two factors that I believe influence these decisions, and background is necessary to understand where someone’s perspectives are coming from before they are harshly judged. By breaking down these factors, we gain tools to better assess and manage similar situations in the future. For one, I think that our formative relationships and initial opinions about the musician are important to note. The amount of time that we’ve followed or known about a specific person likely determines the impact that their actions might have on us. Additionally, the severity of the “transgression” is also crucial to take into account. Did the artist do something that’s easy to let slide as long as it doesn’t happen again, or is it so intense and unforgivable that it causes an immediate and irrevocable reaction? Maybe it’s because the action sharply contrasts with our moral values and identity, and at that point, I believe it’s best to unfollow and forget.
When talking with some of my peers, I found that there were a variety of different reactions. The consensus was that most people would be deeply disappointed, but not do anything radical, like immediately unfollowing and discontinuing their support. Some specific responses were: “That musician must really need money,” and “I just would leave it and not do them the justice of clicking on their profile to unfollow.” However, others did acknowledge that unexpected political content would taint their entire view of the person. Some said that they would try their best to not interact with the artist in any way, such as removing their songs from playlists or switching the radio station.
In my scenario, the sudden loss of respect happened quickly. I hadn’t had any real opportunity to reflect on the effect that this artist had on me for much of my life. Even though I’d loved this musician for years, after this single act, I have completely given up on him. When I looked through the comments in that post, I found many people who shared my thoughts, along with others who thought that the same action I found so disrespectful was the best thing that he had ever done. Therefore, while I believe that, in many cases, personal actions are up for interpretation, I would develop a bias against those who continued to support the artist, leading me to compare our respective values and morals.
However, when my dad texted this person to wish him a “happy birthday” later that same day, I wasn’t quite sure how to react. While it might have seemed daunting at the time, it is of course so much easier to cut off a musician than our own friends and family members. Even though I love and trust my dad, and I know that our political values align, our responses to this situation were not the same. I would never have the same reaction towards him as I did to his friend, yet it adds an additional factor in attempting to understand political standpoints and our own opinions on them. In this situation, even though my dad and I have similar political views, his prior appreciation and support for this artist outweighed the musician’s recent action, while mine did not. Understanding our different opinions was important for me to learn where he was coming from. This explains the power that these two factors can have over our actions and the varied reactions that they can create.
Political divisions are deeply spread throughout the United States, which is why it’s so important that we treat people with grace and give them the benefit of the doubt before learning about their perspective, even when it proves difficult. Prior to this, I didn’t fully understand how quickly politics could change our opinions of people whom we thought we really knew, liked, and looked up to. Yet here I am, writing an article about how quickly I was compelled to unfollow one of my favorite artists. This experience has taught me that as much as I’d prefer to separate art and artist, the presence of political values and morals have made it hard to untangle the two.
