tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/michael-jackson-8961/articlesMichael Jackson – The Conversation2023-08-09T16:31:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2104232023-08-09T16:31:17Z2023-08-09T16:31:17ZTaylor Swift tickets are pricey, but fans get a blockbuster show and intimate connection with their idol<p>The ticket scramble for Taylor Swift’s latest tour has caused such a furore that even the likes of Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/opinion/taylor-swift-economics.html">weighed in on it</a>.</p>
<p>The shows on the Eras tour, which runs until August 2024, are undoubtedly expensive. And the sales process has been chaotic. On the day tickets went on sale in the US, the Ticketmaster website crashed – the company had prepared itself for 1.5 million fans, only to find that 15 million logged on. </p>
<p>But Swifties – the most dedicated of Swift’s fans – were willing to endure a process that was, to say the least, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/17/taylor-swift-problems-in-concert-ticketing-and-how-to-fix-them">complicated</a>. Ticket prices can depend on how close to the stage fans want to get and what VIP add-ons they agree to, reportedly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/17/taylor-swift-problems-in-concert-ticketing-and-how-to-fix-them">ranging</a> from £78 to £600 for a single ticket for the London shows.</p>
<p>Krugman argued that, comparatively speaking, the shows were good value. For the money, fans gained access not just to Swift’s live performance, but to the full panoply of technological effects that are an integral part of stadium gigs in the 21st century.</p>
<p>One can imagine Swift’s fans, some of whom spent days online (and a fair amount of money) trying to get tickets, greeting his argument with an exasperated sigh. However, he does have a point. Any ticket for the Eras tour gives its bearer access, not just to their favourite artist, but to a show that is one of the most technologically advanced of recent times. </p>
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<p>Large-scale performances like the Eras tour have tended not to feature in academic discussions of popular music. Thankfully, this is changing. Academics like me have <a href="https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/publications/planet-floyd-the-evolution-of-pink-floyds-live-performances">investigated</a> the development of live music in Britain and the US.</p>
<p>Studies have examined particular types of performance (in arenas and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Music-Festivals-in-the-UK-Beyond-the-Carnivalesque/Anderton/p/book/9780367588571#:%7E:text=Music%20Festivals%20in%20the%20UK%20is%20the%20first%20extended%20investigation,attendances%20as%20small%20as%20250.">festivals</a>); looked at particular genres (metal, glam rock and <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29375">K-pop</a>, for example); and explored the work of individual artists (such as Lady Gaga and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315602134/prince-making-pop-music-phenomenon-sarah-niblock-stan-hawkins">Prince</a>). However, as yet, we have not dealt with these performances as theatre – as events designed to connect artist and audience, even in the largest venues. </p>
<h2>Big blockbuster stadium shows</h2>
<p>Since the 1970s, successful bands and artists have found a number of ingenious ways to construct shows that can fill the most cavernous arenas. The Eras tour is part of a stellar lineage that includes The Rolling Stones’ <a href="http://concertstagedesign.blogspot.com/2011/04/the-rolling-stones-tour-of-americas.html">unfolding lotus set</a> (1975-6); Pink Floyd’s <a href="https://durhamld.com/portfolio-item/the-wall-berlin-1990/">The Wall</a> (1980); the various MTV-influenced 1980s stage sets designed for <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2016/04/22/prince-dies-aged-57-love-symbol-designer-mitch-monson/">Prince</a>, <a href="https://www.madonnatribe.com/ultimatemadonna/the-virgin-tour/">Madonna</a> and <a href="https://www.michaeljackson.com/news/did-you-know-mj-performed-5-off-wall-songs-triumph-tour/">Michael Jackson</a>; <a href="https://www.u2.com/tour/id/54">U2’s Zoo TV</a>; and big-spectacle contemporary sets like The Weeknd’s <a href="https://www.silasveta.com/projects/the-weeknd">After Hours Til Dawn tour</a> from 2022.</p>
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<p>The technology used on these tours serves two purposes. First, it ensures that the artist can be heard and seen, even in the largest venues. Second, it transforms the space into a setting that reflects the audience’s perception of the artist: their music, their public persona, their history – all the raw material audiences use to fuel their fandom. </p>
<p>In Swift’s case, that transformation is signalled in the name of the tour. The technology used on the Eras show enables both the artist and the audience effectively to travel through time.</p>
<p>The show is arranged around each one of Swift’s ten albums. As it moves from album to album, the stage transforms (white frames and primary colours for the <a href="https://time.com/5651207/taylor-swift-lover-songs-explained/">Lover-era</a> songs, snake motifs for the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/10/taylor-swift-reputation-review-superb-songcraft-meets-extreme-drama">Reputation</a> tracks, red costuming and stage lighting for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/oct/18/taylor-swift-red-review">Red</a>, a cottage backdrop for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/aug/01/taylor-swift-folklore-review-love-and-loss-in-lockdown">Folklore</a>.</p>
<p>The audience is part of the spectacle: LED wristbands, cued by radio signals, illuminate the crowd in dramatically sequenced floods of colour. Carefully positioned <a href="https://www.streamingmedia.com/Producer/Articles/Editorial/What-Is-.../What-is-IMAG-84770.aspx#:%7E:text=IMAG%20is%20Image%20MAGnification.,can%20more%20easily%20see%20them.">IMAG (image magnification) screens</a> carry Swift’s image and the imagery associated with her music. The catwalk and the two secondary stages (commonly termed B stages) are themselves digital display screens. At one point Swift seems to dive into the B stage. Her digital image swims the length of the catwalk, and she reappears on the main stage as the song Lavender Haze begins. </p>
<p>The technology delivers all the spectacle needed to hold the audience’s attention as the three-hour show runs through Swift’s career. But it also delivers something else – something rather more unexpected.</p>
<p>As Swift starts the second verse of Anti Hero, an image of her dressed in the dowdy T-shirt and jeans she wears in the video swells to massive proportions on the giant screen at the rear of the main stage. She gingerly steps over tiny buildings, bats away intrusive helicopters and stares directly out at the audience, her face in huge close-up.</p>
<p>The song documents Swift’s insecurities; her face, magnified, has a trapped expression and she looks uncertain as her eyes sweep over the crowd. This moment of vulnerability and intimacy echoes others; moments where spotlights isolate the singer, or where the camera catches her in apparent joyous abandon, or reaching out and interacting with the crowd.</p>
<p>In gigs like this, technology earns back its cost, both by filling the space and by compressing it, creating an experience both spectacular and personal. Arenas and stadiums are designed for function, rather than aesthetics; they are not in themselves intimate spaces.</p>
<p>For Swift, the tickets her fans fight over help pay for technologies that transform the barest of venues into places where she and her fans can meet, connect and celebrate the history they share together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Pattie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the most technologically advanced stadium tours, Eras ticket prices are high, but for fans the payback is a close and cherished experience with Swift.David Pattie, Associate Professor of Drama, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2027482023-05-11T20:08:39Z2023-05-11T20:08:39ZFriday essay: cancellation or conflicted joy – grappling with the work of our ‘art monsters’<p>Author Claire Dederer started off writing a book about the film director Roman Polanski. Forty-five years ago, Polanski fled the United States after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. </p>
<p>Samantha Galley (now Geimer), who was 13 years old in 1977 when she said <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-19/roman-polanski-case-new-testimony/101250020">she was drugged and raped by the director</a>, has told her side of the story numerous times, including in her 2013 memoir <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Girl-Life-Shadow-Roman-Polanski/dp/1476716846">The Girl: A Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski.</a></p>
<p>Geimer has forgiven Polanski. And just last month, <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/roman-polanski-rape-victim-samantha-geimer-defends-director-1234828246/">in an interview</a> with the director’s wife Emmanuel Seigner, she reiterated that “what happened with Polanski was never a big problem for me”. What weighs heavily on her is having to repeat that, over and again.</p>
<p>Dederer, who started her writing life as a film critic, has long been a Polanski fan. But for her, Polanski <em>is</em> a big problem. For more than any other contemporary figure, Dederer argues, it is Polanski who balances so equally the forces of “the absoluteness of the monstrosity and the absoluteness of the genius”.</p>
<p>Dederer knew a book about Polanski was going to be complicated – that’s why she embarked on it. But somewhere along the way, her project morphed into <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/claire-dederer/monsters-a-fan-s-dilemma">Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma</a>. It’s a thrilling work of feminist cultural criticism which promises to be career-defining for her and essential reading for those of us who have wrestled with the ethics and emotions of fandom. </p>
<p>Fallen idols: we all have at least one. While I was reading Monsters, comedian and satirist <a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-barry-humphries-the-man-who-enriched-the-culture-reimagined-the-one-man-show-and-upended-the-cultural-cringe-188719">Barry Humphries died</a>, prompting a nationwide debate about how he should best be remembered – for his iconic roles as Dame Edna and Sir Les Patterson and general comic genius, or for his transphobia, casual racism and rather flippant defences of unacceptable workplace behaviours? </p>
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<span class="caption">Barry Humphries’ death sparked a national debate about how he should be remembered. Rob Griffith AP.</span>
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<p>There’s plenty of evidence for all of it – watch a classic skit on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVyIiDAS9RU">YouTube</a> and revel in his brilliance. Or read an account of how he described trans as a “fashion” and referred to gender reassignment surgery as “self-mutilation” to comprehend why the Melbourne International Comedy Festival <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47943745">decided to rename</a> their prestigious Barry Award back in 2019. </p>
<p>Or why, in the immediate wake of his death, some trans people and their allies were compelled to call out the hypocrisy of a man who made his fortune performing in drag, yet purportedly <a href="https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/04/27/barry-humphries-trans-views-jk-rowling-email/">sent a letter of support aimed at J.K. Rowling</a> in support of her anti-trans agenda.</p>
<p>Then friends and contemporaries of Humphries paid tribute. Film director Bruce Beresford <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/apr/25/barry-humphries-melbourne-comedy-festival-says-tribute-is-in-works-after-criticism">described</a> the Comedy Festival’s decision as a “disgrace” and Humphries as “one of the great comic geniuses”. </p>
<p>Entertainer Miriam Margolyes, who had “sharply disagreed politically” with her friend of 65 years, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-23/barry-humphries-was-saddened-cancelled-miriam-margolyes/102257954">also lambasted</a> what she saw as her friend’s late-in-life “cancellation”. Margolyes declared, “He was acerbic, and he was often quite nasty, but he was a genius, and you have to accept it.” </p>
<p>But do we?</p>
<p>This is where Dederer’s Monsters starts off – she recognises Polanski’s genius, yes, but the Geimer incident also changed her experience of consuming his art. And she has so much more to say, including about the terms “genius” and “cancel culture” and their limitations.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-barry-humphries-humour-is-now-history-thats-the-fate-of-topical-satirical-comedy-117499">Friday essay: Barry Humphries' humour is now history – that's the fate of topical, satirical comedy</a>
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<h2>‘I felt like Woody Allen’</h2>
<p>My own fallen idols include the film director Woody Allen, who also happens to be one of Dederer’s. “When I was young”, she recalls, “I felt like Woody Allen. I intuited or believed he represented me on-screen. He was me. This was one of the peculiar aspects of his genius – this ability to stand in for the audience”.</p>
<p>I too had once felt like Woody Allen – I was a teenage girl living in Sydney’s western suburbs, and he was a then-middle-aged Jewish New Yorker who played clarinet in a jazz club every Monday night. But somehow, like Dederer, I identified with him. I also aspired to one day live in Manhattan in a book-lined apartment in the vicinity of Central Park. My future life would be filled with dinner parties, love affairs, shrink sessions and one-liners.</p>
<p>For Dederer, revelations of Allen’s relationship with his then-wife Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn were experienced as a “terrible betrayal of me personally”. He had slipped from “one of us, the powerless” to “predator”. </p>
<p>My own feelings were murkier, and it was convenient that the quality of his movies started to descend with his reputation. By the time his daughter Dylan Farrow’s account of his alleged sexual abuse of her started to be widely publicised, I was no longer a fan. (Allen has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56563149">long denied these allegations</a>).</p>
<p>Between Dylan Farrow’s <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/?mcubz=1">Open Letter</a> about Allen, published in the New York Times in 2014 (and still available online, with over 3500 comments below), and the HBO documentary series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13990468/">Allen v. Farrow</a>, first aired in early 2021, #MeToo went viral. </p>
<p>Woody Allen’s son and Dylan’s brother, Ronan, was one of one of <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories">the journalists who helped expose</a> the astounding extent of the abuses perpetrated by film producer Harvey Weinstein, now serving multiple prison sentences.</p>
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<span class="caption">Ronan Farrow, Woody Allen’s son, (pictured with mother Mia) helped expose Harvey Weinstein.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Pizello/AP</span></span>
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<h2>The stain</h2>
<p>Against this backdrop, Dederer’s book can be seen as both timely and overdue. Yet, as is obvious from her 2017 Paris Review essay <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/20/art-monstrous-men/">What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?</a>, she started exploring the terrain long before the celebrity phase of #MeToo kicked in. </p>
<p>With a book to play with, Dederer fleshes out her concerns, but Monsters is not – or not only – an extended version of her viral essay, or a catalogue of the monstrous acts of male artists. Through a blend of memoir, cultural critique and feminist analysis, Dederer offers a hybrid form that is far more ambitious, wide-ranging, slippery and complicated. </p>
<p>Sensing in the “psychic theatre of public condemnation” against disgraced celebrities a “kind of elaborate misdirection” or deflection, Dederer turns her gaze to the audience, including herself. </p>
<p>Monsters follows an intuitive logic, guided by Dederer’s shifting sense of her own project. Early on, she re-watches Roman Polanski’s films, an exercise that confirms his talent but fails to ease her conscience. “Polanski would be no problem at all for the viewer,” she notes, “if the films were bad. But they’re not”. </p>
<p>From the outset, the question of “do we separate the art from the artist?” opens up other, more interesting questions – like, who is this “we” that proposes such a separation is possible, or desirable?</p>
<p>When Dederer returns to Allen’s multi-Oscar-winning <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075686/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Annie Hall</a> (1977), she declares it “the greatest comic film of the twentieth century” – a critical assessment she later mocks for its grandiosity, for she is not that kind of critic. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, Allen’s other peak-period “classic”, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/style/woody-allen-manhattan.html">Manhattan</a> (1979) – in which Allen’s character Isaac romances the teenaged Tracy, played by Mariel Hemingway – does not stack up so well. </p>
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<span class="caption">Manhattan, the film in which Woody Allen romances a teenager, ‘does not stack up so well’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MGM/IMDB</span></span>
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<p>Her women friends share her “complicated” feelings and emotions. For numerous older, white men of her acquaintance, however, Manhattan remains a work of unequivocal genius, untainted by its proximity to the director’s “real-life creepiness”.</p>
<p>From the opening chapters on Polanski and Allen, Dederer moves in all sorts of productive directions. Almost immediately she undermines her own title, making a compelling case for the metaphor of “the stain” as a more apt alternative to the rage-filled “monster”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-separating-the-art-from-the-badly-behaved-artist-a-philosophers-view-116279">Friday essay: separating the art from the badly behaved artist – a philosopher's view</a>
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<h2>Venerating white male rock stars</h2>
<p>Next, the persistently masculinist category of “genius”, embodied in Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, is examined as a product of the mass media, with a legacy most obvious in the veneration of white male rock stars. </p>
<p>More than once, Dederer brings up David Bowie, who in life (and now in death) has largely escaped reputational damage from <a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/01/13/the_dark_side_of_david_bowie_as_the_mourning_goes_on_we_cant_ignore_his_history_with_underaged_groupies_in_70s/">allegedly having sex</a> with underage girls. She does so out of curiosity not condemnation, and with a sense of her own complicity and investment as a fan.</p>
<p>Rock stars like Bowie, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Mick Jagger – all of whom <a href="https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/i-lost-my-virginity-to-david-bowie">apparently slept with</a> teenaged Lori Mattix in the 1970s, to name one high-profile example – have, of course, often been excused for their bad behaviour on the basis that those were different times. </p>
<p>Integral to this argument is the smug assumption that we live in a more enlightened present. Dederer encourages readers to ponder their own participation in such a liberal fantasy. </p>
<p>She also spotlights enduring strains of antisemitism and racism, including historical amnesia about figures like <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/virginia-woolfs-anti-jew-diatribe-20030616-gdgxsg.html">Virginia Woolf</a>, whose diaries were “pocked” with “flippant anti-Semitic remarks”. When Dederer discusses Woolf with a Jewish friend, her friend replies “Well, if we give up the anti-Semites, we’ll have to give up everyone”. </p>
<p>Feminism propels Dederer’s analysis, and morphs with it. The feminism she initially identifies with is virtuous, fault-finding and punitive – or white, liberal and carceral. Accordingly, she depicts her feminism and her desire to be “demonstrably good” as “coming into conflict” with wanting to be a “citizen of the world of art” and her “increasingly leftist politics”. However, while such distinctions can be blind to the long history of (for example) left-wing feminism, they also dissolve as the book goes along.</p>
<h2>Staking a claim for the ‘I’ in criticism</h2>
<p>In the most pivotal chapter in the book, Dederer shares her own history as a cultural critic. It’s a significant contribution to feminist criticism, not least of all because Dederer challenges the phallocentric model of the critic as a “kind of priest” who dispenses “critical pronouncements” as gospel. </p>
<p>Against this, in the spirit of critics like Vivian Gornick, she stakes a claim for the “I”, of criticism as “relentlessly, proudly subjective”. Feminist challenges of this kind are hardly new, but Dederer’s insights are fresh, welcome and well-pitched. </p>
<p>Critics who cloak their opinions in the “garb of authority”, she reminds us, are part of the problem. “Consuming a piece of art”, Dederer concludes, involves “two biographies meeting: the biography of the artist, which might disrupt the viewing of the art, the biography of the audience member, which might shape the viewing of the art”.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, Dederer models her critical practice to dazzling effect. Another stand-out chapter is her re-reading of Vladimir Nabokov’s most infamous novel, <a href="https://theconversation.com/lolita-why-this-vivid-illicit-portrait-of-a-pervert-matters-at-a-time-of-endless-commodification-of-young-girls-189688">Lolita </a>(1955). If <a href="https://www.avclub.com/reminder-pablo-picasso-was-a-bit-of-an-asshole-1836674197">Picasso</a> and <a href="https://bookninja.com/2021/04/12/on-great-writers-who-are-terrible-people-hemingway-edition/">Hemingway</a> have been largely spared the conflation of the art with the artist, Nabokov has had no such luck. By writing from the perspective of Humbert Humbert, “the child rapist”, the author was widely assumed to be a “monster” himself. </p>
<p>Dederer first read Lolita at age 13 and was “horrified” by it, including because Lolita herself did not seem like a “real character”, only an “absence”. The adult Dederer comes to see that may be precisely the point, that Lolita is “a portrait of a girl’s annihilation”. Yet Dederer does not disavow her younger self, who after all was onto something. </p>
<p>She also takes seriously the fandom of children who grew up obsessed with <a href="https://theconversation.com/rethinking-harry-potter-twenty-years-on-86761">Harry Potter</a> and the observations of her children and their friends. Her kids, she notices, are not tortured about Picasso the same way she is, or at all. At an exhibition of his work, curated to tell the story of “Picasso-as-asshole”, they ask to leave.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lolita-why-this-vivid-illicit-portrait-of-a-pervert-matters-at-a-time-of-endless-commodification-of-young-girls-189688">Lolita: why this 'vivid, illicit' portrait of a pervert matters at a time of endless commodification of young girls</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Maybe I’m not monstrous enough’</h2>
<p>Motherhood is a central theme in Monsters. A gifted memoirist, Dederer builds on her previous books <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/poser-9781408817827/">Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses</a> (2010) and <a href="https://www.clairedederer.com/love-and-trouble">Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning</a> (2017) by sharing her experience as a “writer-mother”, and the dilemmas that flow from it. </p>
<p>Contemplating her writing career to date, Dederer wonders “maybe I’m not monstrous enough”. “Every writer-mother I know,” she contends, has asked herself the question: “If I were more selfish, would my work be better?” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525334/original/file-20230510-21-5490sg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525334/original/file-20230510-21-5490sg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525334/original/file-20230510-21-5490sg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525334/original/file-20230510-21-5490sg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525334/original/file-20230510-21-5490sg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525334/original/file-20230510-21-5490sg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525334/original/file-20230510-21-5490sg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525334/original/file-20230510-21-5490sg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Joni Mitchell surrendered her baby daughter for adoption.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Suzanne Plunkett/AP</span></span>
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<p>The female version of the monstrous male artist slash sexual predator, Dederer tells us, is the mother who abandons her children – and these “female monsters” are far fewer. Dederer weaves her own account of spending five conflicted weeks at an artist retreat in Marfa, Texas, into the vastly bigger stories of “abandoning mothers”: writer Doris Lessing (who, when she was 23, <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2022/04/doris-lessing-abandoned-children-motherhood-letters.html#:%7E:text=Lessing%20was%20said%20to%20have,been%20both%20vilified%20and%20celebrated.">left her two toddlers</a> behind in what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, to move to London) and singer songwriter Joni Mitchell, who, as a destitute folk singer, surrendered her baby daughter for adoption. This way, Dederer encourages readers to contemplate stubborn cultural resistance and obstacles to women’s artistic freedom.</p>
<p>Dederer admirably creates space for maternal ambivalence and stakes a claim for female ambition. These motherhood chapters are scattered with gems – like Dederer’s appreciation of Jane Campion’s cinematic evocation in the 1990 biopic <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099040/">Angel at My Table</a> of writer Janet Frame (a non-mother) luxuriating in her writerly solitude after years in a mental hospital. But for me, they read as more predictable, less convincing and even oddly retrograde in parts, especially given the binary of mother/non-mother is largely left untouched. </p>
<p>I found myself wishing Dederer had cast her net wider (Sylvia Plath – again?) and challenged some of her own assumptions more. Surely the lives of say, Toni Morrison or Cate Blanchett – genius-mother-artists – would throw some new light on the dilemmas Dederer poses as endemic and perennial among “writer-mothers” like herself and her friends. </p>
<p>Is female ambition, for example, really still so widely and uniformly discouraged? And what of not-so-hetronormative models of motherhood and parenthood that offer alternatives, and which are under attack throughout the US by conservatives who deem them monstrous?</p>
<h2>Your own art monsters</h2>
<p>In any case, Monsters is, taken as a whole, a wonderfully generative read that is enhanced, not undermined, by Dederer’s unapologetic subjectivity. But nor is it confined to Dederer’s worldview or canon of fallen or “stained” idols. Her former or current cherished artists may not overlap with your own, but reading Monsters will surely bring them to mind.</p>
<p>Animated by the chapter on Woody Allen, I found myself scouring the shelves for my copy of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55386.Getting_Even">Getting Even</a> (1971), his classic comic short-story collection. It includes <a href="http://thisrecording.com/today/2009/7/1/in-which-woody-recalls-his-roaring-twenties.html">A Twenties Memory</a>, in which Allen gleefully skewers some of the “genuises” discussed in Dederer’s book: Picasso and Hemingway, among others. But I couldn’t find it – I must have thrown it out, like the people described in Monsters who did the same with their Allen books and movies.</p>
<p>Throughout, Dederer engages with others who have wrestled with their emotional responses to the art and lives of beloved monstrous men, like <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-08-30-vw-29516-story.html">Pearl Cleage on Miles Davis</a> (who, as Dederer notes, “wrote frankly” in his 1989 autobiography, about beating his wives). The book is overflowing with conversations, and it inspires them too. Since reading it, I’ve talked to a number of friends about our mixed feelings about Woody Allen – including men. He was big among Gen X-ers, as was Johnny Depp (but I won’t go there …).</p>
<p>Then there’s Morrissey, the former lead singer of The Smiths (the greatest band of the 20th century!). He’s not mentioned by Dederer, but he is – for me, and at least five other people I know – our most beloved “monster”. </p>
<p>In Morrissey’s case, it’s not sexual abuse that has “stained” his reputation and the Smiths’ legacy, but his far right, neo-fascist turn (though I’ve since discovered, after conducting a quick update search, that “Moz”, as he was once affectionately known, has also <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42050512">victim-blamed</a> those who were allegedly abused by Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein). </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/30/bigmouth-strikes-again-morrissey-songs-loneliness-shyness-misfits-far-right-party-tonight-show-jimmy-fallon">Billy Bragg</a> captured something of the despair and rage felt by Morrissey fans when he described the singer as “the Oswald Mosley of Pop”, an artist who has betrayed his fans and empowered “the very people Smiths fans were brought into being to oppose”.</p>
<p>The night I learned Queen Elizabeth II had died, I did something I had not done in a long time – I played <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS3UMjNUqFM">the Derek-Jarman-directed video</a> of The Smiths song The Queen Is Dead on You Tube. Then I sent a friend a text: “I’m allowed to play The Smiths tonight!” I’ve had them on regular rotation since.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Zora Simic felt ‘allowed’ to listen to The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead after Queen Elizabeth II died, despite Morrissey’s ‘stained’ reputation.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The closest Dederer comes to a conclusion is to let us tortured fans “off the hook” because under capitalism, our consumer choices will “solve nothing”. We “do not need to have a grand unified theory about Michael Jackson”. I chuckled reading this passage, recalling my recent rediscovery of The Smiths back catalogue and the conflicted joy it has brought me.</p>
<p>For me, what was most rewarding about reading Monsters is that Dederer describes and gets “it” – the pleasure and pain of being a fan, feminist, critic and person with a unique history. And bringing all of this to the art we love (and to our criticisms of “untouchable” geniuses). </p>
<p>More broadly, Monsters is assured of ongoing relevance, at least for the near future. Dederer reminds us that dilemmas like how we should remember Barry Humphries will never be fully resolved – not by “thinking”, nor through a moral calculus that weighs up the variables. </p>
<p>What we can pay attention to, however, is how authoritative claims of “genius” continue to hold sway in this purported age of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-joanna-bourke-the-nsw-arts-minister-and-the-unruly-contradictions-of-cancel-culture-189377">cancel culture</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202748/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zora Simic does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>So many of our artistic geniuses have complicated legacies. What do we do with work we love by artists whose behaviour is more difficult to admire?Zora Simic, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1346732020-03-25T13:50:53Z2020-03-25T13:50:53ZTribute to Manu Dibango: Cameroonian jazz pioneer loved across Africa and the world<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322865/original/file-20200325-168922-47le9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Corio/Redferns/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>African jazz has lost another of its best-known icons.</p>
<p>Emmanuel N’Djoké Dibango, popularly known as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/arts/music/manu-dibango-dead.html">Manu Dibango</a>, was, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-hugh-masekela-the-horn-player-with-a-shrewd-ear-for-music-of-the-day-86414">Hugh Masekela</a> who died last year, a global star of Afro-jazz and funk. </p>
<p>The saxophonist Dibango leaves a huge legacy spanning more than 60 years of musical production that will continue to echo in global music. His brand of Afro-jazz drew enormously from <a href="https://www.allmusic.com/style/makossa-ma0000011862">makossa</a>, a genre of popular music invented in the 1950s in Cameroon’s major economic and cultural centre, Douala. The music blended <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/rumba-brief-history-slavery-cuba-music-dance-cultural-travel-180960934/">Afro-Cuban rumba</a> and local musical forms such as assiko and ambasse bey with other styles such as the Congolese <a href="https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051503">soukous</a>. </p>
<p>Tellingly, one of Dibango’s most successful albums is titled <em>Soul Makossa</em> (1972), with a <a href="https://scroll.in/video/957127/soul-makossa-the-manu-dibango-1933-2020-song-that-inspired-michael-jackson">title song</a> that has been repeatedly sampled (though most often unacknowledged) by stars ranging from Michael Jackson to Rihanna, Kanye West and A Tribe Called Quest. This one track alone has been referenced by so many globally famed artists that it has infused the pop culture zeitgeist from dance floors to catwalks at various times over the decades.</p>
<p>Dibango’s work has resonated with so many of his peers and audience because of its eclectic and ecumenical character. The richness of its multiple sources of inspirations across a wide range of traditions was only enhanced by Dibango’s deft ability to combine and recompose them into new symphonies and rhythms. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://qwest.tv/media/manu-dibango-my-dream-was-to-go-to-the-other-side-of-the-mountain-2/">interview</a> in 2018 for Quincy Jones’ Qwest TV, he spoke about
his life and musical journey, moving between jazz, rumba, funk, and reggae, crossing paths with Sidney Bechet, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Bob Marley and Mohamed Ali along the way. </p>
<p>In Africa, Dibango’s appeal as an artist stemmed not only from his great talent, but also his simple ability to work with artists across a wide range of generations and backgrounds to advance African music and social causes on the continent. He famously led a humanitarian effort to raise money for the fight against famine in Ethiopia through a number of initiatives, including a charity record, <em>Tam-Tam for Ethiopia</em> (Drum for Ethiopia) in 1985.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Manu Dibango performs Soul Makossa live at the Koroga Festival in Kenya in 2016.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Resilience</h2>
<p>Dibango was an avid collaborator in African musical production, working with contemporaries like Cameroon’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Bebey">Francis Bebey</a>, the DRC’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/24/joseph-kabasele-grand-kalle-review">Joseph Kabasele</a>, Nigeria’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/oct/31/fela-kuti-musical-neil-spencer">Fela Kuti</a> and South Africa’s Masekela. He also produced music with notable figures among the younger generation like the DRC’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/24/congolese-singer-papa-wemba-dies-after-collapsing-on-stage">Papa Wemba</a>, Mali’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Salif-Keita-Malian-singer-songwriter">Salif Keita</a> and Senegal’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Youssou-NDour">Youssou N'dour</a>. </p>
<p>Personally, I have been drawn to how Dibango’s brand of music speaks to the political aesthetics of everyday life in authoritarian settings, much like Kuti’s. This includes a resilient capacity to laugh and be joyful, a determined refusal to capitulate to violent oppression. This is what Kuti described as “suffering and smiling”. </p>
<p>Dibango’s music was not directly about political commentary in its lyrics, except for a few songs like <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0VLEFCLP30">Ah! Freak Sans Fric</a></em> (Africa Without Money). The song bemoaned a continent impoverished despite its natural wealth. But in its poetry of everyday life on the continent, Dibango’s music addressed the aesthetic, ethical, political, economic, material and even the psychological states of Africa in the wake of the multiple crises that people have had to live through. </p>
<h2>Political hostility</h2>
<p>Born in 1933, Dibango left Cameroon in his teens to undertake high school studies in Paris. From this moment on, his life as a world journeyman and musical joy maker began. He aptly defined himself as a “Negropolitan”, an African of the world. </p>
<p>He never really returned to Cameroon. His occasional efforts to initiate cultural projects to promote music in the country were frequently frustrated by the political establishment. </p>
<p>As Francis Nyamnjoh and Jude Fokwang, two notable Cameroonian anthropologists, wrote in their seminal <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518444?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">study</a> of Cameroonian music and the repressive order in the country, Manu Dibango’s genre of makossa </p>
<blockquote>
<p>brought world fame to Cameroon’s popular music, </p>
</blockquote>
<p>but his efforts to </p>
<blockquote>
<p>win recognition for music as art and musicians as artists met with repeated frustrations by politicians.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322901/original/file-20200325-168907-1goijkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322901/original/file-20200325-168907-1goijkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322901/original/file-20200325-168907-1goijkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322901/original/file-20200325-168907-1goijkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322901/original/file-20200325-168907-1goijkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322901/original/file-20200325-168907-1goijkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322901/original/file-20200325-168907-1goijkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322901/original/file-20200325-168907-1goijkd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Manu Dibango performing in the musical production Femme Noir with Angelique Kidjo, the star from Benin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean Marc Zaorski/Gamma Rapho/Getty Image</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was therefore no love lost between the musician and the authorities in the country of his birth. No surprise, then, that there was no credible public statement from either the president of Cameroon, Paul Biya, or from the country’s Ministry of Culture in the days after the announcement of the death of this cultural icon. </p>
<p>No leading national authority had called for the public to honour Manu Dibango’s memory and to recognise his cultural contributions to uplifting the national spirit of joy and resilience in the face of everyday hardships that Cameroonians endure. </p>
<p>This stands in stark contrast to the global outpouring of grief and celebration of this cultural genius at the news of his demise. Dibango was an object of “Cameroonian and African pride”, as N’dour puts it.</p>
<p>Dibango gave his life’s work to the entire continent of Africa and the rest of the world, producing soul-reaching musical sensations with mind-boggling energy in his music. It is perhaps only just that it is the entire continent and the rest of the world that have been quick to sense his demise as our collective loss. </p>
<p>Dibango passed away in Paris after contracting COVID-19. He was 86 years old.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rogers Orock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The saxophonist and singer leaves a legacy spanning more than 60 years of musical production that will continue to echo in global sounds.Rogers Orock, Lecturer, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1162792019-05-09T20:08:43Z2019-05-09T20:08:43ZFriday essay: separating the art from the badly behaved artist – a philosopher’s view<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272925/original/file-20190506-103053-4opofv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">US actor Kevin Spacey is escorted into Nantucket District Court in January for arraignment on a sexual assault charge. His lawyers entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CJ Gunther/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When actor <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-09/kevin-spacey-cut-from-ridley-scott-movie-weeks-before-release/9134872">Kevin Spacey</a> was accused of attempted sexual assault of a teenage boy, his role in the Ridley Scott film, All the Money in the World, was erased and reshot with Christopher Plummer. When the celebrated Torres Strait Island painter Dennis Nona went to jail for raping a 12-year-old girl, Australian art galleries responded by <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/law-crime/2016/12/03/dennis-nona-and-moral-questions-about-criminal-artists/14806836004048">taking his works off their walls</a> and putting them into storage. R Kelly’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/arts/music/r-kelly-rca-sony.html">concerts were cancelled</a> and his RCA contract was not renewed because of his alleged sexual abuse of underage women. </p>
<p>The history of art is full of artists who were cruel, exploitative, prejudiced or predatory. Picasso mistreated women, the Renaissance painter Caravaggio was a murderer. Wagner was an anti-Semite, Alfred Hitchcock tried to ruin Tippi Hedren’s career as an actress <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/31/tippi-hedren-alfred-hitchcock-sexually-assaulted-me">because she refused his sexual advances</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272966/original/file-20190507-103053-yj4p8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272966/original/file-20190507-103053-yj4p8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272966/original/file-20190507-103053-yj4p8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272966/original/file-20190507-103053-yj4p8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272966/original/file-20190507-103053-yj4p8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272966/original/file-20190507-103053-yj4p8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272966/original/file-20190507-103053-yj4p8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272966/original/file-20190507-103053-yj4p8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pablo Picasso, pictured in 1962: mistreated women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The #MeToo movement has thrown a spotlight on contemporary cases of artists and producers harassing and bullying those in their power. </p>
<p>Those who harass or rape should be exposed and punished. The license to break moral rules that genius is sometimes thought to bestow on artists has to be revoked. But should the character of an artist affect how we judge their works? </p>
<p>Should the works or performances of wrongdoing artists be censored, shunned, or locked away? Should good behaviour be a criterion for exhibiting an artist’s works? “Once we start removing paintings from walls, where do we stop?” asks arts editor and art historian <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/on-artists-paperback-softback">Ashleigh Wilson</a>. </p>
<p>Shunning art because of the behaviour of the artist offends against traditional assumptions about the value of art and the relationship between artists and their works. </p>
<p>We are supposed to value artistic expression and oppose attempts to suppress artistic works even when people are deeply offended by their content. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Piss-Christ">Piss Christ</a>, a photograph by Andres Serrano of a crucifix submerged in a tank of his urine, was exhibited in galleries even though many Christians viewed it as sacrilegious. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272922/original/file-20190506-103060-1hv5hoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272922/original/file-20190506-103060-1hv5hoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272922/original/file-20190506-103060-1hv5hoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272922/original/file-20190506-103060-1hv5hoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272922/original/file-20190506-103060-1hv5hoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272922/original/file-20190506-103060-1hv5hoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272922/original/file-20190506-103060-1hv5hoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272922/original/file-20190506-103060-1hv5hoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tippi Hendren and Alfred Hitchcock in 1963. The actress claims Hitchcock assaulted her while filming The Birds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">idmb</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But if it is wrong to censure art or refuse to display it because of its content, how can it be right to shun it because of the behaviour of the artist? What’s the difference?</p>
<h2>The perils of biography</h2>
<p>The view that we shouldn’t judge art because of the behaviour of the artist is backed up by common ideas about how we should appreciate art. A work of art or a performance is supposed to have value and meaning in its own right. It’s supposed to be judged for what it is and not its relation to extraneous factors. This view allows that the biography of the artist can be used to provide an insight into the work, but the life of the artist is not supposed to affect our judgement of the aesthetic value of his or her works. </p>
<p>Artists themselves warn against taking their works as a reflection of who they are. When asked whether his films helped him work through his life dilemmas, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,723927,00.html">Woody Allen denied any relation between his life and his works</a>. “Movies are fiction. The plots of my movies don’t have any relationship to my life.” If works of art belong to a realm separated off from the life of the artist they can’t be polluted by the bad things artists do. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272926/original/file-20190507-103049-o65jbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272926/original/file-20190507-103049-o65jbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272926/original/file-20190507-103049-o65jbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272926/original/file-20190507-103049-o65jbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272926/original/file-20190507-103049-o65jbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272926/original/file-20190507-103049-o65jbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272926/original/file-20190507-103049-o65jbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272926/original/file-20190507-103049-o65jbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Woody Allen and Shelley Duvall in Annie Hall (1977).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions, Rollins-Joffe Productions.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The separation of life and character from art is far from complete. In his new book <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/on-artists-paperback-softback">On Artists</a>, Ashley Wilson finds a scene in Allen’s Annie Hall that suggests the wrong kind of attitude to children’s sexuality. This scene is especially disturbing because of Allen’s daughter Dylan’s accusation that <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alisonvingiano/woody-allens-adoptive-daughter-speaks-out-about-her-sexual-a">he sexually assaulted her as a child</a>, which Allen denies. Wilson also cites dialogue in Hitchcock’s Marnie that seems to reveal his perverse obsession with Hedren. </p>
<p>Some of R Kelly’s lyrics can be interpreted as condoning sexual harassment and it is not difficult to find anti-Semitic or pro-nationalist elements in Wagner’s operas. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272921/original/file-20190506-103068-1ul7f6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272921/original/file-20190506-103068-1ul7f6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272921/original/file-20190506-103068-1ul7f6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272921/original/file-20190506-103068-1ul7f6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272921/original/file-20190506-103068-1ul7f6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=706&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272921/original/file-20190506-103068-1ul7f6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272921/original/file-20190506-103068-1ul7f6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272921/original/file-20190506-103068-1ul7f6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Composer Richard Wagner photographed in 1861: an anti-Semite.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But does this matter? Works of art now regarded as classics frequently contain assumptions about race or the roles of women that we now reject. Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice makes anti-Semitic assumptions about Jews and Taming of the Shrew has its misogynous moments. But they do not significantly detract from the value we find in these works.</p>
<p>We should be willing to accept that artists are not free from the prejudices of their culture, from blindness to its prejudices or from faults of character. We should make allowances for that when we evaluate their art and not let ourselves be distracted from appreciating its values. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/mar/12/michael-jackson-r-kelly-debate-spotify-youtube">When Spotify took R Kelly off its playlist</a> it faced the objections of fans who value his music. The brilliance of Michael Jackson’s music transcends accusations of paedophilia levelled against him. Many people, including Wilson, believe that Wagner’s works deserve veneration despite their dubious elements. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-ban-michael-jacksons-music-talk-about-the-accusations-113109">Don’t ban Michael Jackson's music – talk about the accusations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>When is a ban justified?</h2>
<p>The distinction between art and the artist breaks down when the intention of the artist is to support a racist or sexist ideology. <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/leni-riefenstahl">Leni Riefenstahl</a> used her talents as a filmmaker to celebrate Hitler’s regime. D.W. Griffith defended the prejudices of white Southerners in <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/birth_of_a_nation/">Birth of a Nation</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272920/original/file-20190506-103068-tfdte9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272920/original/file-20190506-103068-tfdte9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272920/original/file-20190506-103068-tfdte9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272920/original/file-20190506-103068-tfdte9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272920/original/file-20190506-103068-tfdte9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272920/original/file-20190506-103068-tfdte9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272920/original/file-20190506-103068-tfdte9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272920/original/file-20190506-103068-tfdte9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leni Riefenstahl directing in 1938.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">idmb</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It also breaks down when the artist is a celebrity and a role model. One museum director defended her refusal to exhibit Nona’s art because showing it would endorse his status as a role model in his Indigenous community. Football players are suspended for acting badly. Why not penalise artists by taking their art out of circulation?</p>
<p>If a work of art vilifies a group or incites violence then there are legal as well as moral reasons for banning or censoring it. If showing an artist’s work impacts on his community and causes serious distress to his victims, then these people should have a say about what should be done with it. </p>
<p>But a ban on a work of art is only justifiable so long as the danger or harm exists. Nona has apologised for his deeds and has tried to rehabilitate himself. There is no good reason why his works should not reappear on gallery walls. </p>
<p>The #MeToo movement provides the most plausible reason for shunning or boycotting the works of artists who rape, assault or bully others. This movement arose from women’s complaints about their treatment by powerful men as actors and producers – men whose position and fame gave them the power, the women allege, to wreck careers and get away with sexual assault and harassment. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272933/original/file-20190507-103078-l00jhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272933/original/file-20190507-103078-l00jhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272933/original/file-20190507-103078-l00jhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272933/original/file-20190507-103078-l00jhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272933/original/file-20190507-103078-l00jhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272933/original/file-20190507-103078-l00jhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272933/original/file-20190507-103078-l00jhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272933/original/file-20190507-103078-l00jhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">R. Kelly is escorted out of jail on bail by his attorney Steve Greenberg in February. Kelly, who has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tannen Maury/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Punishing these men through the courts is a difficult course of action. The charges are often hard to prove and cultural acceptance of bad behaviour by artists sometimes makes it difficult for judges, juries and witnesses to regard their acts as serious wrongs. </p>
<p>What is needed, most #MeToo advocates agree, is a cultural change. An effective way of changing the culture of artists is to prevent them from exhibiting their works or performing their roles. Kevin Spacey’s removal from All the Money in the World (despite the fact that he has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-08/kevin-spaceys-lawyers-enter-not-guilty-plea/10696430">pleaded not guilty</a> to the charge that he assaulted an 18-year-old busboy in a Nantucket bar) sent the message that sexual assault would no longer be overlooked or tolerated. It was both a punishment and an expression of moral distaste. It vindicated the status of the victims and it warned others to avoid offending.</p>
<h2>A dangerous way to achieve cultural change</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272964/original/file-20190507-103060-15ue8ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272964/original/file-20190507-103060-15ue8ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272964/original/file-20190507-103060-15ue8ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272964/original/file-20190507-103060-15ue8ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272964/original/file-20190507-103060-15ue8ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272964/original/file-20190507-103060-15ue8ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/272964/original/file-20190507-103060-15ue8ru.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1038&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this strategy for achieving cultural change has obvious dangers. Wilson is right to worry about where we are going when we start removing pictures from gallery walls or preventing actors from performing. If the character of the artist becomes a criterion for judging art then the door is open to the exclusion of artists because they belong to a despised group or <a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-scrubbed-dennis-nonas-art-from-our-galleries-to-our-cost-39693">because they have said or done something that many people do not like</a>. </p>
<p>Removing or censoring art works can also be an unfair way of achieving a moral goal, especially when wrong doing by artists has been encouraged by the complicity of others. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/magazine/the-revenge-of-tippi-hedren-alfred-hitchcocks-muse.html">In an interview after Hitchcock’s death</a>, Tippi Hedren refused to allow the wrong he did to override her judgement about his talent and contribution as a film director. “I still admire the man for what he was.” </p>
<p>The distinction she insists on making is worth preserving. We should expose the wrongdoing of artists and but we should not be prevented from admiring their works.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janna Thompson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If it is wrong to censure art or refuse to display it because of its content, how can it be right to shun it because of the behaviour of the artist?Janna Thompson, Professor of Philosophy, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1135282019-03-18T20:43:40Z2019-03-18T20:43:40ZLeaving Neverland: Why individual stories of abuse have more impact than statistics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264360/original/file-20190318-28496-uqappn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Jackson arrives at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in 2005 for his child molestation trial in Santa Maria, Calif. Finding Neverland, a documentary film about two boys who accused Jackson of sexual abuse aired on HBO this month. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Aaron Lambert/CP/Santa Maria Times)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost 1.5 million people watched the documentary <em>Leaving Neverland</em> earlier this month, making it the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-jackson-doc-leaving-neverland-gets-massive-ratings-nielsen-2019-3">third most-watched HBO documentary in a decade</a>. The four-hour documentary describes how Michael Jackson allegedly groomed and sexually abused two children, James Safechuck and Wade Robson, during the late ‘80s to mid-'90s. </p>
<p>Child sex abuse of the type alleged in <em>Leaving Neverland</em> generates strong and negative visceral reactions. <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-michael-jackson-hit-with-new-sex-abuse-claim">Little of the information</a> presented in <em>Leaving Neverland</em> was new, but it was a compelling narrative framed to draw in the audience and maximize sympathy for the alleged victims. </p>
<p>In her post-screening interviews of Jackson’s articulate and thoughtful accusers, Oprah Winfrey <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrmOH1uKe5k">said child sex abuse is rampant</a>: “It is happening right now. It is happening in families. We know it is happening in churches, and in schools and sports teams everywhere.”</p>
<p>Winfrey isn’t wrong. Nonetheless, the suffering of 1,000 children should concern us more than the suffering of one or two children, but it does not. This is why fundraising campaigns normally focus on one child suffering as opposed to many. It has a much stronger emotional pull.</p>
<p>Psychologists refer to this as the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597806000057">identifiable victim effect</a>. People are willing to aid identifiable victims much more than unidentifiable or statistical victims. We are also more willing to provide aid when one person is suffering, but our willingness decreases as you add more people. We cannot seem to process mass suffering. </p>
<p>One study I conducted with two colleagues <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/capa.12169">explored the impact of the 2009 news coverage of Evan Frustaglio</a>, a seemingly healthy 13-year-old boy living in Toronto who died of the influenza virus H1N1. After his photo and story was featured prominently in the news, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/capa.12169">media coverage of H1N1 more than doubled in the month following his death</a>. </p>
<p>Despite a massive effort by government to encourage people to get vaccinated, polling data in the period immediately preceding Frustalgio’s death showed a decreased interest in getting the vaccine. Immediately after Frustaglio’s death, demand surged and parents rushed their children to clinics across Canada, standing in massive lineups.</p>
<h2>The identifiable victim effect</h2>
<p>In 2015, <a href="http://100photos.time.com/photos/nilufer-demir-alan-kurdi">the image of Alan Kurdi</a>, a three-year old Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish beach, focused international attention on the war in Syria, which had been occurring for years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264420/original/file-20190318-28512-9w0ywf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264420/original/file-20190318-28512-9w0ywf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264420/original/file-20190318-28512-9w0ywf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264420/original/file-20190318-28512-9w0ywf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264420/original/file-20190318-28512-9w0ywf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264420/original/file-20190318-28512-9w0ywf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264420/original/file-20190318-28512-9w0ywf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The horror of this Sept. 2, 2015 photo of the body of Alan Kurdi on a Turkish shoreline helped to mobilize public support for Syrian refugees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Nilufer Demir/DHA via AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The circulation of Kurdi’s image, taken by photojournalist Nilüfer Demir, through the news media prompted the Western public to put pressure on their governments to expedite the process for those seeking refugee status. In this way, a single photo <a href="https://research.gold.ac.uk/14624/1/KURDI%20REPORT.pdf">changed the lives of thousands</a>.</p>
<p>The identifiable victim effect allows us to react strongly to individual suffering, like the experiences of Alan Kurdi and Evan Frustaglio, or the ones recounted in <em>Leaving Neverland</em>, but it also allows us to distance ourselves from mass suffering. </p>
<p>The United Nations <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/rohingya-emergency.html">has reported</a> that 723,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar, many of whom are children. These children <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/FFM-Myanmar/A_HRC_39_CRP.2.pdf">are subject to</a> disease outbreaks, malnutrition, physical danger and sexualized violence. UN Secretary General António Guterres has <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sgsm18676.doc.htm">described the situation</a> as “catastrophic.” Bob Rae, Canada’s special envoy to Myanmar, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rae-envoy-myanmar-rohingya-1.4694430">broke down at a parliamentary committee</a> over the plight of the children.</p>
<p>But progress has been slow and uneven in Myanmar.</p>
<p>Although child sex abuse has been <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5432048/">trending downward in Canada since the early 1990s</a>, the numbers remain high: <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2014001/article/14008-eng.htm">according to Statistics Canada</a>, in 2012 there were approximately 14,000 children and youth who were victims of sexual abuse in Canada; that is, 205 victims for every 100,000 children.</p>
<p>The way media translates statistical and unidentifiable victims into stories can help to humanize the victims and motivate action. The action must be underpinned by an understanding of the magnitude of the problem, fair and just laws and moral intent, at home and abroad.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Quigley receives funding from SSHRC. SSHRC funded the H1N1 research. </span></em></p>The documentary, ‘Leaving Neverland,’ demonstrates the identifiable victim effect: people are more willing to empathize with individual victims than with large statistics.Kevin Quigley, Scholarly Director of the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1133272019-03-14T10:39:10Z2019-03-14T10:39:10ZWhat will happen to Michael Jackson’s legacy? A famed writer’s fall could offer clues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263697/original/file-20190313-123545-1vbjluj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C108%2C880%2C546&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Norman Douglas, photographed in Florence, Italy in 1935.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Norman_Douglas_1935.jpg">Carl Van Vetchen/Library of Congress</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s no question that Michael Jackson changed music history. But how will history remember Michael Jackson? </p>
<p>Since HBO released the new documentary film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9573980/">Leaving Neverland</a>,” which detailed allegations by two adults who say that they were molested by Jackson as children, the musician’s legacy – already complicated – is up in the air. </p>
<p>Jackson is not the first notable artist to be accused of sexually abusing children. Some, like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/30/hollywood-reverence-child-rapist-roman-polanski-convicted-40-years-on-run">Roman Polanski</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/arts/moses-farrow-woody-allen-dylan-abuse.html">Woody Allen</a>, are still living and producing art that provokes discussion. </p>
<p>But there are other alleged child abusers who have died and whose works, once considered great, have faded into obscurity, in no small part because it is almost impossible to memorialize them without creating the impression of condoning their behavior.</p>
<p>The writer Norman Douglas is a prime example. The subject of a biography I’m working on, Douglas had a reputation for molesting children. After his death, he became an off-limits topic for biographers, and while he had his defenders, he ultimately couldn’t escape historical erasure.</p>
<h2>Rumors do little to dim a budding star</h2>
<p>During the first half of the 20th century, Norman Douglas was a literary star. Friends with Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence and Aldous Huxley, he was best known for his bestselling 1917 novel “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1AuGDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&dq=south%20wind&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">South Wind</a>.”</p>
<p>Virginia Woolf <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=_bInAQAAMAAJ&q=The+Essays+of+Virginia+Woolf:+1912-1918&dq=The+Essays+of+Virginia+Woolf:+1912-1918&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQqMLrx_3gAhWjCTQIHYASD3UQ6AEIKDAA">sang its praises</a> in the Times Literary Supplement. Graham Greene <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=xX8aAQAAMAAJ&q=Graham+Greene+my+%22generation+was+brought+up+on+south+wind%22&dq=Graham+Greene+my+%22generation+was+brought+up+on+south+wind%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz6M25yP3gAhUIsp4KHVQKDzwQ6AEIPjAE">recalled</a> how his generation “was brought up on South Wind.” When the hero of Evelyn Waugh’s “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=CSE2P06rVUoC&lpg=PP1&dq=Brideshead%20Revisited&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">Brideshead Revisited</a>” arrives at Oxford after World War I, he brings with him only two novels, “South Wind” and Compton Mackenzie’s “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=RBBbAAAAMAAJ&dq=Sinister%20Street&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">Sinister Street</a>.” </p>
<p>But today Douglas is entirely forgotten.</p>
<p>The reasons why artists’ works go forgotten vary. In Douglas’ case, it’s fair to say that his erudite writing style went out of fashion. </p>
<p>But there’s more to the story. During his lifetime, Douglas was notorious for his <a href="http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/11th-december-1976/18/the-boys-in-the-sand">relationships with children</a>. In 1912, he lived with a 14-year-old boy in London while he was working at The English Review. Four years later, he was arrested in London for acts of gross indecency with a 16-year-old. After his release on bail, Douglas fled to Italy, where laws regulating sex between men and boys were more lax. He settled in Florence, where his celebrity only grew. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263742/original/file-20190313-123525-123vd7z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263742/original/file-20190313-123525-123vd7z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263742/original/file-20190313-123525-123vd7z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263742/original/file-20190313-123525-123vd7z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263742/original/file-20190313-123525-123vd7z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263742/original/file-20190313-123525-123vd7z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263742/original/file-20190313-123525-123vd7z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263742/original/file-20190313-123525-123vd7z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Norman Douglas plays with an Italian boy named Marcello, whom he likely sexually abused.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pino Orioli, 'Moving Along' (London: Chatto & Windus, 1934).</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Visitors to the city, like Huxley and Lawrence, would seek him out in the city’s cafés. The radical journalist and heiress Nancy Cunard, who met Douglas in Florence in 1923 and became a close friend, <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=NDRKAAAAMAAJ&q=nancy+cunard+grand+man&dq=nancy+cunard+grand+man&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF1Lfzzv3gAhXRvp4KHUFOBjYQ6AEIKDAA">recalled</a> the “aureole of legend” that surrounded him.</p>
<p>Douglas was always attended to by Italian boys who worked for him as messengers or cooks, and endless rumors circulated about Douglas’ relationships with these boys. A diary entry written by a friend of Douglas’ described how Douglas performed fellatio on a boy named Marcello. Brothers Sacheverell and Osbert Sitwell <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=NDRKAAAAMAAJ&q=nancy+cunard+grand+man&dq=nancy+cunard+grand+man&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF1Lfzzv3gAhXRvp4KHUFOBjYQ6AEIKDAA">warned Cunard</a> that Douglas was dangerous. D.H. Lawrence’s widow, Frieda, <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=XSbhuQEACAAJ&dq=tedlock+frieda+lawrence+memoirs+and+correspondence&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7ycf6z_3gAhWVvJ4KHRtiCDwQ6AEIKDAA">told her friend</a> Dudley Nichols that Douglas was “the only wicked man I have known, in a medieval sense.”</p>
<h2>Scrutiny grows</h2>
<p>Britain’s strict libel laws, the norms of politeness and the power of Douglas’ celebrity seemed to prevent people from writing publicly about his sexual relationships with boys while he was alive. </p>
<p>But you can’t libel the dead. </p>
<p>When Douglas died in 1952, debate about his memory erupted in the press. The first signs of the battle to come appeared in the obituaries. British diplomat Harold Nicolson noted Douglas’ shocking “indulgences” <a href="http://archive.spectator.co.uk/issue/29th-february-1952">in a death notice</a> for The Spectator. </p>
<p>Nicolson’s article prompted 50 or 60 letters of protest from Douglas’ friends, but there was no holding back the tide. In 1954, Douglas’
former friend Richard Aldington published a book of vicious recollections about the writer titled “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=M9e5vQEACAAJ&dq=Pinorman&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY3rqDq_3gAhXETd8KHeDyBKcQ6AEIKjAA">Pinorman</a>,” a portmanteau of Norman and his friend <a href="http://www.romagnadeste.it/en/i5010305-alfonsine-giuseppe-orioli-1884-1942.htm">Pino Orioli</a>. Aldington didn’t mince words. He called Douglas a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pederast">pederast</a> whose path in life was “strewn with broken boys and empty bottles.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263712/original/file-20190313-123525-1g9oz77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263712/original/file-20190313-123525-1g9oz77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263712/original/file-20190313-123525-1g9oz77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263712/original/file-20190313-123525-1g9oz77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263712/original/file-20190313-123525-1g9oz77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263712/original/file-20190313-123525-1g9oz77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263712/original/file-20190313-123525-1g9oz77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263712/original/file-20190313-123525-1g9oz77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Author Graham Greene was a staunch defender of Douglas and worked to protect his reputation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Graham_Greene%2C_Bassano.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Douglas’ friends were outraged. Cunard wrote to Aldington’s publisher accusing him of libel and threatening to wage a “collective protest.” She rallied Douglas’ friends to lambaste the book in reviews. Her own review for the periodical Time and Tide was titled “Bonbons of Gall.” Graham Greene wrote to a friend that he intended to “kill” Aldington’s book, and he penned a review for The London Magazine that was so incendiary it could not be published for fear of libel charges from Aldington, who was very much alive.</p>
<p>Greene maliciously sent Aldington the review and asked for permission to publish it. Naturally, Aldington refused and reached out to friends for help putting together a pamphlet attacking Douglas’ defenders. Frieda Lawrence contributed a story about how Douglas once casually offered her a boy of 14, saying that he preferred them younger. But the pamphlet was so intemperate that a lawyer said it would run afoul of the libel laws and could not be published.</p>
<h2>The danger of choosing to forget?</h2>
<p>Aldington was forced to retreat. With “Pinorman” disparaged by its reviewers, Aldington was discredited. It seemed that Douglas’ friends had won the battle.</p>
<p>But Aldington won the war. The truth was out there, and Douglas’ reputation was permanently injured. </p>
<p>In the decades that followed many would-be biographers tried their hand at writing Douglas’ story; time and again they failed. Douglas simply could not be remembered as a great writer in the face of the allegations against him. Only one comprehensive biography, titled “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=CVcPAAAAMAAJ&q=holloway+norman+douglas&dq=holloway+norman+douglas&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlqduc0v3gAhVMqZ4KHX_GDCUQ6AEIKDAA">Norman Douglas</a>,” has ever been published about him. It came out in 1976, during a rare moment of sexual openness; even so, the publisher almost nixed the manuscript after 10 years of work by its author, Mark Holloway.</p>
<p>Today Douglas is a forgotten writer. When the truth about his sexual relations with children was fully exposed after his death he became an impossible figure to memorialize. </p>
<p>Over time, it’s likely that Michael Jackson’s memory will be similarly eroded. The television show “The Simpsons” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/08/entertainment/simpsons-michael-jackson/index.html">has already pulled its 1991 episode</a> featuring Jackson. His name will likely be taken down from public monuments. People will be hesitant to produce new versions of his music. His influence will live on, but it will be difficult to commemorate his work. </p>
<p>Perhaps that is for the best. But maybe it isn’t. </p>
<p>Reluctance to preserve the memory of the extensive history of sex between adults and children leaves society ill-equipped to recognize and handle child sexual abuse today. A culture that is caught up in narratives that identify pedophiles as monsters has a hard time recognizing when beloved figures, like Michael Jackson, <a href="https://theconversation.com/michael-jackson-as-an-expert-in-child-sexual-abuse-heres-what-i-thought-when-i-watched-leaving-neverland-113160">are molesting children right before its eyes</a>. </p>
<p>There is need for history to remember abusers and to remember them in all their complexity. If Jackson’s memory is preserved, maybe it will be easier to see the present more clearly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Hope Cleves receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>There’s a reason many today have never heard of Norman Douglas: After his death, more and more came forward with stories of his sexual relationships with boys, and he soon faded into obscurity.Rachel Hope Cleves, Professor of History, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1131602019-03-08T15:43:52Z2019-03-08T15:43:52ZMichael Jackson: as an expert in child sexual abuse here’s what I thought when I watched Leaving Neverland<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262906/original/file-20190308-155510-14az7se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C1917%2C1138&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Jackson with Wade Robson, then aged five.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Channel 4</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/06/leaving-neverland-review-michael-jackson-documentary">Leaving Neverland</a> – the disturbing documentary film about Michael Jackson and the nature of his relationship with two young boys – aired, many of Jackson’s fans have said they cannot believe their idol would commit the abuses alleged by the now adult men. </p>
<p>But others watched horrified as stories from the 1980s and 1990s were recounted. Viewers asked: how could this have happened? How did the parents let their children get into such apparently dangerous situations? And why weren’t red flags raised at the time?</p>
<p>I’m not going to speculate on the accuracy or otherwise of the two men’s stories. But, true or not, they raise important issues which we need to better understand if we are to prevent abuse happening.</p>
<p><a href="https://static.cambridge.org/resource/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20170221045052129-0117:S0047279400005857:S004727940000585Xa.pdf">Historically</a>, as a society we have actually found it very difficult to believe allegations or to acknowledge possible signs that child sexual abuse is occurring. Several <a href="https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/5381/view/social-political-discourses-about-child-sexual-abuse-their-influence-institutional-responses-full-report_0.pdf">theoretical explanations</a> have been offered for this including our need to believe in a just world where this kind of thing isn’t done by adults to children. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/10/the-psychology-of-victim-blaming/502661/">Just world beliefs</a> encourage us to conform to the rules and regulations of our communities, since we believe that this will be rewarded with a safe and orderly existence for us and our families. So we find it difficult to comprehend that bad things happen to those who do not deserve it.</p>
<p>There are several common misconceptions about child sexual abuse which can make it hard to believe allegations when they are made. These include the belief that sexual abusers are monsters who are violent and frightening to children. We also tend to believe that parents would know if their child was being sexually abused or that children would tell someone immediately and that they would display fear towards the perpetrator. It’s also commonly – and often wrongly – thought that a child’s statements about experiences of abuse would <a href="https://www.secasa.com.au/pages/the-effects-of-childhood-sexual-abuse/the-child-sexual-abuse-accommodation-syndrome/">remain consistent over time</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Best friends’, not ‘monsters’</h2>
<p>It is quite natural to think of child molesters as monsters who intimidate and frighten the children they prey on. But while there are various types of offender, many are able to gain access to – and the trust of – children due to their ability to attract children to them and to emotionally and socially connect with them. Such offenders will gravitate towards children who are shy, withdrawn, lonely or rejected by peers. They work to create an emotional bond with the child through becoming their “best friend” and <a href="https://www.secasa.com.au/assets/Documents/grooming-and-predatory-behaviour.pdf">making the child feel “special”</a>.</p>
<p>In this way, the child becomes emotionally dependent on the perpetrator. The dependency is further fuelled by isolating the child from others. This grooming process can take between hours and months and the sexual element is often introduced gradually through desensitising the child to touch using hugs, rough and tumble play or tickling. Rarely, does child sexual abuse involve violence or threats of harm (any threats that are made tend to relate to the consequences for their relationship should they be “found out”).</p>
<p>When offenders do not have a legitimate reason to have unsupervised access to a desired child or the child is so young that they have little autonomy outside of the family, the motivated offender will also <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/02/27/parents-targeted-by-child-abuser-grooming-techniques-report_a_21726244/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=jUNcFC0ZNQx9prpQCT9ZoA">groom the child’s parents</a>. Indeed, it is reported that the child’s parents are often groomed before the child. The abuser will ingratiate themselves with the parents, doing small favours and creating an emotional bond with them. It maybe something as simple as offering childminding to give the parents a much-needed rest. The bond is created by sharing personal information, particularly that that which signifies vulnerability. Their involvement in the family become natural, normal and highly welcomed. Some will come to be heralded as the family’s saviour.</p>
<p>This means the parents’ natural guard against “strangers” around their children will be lowered, if not dropped. Any suspicions that might arise will be automatically be dismissed or explained away, since they become unable to comprehend how anyone so wonderful could possibly engage in something so abhorrent.</p>
<h2>Why don’t they tell?</h2>
<p>Very few children disclose sexual abuse at the time that it is occurring. Where disclosures do occur, these tend to be where the abuse is a one-off incident perpetrated by a stranger with little by way of grooming. So the abuse is more readily conceptualised as an unwanted assault by both the child and others to whom the child discloses.</p>
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<p>There are many reasons for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nadia_Wager/publication/273776210_Understanding_Children's_Non-Disclosure_of_Child_Sexual_Assault_Implications_for_Assisting_Parents_and_Teachers_to_Become_Effective_Guardians/links/5582d4dd08ae1b14a0a28b34.pdf">non-disclosure</a>. One reason reported retrospectively by adults who were abused as children, is that they did not know that what was happening was wrong. Some children even feel hurt by the perceived rejection when the abuse ends. Many only come to realise that their experience constituted abuse as they entered adulthood, and they can see the relationship from a new perspective. This realisation, which can be perceived as a betrayal of trust, can result in delayed trauma due the abuse only emerging in adulthood.</p>
<p>Despite the new realisation of the abusive nature of the relationship, it is not unusual for adult survivors of child sexual abuse to report still feeling a conflicted love for the perpetrator. This has been <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-07-grooming-child-abusers-stockholm-syndrome.html">likened to “Stockholm syndrome”</a>, which has been found to arise in hostage situations, where a deep and immutable bond is established with the perpetrator. So there there can be an ongoing reticence and feelings of guilt for having reported the abuse. Sometimes statements are retracted as a result. This effect has been associated with a phenomenon known as “child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome”.</p>
<p>As I have said, we’re not dealing here with any specific case. But, in my experience, the alleged horrors detailed in Leaving Neverland – and Michael Jackson’s family denies that they ever happened – appear to conform to the issues I’ve discussed. What is clear is that the trauma such experiences cause can take decades to emerge and can last a lifetime.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113160/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadia Wager has received funds from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse for the production of a rapid evidence assessment into quantifying the extent of online facilitated child sexual abuse in 2017-18 and has just been awarded research funding by the British Academy for a study exploring the pathways to sexual revictimization.</span></em></p>A documentary film has made disturbing allegations about Michael Jackson and child sexual abuse. Whether true or not the film raised some important issues.Nadia Wager, Reader in Forensic Psychology, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1131092019-03-07T00:55:27Z2019-03-07T00:55:27ZDon’t ban Michael Jackson’s music – talk about the accusations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262570/original/file-20190306-100799-z9tflb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Jackson performing with guitarist Slash in 1999.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Volker Dornberge/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of New Zealand’s major commercial radio stations, and its public broadcaster, are <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12209938">no longer playing the music</a> of Michael Jackson. This decision comes after the airing of the new documentary <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/06/leaving-neverland-review-michael-jackson-documentary">Leaving Neverland</a>, in which two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, allege they were molested by the singer as children.</p>
<p>The NZ move, and a <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/aussie-radio-station-pulls-michael-jackson-songs-due-to-leaving-neverland-20190307-p512d6.html">decision by Australia’s Nova Entertainment Group</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/05/michael-jackson-abuse-allegations-canada-radio-stations-ban-music">some Canadian radio stations</a> to stop playing Jackson’s music, come hot on the heels of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40635526">arrest of singer R. Kelly</a>. This followed the airing of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8385496/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">a documentary series</a> in which numerous women told of their alleged abuse – mainly as underaged girls – at his hands. Kelly who has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse against four victims, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/05/r-kelly-denies-sex-abuse-allegations-interview">denies the allegations</a>, as do Jackson’s family.</p>
<p>Still, it is becoming increasingly apparent that abuse is woven into the very fabric of the music industries. Throughout the history of rock, pop and hip hop, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2018.1483009">we can find many examples of men abusing women</a>, often in plain sight, and often excused as just part of a “sex drugs and rock n roll” lifestyle, or as a quirk of an artistic genius. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-you-remember-a-rock-god-the-complicated-legacy-of-chuck-berry-74835">How do you remember a rock god? The complicated legacy of Chuck Berry</a>
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</em>
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<p>But is banning the music of artists accused of reprehensible behaviour the best course of action? Any why single out Jackson for this treatment, give the apparent scale of the problem?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262567/original/file-20190306-100805-yukf4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262567/original/file-20190306-100805-yukf4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262567/original/file-20190306-100805-yukf4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262567/original/file-20190306-100805-yukf4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262567/original/file-20190306-100805-yukf4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262567/original/file-20190306-100805-yukf4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262567/original/file-20190306-100805-yukf4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262567/original/file-20190306-100805-yukf4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Michael Jackson and Wade Robson in Leaving Neverland (2019)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amos Pictures</span></span>
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<p>On the one hand, taking action to censure an alleged paedophile may be seen as desirable in a society that regards the sexual abuse of children as one of the worst types of crime.</p>
<p>There is a danger, though, that by simply banning exposure to the music of Jackson - and not other artists who have been documented as having <a href="https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/obvious-history-rocknrolls-baby-groupies-lori-lightning-sable-starr">slept with underaged groupies</a>, or artists who have <a href="https://www.baeblemusic.com/musicblog/9-16-2014/domestic-violence-rock-and-roll-edition.html">abused women in a variety of other ways</a>, we have put a tiny band-aid over a gaping wound. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-year-on-we-should-remember-david-bowie-as-both-genius-and-flawed-human-70996">One year on, we should remember David Bowie as both genius and flawed human</a>
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<p>Sexual abuse in the music industry is a systemic, ongoing problem that won’t be resolved by just hacking away at the canon.</p>
<p>A further problem with this kind of blanket radio ban is the question of who else gets silenced if the music is turned off. Music-making is a communal activity. Do the many other people who contributed to an album or song deserve to have their work thrown in the bin as well?</p>
<p>More importantly, however, is the question of what happens to the stories of the victims. If we stop listening to Michael Jackson, does that simply allow us to avoid something uncomfortable, to not have to think about those little boys and what they allege happened to them?</p>
<p>Spotify went down a similar path of limiting exposure to the music of Kelly (and other artists such as XXXTentacion) in 2018, when it briefly <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/music/spotify-bans-r-kelly-and-xxxtentacion-but-where-s-the-consistency-1.733063">adopted a policy of not promoting problematic artists</a> in top playlists (although it did not ban the artists altogether). After a backlash from the record companies of the artists involved, Spotify backed away from this position fairly quickly, opting instead to introduce <a href="https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/01/spotify-artist-mute/">a “mute” button</a>, which allowed listeners to choose for themselves which artists they did not want to hear.</p>
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<span class="caption">R. Kelly arrives for a child support hearing in Chicago on March 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tannen Maury/EPA</span></span>
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<p>Jackson’s estate <a href="http://time.com/5510748/leaving-neverland-michael-jackson/">has described</a> Leaving Neverland as “a rehash of dated and discredited allegations” and filed a lawsuit against it. His family have condemned the film, saying <a href="http://time.com/5510748/leaving-neverland-michael-jackson/">its creators were not interested in the truth</a>. </p>
<p>Yet interestingly, the documentary form seems to be particularly effective at the moment in providing a platform for these artists’ accusers to be seen, heard, and believed. Accusations against Jackson are not new, but details about his alleged crimes were sparse in the early 2000s when he was taken to court. Having the gaps in this picture filled in by these men in their own words seems to have turned the tide of opinion – at least in some quarters – against the well-loved icon.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262568/original/file-20190306-100787-fsy88q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262568/original/file-20190306-100787-fsy88q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262568/original/file-20190306-100787-fsy88q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262568/original/file-20190306-100787-fsy88q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262568/original/file-20190306-100787-fsy88q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262568/original/file-20190306-100787-fsy88q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262568/original/file-20190306-100787-fsy88q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262568/original/file-20190306-100787-fsy88q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An aerial view of the Neverland Ranch in Santa Ynez near Santa Barbara, California, in 2003.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Armando Aroriyo</span></span>
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<p>As with Jackson, tales about Kelly have been circulating for years, but seeing the faces and hearing the voices of his accusers (and their sheer number) seems to have provided an added impetus for action to be taken. </p>
<p>Perhaps the best solution is to face this problem head on. Keep Michael Jackson on the radio – but never play him without reminding listeners of what he has been accused of. Do the same with other artists similarly accused, or found guilty of, a crime. </p>
<p>Creating an ongoing conversation that does not allow us to sidestep these issues – and showing offenders that their music will from now on be associated with their abuse – may allow us to find a way forward.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113109/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Strong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sexual abuse in the music industry is a systemic, ongoing problem that won’t be resolved by just hacking away at the canon.Catherine Strong, Senior Lecturer, Music Industry, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/854932017-10-17T09:04:38Z2017-10-17T09:04:38ZThe music video is a zombie – it may look dead but it’s just been re-animated<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189578/original/file-20171010-17697-5j5059.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCANLZYMidaCbLQFWXBC95Jg">TaylorSwift/Vevo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Watching the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-taylor-swift-became-a-femme-fatale-with-a-little-help-from-sylvia-plath-83993">rotting zombified corpse</a> of Taylor Swift claw her way out of a grave, one could be forgiven for thinking that the music video hasn’t come very far since Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1983. But the world in which Taylor’s zombies drag their feet is totally different to the TV realm that Jackson dominated. The growth of the internet and social media has seen the power of MTV wane. But instead of curling up and dying, the music video has evolved and embraced online platforms like the undead embrace the apocalypse.</p>
<p>Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do does indeed conjure up <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/31/john-landis-on-the-making-of-michael-jacksons-thriller-i-was-adamant-he-couldnt-look-too-hideous">Thriller</a> but it also betrays exactly how much change has taken place since <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000484/">John Landis</a> turned Jackson’s titular album track into an ambitious 14-minute promo, referencing both <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089907/">The Return of the Living Dead</a> and his own American Werewolf in London.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/12-thrilling-facts-about-michael-jacksons-thriller-20131029">Thriller</a> notably won in three categories at the first ever MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. In 2017, the VMAs (as the awards show is commonly abbreviated) continued the recent trend of falling viewing numbers with its lowest ratings yet.</p>
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<p>How long MTV will maintain its commitment to the VMAs remains to be seen but the channel itself – launched in 1981 as a platform for a relatively new promotional tool – has already significantly reduced its music programming. Instead, building on the success of early docu-soaps like <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103520/">The Real World</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306370/">The Osbournes</a> (once offering only occasional respite from back-to-back videos interspersed with music news from its VJs), reality TV offerings have now become MTV mainstays.</p>
<h2>The video’s gone viral</h2>
<p>By contrast the natural home for Look What You Made Me Do is now found online. Although rather than being downgraded by MTV’s indifference, the sharing power associated with the likes of YouTube can ensure more exposure than its playlisting on cable TV ever could. As Gina Arnold discusses in <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/musicvideo-9781501313929/">Music/Video</a>, viral hits such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0">Gangnam Style</a> are indebted to the platform. </p>
<p>And while MTV might have introduced the early work of auteurs such as <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/1946372/david-finchers-80s-music-videos/">David Fincher</a>, <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/2581222/spike-jonze-videos-beastie-boys-bjor/">Spike Jonze</a>, <a href="https://www.redbull.com/us-en/7-best-michel-gondry-directed-music-videos">Michel Gondry</a>, Anton Corbijn, Mark Romanek, Chris Cunningham and Jonathan Glazer to an audience, it is again YouTube (plus similar video sharing sites including Vimeo) that will offer a space for new talent pushing the boundaries of music video’s audio-visual dialogue.</p>
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<p>The move away from the MTV playlist means that video producers no longer need to create content to meet that demand and are able to make videos directly for their fans. This has led to some weird and wonderful oddities, catering to very specific markets with examples including the recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNZxkCLMDGrYDaqSkaGn5iw">Arca videos</a> and their exploration of male sexuality and male vulnerability.</p>
<p>Technological advancements have allowed new contributors making interesting videos that were once the preserve of big budget mavericks <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0192260/">like Cunningham</a> with clients such a Bjork. Now “unofficial” videos and newer stars – such as <a href="https://vimeo.com/unicornparis">Unicorn</a> and <a href="http://philippaprice.com/">Philippa Price</a> – vie for attention online while pushing the format into new territory.</p>
<p>Technology and changes in the industry has meant video making has become much more interesting, egalitarian and less restricted by label bosses who were previously producing content that was destined almost exclusively for MTV. Now that the music video no longer remains coupled to the financial base of major music labels, a diffuse and more complex audiovisual landscape is emerging. Artists such as FKA twigs, for example, shift from using this very visible platform for music product to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh772V1KyXk">participating in adverts</a> for brands like Nike, while still presenting her music in ways that appear to confirm her authenticity as an artist.</p>
<p>But the music video also remains a vehicle for the presentation of commercialised celebrity culture and stereotypical ideas regarding gender and sexuality. Many women in mainstream popular music have had to address their visual representations and ultimately accept mass objectification in exchange for success. Ariana’s Grande’s playing into the age old “virgin/whore” trope in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WbCfHutDSE">Dangerous Woman</a> provides a case in point. While Robin Thicke’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/13/blurred-lines-most-controversial-song-decade">controversial Blurred Lines</a> is another extreme example of male objectification of women. In a welcome shift of cultural mood, the backlash against this video was so extreme, that Thicke’s career has never fully recovered. </p>
<p>But although sexual objectification is commonplace in music videos, more recently it may well provide the space to challenge these representations. Artists are using music video in a range of ways, as platforms to bolster their personas, comment upon celebrity culture, and air their political views. Popular female artists present their views regarding body image issues and their implied power relations through various means in their music videos. Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/jul/25/nicki-minaj-anaconda-cover-too-sexy-instagram">Nicki Minaj</a> have all used various tactics to directly comment on, and often challenge, contemporary discourse surrounding body image.</p>
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<p>Much of what makes FKA Twig’s work interesting is the varied and complex self-representations projected through her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYU3j-22360">music videos</a>. Her commitment to exploring how technology can be manipulated and used to manipulate the female form presents work that can be read as feminist without overtly labelling it as such. Her work speaks to the complexity of contemporary celebrity and digital cultures where her femininity and feminism are often difficult and contradictory.</p>
<p>It is safe to say that music video has not only survived the demise of MTV as its primary outlet, but has transformed and shifted into a more complex and diffuse form that offers a space for expression, creativity, nostalgia, political commentary as well as the presentation of commercially packaged pop – a la Taylor Swift. It is evolving alongside other visual technologies and is now situated somewhere in the messy and interesting space between art and commerce. It seems the format is not quite dead and buried after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>MTV may not be the power house it used to be but the music video is flourishing online.Kirsty Fairclough, Senior Lecturer in Media and Performance, University of SalfordDaniel Cookney, Lecturer in Graphic Design, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/643832016-08-31T09:12:54Z2016-08-31T09:12:54ZWhy singing may help people with dementia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135621/original/image-20160826-17862-2hgx8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-175774220/stock-photo-senior-man-raised-hands-up-and-listen-music-from-laptop.html?src=dr0eSiW-QeH_US7Fv1z9yw-1-2">Budimir Jevtic/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A few years ago, I was in the audience for a live radio show, when the renowned American country singer Glen Campbell took to the stage. What the listeners of the programme could not have seen was his obvious confusion about where he was and what was going on, nor the gentle supportive guidance from his daughter, a fellow musician on stage. And yet as soon as he struck the opening chords for his first number, the singer came to life. He didn’t miss a beat as he gave a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUICxv_0VV4">faultless and animated performance</a> of one of his big hits. Just one year later, his family announced his diagnosis of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/23/glen-campbell-alzheimers-final-tour">Alzheimer’s disease</a>. </p>
<p>This devastating condition is something that Campbell has in common with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/songaminute/">Ted McDermott</a>, a 79-year-old man who made headlines this month after YouTube footage of him singing in his car with his son went <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-37058260">viral</a>. Despite the fact that Ted sometimes struggles to recognise even his closest family members, he can still remember all the words of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/carpool-karaoke-man-dementia-alzheimers-video-quando-ted-mcdermott-singer-a7191791.html">his favourite songs</a>. What makes the video so moving is the incredible sense of connectedness and warmth between Ted and his son as they sing together. </p>
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<p>So why is it that these two men, stripped of so many of their memories, are still happy and able to sing the songs they love? Could music provide an important channel of communication when so many other abilities are failing? The surprising thing about music is that, contrary to popular belief, we don’t actually learn songs particularly easily. However, once those memories are formed, they become exceptionally robust and easily accessible. This is brilliantly illustrated in a <a href="http://music.psych.cornell.edu/articles/popmusic/Thin_slices_of_music.pdf">elegant study</a> by Carol Krumhansl and colleagues from Cornell University. They found that most people can recognise popular songs, such as Hey Jude by The Beatles and Thriller by Michael Jackson, after hearing just half a second of the track. </p>
<p>There have been a number of detailed case studies published that offer support for this hunch that musical memory might be <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987704005158">disproportionately preserved in dementia</a>. And last year an exciting study shed light on why this might be so. Jorn-Henrick Jacobsen and his colleagues found that memories of old songs <a href="http://m.brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/06/03/brain.awv135">activate very specific areas of the brain</a>: the caudal anterior cingulate and the ventral pre-supplementary motor area. Crucially they also found that these same areas seem to be particularly resistant to the damaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease. </p>
<p>The notion that people with dementia may benefit from singing and other musical activities has grown increasingly popular in recent years, with initiatives such as <a href="https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=760">Singing for the Brain</a> being offered by the Alzheimer’s Society, and the emergence of charities like Lost Chord who take professional musicians into care homes. Labour MP Dennis Skinner is a firm supporter. He found that singing with his mum became a crucial part of his relationship with her as dementia took hold. He now regularly sings with residents at his local care home.</p>
<h2>Tapping into autobiographical memory</h2>
<p>So music seems to be robust and to withstand the effects of neurodegenerative decline and other acquired brain injuries, but why is it such a valuable activity for these people? One key <a href="http://sysmus12.oicrm.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/M.Collett_proceeding.pdf">finding</a> is that music is a particularly good cue for autobiographical memories – these are memories that reinforce our sense of identity and play a hugely significant role in how we connect socially and emotionally with those that are close to us. Tunes that we first encountered between early adolescence and our late 20s seem to be particularly evocative. </p>
<p>At an even more fundamental level, scientists such as Jaak Pankseep have argued that music is a <a href="http://msx.sagepub.com/content/13/2_suppl/229.short">core ingredient</a> of emotional communication. After all, much of our interaction with pre-linguistic infants depends primarily on changes in voice tone, and most parents would agree that it is the most natural thing in the world to soothe a baby with a lullaby. Music also contributes to spoken language; without the melodic nuances, our words would sound robotic and devoid of any feeling. And what are screaming, laughing and crying if not distinctive changes in pitch, rhythm and volume? These essential communicative qualities of music must in part be why singing provides such a sure way to connect with people who have severe cognitive impairments. </p>
<p>But music is more than just a fun activity that connects people, there is good evidence that it can significantly improve objective measures of health and well-being. Apart from the likely physical benefits of singing as a cardiovascular activity, musical engagement may also reduce levels of the stress hormone <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033350615004990">cortisol</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4854222/">increase immunity</a>, lower perception of <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1526590014008220">pain</a> and reduce symptoms of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03954.x/full">depression</a>. Most importantly, for families such as those of Ted McDermott and Glen Campbell, music has been <a href="http://mmd.iammonline.com/index.php/musmed/article/view/MMD-2010-2-4-4">shown</a> to improve the mood, memory and overall quality of life in people with dementia. Those of us who live or work with dementia can learn from their example. All the evidence suggests that music may offer a unique and important way to communicate when all other roads are closed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64383/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Loveday does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Long after people with dementia have forgotten the names of their loved ones, they can still recall songs they learned in their teenage years.Catherine Loveday, Neuropsychologist, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/620842016-07-06T14:52:42Z2016-07-06T14:52:42ZUnder the influence of … Miles Davis’ electric masterpieces<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129547/original/image-20160706-12743-g57sc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The cover art of 'Bitches Brew' by Mati Klarwein</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Artist's website</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is the second in a new weekly series called “Under the influence”, in which we ask experts to share what they believe are the most influential works of art in their field. Here, Zen Marie introduces two of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis’ albums, “Bitches Brew” (1970) and “Live-Evil” (1971).</em></p>
<p>Miles Davis’ “<a href="http://www.furious.com/perfect/miles.html">electric period</a>” was book-ended by his records “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/in-a-silent-way-mw0000188020">In a Silent Way</a>” (1969) and “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/agharta-mw0000187879">Agharta</a>” (1976). Dubbed “<a href="http://www.furious.com/perfect/miles.html">Electric Miles</a>”, it was unpredictable, challenging, groundbreaking – funk’s <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/james-brown-mn0000128099">James Brown</a> meeting art music’s <a href="http://www.karlheinzstockhausen.org/">Karlheinz Stockhausen</a>, with psychedelic rocker <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jimi-hendrix-mn0000354105">Jimi Hendrix</a> gatecrashing. </p>
<p>Like the respectable free jazz, his music was experimental and out there during this phase, but unlike the former, it was “electric, beat-heavy, and marketed to kids”, as music doyen <a href="http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/davis-97.php">Robert Christgau</a> put it. And it was not loved by all, especially jazz critics – “thus obviously worthy of suspicion if not contempt”. Another reason these jazz ideologues dismissed “70s Miles is that the bands aren’t stellar”, according to Christgau.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129561/original/image-20160706-12743-1i841d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129561/original/image-20160706-12743-1i841d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129561/original/image-20160706-12743-1i841d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129561/original/image-20160706-12743-1i841d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129561/original/image-20160706-12743-1i841d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129561/original/image-20160706-12743-1i841d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129561/original/image-20160706-12743-1i841d2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The inside sleeve of the ‘Bitches Brew’ gatefold album.</span>
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<p>I beg to differ. </p>
<p>“Bitches Brew” and “Live-Evil”, released in sequential years and part of the “Electric Miles” period, saw Davis gather a truly legendary cast of musicians to produce two of the most challenging collections of music – ever. In fact, what they offer goes beyond music – the albums are challenges that go beyond the ordinary and are an invitation to enter the sublime.</p>
<p>First, it’s worth mentioning the musicians, some of whom are featured across both albums: <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/airto-moreira-mn0000609992">Airto Moreira</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/billy-cobham-mn0000767741">Billy Cobham</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/bennie-maupin-mn0000790496">Bennie Maupin</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/chick-corea-mn0000110541">Chick Corea</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dave-holland-mn0000585092">Dave Holland</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/don-alias-mn0000794633">Don Alias</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gary-bartz-mn0000737969">Gary Bartz</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/harvey-brooks-mn0000951651">Harvey Brooks</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/herbie-hancock-mn0000957296">Herbie Hancock</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/hermeto-pascoal-mn0000572263">Hermeto Pascoal </a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jack-dejohnette-mn0000104388">Jack DeJohnette</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/joe-zawinul-mn0000176859">Joe Zawinul</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-mclaughlin-mn0000223701">John McLaughlin </a>; <a href="https://www.discogs.com/artist/297013-Jumma-Santos">Jumma Santos</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/keith-jarrett-mn0000066570">Keith Jarrett</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/larry-young-mn0000134393">Larry Young</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lenny-white-mn0000246487">Lenny White</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/michael-henderson-mn0000887718">Michael Henderson</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/ron-carter-mn0000275832">Ron Carter</a>; <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/steve-grossman-mn0000044517">Steve Grossman</a>; and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/wayne-shorter-mn0000250435">Wayne Shorter</a>.</p>
<p>For those not into jazz, this is like the <a href="http://www.realmadrid.com/en">Real Madrid</a> (or <a href="https://www.fcbarcelona.com/">Barcelona</a>) of line-ups. For those not into football, its like a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/22937970">G8 summit</a>. For those not into politics, its like the <a href="http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Triwizard_Maze">Triwizard Cup</a>. For those not into “<a href="https://www.pottermore.com/explore-the-story/harry-potter">Harry Potter</a>” … well, I think you get the picture.</p>
<p>The talent, mastery and prowess of the personnel on these albums can’t be emphasised enough and it is a credit to Davis that he managed to pull such heavyweights together.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The title track from ‘Bitches Brew’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why is/was it influential?</h2>
<p>The stature and pedigree of the musicians is not why I chose these works for “Under the influence”. When I first heard the music on these albums, I had no idea who they were nor the significance of the gathering. For me the two albums were strange and alien oddities that made absolutely no sense. </p>
<p>They did not sound the way I thought music should, the tracks were too long, the melodies syncopated, discordant, ghostly, disconcerting and at times psychotic. As far from smooth jazz as you can get, the form of this offering was something more like a pack of wild animals hooting, barking, howling and screeching: baying for carnal, bloodthirsty desires to be satiated. This was not a classic <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/miles-davis-quintet-mn0000424302">Miles Davis Quintet</a> type of gig … the music was complex, nuanced, elaborate and ambitious. </p>
<p>Then there was the album art, which was like something out of a fever-inspired hallucination or the guilt-ridden wet dream of a lonely German man (the artist <a href="http://www.matiklarweinart.com/">Mati Klarwein</a> was, of course, born in Germany). The whole package was important to me as it produced a challenge to think beyond aesthetics and form as I knew it and in a way much more complex than the commercial, pop diet that I was accustomed to. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129548/original/image-20160706-12717-1o32bop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129548/original/image-20160706-12717-1o32bop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129548/original/image-20160706-12717-1o32bop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129548/original/image-20160706-12717-1o32bop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129548/original/image-20160706-12717-1o32bop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129548/original/image-20160706-12717-1o32bop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129548/original/image-20160706-12717-1o32bop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The artwork of the ‘Live’ side of the ‘Live-Evil’ double album.</span>
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<h2>My relationship with the records</h2>
<p>A small disclaimer is in order: I was six years old when I first heard these albums. Besides hearing them being played, I often took liberties with my parent’s record collection and these were albums that I searched out as they fascinated me – because they confused me. Part of their collection included Alice Coltrane’s “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/journey-in-satchidananda-mw0000204160">Journey in Satchidananda</a>” (1971), an album off which I used a track for a primary school science project (it was something about the solar system – I think I got a B+).</p>
<p>My experience with music at this stage was otherwise restricted to <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/michael-jackson-mn0000467203">Michael Jackson</a>. It was 1986 and I had a (pirated) copy of “<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/album/thriller-mw0000056882">Thriller</a>” on tape, a leather jacket, a hat and one white glove. So, yes, I thought myself an expert on all things Jackson.</p>
<p>The comparison between Jackson and Davis is an unfair one. It’s like comparing a languid beach with the open ocean. One is warm and relaxing, luxurious and lazy with moments of excitement, energy and even eroticism. The other is spectacular, challenging, awe inspiring but unapproachable, inhospitable, terrifying and potentially destructive.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129550/original/image-20160706-12750-1bsh6qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129550/original/image-20160706-12750-1bsh6qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129550/original/image-20160706-12750-1bsh6qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129550/original/image-20160706-12750-1bsh6qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129550/original/image-20160706-12750-1bsh6qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129550/original/image-20160706-12750-1bsh6qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129550/original/image-20160706-12750-1bsh6qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The artwork of the ‘Evil’ side of the ‘Live-Evil’ double album.</span>
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<p>My terror as a six-year-old, in the face of Davis or Selim Sivad (as he incarnates back to front in “Live-Evil”) and his gang of conspirators was intense and insatiable … </p>
<p>I needed more … and over the years I sought out these two albums time and time again, re-listening to them as I grew up. I even went through a phase in my first year of university where I would buy a copy of “Bitches Brew” whenever I found one in a record shop – and for some reason in the late 90s I often found one. At one point I had four copies. All were lost over the years through break-ins or moments when I gave a copy away after a conversation that began, “You’ve never heard ‘Bitches Brew’!?”</p>
<h2>Why is it still relevant today?</h2>
<p>“Bitches Brew” and “Live-Evil” are more than albums. They are works: products of a combination of genius, depravity and bravery. While they are important to jazz and for music in general, for me the importance goes further than this musicological significance. “Live-Evil” and “Bitches Brew” are about meaning, interpretation and narrative – and the rupture of all of these categories. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Live-Evil’ consists of live and studio recordings by Miles Davis.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They are a challenge to perception and a critical examination of the soul. They ask existential, metaphysical and dangerous questions. They dare you to go beyond the prepackaged/drive-through mode of consumption. They are a call to arms for the imagination and the spirit. </p>
<h2>Birds of a feather</h2>
<p>If you wanted to compare them to something, then “Bitches Brew” and “Live-Evil” would be the bastard children conceived in an orgy between Picasso’s “<a href="http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp">Guernica</a>”, James Joyce’s “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/04/100-best-novels-ulysses-james-joyce-robert-mccrum">Ulysses</a>” and Hunter S Thompson’s “<a href="http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/free-the-original-text-of-hunter-s-thompsons-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas.html">Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas</a>”, while <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/aldous-huxley-9348198">Aldous Huxley</a> watched on and took notes. But that’s if you really had to compare them to something. </p>
<p>For me, the grooved wax discs and gatefold artwork that are “Bitches Brew” and “Live-Evil” are incomparable, as they are deeply rooted in the recesses of my subconscious. As such they are tightly bound to most things I do. I still routinely go back to them, and always find new marvels and wonders in the profane back-to-front mastery of Selim Sivad Evil.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62084/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zen Marie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Bitches Brew’ and ‘Live-Evil’, two albums from Miles Davis’ electric period, have more than musicological significance. They challenge the listener to think beyond aesthetics and form.Zen Marie, Artist and Lecturer in Fine Arts, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/590082016-05-11T13:30:20Z2016-05-11T13:30:20ZPapa Wemba: active ambassador for Congolese urban music<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121711/original/image-20160509-20616-i7hym4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Papa Wemba's coffin at a memorial in Kinshasa on May 3 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Habibou Bangre</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>One of Africa’s best-loved global musicians, Papa Wemba, died on Sunday 24 April 2016 after collapsing on stage in Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire. The 66-year-old father of Congolese rumba rock reportedly died of heart failure before he could be taken to a hospital.
The Conversation Africa’s arts and culture editor Charles Leonard asked the singer’s compatriot, the ethnomusicologist Kazadi wa Mukuna, about Papa Wemba’s role in the globalisation of Congolese urban music.</em></p>
<p><strong>Was there any symbolic significance in Papa Wemba dying on stage?</strong></p>
<p>Papa Wemba’s <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36123214">death</a> on stage has no symbolic significance. In Kinshasa, several controversial speculations are being circulated on media about this. The most remarkable of these is the belief held by some that Papa Wemba was poisoned on stage through his microphone. But in an <a href="http://congomikili.com/papa-wemba-avait-predit-ndenge-nini-ko-kufa-coincidence/">interview</a> held a few months earlier, he stated that his health was not 100% well, and that it was recommended that he should rest and not keep as heavy a work schedule as he was. </p>
<p>Only the autopsy will clarify this speculation.</p>
<p>In the same interview, Papa Wemba said that he felt as though he would die on stage during a performance, because while on stage he always envisioned himself flying. To me, this is an indication of a great artist to whom the stage is another world – one in which he expresses himself freely and fearlessly.</p>
<p>Similar behaviour could be seen with <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/michael-jackson-38211">Michael Jackson</a>, who was so shy and could not speak clearly off stage but became a totally different person once on stage. To a certain degree, Papa Wemba was one of these great artists who lived in two worlds – on and off stage.</p>
<p><strong>Of course this happened in Abidjan – what made Papa Wemba influential way beyond his home of Kinshasa?</strong></p>
<p>It is unfortunate that his death occurred away from Kinshasa, but who knows when, where and how anyone of us will die? There is a 1984 song, <em>Affaire Kitikwala</em>, by the poet Simaro Lutumba and members of <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/tpok-jazz-mn0000955002">TPOK Jazz</a>, that says, “mother told me when I was born, but she never said anything about when I am going to die.” This is just to underline that here on earth we are all travellers.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Simaro Lutumba with his song ‘Affaire Kitikwala’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Papa Wemba is an international artist whose fame knows no boundary, which made him a citizen of the world. Like that of his contemporary, Papa Wemba’s music had a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36123966">worldwide appeal</a>. He incorporated musical elements of his ethnic group into his works (music and dance). He collaborated with national and international stars as equals while maintaining his individuality. As a citizen of the world, he was also a citizen of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13287216">Côte d’Ivoire</a>, with Abidjan as its capital. </p>
<p>Although she did not die during a performance, <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/miriam-makeba-mn0000496097/biography">Miriam Makeba</a>, another citizen of the world, passed on November 9 2008 while on a concert tour in Italy. There is nothing symbolic about this, but it is how the Almighty wanted them to go as they lived – as citizens of the world.</p>
<p><strong>How is this reflective of the globalisation of the urban music of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)?</strong></p>
<p>Papa Wemba was probably one of the most active ambassadors of Congolese popular music. He was not afraid to experiment with a new genre or style of music. He explored musical styles from around the world while remaining authentically Congolese in his expression.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121713/original/image-20160509-20599-98msup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121713/original/image-20160509-20599-98msup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121713/original/image-20160509-20599-98msup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121713/original/image-20160509-20599-98msup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121713/original/image-20160509-20599-98msup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121713/original/image-20160509-20599-98msup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121713/original/image-20160509-20599-98msup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Papa Wemba in full voice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/David Lewis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He introduced and popularised the dance “<a href="http://musicinafrica.net/brief-history-popular-music-drc">Mokonyonyon</a>” that marked an evolutionary phase of popular music in the DRC. It continues to influence an entire generation of young musicians in the DRC, even their stage presentation.</p>
<p><strong>Who came before Papa Wemba in Congolese music?</strong></p>
<p>According to Simaro Lutumba, Papa Wemba belongs to the seventh generation of musicians that started with the rise to fame of such groups as <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/zaiko-langa-langa-mn0000964011">Zaiko Langa Langa</a> and <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/empire-bakuba-mn0001176880">Empire Bakuba</a>, to name just two.</p>
<p>His band, <a href="http://en.rfi.fr/culture/20160505-papa-wemba-viva-la-musica">Viva la Música</a> (1977), shares musical characteristics with the bands of his generation, which shifted the focus of music from educational and social commentaries to the promotion of rhythm and choreographed dance steps performed with the assistance of a musical coordinator known as the <a href="http://hailey-gayton.blogspot.co.za/2012/05/atalaku.html"><em>Atalaku</em></a>. The reason for this shift can be attributed in part to the popularity and globalisation of modern Congolese music.</p>
<p>The first generation of bands used music as a medium to record information passed from generation to generation and as a didactic tool. The shift by the new generation of bands eliminated the language barrier (all who previously listened to popular songs had to understand the words sung in one of the Congolese languages). This made it possible for non-Congolese to enjoy and express themselves accordingly through rhythm and dance movement.</p>
<p><strong>And can you give an example of this globalisation?</strong></p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121714/original/image-20160509-20590-v2puel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121714/original/image-20160509-20590-v2puel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121714/original/image-20160509-20590-v2puel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121714/original/image-20160509-20590-v2puel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121714/original/image-20160509-20590-v2puel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121714/original/image-20160509-20590-v2puel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121714/original/image-20160509-20590-v2puel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1025&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Rough Guide to World Music.’</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the most remarkable examples is the account of a group of Japanese musicians who spent time in Kinshasa in 1984 learning Congolese urban music. What they learnt was more than just the style of playing lead guitar. Papa Wemba told musicologist Graeme Ewens in his chapter on Congolese/Zairean music in “The <a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/11762905">Rough Guide</a> to World Music: Africa, Europe & The Middle East”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are Japanese groups who play Zairean music … who sing in <a href="http://www.omniglot.com/writing/lingala.htm">Lingala</a>. If you closed your eyes you’d think you were in front of a Zairean band. They were a clone-group, there was a Papa Wemba double and doubles of all the young singers. They dress like us, they do their hair like us, they follow a repertoire of a typical Zairean group.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For me, Papa Wemba was a daring vocalist who was not afraid to perform in any style or collaborate with national and international artists. I recall, while attending a conference in the overseas French region of <a href="http://us.martinique.org/">Martinique</a>, I was watching a late-night television show in which Papa Wemba was being interviewed. He was asked to perform one of his compositions for the audience. Even though he responded to the interview in French, he performed his song in Lingala. </p>
<p>Yes, Papa Wemba was an active and effective ambassador of the <a href="http://www.revistas.usp.br/africa/article/viewFile/74592/78196">globalisation</a> of Congolese popular music.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kazadi wa Mukuna receives funding from the following organisations: CNPq – Miniterio de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Inovacao, Brazil; Itamaraty – Ministry of Foreign Affair, Brazil; and Kent State University, USA.</span></em></p>Papa Wemba was one of the most active ambassadors of Congolese urban music on the global stage. He did this by fusing international musical styles with authentic Congolese grooves.Kazadi wa Mukuna, Professor of Ethnomusicology, Kent State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/553722016-04-26T10:01:51Z2016-04-26T10:01:51ZWhy Prince’s music will become more accessible after his death<p>Last Thursday, the world was shocked by the untimely death of Prince, the highly prolific, Grammy-winning music icon who not only transformed music and the record industry but also provoked questions about <a href="https://theconversation.com/princes-gift-was-that-he-stepped-right-out-of-racisms-symbolic-logic-58308">race</a>, gender and <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-elusive-virtuoso-who-embraced-ambiguity-and-female-desire-58274">sexuality</a>.</p>
<p>Apart from his songs, musical genius and virtuosic skills, the “Purple Rain” singer is also widely recognized for his fierce <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-princes-quest-for-complete-artistic-control-changed-the-music-industry-forever-58267">protection</a> of artistic freedom and his longstanding fight with his first record label, Warner Bros.</p>
<p>It seems only a few years ago that he performed in concerts with the word “slave” <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-prince-tidal-spotify-20160422-story.html">written</a> on his face. Partly as an act of protest, he also changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, causing people to refer to him as “the artist formerly known as Prince.”</p>
<p>In the past few years, the singer remained reluctant to work with internet streaming platforms. Today, his music remains largely <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/21/why-you-can-t-listen-to-prince-s-music-after-his-death.html">unavailable</a> on Spotify and Apple Music. A rare exception is Jay Z’s <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6656697/prince-tidal-exclusive-hitnrun-album-release-stream">Tidal</a>, which released his “HITnRUN” albums.</p>
<p>Commentators have been quick to discuss Prince’s positions on <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-tough-to-find-princes-songs-online-and-other-musicians-are-thankful-58321">intellectual property rights</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-princes-quest-for-complete-artistic-control-changed-the-music-industry-forever-58267">music business</a>. Yet, few have explored whether Prince’s music will become more readily available after his death.</p>
<p>Although it is difficult to predict how his unreleased materials will be handled – considering that he does not have any apparent <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1683495/will-we-ever-hear-the-music-in-princes-vault">heir</a> – a quick review of what happened after the death of other famously reclusive artists may offer some useful hints.</p>
<h2>The vault</h2>
<p>It is a well-known secret that Prince accumulated a large trove of unreleased materials in a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/22/media/prince-vault/">vault</a> – or <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/princes-lost-rolling-stone-interview-i-dont-think-about-gone-20160422">vaults</a> – in his Paisley Park studio complex.</p>
<p>In interviews conducted last year by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/19/i-would-hide-4-u-whats-in-princes-secret-vault">The Guardian</a> and the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31962180">BBC</a>, Brent Fischer, Prince’s longtime collaborator, suggested that this vault contained about 70 percent of the material the singer had ever produced. This figure is mind-boggling considering that Prince <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_albums_discography">released</a> close to 40 studio albums.</p>
<p>Moreover, because of Prince’s widely publicized fight with his record label in the 1990s, many <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/1683495/will-we-ever-hear-the-music-in-princes-vault">believe</a> that the vault will contain some of Prince’s finest work – material that the singer might have chosen not to release amid that struggle. The last album released by Warner Bros. in the 1990s was ironically titled “The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale.”</p>
<h2>The King of Pop</h2>
<p>To some extent, the materials in Prince’s vault remind us of an equally valuable trove of unfinished tracks Michael Jackson left behind following his unexpected death in 2009.</p>
<p>As an avid “MJ” fan, I still remember the suddenly much wider use of his music in movies and TV programs shortly after his death – “Bad” in the movie “Megamind” being a notable example.</p>
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</figure>
<p>Controversies also arose over the posthumous release of his unfinished tracks – as part of the albums “MICHAEL” and “Xscape.” While some – such as <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/6092238/quincy-jones-on-michael-jacksons-xscape-its-about-money">Quincy Jones</a>, Jackson’s former producer – questioned the motives behind the release of these albums, others were disappointed by the extra production and packaging that had <a href="http://the-artifice.com/michael-jackson-xscape-posthumous-album/">gone</a> into the original material without the artist’s input. </p>
<p>Regardless of one’s views, however, the much wider use of Jackson’s music, along with increased merchandise sales, quickly catapulted the singer back to eye-popping commercial success. Today, Jackson is at the top of Forbes’ <a href="http://www.forbes.com/dead-celebrities/#17ef7fad6a51">list</a> of “top-earning dead celebrities,” bringing in US$115 million in last year alone.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120090/original/image-20160425-22360-cyhw9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael Jackson’s music had a renaissance after his death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Franz Kafka</h2>
<p>Estates and their lawyers have been widely criticized for being greedy and for taking aggressive legal actions to limit public access to the works of the deceased. While property owners have unrestricted rights to dispose of their property – including inheritance – copyrights have become particularly problematic considering that they last for 70 years after an author’s death.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, some estates have managed to make the works of the deceased more widely available. A leading example concerns Franz Kafka. Before he died at the young age of 41, he left specific <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?_r=0">instructions</a> to his friend and executor, Max Brod: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My last request: Everything I leave behind me … in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others’), sketches and so on, to be burned unread.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120091/original/image-20160425-22383-ohdafd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Much of what Kafka wrote would never have been read had his friend followed his wishes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kafka statue via www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Having already verbally declined his friend’s request in person, Brod refused to burn the manuscripts after the writer’s death. Had he followed Kafka’s instructions, we would never have read some of Kafka’s masterpieces, such as “The Trial” and “The Castle.” We might never even have known Kafka’s talents, as he published <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?_r=0">less</a> than 450 pages in his lifetime!</p>
<h2>J.D. Salinger</h2>
<p>A more recent example is J.D. Salinger, the author of “Catcher in the Rye.” Despite his wildly successful novel about teenager Holden Caulfield, he withdrew from public life shortly after the novel’s publication in 1951.</p>
<p>Although Salinger continued to write – and had publicly <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/25/salinger-authors-claim-posthumous-works-published">admitted</a> to doing so – the lack of publications since the early 1960s created a longstanding mystery. </p>
<p>Salinger died in 2010. A few years later, a biographer revealed that he might have left instructions to his estate to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/03/new-jd-salinger-fiction-documentary">publish</a> as many as five novels after his death. The release of these novels would not only shed light on the author’s reclusive life but also help us understand better Holden Caulfield’s character.</p>
<h2>Posthumous releases</h2>
<p>It remains to be seen what materials from Prince’s vault will be finally released. If past experience with recently deceased music superstars provides any guide, a considerable quantity of these previously unreleased materials will eventually become commercially available – whether Prince would have liked it or not.</p>
<p>Although some will certainly argue that these materials should have been kept hidden given the artist’s lifetime choices, strong support can be drawn from his longstanding fight with record labels, not to mention his 2012 video clip <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/19/i-would-hide-4-u-whats-in-princes-secret-vault">teasing</a> to release “every good thing in the vault.” </p>
<p>Hopefully, Prince’s estate will be able to go through the vault carefully to develop a plan to disseminate the unreleased materials in ways that will honor the artist’s legacy – perhaps as <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/princes-lost-rolling-stone-interview-i-dont-think-about-gone-20160422">“time capsule”</a> albums. After all, if these materials remain locked up in a vault, it will be a loss to not only his estate but also his many fans around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter K. Yu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What happened after artists such as Michael Jackson, J.D. Salinger and Franz Kafka died suggests it’ll be hard to keep Prince’s unpublished work out of the public eye, regardless of his wishes.Peter K. Yu, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Law and Intellectual Property, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/333512014-11-26T10:25:52Z2014-11-26T10:25:52ZMichael Jackson: Posthuman<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64164/original/wpntnrwb-1415653130.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C499%2C330&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mark Ryden's art for Michael Jackson's 1991 album Dangerous.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/128/344985533_f5315ae187.jpg">Augusto Podrido/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The album cover for Michael Jackson’s album Dangerous was painted by American pop-surrealist artist <a href="http://www.markryden.com">Mark Ryden</a>. In it, he depicts a world in which the boundaries between human and animal, living and dead, whole and part, and celestial and terrestrial have been crossed and fused.</p>
<p>Surrealist painters like Ryden often aim to collapse such categories – to reconcile, in their art, what seems to be irreconcilable in life. But actually, this boundary-crossing <em>does</em> happen in life – increasingly so – and corresponds to what some have called posthumanism. </p>
<p>Cary Wolfe, an English Professor and author of the book “<a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/what-is-posthumanism">What is Posthumanism?</a>,” writes that we are “fundamentally prosthetic creatures,” that we rely on entities outside the self – other humans, animals, technology – in order to function and thrive. </p>
<p>In other words: the boundaries of our bodies and intellect are not as firm and finite as we want to believe. </p>
<p>Posthumanism also argues for the dismantling of the hierarchy that puts humans – largely because of our ability to “reason” – above other forms of life and technology.</p>
<p>Both of these ideas were central to Michael Jackson’s life and art. </p>
<p>It’s somewhat surprising that so few have considered him through this lens; instead, many have simply <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/5648779/The-eccentric-antics-of-Michael-Jackson.html">labeled him</a> as weird or eccentric. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64163/original/tw594ybs-1415652222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64163/original/tw594ybs-1415652222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64163/original/tw594ybs-1415652222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64163/original/tw594ybs-1415652222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64163/original/tw594ybs-1415652222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64163/original/tw594ybs-1415652222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64163/original/tw594ybs-1415652222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64163/original/tw594ybs-1415652222.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The media was quick to label Jackson without considering his artistic intentions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://bnewmanx.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/12-wacko_jacko_backo_rt_001-806x1024.jpg">http://www.robertnewman.com/bio/influences/</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yet Jackson’s entire career was defined by his rejection of normal boundaries. This includes not only the most obvious of these (race and gender) but also generational barriers, the limits of his physical body, and divisions among real and fictional species – not to mention the seamless way he could fuse artistic genres. </p>
<p>Jackson celebrated the prosthetic idea of the human in a number of ways. For example, through plastic surgery, cosmetic procedures, make-up, hair styles and costumes, he asks us not only to reconsider gender binaries (that’s the relatively easy part), but to question prevailing ideas about aesthetic beauty and what can be called “normal.” Our appearances are all products of outside intervention (even face creams and nail files count); Jackson’s extreme modifications could be thought of as a commentary on this.</p>
<p>Fictional boundary-crossing was also a characteristic of his artistic practice – where, at various points, he presented himself as a <a href="http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/7800000/Werewolf-Jackson-micheal-jackson-7804230-461-345.jpg">werewolf</a>, a <a href="http://www.mjworld.net/wp-content/uploads/michael-jackson-thriller-zombie.jpg">zombie</a>, and a <a href="http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ironman28/clips/MichaelJacksonBlackWhitePanther.mp4/thumbnailImage">panther</a>. In the film Moonwalker he morphs into a spaceship; in Ghosts, he becomes a dancing skeleton, a grotesque monster, and a gigantic face that blocks a doorway. </p>
<p>Ghosts, in fact, is a film in which he addresses the perception that he is a “freak” and “abnormal” directly. It’s remarkable that so much of his morphing in this film is focused on his face – an object of constant scrutiny and derision in the media. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AyTdBYjUP08?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In Ghosts, Jackson directly confronts his critics. Who has the authority to declare what is normal, and what is not?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In both his life and his art, he held out his body as a work in progress, fully open to and trusting in limitless experimentation. There’s quite a long tradition of artists who have engaged in body modification as a means through which to test the limits of the flesh, like <a href="http://www.orlan.eu">Orlan</a> and <a href="http://stelarc.org/?catID=20247">Stelarc</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Jackson’s physical changes was the lightening of his skin. We should keep in mind that this was the result of the skin disease vitiligo. It’s thought, erroneously, that his skin color simply got lighter, but it actually fluctuated – so much so that his intent was certainly far from wanting to “be” white, as many have concluded.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64993/original/image-20141119-31600-1bplmme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64993/original/image-20141119-31600-1bplmme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64993/original/image-20141119-31600-1bplmme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64993/original/image-20141119-31600-1bplmme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64993/original/image-20141119-31600-1bplmme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64993/original/image-20141119-31600-1bplmme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64993/original/image-20141119-31600-1bplmme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64993/original/image-20141119-31600-1bplmme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There has been a long tradition of artists (like Stelarc, pictured here) who have engaged in body modification. None have received the amount of scrutiny – and criticism – that Jackson has.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stelarc_Extra_Ear_Ear_on_Arm.jpg">Nina Sellers/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Instead, it’s possible that vitiligo – painful as it must have been for him – served as an opportunity to start a conversation about race and skin color. He wanted to challenge the idea of race as fixed or linked to biology, rather than socially constructed.</p>
<p>Jackson’s boundary-pushing extended to his notion of family, which can be described as a sort of “queer kinship.” This has nothing to do with sexual orientation, but with how he challenged normative ideas about what constitutes family. His family included animals (Bubbles the chimp, yes, but also <a href="http://www.thewrap.com/sites/default/files/snake_0.jpg">Muscles the snake</a> and <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/2519520685/image.jpg">Louis the llama</a>). It included children (Jackson could still play like a child, with children, when he was an adult, testing ideas about the normal, linear progression from childhood to adulthood). It included older Hollywood starlets, like Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli (again breaking the boundaries of normative generational affiliation); and it included <a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-Friend-Michael-Friendship-Extraordinary/dp/B00A1AABTE">Frank Cascio’s middle-class family</a> from New Jersey, which Jackson adopted as his own, regularly showing up and spending time at their home, where he vacuumed and made beds with Cascio’s mother. </p>
<p>Much of this has been viewed as pathological because it’s a way of building family that does not conform; it crosses boundaries not normally crossed. </p>
<p>This makes many people uncomfortable.</p>
<p>But Jackson’s vision of the body and of kinship were actually forward-looking, a kind of reaching beyond societal norms that is often celebrated in other artists and activists, but still viewed with great suspicion in Jackson’s case. Elsewhere, I have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03007761003640574#.VGoPCoeWRJE">argued</a> that this is because Jackson crossed so many boundaries simultaneously. It was the combination of social transgressions that caused people to fear – rather than celebrate – his difference. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64015/original/f6b2r7jt-1415397810.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64015/original/f6b2r7jt-1415397810.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/64015/original/f6b2r7jt-1415397810.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64015/original/f6b2r7jt-1415397810.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64015/original/f6b2r7jt-1415397810.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64015/original/f6b2r7jt-1415397810.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64015/original/f6b2r7jt-1415397810.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/64015/original/f6b2r7jt-1415397810.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=594&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jackson’s boundary-pushing extended to family, as well. Here he’s pictured with his chimp Bubbles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Michael_Jackson_And_Bubbles_The_Chimp-Age_Dangerous-.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was also that he truly <em>lived</em> these transgressions: there was nothing to mitigate Jackson’s differences. When other mainstream artists, like Lady Gaga, transgress boundaries on stage, the impact is often lessened by their private lives, which conform to societal norms. </p>
<p>In a 1985 essay about Michael Jackson, James Baldwin wrote that “freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated – in the main, abominably – because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.”</p>
<p>Michael Jackson – gender ambiguous; adored and reviled; human, werewolf, panther; black, white, brown; child, adolescent, adult – shattered the assumptions of a society that craves neat categories and compartmentalization. </p>
<p>Order and normality are illusions, he said though his life and art.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33351/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Fast receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p>The album cover for Michael Jackson’s album Dangerous was painted by American pop-surrealist artist Mark Ryden. In it, he depicts a world in which the boundaries between human and animal, living and dead…Susan Fast, Professor of Cultural Studies, Director, Graduate Program in Gender Studies and Feminist Research, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/269522014-05-21T03:55:22Z2014-05-21T03:55:22ZMichael Jackson – there’s no Xscape from posthumous pop<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49079/original/nrpvff4v-1400639042.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Justice Crew perform at Madame Tussauds Sydney, for the Australian launch of Michael Jackson's Xscape album, May 2014.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Epic Records, in conjunction with the estate of Michael Jackson <a href="http://www.epicrecords.com/news/xscape-new-michael-jackson-album">released</a> the King of Pop Michael Jackson’s second posthumous album <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/xscape/id850693793">Xscape</a> last week. To create the album Epic Records chairman and CEO L.A. Reid accessed the Jackson archives and teamed up with singer Justin Timberlake and iconic producers including Timbaland, J-Roc, Darkchild and Stargate to realise a contemporary sound from these original archival recordings.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, the songs were released <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/xscape-deluxe/id850697616?ign-mpt=uo%3D4">in their original – previously unreleased – form</a> inviting interesting comparisons for discerning listeners and, of course, additional sales for owners. </p>
<p>Like all great art, the value of a musician’s brand can build in value after death. In the case of a “big name act” who dies, a rather extensive and lucrative income can be made for the artist’s heirs and record label well after death.</p>
<p>One of Bob Marley’s most successful albums was <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/bob-marley-and-the-wailers-legend-20120524">Legend: The Best of Bob Marley & the Wailers</a>, released three years after his death. Jeff Buckley, like Buddy Holly, released only one full studio album in life (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rR3DDS3uN4">Grace</a>, 1994) but had many new releases and re-releases in the years that followed his death and had his first Billboard number one in 2008 (20 years after his death) with his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIF4_Sm-rgQ">now classic version</a> of Leonard Cohen’s Halleuliah.</p>
<p>American rapper Tupac Shakur’s estate <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/19/tupac-mom-release-entire-body-of-work_n_2716399.html">continues to release</a> more and more of his work and Jimi Hendrix seems to have an endless catalogue of remastered packaged posthumous releases including more than 14 albums. There is even a <a href="http://ultimateclassicrock.com/posthumous-jimi-hendrix-albums/0">top ten of Hendrix posthumous albums</a>. </p>
<p>Elvis Presley has had hundreds of releases since his death and more recently the Amy Winehouse estate and others have <a href="http://www.spin.com/articles/amy-winehouses-posthumous-bbc-live-collection/">started down</a> the posthumous release path.</p>
<h2>Plundering posthumous popularity</h2>
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<span class="caption">One Love.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Francesco</span></span>
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<p>The commercial benefits of posthumous releases are <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1552516/keeping-jimi-hendrix-tupac-and-others-alive-with-posthumous-releases">sometimes immense</a>, taking in merchandising, recording sales, broadcast rights, film, TV, advertising placement – and even <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/19/showbiz/michael-jackson-hologram-billboard-awards/">a holograph</a> in Jackson’s case.</p>
<p>These days everything is digitally documented – every live show, every half-finished recording session and many conversations – meaning there’s a wealth of material to be plundered. But just because you can, does that mean you should?</p>
<p>Sadly, many posthumous albums are over-produced releases of unfinished recordings missing the artist’s final view and lacking the spark of excitement.</p>
<h2>Xscape: cash grab or legacy?</h2>
<p>For me, Xscape is a brilliantly produced if somewhat clinical release with clean capturing of Jackson’s voice and seamless additions of vocal support using the full battery of 21st-century digital technology. None of which is surprising given the calibre of the artists and companies involved. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD9rHnicqg0">Do You Know Where Your Children Are?</a> deals with a deeply disturbing social issue and is the standout track. The original demo dates back to around 1991 and was constantly revisited by Jackson. Timbaland’s electronic work on this is highly effective in creating a fusion of classic Jackson with a contemporary dance feel. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oG08ukJPtR8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake: Love Never Felt So Good.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other catchy tracks – such as the Justin Timberlake collaboration Love Never Felt So Good – have already guaranteed <a href="http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6092092/michael-jacksons-xscape-debuts-at-no-1-in-uk">album-chart success</a> and hefty returns to the owners. </p>
<p>Short of finding a great clairvoyant, we will never really know how much of this new album Jackson would have approved or how much he would have changed. </p>
<p>But given the size of the Jackson archive and the long list of artists more than happy to produce and remix, I’d say the Jackson legacy will be here for many, many years to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Pollard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Epic Records, in conjunction with the estate of Michael Jackson released the King of Pop Michael Jackson’s second posthumous album Xscape last week. To create the album Epic Records chairman and CEO L.A…Mark Pollard, Head, Interactive Composition , Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/231512014-02-12T17:11:21Z2014-02-12T17:11:21ZMichael Jackson: in life he was the King of Pop – in death could he have set a legal precedent?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41374/original/3rvf96j2-1392214348.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">He's out of my life.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo Dean</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a quite extraordinary French legal judgement, five Michael Jackson fans have <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26141075">successfully sued</a> the former King of Pop’s doctor for the impact his part in Jackson’s death had on their own lives. The judgement against Jackson’s personal physician, Conrad Murray, was that he should pay the five plaintiffs the princely sum of €1 each due to the trauma they felt as a result of Jackson’s death.</p>
<p>Jackson’s sudden death had shocked the world in 2009, with the <a href="http://www.tmz.com/person/michael-jackson/">first reports</a> emanating with TMZ, the celebrity news website and quickly spreading. His demise was a <a href="http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/television/michael-jacksons-death-completely-overwhelms-media-9663/">global media event</a> and many fans refused to believe the coverage at first. Web traffic was recorded at some 20% higher than average, while <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-tops-the-charts-on-twitter/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0">around 15% of all Twitter posts</a> mentioned Jackson that day, dwarfing that year’s other discussion points (such as the 5% which discussed the flu pandemic that made headlines a few months earlier).</p>
<p>Jackson died from a heart attack following a drug overdose, specifically acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication. Murray later claimed to have found Jackson at home, not breathing and with a barely detectable pulse. Murray administered CPR on Jackson but without ever resuscitating him. A coroner would subsequently conclude that Jackson’s death was homicide. It emerged that, in the hours before his death, Jackson had been administered a cocktail of painkillers and anti-anxiety medication. As a result, Murray was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/07/michael-jackson-conrad-murray-guilty">convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011</a> and served two years of his four year prison sentence.</p>
<h2>Emotional distress</h2>
<p>Three years later, another court has found against Murray over Jackson’s death, although the sentence carries a somewhat less onerous burden than the retraction of his liberty. However, the punishment was not the point of this case. This was a symbolic verdict, recognising that the fans had been caused emotional distress. There had originally been 34 plaintiffs drawn from a group known as the <a href="http://www.mjjcommunity.com/">Michael Jackson Community</a> appearing at the court in Orléans, but the judge eventually found in favour of two from France, two from Switzerland and one from Belgium. Their lawyer, Emmanuel Ludot, <a href="http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a550574/michael-jackson-fans-win-1-damages-for-emotional-suffering.html">stated</a>: “As far as I know, this is the first time in the world that the notion of emotional damage in connection with a pop star has been recognised”.</p>
<p>Law professor, Philippe Brun of Savoy University, has been <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/mj-fans-win-emotional-damage-suit-1.1645536#.UvtyrBB_t1E">quoted as saying that</a> the sentence would be difficult to uphold on appeal: “If this ruling is appealed, I doubt it could withstand scrutiny because there is a contradiction between suffering emotional damage and the symbolic nature of the allocated sum”. </p>
<p>This is probably true and, as such, reflects the bemused reactions on social media and news outlet comment pages highlighting that most people see this as a frivolous case and somewhat ridiculous in its content as its sentence. As one commenter on the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/feb/11/french-court-awards-damages-emotional-suffering-fans-death-michael-jackson">Guardian’s Comment is Free</a> put it: “What the actual fuck. These people are morons. I’m emotionally damaged from reading about these idiots”.</p>
<h2>Zemiology and the criminalising of harm</h2>
<p>Despite such incredulity and ridicule, the verdict could be seen as important for what the manner in which it legitimises emotional distress as a viable wrong. To understand this, it is important to pay heed to the little-known academic perspective known as <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/law/courses/llb/modules/Criminology-modules/llb-crime-social-harm-and-social-justice.aspx">zemiology</a>: the study of avoidable harms. The name comes from the Greek, <em>zemia</em> – meaning harm or damage – and has emerged as a challenge to conventional ways of understanding crime as conceptualised by the state, scholars and the general public.</p>
<p>Those who <a href="http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745319049&">support the need for legal solutions for zemiology</a> insist that we need to redefine what is constituted by a crime. Crime is seen as nothing more than a construct, based on social judgements meaning that there are no central properties relating to some essential notion of criminality. As such, what a crime is will vary across time and space. Fundamentally, dominant interpretations of crime entail that many of the crimes which are prosecuted cause minimal harm to victims, if they cause any harm at all.</p>
<p>For zemiology’s foremost advocates, <a href="http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/46/2/362.full">Hillyard and Tombs</a>, “The definitions of crime in the criminal law do not reflect the only or the most dangerous of antisocial behaviours.” They believe that many incidents or events which cause harm are either not legislated as part of the criminal law or are so categorised will generally be ignored or dismissed without recourse to the law. They identify various types of harm, chiefly compromising social harm (including impediments to development and personal growth), physical harm (such as causing illness or disease) and financial harm (issues such as misappropriation of funds or undue cost burdens). The authors also put forward the idea of psychological harm.</p>
<p>The latter harm covers any psychological or emotional distress arising from events and behaviours outside of an individual’s control. Though Jackson’s fans were not engaged in a criminal trial, their verdict has potential significance in highlighting the truth of the upset they felt as a result of Murray’s actions. Even though the harm was not caused directly to them, and despite there being no evidence of forethought in Murray’s mind that he could hurt Jackson’s fans in his actions, he has been recognised as needing to be held responsible for harming the lives of these devoted fans.</p>
<p>This intangible harm was duly reflected in the symbolic sentence: €1 was a token amount to identify the principle rather than seek to remedy the wrong. More so, the plaintiffs wanted to bring this court case so that they might be recognised as victims, as having suffered a loss. Their main motivation was that gaining this victim status might help them gain access to Jackson’s grave, which is closed to members of the general public.</p>
<p>This raises significant questions about who is entitled to feel what and who has to take responsibility for those feelings. Should the fans suck it up and work through their own grief at the loss of their hero? Or, should they be able to blame someone for ending the life of a man who became an icon and meant so much to so many millions of people across the world?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Newman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a quite extraordinary French legal judgement, five Michael Jackson fans have successfully sued the former King of Pop’s doctor for the impact his part in Jackson’s death had on their own lives. The…Daniel Newman, RA, Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.