Separating the Art From the Artist

High School – Copy Editor Sage McHenry

Over the years, musician Kanye West has done one thing after another capturing the media’s attention––usually for all the wrong reasons. Ignoring his behavior has become second nature to his fans, but have his recent actions pushed things too far? Yet again, Kanye West has brought forth the main question surrounding problematic pop culture: should we separate the art from the artist?

It is no question that West has highly impacted today’s music industry. Among his countless awards, West has won ten Grammys and has also started his own clothing line. Because West is incredibly widely known across the nation and across the globe, when he takes to Twitter to spout threatening, anti-Semitic nonsense––whether we like it or not––it has an impact. 

There is a difference between thinking problematic thoughts and having those problematic thoughts cause actual harm. In the case of Kanye West, because of his 31.8 million Twitter followers, I think that his putting such hateful ideas out into the world is as good as taking action in the name of those ideas. West has influence that spreads far and wide, and when he acts as though it is okay to profess hate speech of such great caliber, it is dangerous. Kanye West’s behavior actively causes harm to the Jewish community. Luckily, major brands associated with West, such as Adidas and Balenciaga, have cut connections with the artist––unfortunately only after pressure from the public. Because he has already lost millions of dollars from the termination of partnerships, it would be easy to be satisfied with this result and continue listening to the West’s popular albums. But is this really the case? Can we continue to separate Kanye West from his music? Can we separate any art from any artist?

I do not think that this question can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” If we were to stop consuming media created by every artist that has done something deemed “problematic,” there would be very little media to consume at all. However, where should the line be drawn? 

I think that it goes without saying that the actions of Kanye West are inexcusable and have certainly crossed any and every line. Do I think that it is necessary to stop listening to music created by Kanye West altogether? No. The influence that West has in pop culture has already been established. Kanye West is not going to quietly fade away no matter if people stop listening to his music or not, which is why I think that continuing to listen to his music will not change anything. 

That being said, steps do need to be taken to de-platform Kanye West in whatever ways are possible. It is absolutely ridiculous that he is still allowed access to platforms on which he can spread hate speech. It would be tragic to let people who share the same hateful ideology as West see him get away with spreading it without repercussions.

Although I am sure many people who are fans of West’s music will continue to listen to it with no problems, I also think that many people will have trouble deciding whether or not they feel comfortable doing so. This is the case with many artists, but I think that this is the deciding factor: there is no hate speech in West’s music. Therefore, I do not see it as wrong to continue listening to the artist on the condition that his threatening acts of hate are not tolerated. As an enjoyer of West’s music, will I personally continue to listen to it? Honestly, I do not know. What I do know is that we can separate the art from the artist––as long as any problematic behavior does not go unaddressed.