“I wanted to be a virtuous consumer, a demonstrably good feminist, but at the same time I also wanted to be a citizen of the world of art, a person who was the opposite of a philistine. The question, the puzzle, for me was how I might behave correctly, confronted with these twin and seemingly contradictory imperatives. I felt pretty sure the problem was solvable. I just needed to think harder.”
The above paragraph is from a book called Monsters by Claire Dederer, which explores an idea that she began in an essay: “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men”? What do we do? What do we do with the music of the people in country music that are monstrous - or even, more simply, we just disagree with? How, and when, do we separate the art from the artist?
On a Put a Record On post the other day, subscriber Donnie (thanks Donnie!!) responded to a Colter Wall song pick with this comment:
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