The Art and the Artist

The creation of art can primarily be ascribed to three elements—expression, profit, catharsis. A painting could have been brought about by thoughts and emotions; a sculpture by the desire to profit; a song as a release. Whichever it may be, stories are told; and it is through the telling of these stories that art, in particular music, has the capability of forming connections amongst people. Beyond that, it can be an instrument to spread ideologies and political views, and it is in this way that music becomes a double-edged sword. Because music has its own way of subconsciously getting into our heads (through catchy rhythm and lyrics), we sometimes find ourselves singing along even to protest songs such as Imagine (1973) by John Lennon and Spolarium by Eraserheads, even without the intention to. Nevertheless, pointing to this kind of music, it is still fairly easy to choose a side and express it—you either subscribe to the artist and his music or not. It is undoubtedly more difficult to draw the line, when we speak of artists whose political views we do not agree with, but whose music we love. We note here that their music does not necessarily reflect these political views. I remember speaking to a friend once, and raving about Lea Salonga and her version of On My Own. He said: “But she is a Marcos apologist”. This shocked me as I knew that he was also a hard-core fan of Lea Salonga. What is even more puzzling is that none of Lea’s songs speak of, or at the very least, mention her political stance. If it were not for a heated Twitter debate, I would not have probably known. This leads me to think and question: Shouldn’t the artist be considered a separate entity from his music? Just as Roland Barthes argues in The Death of the Author, “a text’s unity lies not in its origins but in its destination”. By refusing to listen to someone’s music solely based on his political views (which are not even reflected in his music), do we not stray away from the purpose and essence of music? However, it seems that the concepts of purpose and essence cannot be explained using a single definition; they differ from musician to melophile, and from another. This is where we begin to question if my friend’s choice of boycotting Lea Salonga’s music really strays away from the “essence” of music.

We have been witnessing the boycotts of bands due to alleged sexual harassment cases (e.g. SUD from the UP Fair line-up, and Jensen and the Flips from The Rest Is Noise line-up). Here it is perfectly understandable to boycott because like what the UP Babaylan head Vince Liban said (on the reason of withdrawing SUD): “As an org who values and advocates for women and their rights, we cannot tolerate these kinds of behavior”. To retain bands who have a backwards way of thinking is to be silent and to implicitly accept such behavior as moral. Beyond this, boycotts and bans ideally function as a moral-corrector because they work under the assumption that bands or artists would not want their reputation to be tainted. Looking at it from this perspective, it sounds quite utilitarian, but if they work against and ultimately correct injustices then they are far better tools than silence.

Did my friend not boycott Lea Salonga for the same reason behind the withdrawal of SUD and Jensen and the Flips? Aren’t the two actions no different from one another? In a way, yes. That is because supporting artists may come in the form of paying for their music, and in turn this profit translates into their capacity to influence a crowd or generally widen their reach. Having this in mind, it is easier to understand why my friend boycotted; it must be because while Lea Salonga’s music does not compliment Marcos, she does and by increasing her profit (albeit minimally) through listening to her music, you may potentially support the spread of such ideologies. Yes, we listen to music for a myriad of reasons. For entertainment. As a connection. To experience joy, sadness, love. It is true that these are what music is for, but that is not the full picture. It is equally important to keep in mind the people and reasons behind the creation of music, so we can look beyond it—to its destination.