What does the artist owe us?

Bob-Dubery

There's some background to my ponderings here. A few days ago Michelle Shocked took to the stage in a venue in San Francisco for the first date of a tour. During the second set she addressed some remarks from the stage to the audience that have been interpreted and reported as being homophobic (I'm being a little guarded in my language here because much of what she said was not that coherent, and it's possible that at least one remark, the most widely reported, was said sarcastically as an "do your damnedest" to a hostile faction in the audience - though she'd have to be very naive to not see what the reaction was likely to be). Subsequently nearly all the other venues and festivals who had her booked for that tour have cancelled and the tour is now effectively toast.

Now, this was a spectacularly stupid thing for Ms Shocked to have done. She aligned herself with or, as some would have it, sucked up to the GLT community early on in her career, so this might be seen as a spit in the eye of a community that had supported her, and if you wanted to make anti-gay statements from a stage in the USA then you'd have to be some kind of stupid to not understand that SF is one of the cities that is going to be least receptive to that sort of statement.

OK... but some of the backlash has been interesting in that there have been suggestions that performers have to think about the promoters who took a risk on staging them and the audience who paid money, in these financially straightened times, to be at the show (and may have travelled some distance to be there, may have had to get baby sitters, will be paying inflated drink prices at the venue etc etc) and so it's basic bad courtesy to use the stage as a soap box (for any cause).

Hmmmm.... I do agree that the promoter and the audience are entitled to expect that the performer take the gig seriously in as much as they take the stage in good time and be in a condition to perform. I've seen a couple of performances in my time, by musicians whose work I admire, where the performer has clearly been too out of it to put on a good performance. I was not impressed, and I don't defend it. If you can be out of your tree and put on a good show then good for you and I don't complain because you like a couple of drinks or a toke or whatever, but if you're stoned to the point where you can't remember what key to play in or what song comes next or you just want to give a long, rambling diatribe in stead of playing some music then I reserve the right to be annoyed and even show that I'm annoyed. I would have been annoyed if, as a friend of mind did some years ago, I'd travelled a long way and paid a high price to see Joni Mitchell perform only for her to deliver a "show" that didn't run anywhere near full time and was mostly taken up with cussing, crying and dumping her heartbreak about how her relationship had just ended all over the audience.

It's not unknown for Michelle Shocked to present something other than music to the punters and without advance warning. She once took to the stage and donned a burka cut from the Stars and Stripes and stood under that burka, silent, for some minutes, to make some point about George W Bush and freedom of speech.

So maybe you shouldn't expect the conventional or the unconfrontational from Ms Shocked. IF, of course, you know a bit about her career. I once met a lady who'd been to a Billy Bragg concert and was a bit punch drunk from all the politicising that went on. I'd have expected that sort of stuff and, if I'd bought a ticket, regarded it as part of the deal, but if you don't know much about Billy Bragg and weren't expecting the polemics I can see how it could be a shock to the system.

So where to draw the line? Can we draw the line? What do they owe us?

I'm reluctant to impose too many demands on an artist just because I've bought a ticket. Are the punters entitled to all the greatest hits? You-know-who who I've seen four times now, always likes to load the set list with newer material, and in those four shows he has never played "Shoot Out The Lights" - so I'm minorly miffed about that. The one time I got to make a request ("Burns Supper") he declined (said he couldn't remember the words). I feel a bit miffed, but equally I don't want to reduce some creative person to delivering their greatest hits night after night. (And three out of the four times I've seen He-whose-name-need-not-be-uttered he's done "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" which is probably his best known and best loved song and I could cheerfully never hear it from him again as it's so overdone - so fans can be less than reasonable sometimes).

I'm certainly reluctant to put limits around what an artist can present. I sort of take the view that any artist (not just Michelle Shocked) can present anything they like - including rants, sermons, exhortations to vote for whoever and unexpected music - and we have the right to react to that anyway we want, which may include walking out or never buying one of their records again.

In that way, I suppose, Michelle Shocked's latest fiasco will resolve itself. She's done what she's done and said what she's said and her audience will react to that.

But what are we actually entitled to expect and/or demand from an artist?

Wormwood

X-rated Bob wrote
Hmmmm.... I do agree that the promoter and the audience are entitled to expect that the performer take the gig seriously in as much as they take the stage in good time and be in a condition to perform.

X-rated Bob wrote I'm certainly reluctant to put limits around what an artist can present. I sort of take the view that any artist (not just Michelle Shocked) can present anything they like - including rants, sermons, exhortations to vote for whoever and unexpected music - and we have the right to react to that anyway we want, which may include walking out or never buying one of their records again.

It really boils down to those things.

We expect the artist to put on a show that encapsulates "seeing this artist perform live for x hours", as it stands on the ticket.
As long as they don't rant or fall off the stage for more than 20 percent of that time, im good.

With regards to audiences reacting badly to incendiary statements from hurled from the stage, that's their problem, not the artists.
It might be a little more complicated in that specific case because the promoters cut her audio and cancelled the show, in which case its the promoters who didn't fulfil the agreement on the ticket.

studmissile

Not the first nor the last. An artist can say what he/she want, just as long and the audience can do what he/she wants. It's called freedom.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/shortcuts/2013/mar/19/popandrock-indie?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Check what old slow-hand said back in '75. Not too subtle.

studmissile

Besides if you gonna listen to folk music, listen to someone who knows what they talking about.

=

AlanRatcliffe

studmissile wrote An artist can say what he/she want, just as long and the audience can do what he/she wants. It's called freedom.

Exactly. And if Ms. Shocked is stupid enough to commit career suicide by alienating her core audience, she's welcome to.

If I go to a Neil Young show during election run ups, I would expect to hear a fair bit of political rhetoric. But then again, If I pay to see a musical artist, I think it reasonable for me to expect mostly music - that's why I'm there, that's why I paid the exhorbitant fees many artists ask these days. The tolerance percentage of music to other stuff will vary from person to person, but I think it safe to assume that the primary reason most if not everyone is there is to hear the music, not to be evangelised or politicised at or to have their core values mocked or insulted. Not even the Beatles were able to escape the consequences of a stupid remark that was close to the bone for a huge part of their audience.

Check what old slow-hand said back in '75. Not too subtle.

I'm all for the proposed Clapton/May headcutting to settle the fox hunting thing though. May FTW!

Jack-Flash-Jr

No mention of her royal highness Sinead yet? ?