Cancelled People Whose Work You Still Enjoy

[Dr Rock]

Elvis Presley is the King of Rock and Roll, not the King of Pop

Agreed, but there was also a claim as to who was the most successful entertainer of all-time. Maybe that wouldn't even be Elvis, it would be Aesop or someone.

edit

never be an entertainer as successful as Jacko

[Thomas]

Elvis or MJ - the top spot still belongs to a CancelHead either way. And Aesop is cancelled for making those animals race.

[Pinball]

Did Elvis rape children?

[PlanktonSideburns]

yes

[Dr Rock]

Name one.

[Famous Mortimer]

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k8z39/elvis-was-the-king-of-treating-women-like-shit-and-luring-14-year-olds-into-bed

[idunnosomename]

shocked to hear elvis presley was a bit of a cunt

[Dr Rock]

which made him incontinent to the point that he was having to wear diapers, according to Albert Goldman's 1981 biography.

Goldman's book is trash and lies, yet still couldn't find a single person who would claim that they had sex with Elvis while underage. Where that article gets something right, is that if Elvis ever had easy access to underage girls it was probably during the early part of his career, touring around Memphis. But you'd think with all the National Enquirer sized rewards that would presumably be there for anyone with a half-believable story, there isn't a single person who has ever said they had sex with Elvis while underage.

[PlanktonSideburns]

#belive in elvis

[Famous Mortimer]

Goldman's book is trash and lies, yet still couldn't find a single person who would claim that they had sex with Elvis while underage. Where that article gets something right, is that if Elvis ever had easy access to underage girls it was probably during the early part of his career, touring around Memphis. But you'd think with all the National Enquirer sized rewards that would presumably be there for anyone with a half-believable story, there isn't a single person who has ever said they had sex with Elvis while underage.

Yeah, alright mate. There are lots of other books mentioned in that article, are they all trash and lies?

[Dr Rock]

The two Peter Guralnick books are excellent, and don't shy away from any ugly truths. Having read some reviews of that one just mentioned, it apparently plagiarises a lot of them.

[Pinball]

Some of Elvis's music isn't shit, and I like listening to it, though can't remember when.

This cancel stuff is getting ridiculous though, to the point I ignore now.

[Thomas]

I'm still not sure what constitutes an official cancelling. None of the oft-cited cancelled have suffered very much - even the ones who have actually done reprehensibly abusive things - and usually saying 'x is cancelled' simply amounts to 'x is perceived to be morally dubious'. It's just a new term with a bit of irony attached. I've only ever seen the word 'cancel' used with at least a portion of tongue in cheek (but then I'm not on Twitter). A slightly jocular, shorthand way of saying 'this celeb is dodgy - should we be buying their stuff?', which consumers have always asked.

Critical engagement between artist and art-eater has always taken place. Dickens was criticised for his depiction of Fagin in 1863, apparently prompting him to rewrite parts of Oliver Twist. Dahl re-wrote the Oompa-Loompas after concerns voiced by the NAACP.

Public figures receiving flak is not a new phenomenon, and it's not currently at its most ridiculous. Thousands were absurdly 'cancelled' in the USA under McCarthyism, often losing money and careers for incredibly spurious reasons. Cancellers killed Socrates. The 'cancel culture' of its time drove people like Wilde and Turing to their deaths. Far more substantial cultures of 'cancelling' than what we're seeing now, which usually amounts to a Twitter hashtag trending for a few hours.

[Jake Thingray]

Elvis or MJ - the top spot still belongs to a CancelHead either way. And Aesop is cancelled for making those animals race.

Speaking of which, the appellation 'The World's Greatest Entertainer' was sometimes applied, during his lifetime, to Al Jolson.

[ProvanFan]

shocked to hear elvis presley was a bit of a cunt

I'm all shook up

[famethrowa]

Agreed, but there was also a claim as to who was the most successful entertainer of all-time. Maybe that wouldn't even be Elvis, it would be Aesop or someone.

Jesus

[Egyptian Feast]

Neil Young. I kinda wish he'd been inspired by that brain fart to write a half-arsed 'Piece of Crap' type song whinging about gay people touching his potatoes. Silly cunt.

[zomgmouse]

The MJ stuff is surprising to me because everyone cites "that documentary" for revealing that he was (allegedly) a paedophile but I swear that was being said about him decades prior.

Can't cancel the dead! We love Jacko in this house, or at least his music.

I guess you're using a different meaning of "cancelled"? Do you mean "cancelled" as in "making someone not be able to get work"? Or as in "their public image is tainted"?

And then you say "or at least his music" - to what extent can you successfully separate the two? To me that degree of deliberate cognitive dissonance seems like a great deal of effort.

(Not attacking you, just interested.)

[NoSleep]

Elvis Presley is the King of Rock and Roll, not the King of Pop.

Rock and Roll was never popular music.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I still like some of Rolf Harris's records.

[Clownbaby]

The MJ stuff is surprising to me because everyone cites "that documentary" for revealing that he was (allegedly) a paedophile but I swear that was being said about him decades prior.

I guess you're using a different meaning of "cancelled"? Do you mean "cancelled" as in "making someone not be able to get work"? Or as in "their public image is tainted"?

And then you say "or at least his music" - to what extent can you successfully separate the two? To me that degree of deliberate cognitive dissonance seems like a great deal of effort.

(Not attacking you, just interested.)

The cognitive dissonance is always what gets me in the end. I enjoy Jacko's tunes and music videos every time they're on but I just WILL definitely, every single time, drift off in the back of my mind and start thinking about the kid stuff.  Which is why I'm absolutely mystified by some of my friends and their insistence that Lostprophets are good enough to bother still listening to with all the baggage of cognitive dissonance that comes with. Lostprophets. They're very replaceable. Just listen to any other late noughties emo band, for fuck's sake.

[idunnosomename]

I still like some of Rolf Harris's records.

sometimes i get leader of the gang stuck in my head

[SavageHedgehog]

sometimes i get leader of the gang stuck in my head

You can always listen to the Hulk Hogan version, who is cancelled but significantly less cancelled.

[Famous Mortimer]

The MJ stuff is surprising to me because everyone cites "that documentary" for revealing that he was (allegedly) a paedophile but I swear that was being said about him decades prior.

For example, Norm Macdonald, who regularly called MJ a paedophile in the mid - late 90s on "Weekend Update".

[Puce Moment]

Has anyone mentioned Caravaggio because he could have been a genocidal maniac and I would still love his paintings.

In fact, maybe I would love him more?

[NoSleep]

Composer and royal heir, Carlo Gesualdo, brutally murdered his wife and her lover.

Some further bizarre details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOWyONTcC60

[TheMonk]

Gary Glitter is probably comparatively noncey but his songs were just so inferior.

Really, Jacko was The Biggest Pop Star There Will Ever Be and the King of Pop. It's pretty hard to cancel someone who had such phenomenal success. There will likely never be an entertainer as successful as Jacko. It's like cancelling Mohammed.

I dunno. I loved his music. Loved it, grew up on it. Thriller was a constant.
I watched that doco and the interview afterwards. Instantly I decided I didn't want to hear any of it again. And I haven't sought it out since. Threw the albums out.
I'm surprised how little I've missed it. Occasionally I'll hear his songs in a cafe or supermarket. No emotional attachment , just disgust.
Awful human being. Bloody awful. Right cunt.

[thenoise]

The MJ stuff is surprising to me because everyone cites "that documentary" for revealing that he was (allegedly) a paedophile but I swear that was being said about him decades prior.

I guess you're using a different meaning of "cancelled"? Do you mean "cancelled" as in "making someone not be able to get work"? Or as in "their public image is tainted"?

And then you say "or at least his music" - to what extent can you successfully separate the two? To me that degree of deliberate cognitive dissonance seems like a great deal of effort.

(Not attacking you, just interested.)

It certainly comes from a different place when we are talking about the dead and/or long dead.  Refusing to look at paintings of Caravaggio or listening to Gesualdo would be a bit silly, for sure.  But sometimes it does become difficult to enjoy the work of the dead, when it exposes certain qualities that you didn't notice before.  Paul Gauguin is clearly a significant figure in 19th century art, but his utopian visions of nude pubescent ethnic girls appear rather less idyllic when you learn about his three underaged brides whom he infected with syphilis.  Perhaps we can still enjoy the French part of his career?

It's difficult to justify shrugging and saying 'but I enjoy it' when genuinely bad people are still alive and getting rich off your purchase/interest.

[popcorn]

The MJ stuff is surprising to me because everyone cites "that documentary" for revealing that he was (allegedly) a paedophile but I swear that was being said about him decades prior.

Allegations before the documentary were swamped in legal complications and cartoonishly bad witnesses, so I don't think public opinion ever really got behind them. Additionally, the documentary had two guys willing to talk on camera for four hours in forensic detail about the abuse they say they suffered, which changed a lot of hearts and minds.

It's difficult to justify shrugging and saying 'but I enjoy it' when genuinely bad people are still alive and getting rich off your purchase/interest.

How often is that true though? At least for entertainment products - which is pretty much what the "cancelled people whose work you still enjoy" title refers to - you can simply pirate stuff. But for people who feel unease about the artists, I don't think that would solve the issue.

[NoSleep]

Jeremy Corbyn