Our (fairly) regular roundup of Music & Arts related news from Chicago-based web media, featuring thoughts and insight from some of the city’s most dedicated writers.
- The Kelly Conversations: Annmarie Van Altena, sociologist and rape victims’ advocate
How does the prevalence of rape myths affect society and our appreciation of art? Why is statutory rape—sex with a partner who is not of the age of consent—viewed differently than other kinds of sexual assault? And what does it say when society champions the work of an artist whose personal deeds most would condemn when confronted with them?
Annmarie van Altena is a sociologist who teaches at Loyola University Chicago and specializes in issues of gender, work, media, consumption, and subcultures. A former riot grrrl, she also volunteers with Rape Victim Advocates.
Here are some of the highlights of van Altena’s interview:
"That he was acquitted we seem to believe means that he was innocent… Only three percent of rapes actually result in a prison sentence."
"It’s a responsibility of us as a society to know the truth, and if people are being victimized, it’s up to us to raise that awareness."
"Music is an extension of a lot of our core beliefs, really, and it reflects our culture and how we think… Music is never just music."
"As far as the artist goes, everybody is human. Everybody has their flaws. But if their flaws include horrible crimes, we have to think about that."
"If you like something, often you don’t want to know bad things about it. You want to overlook the problems—that what you like could be problematic—and you want to not think about it. But if we’re responsible and we want to be a responsible member of society, we need to. If you like the music, you like the music, right? Does that mean that you have to support him? I don’t think so. I think as a responsible person you need to get informed about what’s going on and act according to your own morals and values. And examine how much of the way you’re judging this is about things like accepting things like rape myths. How much do you really know about what’s going on, and how much of the way you’re judging the situation is based on misinformation about what rape is?"
Ahead of R. Kelly headlining Pitchfork Music Festival, WBEZ’s Jim DeRogatis conducts a series of conversations with smart, passionate cultural critics. Videos have been edited for length and clarity.
- The Kelly Conversations: Gen Y music critics Simon Vozick-Levinson and David Greenwald
Does R. Kelly’s music mean something different to younger music critics and self-proclaimed “pop omnivores?” How do they balance discussion of his art and his actions? And why do they think their peers in the Pitchfork audience have embraced this musician?
Simon Vozick-Levinson is an associate editor at Rolling Stone whose work also has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and The Boston Phoenix. In March, he participated in a panel discussion at South by Southwest on the state of pop fandom entitled “Guiltless Pleasures: Imagining a Post-Snob World.”
David Greenwald led that panel. He is a contributing editor for Billboard.com who also has been published in The Atlantic, GQ, and The Los Angeles Times, and he is the founder of the new music magazine UNCOOL.
Here are some of the highlights of the interview with Greenwald and Vozick-Levinson:
(Both reference the Pitchfork Music Festival’s earlier booking of Odd Future during the interview; here is a link to the long interview I did with Pitchfork’s top executives about that in 2011.)
Greenwald: [On Kelly playing Pitchfork] I think there’s a lot going on where someone like R. Kelly, who’s been in the business long enough, can look and see this is the trend, this is where the new audiences are, and go after that.
Vozick-Levinson: I think most young people are definitely aware of the controversy on some level. There’s the [Dave] Chappelle skit… But I think you’re right that for a lot of people it’s just sort of a joke or a punch line and a lot of young people aren’t aware of the depth of the story.
Vozick-Levinson: The things that R. Kelly has been accused of are pretty horrific. There’s this added layer of complexity where the allegations themselves are incredibly disturbing and something that should really give any fan pause. At the same time, he did stand trial and was acquitted. That doesn’t excuse it or mean that those things didn’t happen necessarily, but it makes it a more complicated question. But sure, it should definitely matter. It’s obviously important to separate the work from the artist who creates it, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be considering both things. They’re both important things.
Greenwald: You can’t be super-informed on every single thing you support. But certainly whenever you open your wallet and spend money on something you are making a political choice on some level. And if you’re choosing to support the music of R. Kelly, you should be aware that this is [his] history, these are the actions he’s accused of, and that is true for any artist.
Greenwald: One thing we saw at Pitchfork last year [in 2011] with the protest against Odd Future being booked—and Odd Future is a group who had not actually gone out and done any of these things, they were just rapping about them—but I think having those protestors there sparks a conversation and Pitchfork had to respond to it, and then it just became something that people were aware of. One thing that can be done is creating the conversation and having it humming through Twitter and Tumblr and all of these outlets and having people be aware that these are the stakes of having this happen.
Vozick-Levinson: I think this is an example where knowledge of the artist’s actual life can give us a sort of deeper and more nuanced understanding of the work. It’s easy to listen to something like “Sex in the Kitchen” and think it’s a cartoon, but it’s not, there’s actually a darker subtext to it, and I think it’s worth exploring that. And I think it actually makes the work more interesting, not less.
Ahead of R. Kelly headlining Pitchfork Music Festival, WBEZ’s Jim DeRogatis conducts a series of conversations with smart, passionate cultural critics. Videos have been edited for length and clarity.
- The Kelly Conversations: Kelly fans Jenny Benevento and Jake Austen
How does the true fan of R. Kelly’s music balance the pleasure that music provides with the unpleasant knowledge of the acts he’s been accused of? Should the private actions of an artist ever impact the appreciation of the art? And what is the responsibility of the fan who supports an artist whose misdeeds are hurting others?
Jenny Benevento is a librarian, a blogger, a cultural commentator, and co-host of the pop-culture podcast “Jenny & Paul Sell Out.” Last October, she participated in an evening entitled “R. Kelly 101: Trapped in the Closet—What, How, Why?” sponsored by Homeroom at the Hungry Brain.
Jake Austen, who also sat on that panel, went to high school with Kelly at Kenwood Academy. He is the publisher of Roctober, the force behind the public access television show Chic-A-Go-Go, the singer in the Goblins, and the author of several books, including Flying Saucers Rock ’n’ Roll: Conversations with Unjustly Obscure Rock ’n’ Soul Eccentrics (Refiguring American Music) (Duke University Press) and Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop (W.W. Norton).
Here are some of the highlights of the interview with Austen and Benevento:
(Austen references the Pitchfork Music Festival’s earlier booking of Odd Future several times during the chat; here is the long interview I did with Pitchfork’s top executives about that in 2011.)
Austen: The thing about him is that he’s shameless and he uses it to his advantage. A lot of his writing is about shamelessness, a lot of his excess is about shamelessness, and he doesn’t have any remorse
Benevento: Is the intentionality of this 'this is a totally ironic act to bring to Pitchfork'? I think it’s a mix. I think that’s why he’s so successful. His music is so great, but hipsters can ironically enjoy these hilarious lyrical themes. The lyrical themes are alien to everyone’s life; no one can really identify with R. Kelly’s lyrics.
Austen: It seems like R. Kelly’s sex songs are just about him; they’re not about a partner. They all take place in his mind. There’s no other characters in these songs, really… It’s not real, and I absolutely understand why it’s hard to separate this fantasy thing from the actual sex that he’s had, but it’s hard to hear those songs and thing about human beings.
Austen: Of course you are right to ask them [Pitchfork] those questions, but the reason they’re right not to answer them is they don’t want R. Kelly to not do the show… It seems like Pitchfork the website would want to talk about this; that’s a good place to talk about it. But this festival thing is a separate thing in a way. Ideally, you are right. This is something that should be talked about. But you understand why they’re not going to. When a journalist is also a promoter, it puts them in a bad position.
Benevento: I think tourism is a great term for it. It’s like, “Oh, I’m just watching this freak show….” Just because I paid money and am totally supporting this financially it doesn’t mean that I really support this….
Benevento: I do think that bro, macho culture is there in indie rock just as much as it’s there in every other kind of aspect of rock n’ roll. It’s just maybe a little bit more underground. It’s not separate water fountains now, it’s just this casual racism. In the same way, I think there’s a lot of casual sexism, where it’s like, 'Come on, it’s just fun to watch R. Kelly, why do you have to bring me down with this rape idea? It doesn’t matter ’cause it’s fun and it’s really good music.'
Ahead of R. Kelly headlining Pitchfork Music Festival, WBEZ’s Jim DeRogatis conducts a series of conversations with smart, passionate cultural critics. Videos have been edited for length and clarity.
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