Today’s music industry giants must be making huge profits. What they have neglected to do, however, is to maintain their industry’s clean image.
Presently, the number of court cases involving musicians is staggering. This epidemic has reached a ludicrous level with some recent run-ins with the law.
Take everybody’s favorite R&B royalty, R. Kelly.
A Chicago judge issued a warning Thursday telling Kelly that although he could attend the upcoming Grammy Awards, he could not meet with Michael Jackson while attending the Feb. 8 event.
It makes sense to separate these two alleged child sexual misconduct stars, but the groups that really need the separation from one another are the musicians and their labels.
The average Johnny B. Goode knows that these kinds of criminal charges have the possibility to devastate any artist’s career, regardless of the person’s guilt.
It would not be too much of a stretch to assume that record labels, whose job is to make money off an artist’s image and music, would look at criminal charges against the musician as a potential money loss.
However, record labels know that any media attention on their artists equals money gain, not loss.
What most people do not realize is that these very real and serious criminal proceedings have done wonders for most artists’ music sales.
R. Kelly, for instance, has four contributions that appear in the Top 30 of the latest installment of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Jackson, too, has seen increased sales since his recent thrust back into the limelight.
It is clear that although these charges and trials against artists give them a bad reputation, they do not hurt their album sales.
The record companies love the money that they make from the Kellys and Jacksons of the world.
The problem is that these men are poor role models for the millions of fans that look up to them.
The record labels do not seem willing to drop their artist from a contract, or even punish the artist for their criminal misstep.
Look at the case of Courtney Love. She was charged with breaking into a former manager’s household, along with two counts of drug possession.
Outside of the courtroom, Love announced that she managed to get her trial postponed for the second time.
This trial delay is due not to her need to take care of her child, but the fact that she has announced a tour to support her new album.
Believe it or not, Love’s new album will be coming out just in time for her new trial.
The saddest aspect of this case is the fact that Love seems more worried about her career than her struggling family life.
Her juvenile and dangerous run-ins with the law set an awful example for her fans and, more importantly, her 11-year-old daughter.
Love seems to be fighting the losing end of a custody battle for her daughter.
To see just how out of hand this music artist-courtroom relationship has gotten, check out Yahoo’s Entertainment News section.
All of your favorite musicians are present, but you will not find a discussion of their new concert dates. Instead, you can be treated to find their upcoming court dates.
Even the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, has made his way back into the headlines.
The “Living in America” singer and hair extraordinaire made news by an alleged domestic abuse incident.
This scandal comes in the midst of news that his hometown of Augusta planning to put up a statue of him.
As much as I hate to see these music stars getting put under the unyielding spotlight of negative press, I cannot say that I sympathize with them.
These musicians must face this kind of media scrutiny daily, and in doing so, must maintain a good image for the public to view.
On the other hand, I can see where these artists would not mind the negative publicity.
If we all take a look at Ozzy Osbourne’s bat-biting, speech-slurring days of the 1980s, we find that he is rewarded for this by getting his own TV show “The Osbournes.”
So if we cannot blame the artists and their selfishness, who can we blame?
We can blame the recording industry giants, who receive all of their profits from the accused person’s record sales. They have much to gain from their clients being placed in the media spotlight, good or bad.
Maybe we can rely on ourselves not to buy this sensationalism of these musical media darlings.
We should not support delinquent musicians by purchasing their albums.
Instead of buying a new copy of “Thriller” to remember what all this fuss is about, we can set the right example that these musicians have long since lost.
Edd Mullin is a sophomore English major. He can be reached at [email protected].