Accountability in Music • Page 201

I also have definitely read in depth pieces in the past that made it seem like because of his really messed up childhood and fame from a young age that he had bizarre ways of communicating or attempting to do good that came off as creepy. I’m pretty sure it also went into how the kids were treated in the investigation and that huge mistakes were made there. I’ll have to see if I can find any of the articles now because I know they were more compelling than I would have expected going into it.

This documentary is going to be absolutely devastating and I’m sure it will make it clear that none of that was the case.

 

Michael Jackson Estate Denounces New Sundance Documentary on Alleged Child Sex Abuse | Pitchfork

“Leaving Neverland isn’t a documentary, it is the kind of tabloid character assassination Michael Jackson endured in life, and now in death. The film takes uncorroborated allegations that supposedly happened 20 years ago and treats them as fact. These claims were the basis of lawsuits filed by these two admitted liars which were ultimately dismissed by a judge. The two accusers testified under oath that these events never occurred. They have provided no independent evidence and absolutely no proof in support of their accusations, which means the entire film hinges solely on the word of two perjurers. Tellingly, the director admitted at the Sundance Film Festival that he limited his interviews only to these accusers and their families. In doing so, he intentionally avoided interviewing numerous people over the years who spent significant time with Michael Jackson and have unambiguously stated that he treated children with respect and did nothing hurtful to them. By choosing not to include any of these independent voices who might challenge the narrative that he was determined to sell, the director neglected fact checking so he could craft a narrative so blatantly one-sided that viewers never get anything close to a balanced portrait.

For 20 years Wade Robson denied in court and in numerous interviews, including after Michael passed, that he was a victim and stated he was grateful for everything Michael had done for him. His family benefitted from Michael’s kindness, generosity and career support up until Michael’s death. Conveniently left out of Leaving Neverland was the fact that when Robson was denied a role in a Michael Jackson themed Cirque du Soleil production, his assault allegations suddenly emerged.

We are extremely sympathetic to any legitimate victim of child abuse. This film, however, does those victims a disservice. Because despite all the disingenuous denials made that this is not about money, it has always been about money – millions of dollars -- dating back to 2013 when both Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who share the same law firm, launched their unsuccessful claims against Michael’s Estate. Now that Michael is no longer here to defend himself, Robson, Safechuck and their lawyers continue their efforts to achieve notoriety and a payday by smearing him with the same allegations a jury found him innocent of when he was alive.”

 

They’ve already said that they were not paid for the documentary, just on a first pass of that statement.

 

This 2003 documentary did a perfectly fine job with convincing me back then that MJ was an incredibly sketchy individual. Ridiculous talented and severely broken for sure, but sketchy nonetheless, and have always assumed it was only a matter of time before something concrete came out.

 

Even like "best case scenario" Michael was extremely inappropriate with children and put children in situations they shouldn't have ever been in, which the statement conveniently leaves out

 

the cycle of abuse argument is def problematic, Chris Brown and R Kelly were also victims of child abuse, and Chris' dad was shitty to his mom, but they are shitty people who can die in a fire

 

Oh I know. I didn’t mean that it was excusing actual abusive behavior, but that what I read painted it as his upbringing changing the way he expressed himself and meant that things were probably creepy or certainly not the way normal adults should behave, but not specifically abusive or sexual. I definitely don’t have any time for saying that any abuse is acceptable because of someone’s history, but this cast doubt on the actual nature of the interactions themselves. I have been trying to find the stuff online but the new documentary has made hunting hard, it just dominates all the searches.

 

Missed this addition, yeah that’s basically what I am talking about. There’s no reason for any of whatever happened to have been allowed by anyone involved, but until this was announced I could have believed that the worst of the allegations were untrue.

I’m not a huge fan of his or anything where I’ve wanted an excuse to listen to his work or support him after death, but I really had hoped for the sake of all those kids that what was going around was true. Finding out that it was just as bad as I always feared if not considerably worse is really heartbreaking.

 

Ik this is kind of off-topic, but Kellin Quinn from SWS posted a picture of his daily playlist on Instagram and the first picture was X's album, and it caught me off-guard.

Like, as flawed as the emo/pop-punk/PHxC scene is, I feel like it's supposedly built on this premise of creating a safe-space & understanding of these issues (Hence why Jonny Craig and Ronnie Radke have fallen off in being taken seriously recently) so it's still kind of a shock to the system to me to be reminded how blatantly abusers are still glorified.

(Also let me clarify, I understand homeboi's dead now, so like it's not any money is going to him, I wouldn't even care if it was, because people have a right to listen to any music-- I'm just kind of shocked at the shamelessness with which Kellin posted about it.)

 

X is unfortunately probably in the top 10 most popular rappers right now, it's basically unavoidable, especially after his death. At least he's not making money from it anymore

 

R. Kelly Has Recorded New Album, Searching for Distributor: Report

 

i lurk around the edm subreddit and datsik is a dubstep producer who got accused of sexual assault. and apparently he's trying to put tracks out under a new name. of course the threads on this is how you would think it go on a reddit board.

here's my favorite comment so far:

I don't get it, why would people dislike work when a person is shitty, I would listen to a banger song even if it was released by Hitler.

im tired

 

I feel once you bring up Hitler, it's just time to pack up and go home.

 

Unless you're writing a history of WWII. Then your job might be pretty tough.

Godwin's law in action...

 

man how Extremely Online do you have to be to think that thought, write it and then press send and think that that's a thought worthy of being shared with literally anyone

Also they unsealed lady gaga's disposition in the Kesha case and she goes way off on dr. Luke's lawer:
Lady Gaga's Heated Deposition Unsealed in Kesha Legal Battle with Dr. Luke

 

On the one hand, I teared up reading the transcript because survivor PTSD brain isn't rational and all I could think about was how it would feel if someone defended ME that way.

On the other hand, it makes her handling of the R. Kelly situation even more depressing for some pretty obvious reasons. Granted, it's easier to be invested when you're personally involved but something tells me that's not qwhite the full story.

But, I'm very glad she stuck up for Kesha. Dr. Luke can choke.

 

An hour of footage got cut from this documentary.

 

don’t listen to EDM

 

Unrelated to what he should be in jail for but still

 

Pretty awesome that Big Boi released a new song co-written by Dr. Luke.

 

Yeesh

 

he also had a production credit on his last record

 

The EDM community won't let him go anywhere with this. When that came out, Datsik was ACTUALLY canceled. Got dropped from every event, no one wanted to book him, producers stayed away from him, the whole nine.

 

jesus christ.



no pun intended.