A Michael Jackson jukebox musical has just opened – with no mention of sexual allegations – and a biopic is coming. What makes some celebrities immune to cancel culture? We examine who gets ostracised and who doesn’t
as a Michael Jackson jukebox musical really such a good idea? When MJ the Musical opened in London last week, it was praised for its gravity-defying dancing and raft of floor-filling megahits. But one glaring oversight was unfailingly remarked upon. “In MJ,” ran the New York Times headline, “no one’s looking at The Man in the Mirror.” The show, it added, told the story of Jackson, “except for the big story”. As: “It is hard to ignore the repeated allegations of child sexual abuse.
How do you grapple with cases in which there are conflicting views and grey areas? Does Morrissey’s embrace of far-right political groups such as For Britain have to be weighed on some kind of moral scale against Johnny Marr’s progressive values, to work out if the Smiths are cancelled? Should Benjamin Zephaniah be shunned for being violent towards a former girlfriend, or is he excused because he was the one who wrote about it, expressing regret and the need to be better? Before long, my list...
This is not the first time Bowie has faced a backlash. In the 1970s, he was called out for expressing sympathy with the far right and calling Hitler the “first rock star”. But Jérôme Soligny, who wrote last year’s Bowie biography Rainbowman, doesn’t believe the accusations amount to much. “Bowie did say a couple of things he would regret later. Who didn’t? A lot was written at the time but we know now it was misconception from the press.
But in reality, proper cancellation probably only happens for “people who don’t have the monolithic presence in their field – the debut artists, the non-tenured professor, the writer with only a couple of books out”, she says. “That process of reconsideration is only going to destabilise someone who can’t depend on strong bonds to fans, promoters, people in the industry outside social media.
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