The Arts and Their Makers; Do We Know Them?

Chinaza Iwe, Culture Section Editor, BA History and World Philosophies

We, as a society, consume an incredible amount of media; music, film, and literature being the favourites and often our guilty pleasures. Yet, we only see what is directly in front of us, the actors on screen or the words on a page; we fail to look deeper. We must begin to ask ourselves the question of who we really know. Do we know our musicians, directors, writers, and producers? We are only privy to what they want us to see. It is necessary to ask if the work of those we see within the media is reflective of their personal identities, and furthermore, if the ‘cancelled’ can find themselves back in the public's good graces. 

Celebrities are simply people who have fallen into the limelight. They are people we don't actually know and yet spend so much time focusing on. The truth is that we don’t know them; we know the image they curate and the characters they perform. 

Connection to music is one of the driving forces of society, it has the power to connect people. ‘What do you listen to?’ is a favourite first date question, we can learn a lot about a person through their music. Our connection to artists through their music, however, can be shallow.

We only know what feeling they seek to evoke from us. The sadness that we feel deep in our souls when a devastating song plays is ours. The joy of dancing on a table to a good song in the club is ours. Artists help us get there, sure; but these very real emotions are ours. 

The art that creatives produce is distinct from them as individuals. Actors don't write their own scripts. Musicians don't always write their own songs. Authors create characters, perhaps imitating traits of themselves into their creations; but while we can know these characters, we still don't know the author. So if we don't know the creators of media, why do we behave as though we do? We can and should recognise that celebrities build a brand to project and that is what we associate with, rather than the celebrities themselves. Why can we not hold firm in our ‘cancelling of celebs? Why do we hold on to them so dearly?

The simple answer is that we crave connection. We can construct an image of them, make them perfect. Furthermore, when racist comments surface, when celebrities reveal their political alignment, or when they are accused of offences as cruel as abuse, a lot of people do not react. Chris Brown is a particularly strong example of the public’s amnesia or weak willpower. To this day, Chris Brown sells out concerts because people ‘love his music’. During his 2025 tour, interviews were conducted asking ticket holders why they still supported Brown. The answers were sickening. They answered that his abuse towards Rihanna was ‘so long ago’, ‘not that serious’, or his actions simply didn't matter. Taylor Swift performed sold out shows for two years despite the debate surrounding her carbon footprint, due to her excessive use of private jets, amounting to 8,300 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2022. Additionally, her billionaire status is something that has been hotly contested. 

The debate surrounding them is concrete proof that the arts, and the feelings they evoke in us, are fundamentally separate from their creators. When we consume media, we make it ours. We form connections with music, films, and literature, as well as with the people we share them with. This connection, however, cannot extend to the creators themselves. 

If we separate the creator from the art, then, why do we hesitate to cancel people? We need to put our money where our mouths are. Supporting media created by people we wouldn't ever associate with is counterintuitive and continuing to let creators we disagree with profit off us is ridiculous. Indeed, many who have been cancelled find themselves back in the public's good graces after enough time has passed, but maybe we should hold grudges; we should hold creators accountable because the media they produce is for us. 

So yes, artists and their art are in fact separate. We do not know the artists personally, and we should not act as such, just as much as how important it is to keep those who are cancelled, actually cancelled.