Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Leave Adele alone!

People seem quite up in arms about this comment Adele made to Vogue:
“I am fucking off for four or five years,” she says. “If I am constantly working, my relationships fail. So at least now I can have enough time to write a happy record. And be in love and be happy. And then I don’t know what I’ll do. Get married. Have some kids. Plant a nice vegetable patch.”
Okay . . . well, three things.

1) I don't think this necessarily means, as some are saying, that she is LEAVING MUSIC ENTIRELY for five years. (Possibly she's said something more stark like that elsewhere? But not that I've seen.) I think after the time she's had recently, what with touring and surgery and crazy success, it's perfectly reasonable of her to want to slow down for a while.

2) And really, even if I didn't, personally, think it was reasonable . . . so what? I hate this idea that artists owe something to their fans, that they have to be always on, that they need a certain number of concert dates or a book a year or whatever else. They're people, and the fact that you have consumed their products doesn't mean you have any ownership over them or claim to their time in the future.

3) And I really, really don't think any of us should be leaping to conclusions about her current relationship solely because she's taking time off or slowing down. I guess it's theoretically possible that she said the above because her relationship is unhealthy and her boyfriend won't "allow" her to succeed, but that's far from the only or most likely explanation, and seeing people state that that's what this MUST mean is unfair and alarming.

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