Artist Responsibility??…
June 5th, 2007 by 
demonterious
“I am not a role model.” These are words that were once uttered by NBA basketball legend Charles Barkley and were representative of the reality in which he lived. His stance on his life had significant implications on the celebrity - civilian relationships that existed in society. Did this statement mean that artists, athletes, celebrities, political figures, etc., had no right to be default role models simply because of their socioeconomic status? Were we only to admire them and promote their “non-role model” lives by viewing every movie they were in, buying every CD they created or buying the shoes, drinks, and clothes they endorsed? Were we not to hold them in some way accountable for the way they carried themselves in society? The Situation gets sticky here.
Paparazzi and corporate media, camera / video phones, blogs, wiki’s, YouTube, Flickr and other similar entities have caused the line between personal and public to become even smaller for celebrities. There are some people that think that because you are a celebrity, you must constantly be indebted to society and your privacy is the price to be paid. For a reason that I’ve yet to theorize upon, so many people have an obsession with private lives of public figures. This obsession causes people to want more and more and more… more pictures, more gossip and more video, while advances in technology help fuel the addiction.
The incessant desire to know as much possible about a favorite celebrity is nothing new. With this in mind, it seems that people would live their lives accordingly. When you reach a certain status in society you have to live your life like the whole world will know everything sooner than later. You can’t just be careless but there are people that are stalking for an opportunity to take advantage of your success and your whole life can slip away because of one simple mistake.
With all that said check out this video and tell me what you think:
Is this a situation where someone with a video phone was recording a star and disrespecting that star’s right to privacy? Because I’m sure if this show was to be officially recorded that it would have been done professionally. Or should we as consumers of his products hold him accountable for the way he acts? Last I checked, the consumer has the most power. I don’t know, maybe I’m trippin, but Akon is off the hook with the crazy stuff he does and I can’t support him or the things he gets involved in. If I’m over reacting to the situation, just holla at me and let me know.
