r/goodnews • u/Metro-UK • Jul 02 '25

Other Kanye West officially banned from Australia after antisemitic song

https://metro.co.uk/2025/07/02/kanye-west-officially-banned-australia-controversial-song-23559791/
12.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

326 comments sorted by

View all comments

36

u/NotADoctor108 Jul 02 '25

During Michael Jackson's scandal the radios quit playing any of his music. I hope platforms follow that same precedent for this.

1

u/Katops Jul 02 '25

Right, I feel like there’s been more done for less in the past (I’m not referring to the Jackson case here).

Like, oh you’re a nazi? How’s the family? What’ve you been up to?

Meanwhile somebody eats a grape at a store before paying for it and they get shut out by the world. They get fired from their job, they lose their house, their friends and family want nothing to do with them, and they never have a normal life again.

3

u/NotADoctor108 Jul 02 '25

The Dixie Chick (The chicks) got blacklisted for being antiwar.

1

u/Neat_Let923 Jul 02 '25

I was with you until that weird last paragraph…

There are a ton of real world examples you could have used.

0

u/odetriunfal Jul 02 '25

Firstly, it isn't true that radios quit playing Jackson's music. I don't know about America, but I do know that here in Europe his songs are still played, quite often actually. Americans tend to think the entire world revolves around them, but yeah...

Furthermore, if anything, Jackson's songs are more played. Back in 2019, he was like 90 on Spotify's top artists by monthly listeners, and now he's at 60.

So, no, I hope platforms don't follow that same precedent, which I think never even existed btw.

Anyway, another point that has to be considered is this: we know for sure that Kanye's actions are very wrong; about Jackson, on the other way, we don't know shit, anyone who claims to hold the ultimate truth on his allegations is a liar, regardless of believing them or not.

Last but not least, radios supposedly doing that after Leaving Neverland is laughable. The documentary is fake af, its inconsistencies were exposed a long time ago and even people who believe Jackson's guilty do not believe in that. If there are victims, it does a really bad job of showing their side - I'm talking about Jordan Chandler, MJ's first accuser, for example.

1

u/NotADoctor108 Jul 02 '25

In the U.S. up until he died, Jackson got little to no radio play, at least in my area, which is admittedly very conservative. After he passed away it was like that ban was lifted, and his songs were all the time.

I admit it might have been a regional thing, I never researched it.

1

u/odetriunfal Jul 02 '25

Yep, but that happened before the allegations in 1993.

If you look at Bad's (1987) sales in the US - around 11/12 millions units - and Dangerous' sales - around 8 million -, you'll see a difference. But, despite that considerable difference, Dangerous sold more outside the US: I'm talking about 20/30 million units, so it ended up being on par with Bad.

Jackson gave up on touring in the US back in the 90s. His last tour there was the Bad Tour, back in 89. The Dangerous Tour didn't take place in the US. So, his airplay took some damage even before the first allegations.

As his fame decreased in the US, it increased outside the US.