I hate when the guys on my iPod start beating up their girlfriends. It?s not like I boycott their music: I?ve enjoyed the songs of many a criminal, some of whom have probably knocked around a few ladies. But when it happens in real time, I?m out. This small trend started early in 2008. I was reading Elyse Sewell?s blog?if you watched the first season of America?s Next Top Model, you?d recognize Elyse, and maybe remember that she dated a guy named Marty. Martin Crandall plays keyboard for the Shins, and apparently he roughed Elyse up and she wrote about it. Next thing I knew, I couldn?t lose myself in ?Turn On Me? or ?Sea Legs? or ?Australia? the way I could before. I felt vaguely embarrassed when they popped up on shuffle, and yearned for more innocent times. (It was also weird to think about a sweet-looking hipster like Crandall being a violent guy).
The Shins aren?t alone, of course. You may have heard about a young singer named Christopher Brown who was recently charged with felony accounts of assault after beating up one Rihanna. The duet Brown sang with Jordin Sparks, ?No Air,? has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and part of what I loved was how unabashedly over-the-top teenagery it was. Then my view of Brown changed. I like my singing teenagers overwrought and funny, not overwrought and violent. ?No Air? is no longer fun to listen to, and the title has nothing to do with it.
