"Falling Like the Stars," James Arthur, February 25, 2021

Apple Music now has endless music after the album, song, or playlist you were listening to has ended, the algorithm will suggest songs you might like. After a Shawn Mendes single, Apple suggested a track from Taylor Swift's Folklore and then this song. I had never heard of James Arthur, but the song reminded me of moments in my long distance relationship and about a time early in my relationship when we got food poisoning from some bad chicken. The song had a sweet, This Is Us kind of feeling to it, so I thought that might be a nice thing to write about today. But, as another part of my project is research, I wanted to know about the artist, and what I found didn't feel so touchy feely, but something nonetheless that I have wanted to process since I've started writing again.

WE'RE FALLIN' LIKE THE STARS. I've been wondering these days about cancel culture. What causes a stumble and what causes a fall? How can we know the difference? And finally, how do we deal with problematic trailblazers, acknowledging cultural significance, but critiquing the underlying issues? James Arthur was the winner of Britain's X Factor. He had a background in Alternative Rock, Pop, and Hip Hop, and seemed to be ready for his fifteen minutes of fame, but hit a bit of controversy. After he released his 2013 debut, he released a diss track which included a homophobic slur, and a hip hop project which included violent lyrics. So many people were outraged with Arthur that iTunes even refunded money for the purchased album. This caused Arthur to be dropped by his record label. As I read this story, I thought that if this had happened today. Not only had the artist offended his fans, he cost the music industry money.

AND I'M NOT SCARED TO SAY THOSE WORDS. Today, I found out that one of my former colleagues was blocked from Facebook for spreading fake news. This is not at all surprising, and if anyone was a candidate for Facebook censure, it would be this guy. We live in a world for very loud talking heads right now, and false information shouldn't be used on any side in this war of words. James Arthur was able to repair his career with apologies and time to distance himself from the dumb decisions he made musically. But this got me thinking about the problematic songs that graced the Top 40 as little as ten years ago. Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" slide under the door just before the #MeToo movement. I'm cringing remembering 30h3!'s song "Don't Trust Me," and come to think of it, the whole album is pretty toxic. And although it wasn't a single, we should remember on Katy Perry's first album she calls out a boyfriend who is "so gay [but doesn't] even like boys." In the age of so-called "Cancel Culture," I wonder what we are supposed to do with our past. Do we memorialize it? Do we act like it never happened? Do we apologize for it? I certainly don't want someone to find my old beliefs, copy them from MySpace, and post them on Twitter. Then there's television. Disney+ just released The Muppet Show with a content warning, explaining that some of the humor might make people uncomfortable. They also pulled two episodes which had content that they found to be unacceptable for release. But I wonder, should that content be available? If not on Disney+, then somewhere? How are we ever going to analyze the past if we keep burning the primary documents on which our history books are based.  Let's proceed with caution, shall we?

https://genius.com/James-arthur-falling-like-the-stars-lyrics