Perhaps the artists escaped more easily because we love them too much – Expression

Strictly speaking, no one would have believed that P. Diddy was an angel.

The producer and rap mogul, also known as Sean Combs and Puff Daddy, has been surrounded by rumors and accusations since the nineties. There have been a number of stories that he should have behaved threateningly and violently. But the music he made with artists like the Notorious BIG and Mary J. Blige was so catchy and so flattering, so in demand, that nothing about him became engrossing. Not until now.

In November, Diddy was sued by his ex-girlfriend, the artist Cassie. The accusations were numerous and serious. Cassie claimed that Diddy subjected her to violence and abuse, and pressured her to have sex with male prostitutes while he watched. The case was quickly resolved through a secret settlement that neither party could talk about afterwards.

But the lawsuit had left a heavy door open. Since then, there have been five new lawsuits against Diddy, from four women and one man. The man, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr., claims to have experienced being drugged, harassed, and tried to threaten to have sex with prostitutes by Combs.

The accused denies having done anything wrong. But in March, federal police raided his homes in Miami and Los Angeles, and stopped Diddy at the airport on his way to the Bahamas.

He was not arrested, but several electronic items were confiscated. No one knows yet what the investigation will result in.

It’s only been half a year since Diddy was praised by the industry for his new solo album, “The Love Album: Off the Grid.” The accusations not only put him in an unpleasant light, but also the music industry as such. Because there have been few metoo settlements in the music world.

The film industry, the performing arts, literature and the media have had their big, upheaval cases, which have led to increased awareness and new sets of norms and rules. But with the exception of the artist R. Kelly, who is serving a long prison sentence after being convicted of several counts of assaulting minors, it may seem that music’s big names are difficult to pull off the stage.

Nor has there been any conspicuously great eagerness to go after the groupie culture of the last half of the 20th century, with all the excesses that came with it.

In The Guardian newspaper, commentator Tim Jonze recently asked why on earth an artist like Michael Jackson has not been cancelled. He had noted that the Jackson store seemed to be going strong, with jukebox musicals based on Jackson’s music on stages in the West End and on Broadway, and a biopic on the way.

This is happening even though there have been more and more serious accusations against the late megastar than against many of the men who were confronted and torn down from high positions by the metoo wave.

The last time these allegations came to light was in the 2019 documentary “Leaving Neverland,” where two men say they were sexually abused by Jackson as children.

By comparison, almost no one wants to work with Woody Allen, the once celebrated filmmaker. Allen also has an accusation hanging over him, that he molested his adopted daughter when she was seven. It is an inflamed and controversial story that is difficult to get to the bottom of, but the police who investigated the case decided not to pursue it.

Such cases are serious anyway, whether there is one or more accusers. But it is worth noting that Allen has been stripped of almost all credit due to a painful but unsolved case, while Michael Jackson’s popularity seems to be almost as strong as before. Neither of the two men has been sentenced for the circumstances.

The fact that Jackson is dead naturally makes it easier to relate to him. Nobody needs to lie awake wondering if he should be invited to a talk show or have his record deal extended. But when Jackson and Allen are evaluated so differently, it also says something about the resistance to such settlements that seem to lie like a tenacious mass in the music industry, and which means that the big issues are taken up late or not at all.

That may be about to change now. Last year, several women accused Rammstein vocalist Till Lindemann of violence and sexual assault. And Cassie’s accusations against Diddy were made possible by a legal window of about a year. It made it possible for those who believed themselves to be victims of sexual crimes to take cases that were actually time-barred to court.

It led to a storm of lawsuits, over three thousand in number. Many of them were about men in the music business. The high number made it urgent to ask the uncomfortable question: Why not sooner?

Perhaps the main reason is love. The artist who made you cry and dance, who made the soundtrack to the summers of your youth, your first crush, is loved. It’s deep inside to distrust someone who spoke to you on the deep, emotional level that music reaches.

Perhaps this is what determines the fate of those accused of transgressing sexual boundaries, whether they are publicly disgraced or not. Perhaps it is less about what they are accused of. Perhaps it is rather about how many people cannot bring themselves to believe that they are like that.

The latter still does not explain why it has taken so long before P. Diddy was confronted by those who believed that he had wronged them.

There are perhaps other aspects of the music industry that come into play. It may be that the music, and especially pop music, has a certain reputation. Those standing outside immediately assume that it is a room that is decadent and limitless. Then it may be longer to be puzzled over rumors and stories that you would otherwise react to.

It may be that artists are perceived to a greater extent as irreplaceable. When Kevin Spacey was accused of harassment and assault in 2017, he had just shot Ridley Scott’s film “All the Money in the World.”

The old ring fox Scott wasn’t interested in a scandal ruining his film, so he threw himself around, replaced Spacey with Christopher Plummer, and reshot large parts of the film. It would not be possible with the frontman of a band or a beloved singer-songwriter. And it wouldn’t be the same with a sought-after and sensitive producer like Diddy.

And then you have the plain, cold question of resources. The really big names in the music business sit on a network and a bag of money that mere mortals can hardly imagine. Diddy’s reconciliation with Cassie was accomplished in a day. Because even in a world built on myths, creativity and visions, it is often enough that the number on the bottom line rules.