We Separated the Art From the Artist and Steven Tyler Still Sucks

Can you separate the art from the artist? When a creator whose work you love reveals a trait of character you cannot abide, is it ethical to continue consuming and admiring their work? It’s an age-old debate, and one that we here at the hard times are in no way equipped to settle, but as a little thought experiment, just for the sake of argument, let’s say you can. Let’s say you can completely overlook the fact that Steven Tyler is accused of grooming and assaulting teenagers in the ‘70s and focus purely on his art. Guess what? Dude is still a huge piece of shit. 

Have you actually listened to Aerosmith? No music this terrible should fuel any debate on art, ethics, or cancel culture — shitty is just shitty; turn that shit off. It’s like someone prompted ChatGPT: “Write a bunch of soulless, generic arena rock songs that could play for 5 seconds in my deodorant commercial that takes place at a concert.” Then they followed that up with “No, no, make it way shittier; we don’t want anyone mistaking this for a real band,” and then followed that up with “Look, just write a song my drunk aunt might be listening to while she burns my arm with a cigarette.” 

Right now, somewhere out there, there’s some MAGA-adjacent asshole going, “Oh, so because of woke I’m supposed to not enjoy ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’ anymore?” And the answer to that is, “No, motherfucker, you can’t enjoy that song because that song is the suckiest bag of fucking suck that ever sucked, and it’s physically impossible to enjoy!” 

Try to do it. Try to earnestly enjoy an Aerosmith song for what it is. Hell, get yourself in the BEST possible mood first, go for a brisk walk, stretch, meditate, get yourself in the most receptive and accepting headspace possible, and put on any one Aerosmith song. You will be vomiting things you don’t even recognize in seconds. 

When the artist in question is a weird sentient collective of scarves and lips, there’s really no need to separate them from the art; just avoid them at all costs. In closing, here are some well-known Aerosmith lyrics and song titles followed by pithy one-liners:

Walk This Way? As long as it’s away from Aerosmith, that shitty, horrible band! 

Janie’s Got a Gun? Cool, she can use it to shoot whatever speaker Aerosmith is playing from and then hunt down whoever put it on. 

Pink? More like stink. 

Livin on the Edge? Is Aerosmith playing? Jump. 

Sweet Emotion? Are you describing the feeling you get when someone turns off Aerosmith? 

Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing? How about missin me with that generic-ass dad rock bullshit? 

Love in an Elevator? Did you ask how old she is first, Steve? Okay, fine, we didn’t separate the art from the artist, but Aerosmith still objectively sucks!

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