Importance of Artists as Role models

Artists have a responsibility to serve as role models to our youth

I disagree with this statement as I feel music artists have the right to express their own personalities and emotions through their music. I feel that artists and musicians choose to be artists as they feel that they can express themselves through it and if that is stripped back just to be ‘appropriate’ and suitable for a specific target market then it isn't music that truly expresses anything- which is what music is all about. However artists do have to serve as role models to our youth through their actions, if only their goal is to target a specific audience, but they do not have to take any responsibility what so ever for what teenagers choose to listen to or the actions they choose to take because of artists lyrics. For example, an artist like Chris brown was seen as a heart throb known for his expressive dancing and old school R&B yet his music has slowly changed from being about love to being more about the sexual experiences he would like or has had with women which has taken the young loved R&B singer he once was, however, I feel that over the years as he has gotten old, he has developed to create music that is more about what he wants to write and sing about rather than impressing a target audience of young girls who seen his as a teenage crush. 

Chris Brown's change

This has also been portrayed with the likes of Justin Bieber who has taken a different approach and created songs more for an older audience than create music videos and songs that are seen as “soppy”. I feel that with Tavonga’s role as an artist, we should express him to be more a character that expresses his own views and style rather than an artist that follows in the footsteps of others.

Justin Bieber's change