Accountability in Music • Page 1032

im pretty sure gira admitted to assaulting a completely different person

 

This made me feel sick. I know Tait’s sexuality has been a sort of “open secret” in the industry for decades now, but to finally know the truth about the multiple assaults he committed after being raised to look up to him as a kid has got me in my feelings right now.

One moment, please...

 

Man. I grew up on Newsboys and DC Talk. That’s tremendously gross. What in the world. Glad these people finally went on the record about this.

 

Came here to post about that. I was 22 in 2015 playing various CCM festivals and working stage crew for them… I’ve 100% been greeted by him grabbing my shoulders and rubbing my back… this one hits very close to home

 

(apologies for bringing up this band in this thread but they used to mean a lot to me)- don't try to make yourself (speaking generally to 'you', not anyone in this thread) feel better by trying to justify listening to brand new on this thread. grow up and decide that for yourself based on your own morals rather than strangers on the internet. it is quite clear jesse lacey hasn't made amends with the survivors of his actions.

this is also making me think about how when abusive actions by band members get outed in the scene, we should stick to our values of restorative justice and making that a defining value of how we approach, as members of the scene, problematic individuals so apologetics can't use whataboutsoandso as an excuse. the harder problem is, what does accountability look like? i'm not sure.

right now, this means, to me, holding them accountable for the harm they caused and also leaving space, with caveats, for growth. jesse hasn't done any of this. brand new (the band) fans who welcome their return fail to realize this concept- no, we don't want to 'cancel' the band because he messed up- it's because he's failed to take accountability. this is worsened by the age and power differential of the girls he took advantage of in his mid-20's.

also, space for growth does not mean an accused person deserves a space at the table, their platform restored, or allowed to be on a stage. i feel like most of you also believe in acab but the difficult reality of that is rehabilitation for even the most heinous of people, including those who groom teenagers, is part of rehabilitation. but once again, that doesn't mean we welcome them back with open arms. i ask you (now i'm speaking to yall in the thread) try to deconstruct the toxicity of the u.s. justice system (i'm realizing this is a very american perspective). but taking accountability doesn't ever entitle them to a platform since they blew that chance. and if you aren't a victim, you can't accept any kind of forgiveness of the abuser.

hope this makes sense, but please let me know if you have critiques or if i'm being insensitive. this tiktok from a college lecturer deeply entrenched in the scene echoes a lot of my feelings. anyway, i used to love brand new but that died in 2017, i will happily ignore any and skip anytime brand new tries to make itself relevant in anyway

 

Man, I’m sorry to hear that. It’s crazy (or maybe not all that crazy) that he was able to get away with this for so long.

 

dc Talk is the starting place of basically all my tastes in music, and Tait’s solo act was my first ever proper concert. I haven’t kept up with Christian music in forever, but still hoped to one day see a proper dc Talk show (even though I saw that Tait was actively a Trump guy and doing mostly bad music with Newsboys).

Really fucking sucks to learn that he was such a predatory shit for so long. And, that rot is clearly even deeper in the CCM world than I already assumed.

Can’t believe finding out that a member of dc Talk is gay during the first week of Pride is horrifying instead of neat.

 

I’ve been seeing a lot of former crew members coming out in the last twelve hours saying basically the same thing. I’m glad for your sake that he didn’t have a chance to take it further with you because it seems like, given the opportunity, he absolutely would have. I’ve also been reading some comments from former crew members that would seem to indicate there were higher ups in CCM who were fully aware of his predatory behavior and that he should not be left alone with young males especially. I’m not surprised by the utter hypocrisy, but still disappointed as hell nevertheless.

That last part has been kicking around my brain all night and morning. In some ways the timing of this feels almost coordinated given that we all know how the Christian right will respond with the finger pointing.

 

wow, that's incredibly fucked up. i had heard in passing for years that there were prominent CCM artists who were closeted, but i never expected it to be Tait, or that he would've assaulted anyone. my heart goes out to everyone who came forward.

yeah, the optics of the article being released right now feel like an opportunity for Evangelicals to pin it on LGBTQ people. i remember seeing similar instances after the Pulse shooting, with multiple pastors (including my former pastor) call it sad but a symptom of a "sinful lifestyle". they'll do anything but point the finger at themselves for fostering a predatory culture. i hope this emboldens more people to come forward and expose just how fucked up this industry is (the article mentions there's another testimony about Tait that'll be shared in the near future in a separate article).

 

Not directly connected but a friend of mine’s band won a contest to open for the Tait-fronted version of Newsboys and said the entire band was backstage drunk before the show and making fun of their Christian fans. Not people of character for a band singing about love and Jesus.

 

Newsboys was my favorite band for years before I started listening to secular music. This is beyond gross and appalling.

 

This part of the article was a huge side eye as well:

This type of behavior wasn’t unfamiliar to Phillip, or the Christian music industry. According to multiple sources who have and currently tour in Christian music, this type of locker room behavior, often involving nudity, massage, beer, cigarettes, and in this case skinny dipping, has frequented Christian music spheres of influence for decades.

Andrew Welch, a former member of the Christian rock band Disciple, described this type of behavior as “horse play,” stemming from boredom and being in close quarters. He told TRR that it was a way of bonding and didn’t seem harmful at the time. While there are more reserved bands, this culture makes it normal for there to be “naked bands” on tour. While the Newsboys were not classified this way, he added, Tait was known for wearing less clothes.

I listened to Disciple back in the day and seeing them defend it as “horse play” is… something. I feel mentally drained this morning.

 

yeah 'decades?' what the hell does that mean??

 

To be fair the original Jesus People were all hippies, and hippies would hang out naked

 

Reading the article, I don't think the former Disciple member was specifically referring to what Tait was doing, so much as the general behavior in that scene.

Nudity, alcohol, cigarettes, and skinny dipping sounds as much frat boy than anything darker. I wouldn't read that and assume he was trying to defend assault.

I'm prepared to be wrong though!

 

Yeah, I do think you’re probably right about that and can see that that’s probably how they view it as it’s just sort of normalized. I’m sure most male centered bands are filled with frat boy antics out on the road. I have a real sick feeling in the pit of my stomach though that there’s probably a lot more I’m about to learn that I don’t want to know. But also I need to.

 

There being a quote from a member of Disciple, a band whose early material (“I Just Know” through “Back Again,” and some stray stuff a couple albums later) was big for me back in the day, was funny in a dark way. Like, was this horrific expose written with me, in particular, in mind?

Also. I would perhaps argue that sexual assault with substance abuse kinda goes alongside frat culture, not in contrast to it.

 

This is absolutely true, and no one was implying a contrast (unless I have a post blocked that did). More that one doesn't necessarily have to imply the other.

Of course that kind of environment can normalize that behavior and lead to more extreme ends, but I'd rather not preemptively assume that.

 

“We have 14 children” is a weird route to take to try and save face

 

Whoa, everyone, they were deceived, too! They’re also victims!

 

yeah that's not a good statement. i'm sure they knew to a certain degree

 

I hate when someone releases a statement that mentions that they have kids. I guess if they didn’t have them, they would have way less empathy!

 

Can’t take the Jesus route this time!

 

GODS NOT DEAD HE'S SURELY ALIVE HE'S LIVING ON THE INSIDE ROARING LIKE A LIONNNNN