The other day I was listening to Hole. I love the earlier stuff, Pretty on The Inside and Live Through This, both great albums and two of my favorites. This is when my sister, an aspiring music journalist, snidely asks “Why are you listening to Courtney Love?”

The best possible answer to this question would simply be “Why the hell not?” I find it both sad and disgusting that someone wouldn’t listen to an artist because of their bad reputation. And anyone familiar with Courtney Love knows about what others say about  her.

Shes a train wreck.

She’s a terrible role model.

She did drugs.

She’s a bitch.

But but–
who wants to be a role model anyways? I’m not quite familiar with the Disney channel so I don’t know who the kids in my grade are looking up to these days, but I’m sure they’re as boring as can be. I do love the word “bitch.” I’m not entirely sure why, but when someone calls me a bitch, I get a small surge of happiness knowing that someone has recognized my power as a female.
And for the drugs thing, grow up. I don’t even have to explain how silly it is to criticize someone for an addiction or habit.

Like I said before, it’s sad that something as simple as what someone else said would stop you from disliking an artist. Some people just have the love-them-or-hate-them aspect to them. I never cared for Hole. But perhaps this was because I never heard them before, until one day while I was watching old music videos on Fuse late one night a few years ago. That was when the video for “Miss World” came on, and I was absolutely crushed by the song and video. It’s a great pop song and I was surprised that I’d never heard it before because I’d listened to other bands that are usually grouped with Hole.

This was when my opinion about Courtney Love and Hole completely changed from being uninterested to blown away. Because I never heard anything that great about them, I never invested any time listening to their albums. I’m sure my sister hasn’t either, and may never, which is quite a shame. Now I don’t care for any put downs about artists until I look at their work, and I recommend you always do the same.