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The public feud has become something of a mainstay of modern art and culture.
It’s like we ache for it in some ways. Think of some of the most famous in music history – which come to mind first? Paul McCartney and John Lennon? Roger Waters and David Gilmour? Liam and Noel Gallagher?
Whichever one it is, it’s probably a source of entertainment, something that serves our deep need for some kind of drama that’s not ours. The kind that has us peering from the outside in, popcorn bucket in hand, watching with bated breath as we wait for someone to make the next move.
It’s a pop culture sensation that never seems to go away, either. Recently, we’ve seen Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s ongoing squabbles. Or the even fresher one brewing between Lana Del Rey and Ethel Cain. Either way, these ones – the ones that take beef and turn them into songs, or diss tracks, as it were – are more prone to blurring the lines between reality and art.
Not all feuds in history have been used as a source of inspiration to make songs about them, but it’s become something of a trend over time. Not just to voice grievances publicly, but to lock audiences in, and get them agonising over music and lyrics in a way that invites it into their lives – and makes it feel like it’s something they own, too.
But where did all of this start? We can go back a long time and look at how feuds have developed and progressed over time. And we can pick apart the details of each, and how these embittered dynamics bled over into artistic realms.
But when we look at some of the biggest, most explosive ones through history, a bigger, more obvious trend starts to reveal itself. And that’s the fact that rivalry – in whatever form it presents itself – is something we love to devour.
Let’s dive in…
When feuds became art – A brief timeline:
High Rennaissance – Leonardo da Vinci vs. Michelangelo
The last thing anyone thinks of whenever they come across any of those porcelain nude sculptures is what trash talk was going on behind the scenes, if any.
But alas, it makes sense when you consider the fact that both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were seemingly cut from the same cloth, both finding their names in Florence and considered to have talents that came from the high heavens.
While their squabble was largely defined by public shaming and high tensions in the same spaces, it also meant a pivotal moment for art, and how feuds and rivalries – on this level – can actually service it for good.
It seems strange to say, but it did. Because although it was probably unpleasant for observers at the time and even more so for the two involved, it’s something we still talk about today, especially when it comes to the meaning of art and the purpose of nobility in their different styles. It was also an early version of public debate about who was better – which is something we still love to divulge today.
Artisté love quarrels and soured partnerships
Similar to da Vinci and Michelangelo’s rivalry, the bad blood between Picasso and Matisse seemed to make sense in some places while not in others.
For instance, they weren’t apart of the same eras or expressionist styles – Matisse being fauve and Picasso belonging to several – but they did exercise caution around each other.
Tensions peaked, though, when Picasso introduced his lover to Matisse, who seemed so charming it made Picasso feel threatened.
And again, the fallout between Van Gogh and Gauguin was also strange one, especially as they’d planned to work together initially on an art colony in France with Gauguin heavily involved. But eventually Gauguin fled and Gogh became institutionalised, showing that working closely with fellow artists wasn’t always conducive to the most productive (or respectable) environments in the long run.
Still, when it comes to art, it’s also a lesson in how motivations can become obscured with personal matters, and how these emotions – no matter how convoluted or embittered – infiltrated their styles and cemented their places as artistic heroes.
The first diss track
To many, the first-ever diss tracks are the ones Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote about each other in the 1970s. But it actually came far sooner, in the 1930s, when Wilson Batista pissed off a lot of musicians with his song ‘Lenço no Pescoço’. Some were so irked that they not only started publicly airing their grievances about it but wrote about it in their music, too.
Specifically, Noel Rosa is credited with writing the first-ever diss track in 1933, called ‘Rapaz Folgado’, written in direct response to Batista’s tune. It was the first time someone had poured their disdain against another musical artist into their own work in such a publicly scrutinising way, changing the game forever when it came to blurring the line between feuds and music.
The first inter-band feud
We’re finally here and – yep – you guessed it. The Beatles weren’t just revolutionary for their innovative music, they were also firsts when it came to watching an inter-band rivalry pan out in real-time, altering the dynamics of both the band and their fanbase and changing the parameters embittered rock and roll.
The long-running, highly publicised fallout between Paul McCartney and John Lennon might not have been the first time two band members fell out in the history of music, but it was certainly the most high-profile, coming from a band who’d smashed the global rulebook and quickly became a source of comfort and inspiration for many. But what did it mean for the future of modern music? Well, a few things actually.
Namely, it introduced the kind back-and-forth string of diss tracks that still captivate audiences today. But one thing we don’t really linger on too much, especially when the drama takes precedent over the details of the music itself, is how much it did for the 1970s rock and pop landscape, with McCartney and Lennon coming at it from two different styles and sensibilities.
The Britpop feud
The battle between Oasis and Blur in the mid-to-late 1990s was one of the most famous in recent history. In 1995, things took a turn when Blur’s Damon Albarn attended a celebration party for Oasis’ number-one, ‘Some Might Say’. When he turned up, Liam basically yelled in his face in the typical Liam way, leaving Albarn with nothing but a bitter taste in his mouth and a new eagerness to outdo them.
Sure enough, this launched into a public feud with the two parties constantly trash talking each other in the press and constant efforts to one-up each other. But the strange lesson here isn’t the fact that it largely guided most of their output, which it did. It was the fact that, even after the dust settled, it never went away. A fact that was proven recently when Albarn announced he was “happy to concede” defeat in the Blur versus Oasis battle off the back of the brothers’ recent reunion.
What does this say about the place of resurfaced feuds in modern music? Well, first and foremost, it tells us that when it comes to bands that largely hinged on the societal contexts of the time, rivalry on this scale – in terms of its purpose in music – can shape the modern appetite for modern nostalgia and how we have this constant ache for music with a bite and a bit of an edge. And what better way to feed the flames of a bygone era than to tap into the main source of bitterness that once kept it alight?
Social media feuds
When social media platforms like Twitter blew up around 2009 and 2010, there was all to play for. It had a heavy hand in launching some of the most popular acts of all time – from Imagine Dragons to One Direction – introducing a new level of fan interaction and involvement that changed the game forever.
But around the same time, a battle began breaking out between Taylor Swift and Kanye West, one that would become a major talking point across social media for several years to come. With the release of Reputation, these details became rehashed, infiltrating almost every corner of every platform as people watched it play out before their very eyes. While others took to social media to publicly voice their opinions about other musicians, this was the main act, drawing people in like moths to a flame.
In the years since, we’ve seen countless rivalries across different platforms, many of them crossing over into diss tracks and other creative or artistic means of expression. More recently, as we’ve discussed, Lana Del Rey shared some lyrics aimed directly at Ethel Cain, initiating a public fallout that nobody even saw coming. The funny thing is, when we look back at the first notable ones, like da Vinci and Michelangelo, there isn’t all that much that’s different. But what we’ve seen over time is a deliberate and direct injection of these fights into artistic expression and identity, culminating in a new musical landscape where so-called “eras” are brimming with nuance, whether it’s personal experiences in relationships or – the most enticing – disagreements between fellow peers.
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