Moral Concerns as Composer

Many artists are at least once in their career in the situation where they might become instrumentalized for ideas or beliefs they personally don’t agree with. Being a composer in the media world maximizes this possibility. Every composer working for a few years in the business, especially if their main work is in the advertising field, can tell at least one of such stories where they were asked to write music for something they were ethically concerned about.

Everybody has to pay their bills and especially in times where there’s not much other work, weighing money against ethical concerns can become particularly problematic. Of course, everybody has to set their own limits and while one composer will absolutely not do a particular project, another composer doesn’t see such a problem in it. The problems however are not only personal concerns but also the impact something can have on your CV. Writing music for an ad campaign by a company or organisation that is hated by most of the general public might become a real problem for your future work. So on such occasions when for whatever reason you feel like you can’t let the project get away but you have concerns about it ruining your CV, it might be best to write it under an Alias and never mention it anywhere.

Of course, overstepping your own personal ethical limits is another issue where everybody has to find their own answer.