Tortured artist or Tortured by fame?

[emmelinemay]

Last week I mentioned my pondering on the paths of destruction so many artists seem to go down, and wondered whether they were damaged because they were famous and, or famous because they were damaged.

Synchronicity calling. Why rock and roll stars die young.

It's been proved by SCIENCE, people. And Science is neva rong. Rite?

Comments

[gaius-octavian.livejournal.com]

With a sample that size (considering how many musicians there are) you could "prove" anything you wanted. How were they chosen? 'Cos for every Amy Winehouse there are dozens of KT Tunstall/Joss Stone/Dido/Chantal whatshername/etc etc who have absolutely no problems at all. Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty are famous because their behavior is unusual even among "stars".

[yaruar.livejournal.com]

surely that should be "Science is neva rong, ya get me"

i don't even think it's a tortured artist thing, i think there is an acceptance of sex drugs and rock and roll, especially with young people suddenly getting a lot of attention, money and opportunities which they aren't mature enough to handle.

[mark13.livejournal.com]

I read about that in the Metro the other day, where it mentioned Winehouse and Doherty, and then reeled off a list of other rock stars who were killed by drugs - Joplin, Hendrix, Cobain.

Err, except Cobain wasn't killed by drugs - he was killed by a faceful of 12-gauge, the drugs were just symptomatic.

The high death toll has never been any surprise - take a group of people who are emotionally sensitive enough to create art that people can relate to, give them vast amounts of money and pampering, absolve them of any responsibility for their actions, legal or otherwise,then alternately laud them and hound them for their self-destructive lifestyle, until they self-destruct through overindulgence or suicide.

I did a rant!

[jaketherat.livejournal.com]

I started replying, as I've been in a state of high dudgen about this story since I read it yesterday, but it all got a bit ranty and long so I made a post out of it here if anyone's interested.