Fragile musicians

Music has one particularity over other arts: It has no limits.

When a painter cannot put something too crude on his canvas, when an architect has to obey the laws of gravity, when a film maker’s work will be rated, when a dancer has to be careful with the limits of its own body, musicians on the other hand can create anything they want!

Call the most bizarre artifact and instrument and insult anyone you want in your lyrics! No problem! Nobody will stop you. As a matter of fact, you might even sale more albums!

But that freedom comes at a price. Musicians can get completely lost! Jim Morrison would be a good example of someone who’s life got a bit out of control. He died at 27. So did Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. All of them were 27 years old when they passed. It is also no coincidences that these were considered controversial artists. Maybe they went too far. I mean, in their own world, in their own art. Maybe there was a place they explore that corroded their reality.

The composer of Nine Inch Nail said that he doesn’t live in his lyrics. He couldn’t, he says (I’m paraphrasing here) because the world he sings about is way, way too dark. He is surprised that people think his whole mental life is what he talks about in his songs.

Musicians have to be careful. Their music teachers should tell them about the dangers of the craft they learn. I love Jim Morrison, he’s one of my heroes, same for Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendricks and Kurt Cobain. It is a tragic loss when someone dies because they got lost in their art.