Music Do artists need some sort of trauma to make them great?

Solius

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I've always thought about this as horrible as it sounds. I find there are rarely instances of truly great artists that didn't have some f*cked up shit happen to them at some point. Looking at it objectively that kind of stuff will always give people material to write about and people can empathise with certain people's struggles and it makes them enjoy it more.

Michael Jackson, Brian Wilson, Marvin Gaye and so many more were beaten by their fathers (Gaye eventually murdered by his). Eminem was abandoned by his father, had his Munchhausen-by-proxy mother and f*cked up wife. 50 Cent's mother was murdered and he also got shot. Kendrick and loads of other rappers grew up in poverty and violence. Anthony Kiedis, Jim Morrison, etc.. were on hard drugs.

One of the reasons Eminem fell off was because he became rich and a lot of his problems went away, he doesn't have anything to sing about anymore except for how people say he's finished. A lot of them died young or before their time as well.

I remember a tweet where someone jokingly wrote something like "How do I make sure I give myself just enough childhood trauma that they'll turn out funny". Which kinda rings true.

So does childhood trauma help create a genius? If everyone had great parents and upbringings would we have less genuinely great music/books/film?
 
No, it's just that those with traumatic background make for a good sob/rags to ritches story whereas people from background without problems are simply boring and nobody gives a shit about them.
 
Poor people are more likely to find happiness in music/a talent?
And have more to inspire them/write about to get noticed in the first place?
Creative people are more open minded and more likely to be reckless because of it?
Just a few theories.

Also pop artists have a lifespan, but the best continue and still have a large audience when not in their prime (Kylie, Madonna, Eminem could still sell out arenas). Eminem probably also stopped making what he wanted to as much, and became part of a machine which got bored of him, and possibly him of it. You can tell that by the way his music changed so much every album. Don't know what the new one is like yet, but I'd expect it to be more 'him'.
 
This quote from Frank sort of sums up my feeling on it. I will spoiler it just in case people have not seen the movie.

Jon: The torment he went through to make the great music.
Frank's Mom: The torment didn't make the music. He was always musical, if anything it slowed him down.
 
"I always want to know what makes good performers fall to pieces. I always try to find out. Because I just can't believe it's the same things that get them time and time again."

(Michael Jackson, 1982)
 
I don't think that it's necessary but art and suffering often attract each other as a means to explain or console. An excerpt from What is Art?:

A man suffers, expressing his sufferings by groans and spasms, and this suffering transmits itself to other people; a man expresses his feeling of admiration, devotion, fear, respect, or love to certain objects, persons, or phenomena, and others are infected by the same feelings of admiration, devotion, fear, respect, or love to the same objects, persons, and phenomena. And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man's expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based.
 
"fans love my pain because it makes for good music"
 
Solius said:
I don't think it's too wide of the mark, do you?
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I think most, if not all people can find some trauma in their life. What makes artistic expression of it so great is how truthful it is, so the greatest art is the truest possible expression of reality, not necessarily who had the most trauma. But I do understand the parallels.
 
Isn't this all a bit cherry picked though? What's Bowie's great trauma? Dylan? Elvis? Jagger?

Some aspects of it would be linked to the background of the people of course - people in poverty generally have few ways out so art can offer one of the few possible escapes. Rap for example is just generally extremely popular in disadvantaged areas, so naturally the few that make it out of those backgrounds will be more likely to have experienced traumas, but a causal link for art in general? I can't see it. I think its a dangerous myth though.
 
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A fictional examination of this idea; some would actively choose trauma:
Thomas Mann's novel is a re-shaping of the Faust egend set in the context of the first half of the 20th century and the turmoil of Germany in that period. The story centers on the life and work of the (fictitious) composer Adrian Leverkühn. The narrator is Leverkühn's childhood friend Serenus Zeitblom, who writes in Germany between 1943 and 1946.

Leverkühn's extraordinary intellect and creativity as a young man mark him as destined for success, but his ambition is for true greatness. He strikes a Faustian bargain for creative genius: he intentionally contracts syphilis, which deepens his artistic inspiration through madness. He is subsequently visited by a Mephistophelean being (who says, in effect, "that you can only see me because you are mad, does not mean that I do not really exist", and, renouncing love, bargains his soul in exchange for twenty-four years of genius. His madness – his daemonic inspiration – leads to extraordinary musical creativity.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Faustus_(novel)
 
Keeps It tidy said:
This quote from Frank sort of sums up my feeling on it. I will spoiler it just in case people have not seen the movie.

Jon: The torment he went through to make the great music.
Frank's Mom: The torment didn't make the music. He was always musical, if anything it slowed him down.
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Is that the film with the giant fake head? I’ve always wanted to watch it because it sounds interesting but never got round to it. Do you recommend it?

SteveJ said:
"I always want to know what makes good performers fall to pieces. I always try to find out. Because I just can't believe it's the same things that get them time and time again."

(Michael Jackson, 1982)
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That’s pretty sad :(
 
A few hundred years ago, artists were exclusively guys from upper/middle class backgrounds. Some had a rough deal, but many did just fine because of their privilege.

I see little correlation that artists have to have had a trauma, I rather see the opposite case of super successfull people not being able to deal with sudden fame/money/pressure etc.
 
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