Running head: Mental Illness and The Music Industry 1

Mental Illness and the Music Industry

Brandon Bayer

Central Piedmont Community College

Running head: Mental Illness and The Music Industry 2

Introduction

How can someone who is rich and famous possibly be depressed or anxious? It just

doesn’t make sense to the average person who is living paycheck to paycheck. They say to

themselves, “If only I was rich and famous, then I would be happy”. Ironically, the research has

shown that to be quite the opposite. Mental illness has been a taboo topic in the music industry

for many years now and the best way to combat this complex issue is to drop the heavy shackles

that are associated with the stigma of being mentally ill.

The Industry Concern

Only recently has the movement of mental health been accepted into the scene of music

at the sacrifice of many unbelievably talented artists. The earth might still have these beautiful

souls walking among it if only there were a socially acceptable way to say, “It might look like I

have it all, but deep down in my heart I feel like I don’t want to live anymore.” Despite the

powerful, fame, and fortune, so many talented musical artists used their craft of express or even

evade their mental illnesses. An artist can be surrounded by hundreds and thousands of fans, but

they can still find it to be a lonely career.

Jimi Hendrix, one of the best guitar players ever to grace the planet, is one example of an

artist who was struggling with mental illness. He was taking LDS every day and drinking

heavily. It was documented that his manager was robbing him blind without his knowledge due

to his lack of financial understanding and this caused a great deal of sadness and pain within him.

A few days after Hendrix discovered the truth through one of his band members, he was found

dead in his hotel room by an overdose of sleep medication and red wine. Hendrix is just one of

many.
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Another example is Kurt Cobain, described as the voice of a generation, who was found

dead by apparent suicide on April 8, 1994 on the second floor of his detached garage. He had

been battling drug abuse and depression for decades before his death, and many of his fans were

aware of this. Not wanting to interfere with his “musical creativity,” they stood by as he was

falling deep into a depression that seemed uncurable during the point of his heroin addiction.

Those are just two famous artists that were not able to find the adequate help and

resources they needed. Making music does not necessarily lead an individual down the road of

depression, though. Many artists generally find great

Feed back from musicians in a
relief in taking deep emotion from their heart and 2016 survery regarding their
mental health
putting pencil to paper to express how they feel to a
100%
wide variety of audiences. According to Billboard, the 80%
60%
working conditions famous musicians deal with on a 40%
20%
daily basis can be traumatic. In 2016, Help Musicians 0%
Anxiety Depression Mental Difficult to
UK (HMUK) posted a research with 2,200 individual Health Find Help

artists that highlights the soaring levels of mental illness in this industry. Their findings show

that 71% of musicians had said they experienced panic attacks and/or high levels of anxiety,

along with 69% said they experienced depression. More so, 57% of musicians proclaimed they

are battling with mental illness and only 57% said it was not difficult to find help (HMUK).

These statistics shed light on a major issue that the average consumer of musical work

might over look. People like to put on sad music at the end of a bad day because it’s sometimes

nice to know that their favorite artist can relate to how he is feeling. It brings a feeling of dark

comfort knowing that one is not alone in their feeling of sadness. Music, afterall, brings people

together. The issue is, that for many people, that feeling comes and goes all too quickly. While a
Running head: Mental Illness and The Music Industry 4

listener may wake up the next day feeling fine, that person who wrote that song may still be

trapped in his dark cage without a key in sight.

There is a cry for help in a lot of lyrics that are coming though the radio waves of hip-hop

and there needs to be an acceptable way to just come out and ask or proper resources. Maybe

artists feel like they will let their fans down or, they’re too embarrassed to announce something

that is still viewed as weakness. Whatever the case may be, there should be an escape from

spotlight where musicians can just be themselves without feeling like the world is watching their

every move.

Many prestigious artists in the recent years have come to similar realizations have done

just that. Adele, Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry and Macklemore just to name

a few have taken this issue upon themselves and have shed light to the public eye about these

issues. A direct quote from Adele in the interview with Vanity Fair Magazine says, "I can slip in

and out of [depression] quite easily. I had really bad postpartum depression after I had my son,

and it frightened me, I didn't talk to anyone about it. I was very reluctant...Four of my friends felt

the same way I did, and everyone was too embarrassed to talk about it."

In the time we live in, it seems to take a certain level of finesse to talk about one’s feeling

if it doesn’t involve rainbows and sunshine. Social media has a huge role to play in this dilemma,

and understandably so. How can someone post a picture of themselves smiling, with six pack abs

on the beach of Hawaii, and the most beautiful orange-velvet sunset draped in the background,

and then caption the photo with, “I’ve been feeling anxious and depressed lately, can someone

help me?”
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The culture of social media has turned into a non-stop ecstasy of wonderful times and

posting of the best times in one’s life, so they can receive the most amount of possible “likes” on

their photo. Which in return unfolds itself as a short high for one’s self-esteem that fades away

like a wave washing out onto a beach, then recedes back into an ocean of desperate attention.

This trend sounds easy to break to someone who doesn’t have a 3.1 million fanbase subscribed to

them, but for those individuals with such a big following, it’s the constant fear of either staying

up with their fans or slowly being forgotten.

The Solution

Instead of looking for solace of this issues through a social media platform where people

can say things rude things behind a screen-mask, artists should open the line of communication

with either the fans, close friends, or loved family members. The communication with fans can

be opened by writing a song about how they are truly feeling, similar to what Logic did in his

song “1-800-273-8255,” which is a suicide hotline for people in the same position he was once

in.

It is not only the musician’s role to be open to sharing these feeling of emptiness with

their fans, it’s also the fan’s job to show unmeasurable amounts of gratification and reception to

hearing those deep, heart-felt words. This is still new territory for many artists, and public

scrutiny can set us back even farther than the point we are at now. The solution is to stop judging

lives we have no experience living in and simply accept people for who they are and how they

are feeling. A quote Beatles’ quote sums this idea up nicely: “All you need is love.”
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References

How listening to music in a group influences depression. (2017, May 24). Retrieved from

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170524101507.htm

Writers, S. (2018, October 26). 50 Famous Artists & Thinkers Who Have Struggled With

Depression | Nursing Schools.net. Retrieved from

https://www.nursingschools.net/blog/2010/10/50-famous-artists-thinkers-who-have-

struggled-with-depression/ Mannes, E. (2011, June 01).

'The Power Of Music' To Affect The Brain. Retrieved from

https://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136859090/the-power-of-music-to-affect-the-brain

Hu, C. (2017, October 17). 70 Percent of Musicians Say They Have Suffered From Anxiety or

Depression. What's Next? Retrieved from

https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8005671/70-percent-musicians-suffer-

anxiety-depression-what-next

Roberts, K. (2018, January 15). 39 Celebrities Who Have Opened Up About Mental Health.

Retrieved from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/g15159447/celebrities-

depression-anxiety-mental-health/?slide=39