The Music Industry's Mental Health Crisis

When watching an interview with singer/songwriter Billie Eilish, she was asked a question regarding how she felt about the music industry given her newfound success. Her response? “Were All sad as hell. Everyone I know that’s an artist, were all sad”. This response may seem surprising to some working a traditional nine to five due to the stereotype that musicians have a fun job. Like Eilish points out, this is not always the case. And recently, her point seems to have been confirmed by fact with a recent article being published by Record Union claiming 73% of independent musicians suffer from mental illness.

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Admittedly, the survey given is not the most scientific. It is simple web survey, with a size of about 1500 independent musicians self-reporting. However, there have been previous surveys based around this same issue as well as books who focus in on how mental health and the music industry correlate (David Burns ). All bring up that as far as musicians go, there is a very solid majority dealing with mental health issues.

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mental illness comes in many different shapes and sizes- the two primaries being suffering due to a chemical imbalance and the ladder relating to being put in a state because of experiences that one has dealt with or is currently dealing with in their life. These study findings show that a great deal of the health issues artists deal with are due to the condition of the job.

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Many popular artists have come to light about dealing with mental health issues and have even begin to incorporate it into music in a way that previously had not been done amongst mainstream musicians. During Coachella, Ariana Grande conveyed in a series of tweets that said while she loved her fans, she feels touring is hell and that preforming is not healthy for her at all. “Making music is healing. Performing it is like reliving it all over again and it is hell” is the exact response she tweeted back to a fan asking her if she felt touring helped her deal with issues going on in her personal life. It is understandable Ariana would be particularly susceptible to anxiety during performance due to the Manchester attacks she was subject to two years ago. However, even more miscellaneous artists have come forward about dealing with mental health. For example, Kid Cudi and Kanye west are two artist who work in a music genre that has historically pushed back mental health as something nonexistent and unimportant. Despite this both have come forward with their struggles regarding the subject. In Kanye West’s latest album, he raps about the difficulty of dealing with his bi polar disorder and feeling as though his medication hinders his creative process. Kid Cudi took to Facebook last year to notify fans he was taking a break and checking himself into rehab to deal with suicidal thoughts he had been dealing with for over a year.

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Emotional stress as a result of work can be someone anyone can relate to. And while some pessimists may claim that a musician’s job is fun by nature and that they should know what they sign up for when going into that career, people often underestimate the harshness of the industry. Artists are thrown into a rat race, chewed out and spit up with little or no regard to mental health. Not everyone who picks up a guitar is guaranteed a career, and an artist that may even have gained some mainstream buzz cannot guarantee to still have a career a year later due to how fast information comes in this age as well as how difficult it can be to stay relevant amongst all media clutter. Lack of stability can be mentally and emotionally crushing. As well as daunting to nearly all artists. Even multi album deals do not include 401k’s and health insurance that come along with a nine to five.

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