The next MBW Views op/ed comes from Matt Thomas (pictured inset beneath), a 30-year music trade veteran.
Thomas can also be co-founder of the trade charity Music Assist and a Director of Attune, simply two of the organisations which assist and assist artists, people and corporations within the music and related leisure industries.
Attune has not too long ago launched ‘The Pressing Response Information’, a free, interactive useful resource for artist-facing professionals experiencing something from a priority to a disaster. Thomas additionally co-presents ‘Empathy for the Satan’, a podcast that investigates historic case research of troubled artists and explores their lives by means of a bio-psycho-social lens inside their cultural contexts.
The opinions said on this piece are these of the author and don’t essentially signify the positions of MBW or Music Assist.
Right now, someplace on the planet, an artist is quietly, or loudly, falling aside in entrance of different individuals. And while we as an trade have the instruments and providers to forestall the disaster that can inevitably observe, these typically stay unknown or underused.
Certainly, due to this fact, in an trade the place the idea of ‘responsibility of care’ is murky at greatest, all of us have a collective accountability to create consciousness of the very actual options that exist already.
With that in thoughts, the more and more frequent items within the media that spotlight the issue however ignore the options have gotten an actual concern.
We have now seen a latest uptick of stunning documentaries and films in regards to the darkish aspect of fame and its related pressures, akin to Boybands Perpetually, I’m Tim, No Matter What, and Soiled Pop, that includes heartbreaking first-hand testimonies from individuals who had been kids once they had been ‘found’, in addition to the retrospective reportage documentaries about Liam Payne, Lil Peep and Amy Winehouse.
But whereas we seize the popcorn and watch these sensationalist tales, younger persons are nonetheless dying, regardless of us having extra assets and understanding than ever earlier than.
Individuals’s private ache shouldn’t merely develop into watercooler moments to be dissected on social media; we shouldn’t be treating them as a Netflix and chill accompaniment to real-life tragedies.
They usually aren’t simply remoted incidents – they’re proof of an more and more urgent want for systematic assist and preventative motion throughout our trade.
The proof is correct there on our screens, uncooked and simple – Robbie Williams laying naked the psychological devastation of high-profile celeb, younger males in boy bands struggling to manage within the world highlight with out enough assist techniques, Avicii desperately in search of relaxation and recalibration whereas making an attempt to stability the calls for of his profession with tragic penalties, Lil Peep’s struggles with habit.
We watch these documentaries, share our ideas and prayers, after which – nothing modifications. The cycle continues.
Decade after decade, we’ve watched younger performers face overwhelming strain with out enough safety. But these tales aren’t simply an archive; they’re a mirrored image of what’s nonetheless occurring proper now; in recording studios, tour buses, resort rooms and backstage areas all over the world.
It’s this ongoing sample that led us to create the “Empathy For The Satan” podcast, the place we retell the tales behind a few of these preventable tragedies from a contemporary psychological well being perspective – to not sensationalise, however to determine intervention factors that would save lives right this moment.
And right here’s what’s vital: We do have options. We have now charities akin to Music Assist, MusiCares and Assist Musicians UK offering important providers, file labels with in-house provision for artists and workers, and corporations like Attune serving to music corporations fulfil their responsibility of care tasks.
We have now the information, the assets, and the aptitude to forestall these tragedies. But by some means, we’re nonetheless studying the identical headlines, nonetheless watching the identical tales unfold, and nonetheless pretending to be shocked when one other younger star reaches their breaking level.
Let’s be sincere about this: for a lot of, fame comes with profound psychological challenges that should be acknowledged and addressed. We now have greater than sufficient proof of the struggles that happen below the tough highlight, and the immense strain positioned on younger performers with out enough safety – too typically with no recognition or response to clear indicators of misery.
I write this piece from each private {and professional} expertise. As a main file label govt affected by a mixture of psychological well being points and habit, I used to be spiralling towards some extent of no return – till an artist supervisor took some compassionate motion that actually spoke to me.
The irony isn’t misplaced on me. In an trade the place we so typically speak about defending artists, it was an artist’s consultant whose variety phrases in my storm of unacceptable behaviour led me to hunt assist. We want extra of this type of human intervention, extra individuals prepared to succeed in out once they see somebody struggling.
We don’t want one other spherical of “ideas and prayers” or fastidiously worded statements. We have to put the present set of instruments into the arms of those that could make a distinction.
The options exist – now we’d like motion from everybody in our trade.
To our leaders: please embrace and implement the assets already obtainable. Make firstclass psychological well being assist as commonplace as a recording contract.
To the media who cowl our trade: please shift your focus from limitless tragedy protection to highlighting profitable interventions and supporting present options. Your platforms might stop deaths by guiding individuals to assist, somewhat than simply documenting when that assist arrived too late.
And to the followers who maintain our trade: your understanding of the human price behind fixed content material calls for creates a extra sustainable atmosphere for the artists you admire.
Now that these highly effective documentaries supply us additional intimate glimpses into these artists’ emotional journeys, sharing their painful experiences first-hand or wanting on the tales of those that didn’t make it, we must always listen. Although we could not be capable of assist those that’ve already suffered, we are able to use these insights to guard those that want it now, and people to return.
As a result of proper now, we’re all simply ready for the following headline, the following “gone too quickly”, the following spherical of soul-searching that can final precisely so long as we end our morning espresso – the following very well-intentioned promise to “do higher” that quickly fades because the realities of breaking artists create a major cognitive dissonance.
In the meantime, someplace in a dressing room, a studio, or a tour bus, one other artist is falling to items in plain sight.
This isn’t simply an opinion piece. It’s a plea to make use of the assets we have already got, to implement the options we’ve already developed, to make actual change.
The instruments are there. The assist techniques exist. Now it’s time to make sure everybody is aware of find out how to entry them, find out how to use them, and find out how to save lives.
Each life misplaced from this level ahead isn’t only a tragedy; it’s an indictment of the truth that we had the options however did not implement them successfully.
It’s time to alter that narrative.Music Enterprise Worldwide
