Craig Werner has stated in his essay that many Jazz musicians are on the leading edge of musical trends and exploration. For this reason, mainstream media often rejects their music as too abstract. He also states that the reason many of these musicians run to drugs is to deal with the pain of not being accepted by most of the world. In my opinion, there is some weight to this argument. There are many musicians who run to drugs to deal with the pain of rejection, but I would argue that there is an equal or greater amount of jazz musicians who run to drugs for other reasons.
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about Sherlock Holmes, the great detective would often use Cocaine when faced with an extremely difficult case that had him baffled. Holmes claimed that the drugs gave him the mental fortitude to address the problem and come up with a solution. In the same fashion, many musicians run to drugs to help them be more creative. They claim that it helps the creative juices flow because it alters their mind so that they are able to get out of mental rut and write. Many artists, not just musicians, have claimed this same thing over the years. However, I would completely disagree with them. I would claim that drugs do nothing but steal their creativity. If a musicians or artist is amazingly creative while on drugs, I can only image how creative they could be in their right mind!
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We answered the same question, but we answered so diferently.I liked how you stated the two reasons Werner said. When reading it you were completely clear on where you stand on the subject.Jazz musicians are not the only people who do drug because they are lost and feel rejected. I'm not if the writer is saying that it happen to the musicians more. . Maybe becase they could be under more judgment. Maybe he just wanted talk about the jazz musicians. I think it would have been good if the writer said something like , many people are led to drugs because of rejection . And Jazz musicians are a part of that group. I think if the writer would have put something like that it would leave less room for arguemnt .
ReplyDeleteYour blog was short but well written and I enjoyed reading it.
It it so true that there are many reasons why musicians, and in this case, Jazz musicians experiment in the world of drugs. I can see the point that Werner made, that musicians do drugs to ease the pain of rejection. After all, the music they make is their life and livelihood. For someone to dismiss something they've taken so much time and care to create, it's probably taken extremely personally. I know when something I've done is criticized or rejected by someone else I'm devastated, or at the least my ego is bruised.
ReplyDeleteMusicians are creative and often can be fragile, emotionally. Some of them take drugs because they just can't handle the pressure they feel to produce and keep it going.
In reference to the character of Sherlock Holmes (who is one of my very favorites, by the way) it is true that musicians, in a similar way, use drugs to try to help them be more creative. I didn't find out until I was older that Holme's character used cocaine and it was really interesting how he was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., in the recent movie, as a tortured, mentally unstable, yet brilliant, intelligent, and perceptive individual. It was right on the money! I think so many artists, tragically, are like that: brilliant but they think drugs could be the solution to creative difficulties. Drugs, however, are never the answer - they always leave some amount of destruction in their wake.