Does happiness kill artistic inspiration - Music

YoungPunk

Hi. Have any of you guys found that when you're happy its harder to make good music, or even accomplish great things (if you don't make music) For me I found I made a lot of great music in the darkest periods of my life, but now that I am older I am struggling. I always thought It was age, but Wagner made some great music when he was old. Maybe I am simply too happy. What do you guys think?

RoundTheBend

I miss the comfort in being sad

Location: Ground Control

Great question.

I think for some people depression can go too far too. Rivers Cuomo and Brian Wilson can attest to that.

I also agree that a struggle and honesty are often key to great music.

I think happiness and love are incredibly strong emotions - I think they are harder to portray honestly.

JOSweetHeart

Gender: Female

Age: 43

Location: East Tennessee

To me, if your own experiences are not good enough to write about, you can always write about what is on another person's plate, granted they are okay with your doing that of course.

God bless you always!!!

Holly
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YoungPunk

JOSweetHeart wrote:

To me, if your own experiences are not good enough to write about, you can always write about what is on another person's plate, granted they are okay with your doing that of course.

God bless you always!!!

Holly

Its hard to get into other peoples' mindset....

PurpleHazel

YoungPunk wrote:

Hi. Have any of you guys found that when you're happy its harder to make good music, or even accomplish great things (if you don't make music) For me I found I made a lot of great music in the darkest periods of my life, but now that I am older I am struggling. I always thought It was age, but Wagner made some great music when he was old. Maybe I am simply too happy. What do you guys think?

I'd think that feeling happy -- confident, good about yourself -- would make it easier to compose instrumental music, play an instrument well and practice. Perhaps the best inspiration comes from some suffering. But I don't think its beneficial to practice, the perspiration they say 90% of genius is.

I do think a majority of great artists are sensitive, and therefore suffer (at least in small ways) more. Suffering is a part of life, for some more than others. Some people are fortunate enough to have brain chemistry that makes them happy most of the time, others are the opposite and are unhappy most of the time. Of course some suffer a great deal because of outside factors and aren't inherently unhappy people.

SquishypuffDave

Gender: Male

Age: 34

I'm personally way more artistically productive when I'm happy. I'm less expressive, more apathetic and emotionally closed off when I'm sad. But at the same time, producing art makes me happier.

Also most of what I like to make is comedic, which is probably relevant. Usually when I try to write anything serious I just get restless and want to make it silly.

bobbyb5

Gender: Male

Location: New York

Nah, that's one of the most common myths about music. It's a romanticized and naive idea of creativity.

craola

crayon master

Location: pdx

I am super productive during manic phases and super unproductive during depressive phases, though the depressive phases inform the manic ones, so it kind of goes both ways for me.
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LedZep

There's one often mentioned fact about Nick Cave. He has an actual daily working time, from 9 AM to 5 PM or something like that, when he writes/arranges songs. He's been doing it for years now, even when his son died two years ago. Probably not in the next few days, but yeah you get it. So he may be depressed, uninspired or just very happy on any particular day, and he still writes music. Now you may or may not like him, but I think he's one of the best songwriters ever, and if he can do it there's no reason why it shouldn't be done.
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YoungPunk

PurpleHazel wrote:

I'd think that feeling happy -- confident, good about yourself -- would make it easier to compose instrumental music, play an instrument well and practice. Perhaps the best inspiration comes from some suffering. But I don't think its beneficial to practice, the perspiration they say 90% of genius is.

I do think a majority of great artists are sensitive, and therefore suffer (at least in small ways) more. Suffering is a part of life, for some more than others. Some people are fortunate enough to have brain chemistry that makes them happy most of the time, others are the opposite and are unhappy most of the time. Of course some suffer a great deal because of outside factors and aren't inherently unhappy people.

Maybe I just need variety. Maybe I should just try using some new methods to do something a little bit different?