Why do musicians become lame when they get old?

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I think what kills the spark isn't age, but rather comfort, compromise, and repetition
Like, I reckon this is true in most creative disciplines that have a sufficiently high technical execution barrier (like, as opposed to just writing words on paper). When they're young, composers often write to reach, there is urgency, they're trying to solve a problem, prove something, or map an emotional state that still feels raw. The stakes are high because their identity, income, and purpose are still in flux
But as soon as they succeed, once they are the guy who wrote that thing, there's a silent incentive flip. Risk becomes optional and challenge becomes nostalgia
Like, technical growth doesn't help if there's no longer anything you're super eager to say. You can get better at painting, but if you're just painting better versions of what you already made 20 years ago, there's only refinement, no forward edge
And in music, the result is music that's usually cleaner, but emptier and less alive
There are exceptions, but these are exceptions because they still have something to solve. But most don't, most creatives are no longer trying to find the spark, they're just clumsily trying to recreate it
 
XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG dijo:
And in music, the result is music that's usually cleaner, but emptier and less alive
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I've noticed this a lot. You would expect that if you spend 10+ years working with the same sound, the new versions should be way better than the old one, but in most ways it's worse. I think they're forgetting the emotions that inspired the sound and just copying it, which makes it soulless.
XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG dijo:
There are exceptions, but these are exceptions because they still have something to solve. But most don't, most creatives are no longer trying to find the spark, they're just clumsily trying to recreate it
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Do you have any? Shoji Meguro is a good counterexample IMO. Released his best OST in his 40's, and is still stepping outside his comfort zone creatively with Metaphor Refantazio. It's not nearly as good as P5 but it still has a spark to it for sure.
 
Its the old "they were good when they were young, they were good when they were hungry to prove something". Metallica are fucking old and shit, and havent done anything interesting since 88. But their bank balance looks a lot better. Thats what it comes down, the final lesson for anyone who is making music. The general population wants nothing interesting or challenging, just more of the same of what they are already having.

Its why I think Darkthrone is the future for true artist types, remove the money issue entirely and you are free to continue to explore to your hearts content.
 
Hypercop dijo:
Do you have any? Shoji Meguro is a good counterexample IMO. Released his best OST in his 40's, and is still stepping outside his comfort zone creatively with Metaphor Refantazio. It's not nearly as good as P5 but it still has a spark to it for sure.
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Iron Maiden has had their slumps, but for their members being around 70 they still do impressive work.
 
I'd suspect a major contributing factor is being forced to stick to a particular genre. Metallica has been playing pretty similar music for 40+ years and if they decided to do a bluegrass album just for variety's sake and their own changing tastes or musical growth, it would almost certainly flop and be considered a betrayal by their fans.

No matter how much you love one thing, you inevitably get tired of it after a while. And the realities of the music industry means artists aren't really allowed to do that.
 
The starving artist has nothing to lose and everything to gain. The rich artist has everything to lose and very little to gain. Its really that simple.

Only people of true will, principle and or passion can creatively thrive while in comfort. Most people don't have these traits.
 
You become accustomed to "a thing" and slight deviations from that thing can be uncanny. If you listen to an artist from their beginning then deviations from that sound are just "off".

If Metallica's most recent album, Load, was the only one you owned growing up then the sound of Master of Puppets would be fucked up when you finally heard it.
 
Young people have more heart. They might not have had the time and perspective to develop their craft, but it's generally much more soulful. People of all types peak in their twenties. Not just sports or music, even mathmaticians, pro-gamers, programmers.

Also success can be a real destruction of the quality that makes someone good at something.

I first noticed it in the writings in Asimov. I read his later books first. Absolutely well constructed stories, good clear writing that he is known for, exploring scifi concepts. Then you go back to his early works writing for pulp scifi mags short stories and early books like foundation and you get this often disjointed development or entire stories that revolve around a pun (there are a couple). But with that said, his best work is also there, like foundation or the last question, stories that never let you go, regardless of how qualitatively well each line and paragraph is constructed.

I think also that young people are much better at telling how off or soulless something is. With age we start to see less and less of the details and filter it more through our baggage of what we think is good and bad.
 
ParasiteSteve dijo:
Its the old "they were good when they were young, they were good when they were hungry to prove something".
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This rings true so far as my own experience goes.
I don't know what drives other artists to improve, but for myself it's knowing that I haven't hit my peak and I haven't gotten the credit I deserve. Whenever I fail artistically I just double down and try even harder. This has led to a ton of improvement, but I know that the day I'm finally happy with my art is the day that progress is finally going to die off.
Lemmingwiser dijo:
I think also that young people are much better at telling how off or soulless something is. With age we start to see less and less of the details and filter it more through our baggage of what we think is good and bad.
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Like how boomers operate with a view of the world that's at least 10 years out of date at all times. It's terrifying to imagine becoming one of those people. That's probably what happens to everyone unless you make an active effort to fight it.
 
Última edición:
When you turn 40 testosterone production plummets, which is exacerbated by heavy drug use. This reduces the drive for men to peacock about, making their artistic output increasingly conformant.
 
All music is dogshit now, you're just experiencing recency bias. Kurt Ko bang's entire catalogue was comprised of multiple songs with the exact same chorus.
 
I assume that you're not talking about some random assholes but successful artists.
When you already made your millions and you live in a mansion with everything you could ever want or need, you get lazy.
You don't want to retire because you like the fame and money so you still keep doing it.
 
Ibanez RG 350EX dijo:
I'd suspect a major contributing factor is being forced to stick to a particular genre. Metallica has been playing pretty similar music for 40+ years and if they decided to do a bluegrass album just for variety's sake and their own changing tastes or musical growth, it would almost certainly flop and be considered a betrayal by their fans.

No matter how much you love one thing, you inevitably get tired of it after a while. And the realities of the music industry means artists aren't really allowed to do that.
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Interesting that you picked Metallica as your example, because the era when they cut their hair and tried something different in the 90's-early 2000's (Load, ReLoad, St. Anger albums), sparked one of the most visceral backlashes from a mainstream fanbase in modern music history, to the point that they went dark for a few years before coming back and releasing rehash records of their old stuff every 7-ish years.
 
I'm not sure if Gene Simmons was always a massive bitch but I do know as he got older it did get worse. He's one of the most pretentious tools to have ever existed. He's got several infamous interviews over the years where he comes off as an unaware douchebag.
 
Absolutego dijo:
the era when they cut their hair and tried something different in the 90's-early 2000's (Load, ReLoad, St. Anger albums), sparked one of the most visceral backlashes from a mainstream fanbase in modern music history
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And going from thrash metal to hard rock or pop-friendly metal really isn't that much of a departure when you consider the breadth of music that exists in the world. It must suck to know that even as one of the most successful bands of all time, you'll only ever make any money within a very particular niche that you got into when you were 19.
 
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