Rock'n'roll -- and all their superstars -- has always been in turmoil. Since the beginning of the genre, its superstars have always enjoyed the spoils of copious amounts of sex, drugs, drink, and all its ancillary vices.
In fact, it can be argued that the most degenerate of behavior comes not from the rock'n'roll stars of yesterday and today, but from the stars of lesser-known, "tamer" genres. For example, rock pioneer Chuck Berry -- long classified as "rhythm and blues" -- became infamous amongst the Gen-X'ers thanks to his habit of watching women on the latrine. Loretta Lynn -- one of the first female country superstars -- was thought to be a "country music sweetheart" until Coal Miner's Daughter was released in all its white-trash glory, a prequel -- if you like -- to The Jerry Springer Show. Even Ludwig von Beethoven -- the classical music virtuoso whose music is piped through various Baby Einstein DVD's in the hopes that Mommy's Little Financial Guarantee will grow up to be the Next Great Lawyer/Doctor/Scientist/Novelist/Insert Preferred Career Here -- was rumored to be syphilitic and a raging alcoholic, and at the very least afflicted with bipolar disorder (much to the discontent of his various lovers through his productive but tumultuous years).
Certainly, then, seeing a so-called "rock star" with any variety of afflictions and/or addictions shouldn't come as a surprise to any of us, especially in this Age of the Internet, where pictures and videos are available in real time and in all their questionable glory.
Enter, then, the case of Amy Winehouse. From critical and commercial success in her native Britain, to major label success throughout the world thanks to her hit "Rehab," Winehouse had the unquestionable potential to be the Next Big Thing. History, too, would have extolled the chanteuse as one of the greatest of all time, joining the ranks of Aretha Franklin, Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, and Joni Mitchell as a defining female voice that crossed genres and generations.
Instead, thanks to her rampant drug abuse -- and subsequent physical afflictions thanks to said drug abuse -- Winehouse is quickly becoming little more than a cautionary tale, a media joke, even a punchline in a series of sadistic jokes at her own expense.
Left: Amy Winehouse, c. 2003. Right: Amy Winehouse, c. 2008. Photo Credit: BeConfused.com.
To be fair, there seems to be a belief -- however erroneous -- amongst artistic types that there can be no art without pain. In fact, Alexandro Jodorowsky's famous quote -- "There can be no art without pain; there can be no pain without art" -- is a mantra so often repeated by the artistic elite that countless exhibitions throughout the United States -- and, indeed, the world -- have used it as a thematic base. So, is Winehouse -- and countless like her -- simply inflicting pain upon herself in an attempt to maintain artistic integrity?
Well, yes and no. Psychologist Donna Dawson suggests that women like Winehouse garner respect thanks to their vulnerability -- the more vulnerable, the higher the level of respect and recognition. "What society defines as a 'hero' and a 'heroine' seems to differ greatly," says Dawson, who suggests that "heroines" are often viewed as women who have overcome some sort of adversity in their lives, but "by comparison, the male heroes are generally much stronger, dominant figures, and with [rare exception], are known for their talent, rather than their personality or the impact they have had on the world."
On the other hand, Winehouse's drug addiction and subsequent health problems are self-inflicted adversities -- ones that happen as a result of personal choice, rather than circumstance -- so her "heroine" designation is at best arbitrary, and at worst wholly misapplied. Winehouse is unquestionably talented, but it seems as though history will paint her with the brush of an addict and a junkie, with a sense of "what if" and "what could have been" peppered throughout any subsequent commentary, rather than with the brush of an artist who single-handedly reshaped the world's perception of beauty and talent.
Furthermore, a "celebrity" and her self-afflicted issues may make for good headline copy, but its newsworthiness is certainly questionable. Unless you've been living in a proverbial cave, you're wholly aware of our current global economic crisis, the rancor of the American presidential election, and the various wars in a number of Arabic countries that most school-aged children can't find on a map of the world...all of which rank higher in importance than what anyone, let alone Amy Winehouse, place up their arms or in their nose.
Despite its questionable newsworthiness, however, the trials and travails of Amy Winehouse lead to an interesting discussion about the reality of the long-propagated myth of "sex and drugs and rock'n'roll." Is there a fine line between an artist and a junkie? Can a junkie even be considered an artist? Would a non-addict -- male or female -- garner the same critical acclaim, or the same level of pop culture madness, or spark the same sort of academic discussions...or would they simply be lumped into that inescapable "middle of the road," the path most taken, which hasn't made all the difference?
Would we, really, hold Elvis, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Layne Staley, Andrew Wood, and -- alas -- Kurt Cobain in the same critical regard if they weren't victims of their own excess? And what about Michael Stipe, James Hetfield, Gene Simmons, Roger Daltrey, the two surviving Beatles (and even the ones who passed on), and Ed Vedder -- all who may or may not have indulged in excess, but who nonetheless came out on the "other side" as formidable artists and personalities -- are their accomplishments negated because they survived, or are they somehow more worthy of our recognition and admiration because they didn't require an artificially-achieved state to be so?
Only time will determine that. One thing's for certain: a junkie does not an artist make, and if Amy Winehouse doesn't get some medical attention -- stat -- she won't be around much longer to be worth discussing.
