Narratives are very powerful. They give meaning to our actions, they lead us. In the music business, we have a lot of powerful narratives that work in a destructive way for artists.
One of them is, that artists have to suffer in order to be creative. Here it’s pretty obvious why it’s destructive, because it glorifies suffering. Artists are stimulated to endure suffering and to refuse help. Looking for help is associated with losing your creativity.
Another destructive narrative is, that you are your own product. It means, that you have to be available 24/7. All the time you are afraid to miss a great opportunity that might be the first step to your big break through.
This is destructive, because for inspiration you need distance to your work and a quiet environment.
Both destructive narratives can be replaced by a constructive narrative: you are the instrument to your art. It doesn’t matter if you write, sing, play guitar, paint, you need both your body and your mind in order to create. Imagine that you are a precious instrument, working for your art. It would mean that you have to take good care of your body and mind, like you would for a precious Stradivarius violin, or for David Gilmour’s ‘Black Strat’. You wouldn’t dare to expose them to bad conditions. You wouldn’t dare to use them 24/7, it would ruin them. This narrative is much more constructive and healthy for artists.
Now during corona we need new narratives that tell us how to deal with loneliness. No one is better equipped to come up with new narratives than artists. That’s one of the reasons why artists are so important.