Are the fame and big money destroying a creativity and inspirations of the successful musicians?



Just general discussion no flame on any of them. Thanks for voting.

I don't think that money or the lack thereof have anything to do with creativity or inspiration.If you have talent money doesn't change anything. Jimi Hendrix once said something to the effect that you could have piles of money and still have the blues,blues can come from your feelings whether you're happy or sad.Some artists will go on putting out albums long after their creativity has faded and continue to sell by just resting on their laurels,I believe The Stones fall into this category.The Stones' music has become redundant and predictable in the past few years and I have given up on buying any of their new stuff.With the Stones it's not a case of money but their well of inspiration and creativity has long gone dry.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I think a "hungry" artist tends to be meaninful. A good example of this not applying at all would be the Beatles. Their material just got stronger IMO. Sometimes I think songwriters only have an album's worth of good material in 'em. They have all this time for the first, maybe the second record. Suddenly they have to write more songs. And the songs aren't filtered with time.

I think Music has alot more musicians that are only there FOR THE MONEY.


If I ever have the good fortune to make a living from my passion for music then I intend to build a studio! and Music Area!

Ultimately my dream would be to buy land build a massive mountain lodge like thing as a commercial studio.

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

Dave Grohl seems as good as ever. Great musician and song writer. Long career.

Definately a +1 on that! though I've not caught any TCV's yet i'll be doing that now!

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

And to do any of your dreams would require doing it only for the money. They are expensive, so its all for the money.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Good question danielhelc. An experiment that we all get to watch is the progression from the first album or song by an artist or band of artists to the next and so on. guitslinger picked a good example with the Rolling Stones and DantheBassist example The Beatles is another good example although the Beatles broke up and we didn't get to see them age as that band. An exception to any rules that may be in the ether about creativity and inspiration would be the blues artists, it doesn't seem to matter how many songs that they record or how much money they may make, the good ones, the ones that we all love are always blue.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I know I play for the love of music, I could care less about making money even though it would be nice and would be used towards gear/studio time

And as big of a fan as I am of The Beatles I think their breakup may have been a good thing seeing as they never got a chance to become a commercial band or turn into the Stones lol.... and don't get me wrong I love the Stones early stuff (60's to mid 70's) but I can't stand like the 80's to present

Though in truth the Beatles were together long enough to become very, very commercial indeed! They were the richest musicians in history long before they broke up. Even after just the first couple of albums apparently John would say to Paul; "OK, let's sit down and write another swimming pool..."

On the other hand, years into their success Ringo was still saying he just wanted to make enough to settle down and open a hair salon in Liverpool. Aaaww! I guess he feels he still hasn't made enough for that...

I think part of the issue here is not the money itself but the distractions it buys. Do people have the strength of personality to stay creative now their lives are smothered in drugs, 5-star hotels, limos, assistants, private aircraft, starry friends, huge houses, fleets of sports cars... yadda yadda?

It depends what's driving an individual's creativity. Is he/she just trying to climb out of the gutter or is there something deeper that survives the arrival of comfort?

Cheers - C

I agree with Dan. Some artists just seem to have more fuel in their creative tanks than others.

Speaking of the Fab Four, I am a huge Beatles fan so I bought a lot of the early solo recordings after the breakup. Arguably, all four solo Beatles had produced their strongest material between the 1970 breakup and 1975. Their track records since have been spotty. The whole was greater than the sum of its parts.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Ceri wrote:

Though in truth the Beatles were together long enough to become very, very commercial indeed! They were the richest musicians in history long before they broke up. Even after just the first couple of albums apparently John would say to Paul; "OK, let's sit down and write another swimming pool..."

On the other hand, years into their success Ringo was still saying he just wanted to make enough to settle down and open a hair salon in Liverpool. Aaaww! I guess he feels he still hasn't made enough for that... Laughing

I think part of the issue here is not the money itself but the distractions it buys. Do people have the strength of personality to stay creative now their lives are smothered in drugs, 5-star hotels, limos, assistants, private aircraft, starry friends, huge houses, fleets of sports cars... yadda yadda?

It depends what's driving an individual's creativity. Is he/she just trying to climb out of the gutter or is there something deeper that survives the arrival of comfort?

Cheers - C



Thanks Ceri, Stratman and Dan!

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Given the huge pool of "musicians" and "levels of success" and "available excesses," in this opinion, votes would be cast equally for:

Yes
No
None of the above
All of the baove
Not applicable

I agree 100% Also, A lot of musicians cannot put out anything they write when they have sales obligations to fulfill, once a performer has completed a contract obligation ( all the better if they had some success during that time) then, they get a little more creative freedom. Most of the best music these days won't be found on a major companies label. It's on the Internet.