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The Perils Of Turning Thirty

Munurmunuh

By Munurmunuh,
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Munurmunuh Grand Master

Munurmunuh

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"Robert Smith's depression prior to the recording of Disintegration gave way to the realization on his 29th birthday that he would turn 30 in one year. This was frightening to him, as he felt all the masterpieces in rock and roll had been completed well before the band members reached such an age." 

 

Robert Smith was born in April 1959, finished recording Disintegration before he turned 30, and next produced Wish, which kind of proved his point.

 

Here are four more songwriters of the 80s, and what they produced either side of their 30th birthdays:

 

Steve Harris – Mar '56 – Powerslave – Somewhere In Time

 

Andrew Eldritch – May '59 – Floodland – Vision Thing

 

Dave Mustaine – Sep '61– Rust in Peace – Countdown To Extinction

 

James Hetfield – Aug '63 – The Black Album – Load

 

I had the idea of looking up every songwriter I could think of but seem to have run out of energy.

 

Plenty of songwriters seem to fall off their creative plateau well before 30 - Black Francis, Paul McCartney, erm Simon Le Bon. You get the gist.

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4000 Veteran

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1 minute ago, zbd1960 said:

Over the years I've seen any number of people seriously panic at the thought of turning 30... The shallowness of some people's thinking is staggering

To be fair, fear of the unknown isn’t exactly unusual……and TBH, speaking personally, my life prior to being thirty was vastly superior to my most of my life since, so I wasn’t exactly wrong. 😉

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Munurmunuh Grand Master

Munurmunuh

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Some rebuttals:

 

David Bowie, turned 30 in Jan 1977, with Low, Heroes, Lodger, Scary Monsters and Let's Dance ahead of him

 

Bon Scott turned 30 in July 1976, before Powerage, Let There Be Rock and Highway To Hell

 

Back on point:

 

Be Here Now was released 3 months after Noel Gallagher's 30th birthday

 

 

 

 

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skankdelvar Grand Master

skankdelvar

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Couple of things:

 

* It's only to be expected that musicians working in rock and pop might feel uneasy at the prospect of hitting thirty. For one thing, we live in a society which widely venerates youth and beauty, and beautiful youth. Pop music and its deriving genres amplify this societal foolishness but one can't get away from the sad fact that a pretty face sells product. Next up, the characteristics associated with hormone-drenched youth - impulsiveness, wild emotional swings, excessive focus on the 'now', idealism, a consuming desire for friendship and lurve - look a bit odd (if not sinister) when exhibited by someone over thirty. 

 

Then there's the commercial aspect. It's much easier for a record company or manager to slit a bunch of kids up like a kipper compared to a bunch of wary, older types (though not always). So, signing young people and throwing them away when they get older is a music industry thing. Point of comparison: the vibrant and highly profitable South Korean music industry makes ours look like a playgroup run by social workers. The Korean pop moguls sign 14 year-old kids off the street for their looks, formally train them in pop music and image, put them on a salary, squeeze the life out of them for a few years then dump them at 21 or 22 years-old for being geriatric.

* The confining nature of pop music (repetitious songwriting, simplistic musical formulas, trite melodies, stale harmonies) means that if you're any good with your voice or your instrument you'll have reached the industry standard fairly early on in your career and no one will encourage you to go any further. You might be bored mindless  but nobody will let you make the Jazz album or write the string quartet or even slightly subvert the audience's expectations by dallying with another pop genre. That's why Anthrax had to shelve the Reggae album.

 

Of course, in musical forms other than pop we find that performers and composers are more free to experiment and to develop as musicians and artists than are pop stars; the walls of the pop 'cage' fall away. Likewise age is far less of an impediment. Indeed, in Folk, Classical, Jazz (and even some supposedly 'rock' genres like Blues) age is a draw rather than a turn-off.  When a celebrated violinist takes the stage at the age of 84 no one cries 'Where's your stick, Grandad?' or comments unfavourably upon his wrinkled hands. OK, some critics might bimble on about 'missing the fire of youth' but critics are ar5eholes.

 

TLDR: Pop's a game for young people, no getting round it. Other genres of music offer the aspiring musician a longer shelf-life.

Edited by skankdelvar
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pigface Proficient

pigface

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Tony Bennett has just retired from live performance at the age of 95. Granted, he is not a songwriter, but he was still doing shows last week with Lady Gaga. His manager (and son) says that his voice is still fine but he gets tired and they don't want him to fall down on stage. 

 

And 30 was half my life ago.

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