Why do so many musicians fail? If I had to answer that, my answer would be, because they suffer from a condition called –Puer Aeternus.
That is what the Latins describe the “Eternal boy” syndrome. It is used in mythology to designate a child-god who is forever young. So I guess the psychologists would refer to an older man whose emotional life has remained at an adolescent level as a typical example. The “puer” typically leads a provisional life perhaps due to the fear of being caught in situations from which escape is impossible. Independence and freedom is key. Boundaries and limits and all restrictions are intolerable.
So the answer is psychological.
Most musicians fail because they want to remain teenagers forever.
Of course the issue of definition of failure in itself is a subject of debate, so we can all have fun with that.
What is beyond debate is that the few who achieve a long-term career in music are those who, at some point, grow up and become adults. They take responsibility for themselves, they do their homework, they plan and prepare, they follow through, they show up.
The music industry is a terrible place to earn a living if you’re a musician because it operates on the premise of supply and demand. In most cases there are too many musicians and no demand for them. No, I should re-phrase that.
There is a demand but for a very few remarkable musicians. These are the ones who even when their original creations can’t find their way to a general audience, they can usually achieve base financial survival by doing clinics, lessons, recording sessions, instructional videos, and play in bands for 20 drunk dudes eating greasy fried potatoes and nyama choma. Even then it is still not easy for the best of them.
For most of the other musicians they appear not to be motivated by survival in the adult world. They hardly do rational. It is almost impossible to do everyday business with them because they have a strange relationship with money.
Most of the musicians I know have been motivated by money – but only large, lump sums of it. This is because large lumps of money guarantee certain libertine values.
The first is freedom. Picture this, who wants to know what time of day it is, or even what day it is. That’s where the large, lump sum of money helps.
Musicians also crave fame and glory and because they start young they tend to ape what their heroes did whether it is Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson
The third libertine value is sex and lots of it. They figured this out in high school and college. Playing music was the only way they could be tolerated or found attractive.
This could be the reason most young musicians will not take a job or gig that requires sustained action or commitment. They don’t really want to work. They rarely want to trade goods and services with other members of society in order to support their own survival. They believe they’re special. They expect to have all of their needs met by the world in return for playing. Of course there are many other deeper psychological factors that probably made them rebel against accepted norms in their own societies.
It could be a rebellion against parental value systems that convince them being an adult means being like them. So subconsciously, they make the choice not to be like those miserable alcoholics or losers who never followed their dreams.
This of course eventually manifests itself in the need to prove to parents, first, and society, later, that they can have a job that is “cool.”
