Winehouse tragedy is a teachable moment for R&B fans

OPINION - Perhaps the demise of Winehouse's extraordinary talent will serve as a teachable moment for young artists and the children who admire them.

ewyckoffwilliams

Jul 24, 2011

Amy Winehouse was blessed with a voice beyond her years, and cursed with addictions that cost her life.

The 27-year-old, Grammy Award-winning blues artist was found dead in her London apartment on Saturday: an undeniable talent, an irrefutable voice and indestructible icon followed a path which became legend far too soon. Winehouse joins the ‘27’ Club alongside the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and other extraordinary talents, who achieved so much, so early, and died so young.

Others like Billie Holiday and Michael Jackson, who suffered long-term drug dependency in open silence, were celebrated by fans that knew of their tragic weaknesses, and either turned a blind eye, or believed, naively, that it was never really that bad.

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The culture of play hard, work hard, go hard, die young has been one which has become accepted, expected and indulged, by fans and media alike. In hip-hop and rap, the language which glorifies street, drug culture allows artists like T.I. and Lil Wayne to receive arrest warrants and indictments as often as they receive Grammy Award nominations, with hardly anyone blinking an eye.

How? Why? And when did it become normal to behave so recklessly?

There is a long history of R&B singers whose hard living was celebrated by their audiences; from the tragic end of Billie Holiday to the sublimely recovered, transcendent Mary J. Blige, and the ever hopeful, yet recurrent relapses of the divine Whitney Houston. Somewhere along the line, we came to see their pain as an enhancement of their music. This tacit acceptance of inexcusable behavior amounts to an enabling of indulgences which too often prove dangerously fatal.

Click here to view a Grio slideshow of our favorite ‘blue-eyed soul’ singers

The ascendancy of the likes of Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton to the pinnacle of style, though they arrived on the hinges of a self-starring role in a sex video, is matched by Nicole Ritchie’s heroin addiction and week-by-week weight loss diary updates in the pages of OK! and People magazines. Hilton has received cocaine possession charges at the same rate the average teenager is scolded by their parents for playing music too loudly or violating curfews. Rihanna and Chris Brown experienced the darkest elements of domestic abuse on a national stage, and weeks later received and accepted accolades for their work, as if the details of their personal lives had never been made public.

The show goes on, and the audience hardly notices the intermission.

Fortunately, Amy Winehouse won’t be forgotten. Her debut album, Frank, released in 2003 was a re-invigoration of the jazz genre for the new century. Reviews of her voice and her work received comparisons to the legendary Sarah Vaughan and the more contemporary Macy Gray. Her ability to marry jazz, blues and R&B was second to none within her youthful generation. Winehouse admired the 1960s girl groups like the Supremes and the Ronettes, borrowing her instantly recognized beehive hairdo from that era.

Her success blossomed on the international stage in 2006, with the ominously titled “You Know I’m No Good”, “Rehab”, “Love is a Losing Game”, “Tears Dry on Their Own” and “Back to Black”, making her a classic, yet tragic figure. Her work explored the darkest moments of life and love, sadness and suffering.

Perhaps the demise of Winehouse’s extraordinary talent will serve as a teachable moment for young artists and the children who admire them. The path to dependency she experienced may at times be tempting, but the behavior and repercussions that result are far from optimal. As a society, we can no longer celebrate the banal and irresponsible, while expecting a different result. Too much, and too many, have been lost too soon.

Edward Wyckoff Williams is an author, columnist, political and economic analyst, and a former investment banker. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook>