Rachel over at Cocktails and Curtain Calls touched on a very big question that I’ve been thinking about all weekend…Why do we care about Amy Winehouse giving in to her demons more than we seem to care about the 90 teenagers who didn’t ask to die in Norway on Friday?
To say I’m shocked at the media coverage of this would be an understatement. ‘Surprising death’ – ‘shocking twist’…really? ‘Lost the talent of our generation’ or something along those lines. Maybe I’m going to sound crass here…..but she had one monster album centered around a song addressing how she won’t go to rehab…Aretha Franklin she is not. I’m watching The Talk right now…they just said her ‘impressive and HUGE career’ huh??? Maybe so many celebs give into their addictions because of the pressure of wanting to live up to the way the media inflates their talents?
Is it sad to lose someone…ANYONE…so young? Absolutely. And is addiction a serious disease? Absolutlely. But this morning I heard recovering alcholic, Pat O’Brien liken addiction to cancer. What? Sorry Pat – but here’s the thing. Addicts DO have a choice – especially addicts with unlimited funds at their disposal. You can beat it with hard work and surrounding yourself with the right people.
It’s a horrible waste. But let’s move on and focus on the ‘news’ stories that are actually news. (and yes – I get the irony that I’m writing this….and not focusing on something else!)
Do I feel bad for Amy? Yes. Did she have a place in my world? No. Did I mourn for all those in Norway? Absolutely? I am not going to compare the horror. I think however, when I musician or celebrity passes away, that strange collective mourning that goes on, occurs because these people have been part of the creation of something that touched us. Music touches our hearts in a very special way and these things talk to us, pulls emotions out of us and I think that is why we grieve in that fashion. Those arts sometimes give people something to hold on to at differennt stages in their lives. I think that is why musical devices are so popular, you can carry the thing that touches you so. I don’t expect in this day and age that the coverage for either situations be any less than what they were. It is a sad thing but will it change. Do people want it to?
I remember people sobbing hysterically, cartoonishly and openly when Michael Jackson died and I thought “do you cry for real people in your lives like this?”
The world has gone crazy and reality TV and media frenzy has not helped. There is a numbing so acute that people don’t even know why they are crying anymore