For this project, I decided to research artists that struggle with mental health and still carry on with their music and sometimes even write songs about it. I chose this because I think it’s interesting to know the stories behind their songs but how they are dealing with the situation. I also chose this because I want to improve as a songwriter. I haven’t written many songs but the first ones I created didn’t really make sense, for example, the song Give Me A Sign was rewritten because the first verse was about being happy and in love and the chorus was about breaking up with the person. I think this project will help me improve as a songwriter. I think this because writing songs isn’t easy and in some cases writing about your life can help you create a song that can also help others. So for this project, I will mostly focus on the singers and their mental health but also the songs they wrote about their mental health and try to write about the stories behind the songs. I will mostly focus on the story behind the song and try to research about the artists and how they are overcoming with their mental health and what they are suffering from. I chose this because I think if you want to write a song you need inspiration and sometimes you can be your own inspiration you just need to find it, and I think that by doing this research I will gain more inspiration to write more songs but to also gain some knowledge about writing but also learning interesting facts about different artists and their songs.
Singers
Demi Lovato is one of the artists that write songs about her life experience and how it affects her life. This also shows when she is performing live and sometimes she starts to cry at her concerts.
‘Demi has struggled with substance abuse as well as her eating disorder, entering rehab to battle cocaine and alcohol addiction. The star has also suffered from depression, bipolar disorder, and self-harm. Demi has turned to the gym as a form of ‘meditation’, practicing boxing and jiu-jitsu.’
(Metro, 2020).
Due to this she started to get much better and started making songs again. In my opinion, singers that write songs about their life or something others can relate to because sometimes a song can help others with what they are going through. However, is also a big achievement for the singer to continue her career whilst struggling with many problems. In my opinion, music is like a cure because every musician creates music with passion and each song has its own feelings that can help others with their problems.
Uh, uh
I tried to talk to my piano
I tried to talk to my guitar
Talk to my imagination
Confided into alcohol
I tried and tried and tried some more
Told secrets ’til my voice was sore
Tired of empty conversation
‘Cause no one hears me anymore
A hundred million stories
And a hundred million songs
I feel stupid when I sing
Nobody’s listening to me
Nobody’s listening
I talk to shooting stars
But they always get it wrong
I feel stupid when I pray
So, why am I praying anyway?
If nobody’s listening
Anyone, please send me anyone
Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone, oh
Anyone, please send me anyone
Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone
I used to crave the world’s attention
I think I cried too many times
I just need some more affection
Anything to get me by
A hundred million stories
And a hundred million songs
I feel stupid when I sing
Nobody’s listening to me
Nobody’s listening
I talk to shooting stars
But they always get it wrong
I feel stupid when I pray
Why the fuck am I praying anyway?
If nobody’s listening
Anyone, please send me anyone
Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone, oh
Anyone, please send me anyone
Oh, Lord, is there anyone?
I need someone
Oh, anyone, I need anyone
Oh, anyone, I need someone
A hundred million stories
And a hundred million songs
I feel stupid when I sing
Nobody’s listening to me
Nobody’s listening
azlyrics (2020)
The lyrics show how lonely she feels and that she needs help. She also talks about her struggles with alcohol. I think that music helps us to explain our feeling in a way we are able to explain how we really feel. When I’m trying to write songs I focus on my life and what I went through but also think what others might be going through and how can I help them to relate to the song, and I think that many people can relate to her song because some people feel lonely and feel like they need someone in their lives.
As I was doing some research on Demi Lovato and her health I found that many singers/musicians struggle with mental health and other problems and one of them is Billie Eilish. She struggles with mental health as she used get suicidal thoughts this was because ‘she was overwhelmed by her own fame’ however, she still managed to make songs and carry on with her music and spoke about her mental health in her song ‘everything I wanted’ where she speaks about her struggles with mental health due to he fame but she also talks about her brother that he’s always going to be there for her. Many singers put all their pain and struggle into songs that can then make also others feel better. In my opinion, sometimes writing songs can express what you feel by sometimes you can’t express your emotions by talking to people because you are struggling to express yourself for 100%. Billie is still not okay but she’s carrying on with her music and she is also trying to help others as she was speaking in many interviews about her health but also encouraging others to speak up if they are not okay. She also created an album in 2019 that’s about her having nightmare and ludic dreams. She said that she controls her dreams and sometimes even the dreams she has to happen on the next day. Billies inspiration was her dreams so she decided to create an album about it. As she is open about her mental health she is also open about her having ludic dreams and sleep paralysis. During the interview, she spoke also about her depression and also talked about her brother how they understand each other without speaking this shows that they have a very strong connection, and like she said he is helping her with her mental health and that he will always be there for her.
-nme (2019)
“Everything I Wanted”
I had a dream
I got everything I wanted
Not what you’d think
And if I’m being honest
It might have been a nightmare
To anyone who might care
Thought I could fly
So I stepped off the golden
Nobody cried
Nobody even noticed
I saw them standing right there
Kinda thought they might care
I had a dream
I got everything I wanted
But when I wake up, I see
You with me
And you say
As long as I’m here
No one can hurt you
Don’t wanna lie here
But you can learn to
If I could change the way that you see yourself
You wouldn’t wonder why you hear
“They don’t deserve you”
I tried to scream
But my head was under water
They called me weak
Like I’m not just somebody’s daughter
Could’ve been a nightmare
But it felt like they were right there
And it feels like yesterday was a year ago
But I don’t wanna let anybody know
‘Cause everybody wants something from me now
And I don’t wanna let ’em down
I had a dream
I got everything I wanted
But when I wake up, I see
You with me
And you say
As long as I’m here
No one can hurt you
Don’t wanna lie here
But you can learn to
If I could change the way that you see yourself
You wouldn’t wonder why you hear
“They don’t deserve you”
If I knew it all then, would I do it again?
Would I do it again?
If they knew what they said would go straight to my head
What would they say instead?
If I knew it all then, would I do it again?
Would I do it again?
If they knew what they said would go straight to my head
What would they say instead?
azlyrics,(2020)
Another singer I’m going to be talking about is Noah Cyrus and how she talks about her struggles with anxiety in her song ‘Lonely’. “Cyrus released “Lonely” in September and explained that the moving piano ballad came from a point in her life where she “felt stuck in this place that I could not get out of.” She continued, “I just needed to get it out; I needed the conversation because I couldn’t take it in my body anymore, I couldn’t take the feeling of anxiety circling in my chest. I couldn’t take that anymore, or I was gonna explode.”In her song, she also mentions her family,” miss all my family” as she was struggling to talk to them about it so she had no one to share her problems with. Making this song helped her by speaking about her troubles and helped her overcome her depression.
“Lonely”
I’m slowly killing myself
I’m trying so hard at the back of the shelf
It’s just the same every day
I’m writing these songs that will never get played
I can’t tell what’s wrong and what’s right
I don’t have a romantic life
And everyone’s dying so I keep on trying
To make them proud before they are gone
Oh can’t someone help me
Oh please someone help me
I don’t care anyone, anything
‘Cause I’m sick of being so
Lonely
Miss all my family
I don’t care, anyone, anything
‘Cause I’m so sick of being so lonely
I’m spending more than I earn
Drink all the time to forget I’m not her
‘Cause I go to parties sometimes
And I’ll kiss a boy and pretend for the night
‘Cause I don’t know much about me
I’m still ashamed of who I used to be
So I try way too hard but I still miss the mark
To fit in, fit in
Help me
Oh please someone help me
I don’t care anyone, anything
‘Cause I’m sick of being so
Lonely
I miss all my family
I don’t care, anyone, anything
‘Cause I’m so sick of being so lonely
I don’t care, anyone, anything
‘Cause I’m so sick of being so lonely
azlyrics, (2019)
Throughout doing research, I found out Eminem has struggled with many things like alcohol and drug addiction, depression, and bipolar disorder. He made 2 whole albums about his mental health called Recovery and Relapse. One of his songs called ‘Beautiful’ talks about him being lonely and that he stopped socializing as he says in the first lines of his song ”Lately I’ve been hard to reach” ”I’ve been too long on my own” in my opinion this means that he didn’t want to talk about it with anyone and wanted to be alone and not be in contact with anyone. As I was researching more about him I found that he wanted to quit his career because of the pressure he couldn’t take anymore. However, he still managed to carry on with his music and made many other albums but also collaborated with other singers like Ed Sheeran.
an.
‘so he can do some soul-searching and be more involved with the Hillsong Church. ‘
elite daily
(2020)
Justin was also very open about the medication he was taking, but also about mental health that he struggles with anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Many singers or even people, in general, stop everything that they are doing and start to take care of themselves. Justin stopped making songs for some time. However, now he has released many new songs and in his newest song ‘Intentions’ he is trying to help others that don’t have enough money. Justin is still struggling to this day but his wife helps him to get through it and carries on with his music. However, Justin didn’t make any songs about his mental health but he created some documentaries about it. As I know from my own knowledge he was almost in jail and could face 2 or more years. He also has shown a lot of aggression towards other people and started gaining more hate. This has also affected his mental health. Now he is feeling much better and is carrying on with his music but also collaborating with other people like Quavo, Post Malone, Clever and Ed Sheeran.
Throughout this project my ideas have changed many times. At the start of this project I wanted to write about song writing in general but as I was doing my research I wanted to find out more information about her mental health and how is she dealing with it and at the same time making songs. I found it very interesting because I can’t imagine how singer or even people in general that suffer from mental health carry on living their life’s as before. So I decided to write about singers that struggle with mental health and still carry on with their music. As I was doing my research on them I found that there are many singers that suffer from mental health and I never knew they do as I listen to them. Overall I think that music can make people feel better because music has been here for centuries and people listen to music to feel better and sometimes if we feel sad or even happy singers tend to write songs about it and others who listen to them can relate to the words of the song and it can make them feel better. So in my opinion, I have learned a lot about certain singers from this project and learned the stories from the songs they wrote about their mental health and other struggles. During this project, I have realized that there are many singers that suffer from very similar things, and each artist I have researched is suffering from depression. I have also learned that writing songs with a meaning behind them is very hard because you need inspiration from something you saw or have been through. I think that choosing this for my research project was a very good idea because I have learned so much about artists that I used to listen from a very young age and would have never thought they have been through this much. Lastly, I think that this project helped me understand more what writing songs is like but also gave me the opportunity to understand the lyrics more and the story behind them.