The Problem With Being ‘Known’

If anyone is familiar with music, they should know the phenomenon of the notorious ‘27 Club’. For those that don’t, The 27 Club is comprised of a collection of musical artists who died at 27. While the idea may revolve around selective observation, the pattern remains that there’s a large collection of musicians who died specifically at the age of 27.

And a lot of these people in this so-called 27 Club are quite famous. Robert Johnson, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, and the list goes on. Some of the most influential musicians of all time are in just that short list I typed.

It remains a strange pattern of culture, and people certainly like talking about it.

But once you look past who’s in The 27 Club and start looking at how the people in The 27 Club died, then it gets incredibly interesting.

Robert Johnson was likely poisoned (actual cause remains unknown), but look at the others.

Jim Morrison died of a heart attack.
Jimi Hendrix choked on his own vomit (though it’s usually simplified to an overdose).
Janis Joplin died of an overdose.
Kurt Cobain committed suicide.
Amy Winehouse died of an overdose.

And in all this, it’s astounding to note the number of deaths cause by overdose either directly or indirectly (having a heart attack at 27 requires intense substance usage, and so does choking on your own vomit).

As I’ve said, some of these names are the most influential names in music, they were known exceptionally well, which is part of what makes their deaths so heavily publicized.

Since I joined this website, my goal in life has to be known in some capacity. That’s why I’m currently running practically three different things where I could fathomably become known. Becoming a horse famous writer, or a Rock Star, or just simply a YouTuber, these are all things that can lead to the possibility of me being known as more than the background character in someone else’s life.

I feel like that’s an intrinsic part of the human experience. A very popular quote, which is usually attributed to very popular street artist Banksy, states, “They say you die twice, once when you’re buried, and a second time when somebody says your name for the last time.”

People are scared of death. And as much as we like to reassure ourselves through religion and the idea of reincarnation, there’s a still a lurking doubt within us, because we simply don’t know what happens after death.

So, if there’s really nothing after we die, humans naturally want to stay alive in some capacity. Thus, it is natural for a human to want to be known.

But just as that feeling’s natural, so is the feeling of burnout, exhaustion, and the want to always improve upon what you did last.

Look at The Beatles for instance, they made every single album bigger and better, because their goal was to top whatever they’d done last, it’s to the point where there’s several contenders, at least 4, on what the best Beatles album is. Most artists don’t even have a second contender.

And unfortunately, when you’re connected to a sprawling fan network that spans internationally, the want to push yourself more and more for your fans grows. In response, your burnout and exhaustion always increases because you’re laser focused on making that bigger and better piece of art, story, or whatever.

The notable thing about The 27 Club is that there’s hardly an artist in there that didn’t have a massive fanbase. Robert Johnson’s sort of exempt; he wasn’t big in his lifetime and only became big decades after his death when people started realizing that most of Rock could be traced to him. However, these other artists are in leagues of their own.

Having such a huge fan network puts an immense weight on your shoulders, and you might resort to dangerous means to not disappoint the fans.

In a couple of these artists’ case, however, their network was so intense that they just couldn’t handle it anymore and, for lack of a better term, they snapped.

That’s the problem with being known.

When one wants to be known, they fail to imagine just what being known entails. Being known is something nobody can prepare for, no matter how diligently they try.

Being known is in its purest form, a massive weight put on your shoulders. Being known entails so much more than a fanbase, it entails stress, dangerous stress relief, and exhaustion.

It’s not a fun thing to be.

So the next time you think about ‘being known’ realize that it’s not all fun and games, because it’s so much worse than that.

And until next time; be awesome!
-Dashie