Quick story time: I had written a whole different article last night about something entirely different, but when I refreshed the frozen page the entire four-hour-attempt erased before my weary 1:30am eyes. I then awoke first thing in the morning today, to rewrite my previous effort, but I awoke to the terrible news of the legendary Chris Cornell's passing...and I was simply left in shock. Cornell was the frontman for grunge-defining Seattle band Soundgarden - and the fact that I'm using the past tense has my stomach in knots. Cornell and his band were one of the "big four" of the grunge movement, joined by the ranks of Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Mudhoney. Soundgarden took heavy influence from Black Sabbath and paved the way with Nirvana to get grunge not only on the charts but in people's hearts. Chris Cornell's passing has left a void that in the music world, there is no man or artist remotely like him. I speak for not only myself, but a legion of musicians and fans when I say he will truly live on in our hearts and never be forgotten. This article is dedicated to the loving memory of Chris Cornell, may he rest in peace.
Chris Cornell passed away this morning (May 18, 2017) at the age of 52, the cause is still unknown at this time.
Let's take a moment to talk about how many of our favorite and beloved musicians have been passing away in the past two years, and why that is. Being a fan of untypical music (according to other people) has led me to mourn deaths that others don't, like the death of Scott Weiland (frontman; Stone Temple Pilots), Tom Searle (guitarist; Architects), and of course the one and only Lemmy Kilmister (frontman/bassist; Motorhead) among others. So many artists gone before their time, so many more undiscovered innovations. But why does it seem like more musicians have passed in the last two years than ever?
Think back to high school...what is it that sticks in your head years later that first come to memory? Specific days and experiences of lectures and walking through the hallways carrying way too many books? No. The awful and monotonous lunches you were served? Oh God no. When you're walking to the football field to watch your last homecoming game and the whole school charges back to the building as it pours and lightning cracks the sky? Yeah, I would say I remember that.
Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead) passed away December 28, 2015. His band forged the foundation for the heavy metal genre along with peers Black Sabbath.
We store so much memory into our brains that over the years we can only hold so much (insert iPhone joke here), so we ditch the boring memories of math lectures and chemistry experiments - but keep all of our "prom-posals" and football games. This concept applies to everything in our daily lives, from our jobs to our entertainment. The human brain is built to remember "memorable" experiences, to say it in English.
Musicians, like anybody else, unfortunately pass from this world all of the time. But in the past year it has been the memorable ones that have been dying. When an artist becomes truly innovative, they almost reach a new plane of existence in the music world. The work of the likes of David Bowie and Soundgarden has touched millions of souls around the globe, and will continue to for years to come. We remember them and artists like them because they brought something unique to this monotonous world, something that captivated a large amount of us for some time.
A message to those who want to create music for a living or in any capacity - please create from the heart. It is the only way to write music that is truly art, that truly has the capacity to bring something new to the fold and something that people will remember. Write it for you - pen it with your heart and soul and don't look back. Create art not because you want to make money, but because you need to create to survive. Write to keep your creative soul from bursting in the night and being swallowed down in the lull of the day. If you want people to remember you when you are gone, give them a reason to.
