Hey I love this meme everytime I see it, but I want to point out that that point about growing up in "similar circumstances that nurture their skill’ is contingent upon working musicians being able to afford to raise children. Children that will also need to work.
Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think there is a comparable proportion of the population that are working musicians, that earn enough money to support children, but not so much that the children don’t have to learn a trade, as there were in “Enlightenment” Europe where if a person wanted to hear music they had to make it themselves, or pay someone to make it, and every rich asshole had a chamber orchestra following him around.
Also parents don’t teach children their trades the way they used to, and they aren’t expected to support their parent’s businesses the way they used to. (I’m not lamenting this). There used to be a lot of pressure on children to contribute economically. Mozart, and his siblings probably faced what we’d consider child abuse if he didn’t practice. He was certainly exploited.
Michael Jackson is a Mozart of the 20th century. He was put to work at a young age to support his parents and siblings, that were also working musicians.
As much as I love Weird Al (and I do) I don’t think he was groomed and exploited the same way MJ/WM were. Kudos to his parents for that I guess.
Yeah, F1 driver Max Verstappen is in a similar situation. Clearly insanely talented, but probably got there by having a childhood which was pretty fucked up (left at gas station by father in Italy if he lost a karting race, etc.).
Maybe we miss out on a couple of savants without this kind of treatement, but it is a pretty good tradeoff, especially if you think about all the kids that did not make it to the top, and just had a abusive childhood without anything to show for it.
Besides, I think we lose far more amazingly talented people to the grind of poverty more than overt child exploitation. They are one and the same problem, and everyone here speaks as if this stuff only happened in the past or in extreme examples…
Hey I love this meme everytime I see it, but I want to point out that that point about growing up in "similar circumstances that nurture their skill’ is contingent upon working musicians being able to afford to raise children. Children that will also need to work.
Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think there is a comparable proportion of the population that are working musicians, that earn enough money to support children, but not so much that the children don’t have to learn a trade, as there were in “Enlightenment” Europe where if a person wanted to hear music they had to make it themselves, or pay someone to make it, and every rich asshole had a chamber orchestra following him around.
Also parents don’t teach children their trades the way they used to, and they aren’t expected to support their parent’s businesses the way they used to. (I’m not lamenting this). There used to be a lot of pressure on children to contribute economically. Mozart, and his siblings probably faced what we’d consider child abuse if he didn’t practice. He was certainly exploited.
Michael Jackson is a Mozart of the 20th century. He was put to work at a young age to support his parents and siblings, that were also working musicians.
As much as I love Weird Al (and I do) I don’t think he was groomed and exploited the same way MJ/WM were. Kudos to his parents for that I guess.
Yeah, F1 driver Max Verstappen is in a similar situation. Clearly insanely talented, but probably got there by having a childhood which was pretty fucked up (left at gas station by father in Italy if he lost a karting race, etc.).
Maybe we miss out on a couple of savants without this kind of treatement, but it is a pretty good tradeoff, especially if you think about all the kids that did not make it to the top, and just had a abusive childhood without anything to show for it.
… fuck.
Besides, I think we lose far more amazingly talented people to the grind of poverty more than overt child exploitation. They are one and the same problem, and everyone here speaks as if this stuff only happened in the past or in extreme examples…
(…Except trauma to teach to their kids)
Exactly!
Can I be a savant if I was abused (sexually) but never trained? Also, who am I saving?
Now I’m thinking about Weird Al’s parents and I’m sad.