Raging Against the Rock-and-Roll Suicide
Amid rising suicide rates and a series of public figures killing themselves, what is the best way to talk about self-destruction? Experts counsel understanding for the victims of suicide and those they’ve left behind, more open conversations about mental health, and a resistance to glorifying or fixating on the act itself. But pop culture hasn’t followed those rules strictly: Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why sexed up self-harm, and Robin Williams’s death elicited a jarringly sentimental response from the Motion Picture Academy.
The music world, realm of some of morose rap and rock has contended with mental-health issues forthrightly but also with a sense of romance, and certain artists in the lineage of Kurt Cobain. But there’s been more survival-minded work being made, too. The rapper Logic’s 2017 hit, “1-800-273-8255” publicized the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and told listeners in psychic pain that they’re not alone.
