Drugs and creativity?

Deus Ex Machina · 20-11-2011 02:49PM #1

It's well known that a huge number of famous and successful artists of all types used a lot of drugs. Writers, musicians, actors, painters, so many of them were and are heavily involved with, if not addicted to, some type of drug.

So the question is, do you think that art/creativity can be enhanced by drug use? Or is it the case that the likes of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stephen King, Charles Dickens, Van Gogh etc would have been just as creative and successful without ever using drugs?

MrStuffins · 20-11-2011 02:51PM

Ya know what else can be enhanced by drugs?

Dying with underwear full of your own feces!

Sky King · 20-11-2011 02:52PM

Trent Reznor's best stuff was produced when he was sober, and he has said in interviews that his addictions were hindering his progress as opposed to facilitating it.

MagicMarker · 20-11-2011 02:53PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10w3FuCwfQ

Doc Ruby · 20-11-2011 02:54PM

The question is did they get famous for being creative then start taking drugs, or did they start taking drugs then get famous?

minidazzler · 20-11-2011 02:56PM

Sky King wrote: »

Trent Reznor's best stuff was produced when he was sober, and he has said in interviews that his addictions were hindering his progress as opposed to facilitating it.

Yes, but Hemmingway, Hunter S Thompson, Allen Ginsberg, Jimi Hendrix, Charles Bukowski, Humphrey Bogart and John Lennon were rarely sober, and they are pretty much all better than Trent Reznor.

MrStuffins · 20-11-2011 02:58PM

minidazzler wrote: »

Yes, but Hemmingway, Hunter S Thompson, Allen Ginsberg, Jimi Hendrix, Charles Bukowski, Humphrey Bogart and John Lennon were rarely sober, and they are pretty much all better than Trent Reznor.

Naming people who were crative on drugs really doesn't prove anything. For every 1 person who was creative on drugs anyone can name 20 who weren't!

mackg · 20-11-2011 02:58PM

Doc Ruby wrote: »

The question is did they get famous for being creative then start taking drugs, or did they start taking drugs then get famous?

Look at the Beatles, when they started taking drugs their music changed too but it could be the case that the change in their musical style and their recreational drug use were both effects of a change in their overall attitude.

Tescosolvakia · 20-11-2011 02:59PM

I have much more respect for artists or musicians who can access their creativity without going thru a K-hole to get there.

I'm much more impressed with those who can express their talents soberly than some poetic pill-head.

earpiece · 20-11-2011 03:00PM

Always felt that David Bowie's only good work was when he was off his box?
And doesn't music and art always seem better when your stoned (so they tell me:cool:).

jimpump · 20-11-2011 03:00PM

william burroughs relied on opiates/heroin to write

same as kurt kobain and jimi hendrix and countless other musicians

R P McMurphy · 20-11-2011 03:01PM

Would really depend on the drug. Many famous people have admitted to gaining immense creativity and have enhanced the development of ideas while on extremely high doses of lsd

galwayrush · 20-11-2011 03:01PM

Aeopsmith went to ****e when they got out of rehab.

Sky King · 20-11-2011 03:01PM

The question is did they get famous for being creative then start taking drugs, or did they start taking drugs then get famous?

Indeed.

minidazzler wrote: »

Yes, but Hemmingway, Hunter S Thompson, Allen Ginsberg, Jimi Hendrix, Charles Bukowski, Humphrey Bogart and John Lennon were rarely sober, and they are pretty much all better than Trent Reznor.

How can you say a writer, actor and journalist are better than a musician? That makes....no sense.

Are you high?

leonidas83 · 20-11-2011 03:02PM

Cocaine definitely works the creative sign of your brain as the IT development sector is well aware of im sure. Have met so many coke heads from that line of work its not funny, having taken it before myself I would agree. The pressure to come up with new ideas and concepts all the time takes it toll im sure.

I think Opium and Heroine are more of an Artists fortay although this could be bull****. Keats and many other poets were big users apparently.

minidazzler · 20-11-2011 03:03PM

MrStuffins wrote: »

Naming people who were crative on drugs really doesn't prove anything. For every 1 person who was creative on drugs anyone can name 20 who weren't!

It's actually the other way around, every great person you can name who was sober, there are another 20 who were on some sort of drug.

Latchy · 20-11-2011 03:05PM

Deus Ex Machina wrote: »

It's well known that a huge number of famous and successful artists of all types used a lot of drugs. Writers, musicians, actors, painters, so many of them were and are heavily involved with, if not addicted to, some type of drug.

So the question is, do you think that art/creativity can be enhanced by drug use? Or is it the case that the likes of the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stephen King, Charles Dickens, Van Gogh etc would have been just as creative and successful without ever using drugs?

In the case of the Beatles ,you only have to listen to their work from 1962-66 then listen to their later stuff 1967-70 to see that their drug influenced creativity took another turn which didn't affect their success at all and many other groups like the Doors ,Pink Floyd and the Stones all produced albums that were heavily influenced by drugs but there can be a price to pay for this over indulgence as has shown .

MrStuffins · 20-11-2011 03:06PM

minidazzler wrote: »

It's actually the other way around, every great person you can name who was sober, there are another 20 who were on some sort of drug.

If you believe that then you certainly must be one of them!

galwayrush · 20-11-2011 03:07PM

minidazzler wrote: »

It's actually the other way around, every great person you can name who was sober, there are another 20 who were on some sort of drug.

True, walking along the Quays in Dublin, you are walking among some amazingly talented/ creative skangers people.

minidazzler · 20-11-2011 03:08PM

MrStuffins wrote: »

If you believe that then you certainly must be one of them!

I'm a drinker, I generally don't do anything else though. But it's simply a fact. And since you said you could name 20 people for every 1 I did....go ahead.

galwayrush wrote: »

True, walking along the Quays in Dublin, you are walking among some amazingly talented/ creative skangers people.

I never said everyone who takes drugs is creative. Just that a hell of a lot of people who are creative happen to take a lot of drugs and it, in a lot of cases, enhances their creativity.

MrStuffins · 20-11-2011 03:08PM

galwayrush wrote: »

True, walking along the Quays in Dublin, you are walking among some amazingly talented/ creative skangers people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD_s1uPheEY

FloatingVoter · 20-11-2011 03:09PM

To each their own. Lennon was off his box on heroin and acid while a weed smoking McCartney put together Sgt.Pepper. Lennon also knocked out "A Day In The Life" about the same time.
Bowie can't remember most of the 70s. Thankfully he was in a recording studio for some of it.
Keith Richards would have fired the Stones in the late 60s if he didn't need them and the money to buy drugs.
Also - a lot of these guys were exaggerating their drug intake. It is possible Ozzy Osbourne didn't exaggerate anything but he's not an ad for a drug habit. He'd admit that himself.

RichieC · 20-11-2011 03:09PM

when you're young it is true... once you hit 25 or so drugs just start to sap your personality out of you.

MrStuffins · 20-11-2011 03:10PM

minidazzler wrote: »

I'm a drinker, I generally don't do anything else though. But it's simply a fact.

No it's not.

And since you said you could name 20 people for every 1 I did....go ahead.

I said anyone could name 20 people.

I never said I could be arsed!

jimpump · 20-11-2011 03:12PM

leonidas83 wrote: »

Cocaine definitely works the creative sign of your brain as the IT development sector is well aware of im sure. Have met so many coke heads from that line of work its not funny, having taken it before myself I would agree. The pressure to come up with new ideas and concepts all the time takes it toll im sure.

I think Opium and Heroine are more of an Artists fortay although this could be bull****. Keats and many other poets were big users apparently.

HA, what type of cocaine you boys in galway taking?! lol

minidazzler · 20-11-2011 03:14PM

MrStuffins wrote: »

No it's not.

I said anyone could name 20 people.

I never said I could be arsed!

Being anti-drugs is one thing and fair enough, but to deny the effect and influence drugs have had on artists, writers, musicians and scholars is simply stupid. Some of the greatest minds were off their tits a lot of the time.

20-11-2011 03:16PM

I'd propose that drugs don't make you more creative but they do improve your ability to get your ideas out of your head (if you know what I mean). So while taking drugs might not have made them better artists, it stopped them overthinking things, helped them throw ideas out there, and changed their attitude/approach to producing their art/music/writing.

Like the way drinking doesn't make you smarter, or funnier, or a better person, but it does enhance your ability to make conversation because it helps you express the things in your head that you might not quite get out of your mouth sober. You're the same person drunk, but you seem more confident because you head eases up on telling you that the things you want to say are stupid.

Sky King · 20-11-2011 03:17PM

a hell of a lot of people who are creative happen to take a lot of drugs and it, in a lot of cases, enhances their creativity.

I don't have a problem with people doing drugs at all incidentally -I love dance music and drugs are most definitely the reason it became so popular.

People have this notion that getting jacked on something or other is 'cool' and it enhances creativity whereas most successful artists are creative people anyway.

A true test would be to take someone uncreative and give them a load of yokes and acid and heroin and see what they come up with.

It seems that the artist lifestyle and drugs seem to go hand in hand - you can't say that these artists wouldn't have produced the same output if they were clean and sober.

MrStuffins · 20-11-2011 03:20PM

minidazzler wrote: »

Being anti-drugs is one thing and fair enough, but to deny the effect and influence drugs have had on artists, writers, musicians and scholars is simply stupid. Some of the greatest minds were off their tits a lot of the time.

I'm not anti-drugs.

And I never denied the effect of musicians writers scholars etc.

Where are you getting this from? Have you ever been reading what i've been saying?

All I said was, for every 1 person you can name who was creative on drugs, anyone can nane 20 who weren't, It's simple!

minidazzler · 20-11-2011 03:23PM

Sky King wrote: »

It seems that the artist lifestyle and drugs seem to go hand in hand - you can't say that these artists wouldn't have produced the same output if they were clean and sober.

I can't remember right now who said it, but it may have been Jackie Gleeson. He said something to the effect of "I wish I had gone through those times sober so that I could remember them better, then again, if I had been sober it wouldn't have happened the same way"

These artists wouldn't have the same output sober, not the exact same anyway, that's not to say they wouldn't have stuff as good, but it's unlikely they would have been quite as free with their idea's.

MrStuffins wrote: »

All I said was, for every 1 person you can name who was creative on drugs, anyone can nane 20 who weren't, It's simple!

My apologies, when I read that first I thought it meant 20 people who were creative and weren't on drugs.

Dudess · 20-11-2011 03:24PM

Deus Ex Machina wrote: »

It's well known that a huge number of famous and successful artists of all types used a lot of drugs. Writers, musicians, actors, painters, so many of them were and are heavily involved with, if not addicted to, some type of drug.

So the question is, do you think that art/creativity can be enhanced by drug use?

Yes.

Drugs and creativity?

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