AS someone who’s been around the block as a live musician in the local live music circuit, I have seen so many young musicians who hilariously (to me) perpetuate stereotypes about musicians.

Some are harmless (example: doing a Pete Townshend windmill move and missing the guitar completely) while some are harmful (example: young musicians who clearly can’t hold their drink and behave aggressively).

Unfortunately, these sorts of characters tend to populate the section of the live music scene I ply my trade in – the underground and independent live music circuit.

This segment of the live scene is often populated by amateur and young musicians who probably practise their rock good moves more than practising their instruments, so it’s an expected outcome since these are avenues for new musicians to get their feet wet as performers and network.

There’s less at stake with no sponsors, for example, so there is also less expected professionalism on their part.

However, this is no excuse to treat live music events as a private jamming session or playground and more often than not, the more experienced crew of these venues (the venue owners or sound persons) are often tasked in disciplining these rowdy wannabes.

I’m happy to report that these types aren’t as common as one might assume because live music venues are legitimate businesses and won’t tolerate an amateur who doesn’t know their place.

The outcome of these hooligans is the sad perpetuation of the negative stereotypes often lumped on musicians since it only takes one bad behaviour to be remembered against 10 good ones.

I found a recent article online about harmful stereotypes of musicians that I’d like to give some localised context.

1. Musicians are starving artists

There are many types of musicians out there in the local live music circuit – some are full-time (playing live music as their sole income) while some are part-time (they have a day job to supplement their music).

To me, I make no distinction between the two (the latter is often also described as “hobbyist”, which misses the point) – they are both legitimate as artists and performers, but both require some financial acumen to keep playing and making music a sustainable endeavour.

Hence, it takes some discipline and good time management to be a musician, period.

Audiences only see us onstage performing but not the hours put in rehearsing (which costs money to rent a jamming studio per hour), travelling to the venue (transportation is never free and traffic jams waste precious petrol), and the time waiting around after soundcheck for the show to start (which again may incur some cost if one orders beverages or food, if not provided by the venue).

2.  Musicians are always extroverted

This is farthest from the truth – most musicians I know are introverts.

Just because one displays flamboyance onstage does not mean one is equally flamboyant offstage.

A live music show is performance and audiences too travel to venues and pay money to watch a show (or purchase beverages or food if it’s a free show), so as a musician you are obliged to give the show you can give.

One has to take on a persona onstage to protect and cultivate the private self – this is the well from which creative energies are harnessed.

You do not waste precious energy on being a social butterfly offstage. Creativity is a solitary activity and it’s almost a given that one has to be some sort of introvert to focus on creation.

I, for example, am a loner by nature but that does not necessarily mean I am socially inept.

In fact, I compartmentalise and put on my social public self to protect my private creative self – an art that may be dying in this social media age where younger artists almost automatically share their private lives out in the public.

3. Musicians are substance abusers

Playing music involves instruments and to operate these instruments, one must have not only skills and talent but also competency.

Put an individual in a band, then the collective competency is important to make the unit operate accordingly – the unit does not entertain stragglers or uncommitted members.

The stereotype of musicians as substance abusers is perpetuated in popular culture, usually by celebrities who died of drug overdoses or entered rehab. They are a minority of the larger community and if one digs deep enough, one will find some form of private and personal trauma as the cause of the behaviour and habit, not the music.

Music instruments are tools and it is a fact that a person will find it hard to operate any tool if one is high on drugs.

If anything, their behaviour will be obvious to everyone around them, especially their band members, and most won’t tolerate this, even if the entire band is made up of substance abusers (such bands won’t last long anyway).

4. Musicians are unfaithful

This stereotype irks me the most – it’s almost ingrained in any person who doesn’t play music or any instrument.

The image of the polyamorous rock star arriving at a venue with a woman in each arm and surrounded by a bevy of groupies seems to be a stereotype that even budding amateur musicians seem to believe in.

This often leads to the sort of behaviour related to what I mentioned in the introduction and giving other hard-working and honest musicians a bad name.

I’m not saying this sort of amorous behaviour doesn’t exist – in fact, it exists everywhere even outside of the realm of music making.

If a person is predisposed to such behaviour and habit, it really doesn’t matter what profession or vocation they are in.

Again, this stereotype is perpetuated in popular culture and mythologised during the “golden age” of rock n’ roll – the 1960s and 1970s when bands like Led Zeppelin were assumed to have lived the rock star life to the hilt although their frontman has recently insisted that a lot of it had been exaggerated.

Still, debauchery and musicians seem to be the hardest stereotype to shake off, especially in good ol’ pious Malaysia where Satan and rock music seem to be bedfellows in the eyes of demagogues. – June 3, 2022.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.