UNDERSTANDING THE PROFESSIONAL HAZARDS OF MUSIC

Abstract

The need for music practitioners to be properly enlightened on the hazards associated with the music profession was captured in this paper. Several musicians have lost their lives due to ignorance and negligence to these hazards. Some of these hazards have been identified to be physical, psychological, mental, and even spiritual and all have been recorded to have induced serious health challenges, permanent bodily injuries, psychological trauma, mental distortions and hallucinations, and death. The paper took a historical perspective in divulging several struggles and causes of death of many musicians and musicologists, renowned and unrenowned such as hearing impairment, deafness, heart problems, sight deterioration, blindness, infectious diseases, fracture, psychological trauma, loss of identity, loneliness and depression associated with stardom, drug abuse, sexuality chaos, etc. Highlighted also is the unstableness that comes with musical genius. The essence is to sensitize practicing music professionals and prospective music practitioners of the dangers intrinsic to musical art.