Men in Music and Their Mental Health

Toxic masculinity has created a debilitating stigma around mental health – telling men to suppress their emotions rather than seek help. This can lead to unhealthy behaviours like using female friends as therapists, gaslighting and manipulation, and even abuse in extreme cases. This is why this week we’ve decided to focus on men in music and their mental health.

In this episode, we examine male artists including Sam Fender, Yungblud, James Blake who are setting an example of how to cope with toxic masculinity and mental health in a healthy way. We also discuss others like Twenty One Pilots who sing about their mental health struggles but do little more to destigmatize actually getting help.

This is a music commentary podcast based on pre-existing knowledge and facts cited below. If you’d like to discuss anything we talked about today in greater detail with us, you can find us on Twitter @Name3Songs or @sara_feigin & @jenna_million

Check out past episodes like: The Inescapable Misogyny in Songwriting and Sexual Misconduct in Music: The Fan Perspective

TW: Mentions of suicide and other mental health disorders such as narcissism and gaslighting

Sources for Men in Music and Their Mental Health

Why It’s Hard For Men To Seek Therapy And How To Start (MyWellBeing by Caitlin Harper, 2020)

Here’s Why it’s Still Really Hard to Get Men to Go to Therapy (Vice by Philip Eli, 2017)

Suicide Statistics 2019 by American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

Why more men than women die by suicide (BBC by Helene Schumacher, 2019)

Sam Fender talks mental health, tackling ‘toxic masculinity’ and his new single ‘Dead Boys’ (NME, by Andrew Trendell,  2018)

Sam Fender talks Boris Johnson, ‘White Privilege’ and his idol Bruce Springsteen (Evening Standard, by Sara Feigin, 2019)

Sam Fender Song “Pulled Me Back From Brink” (BBC)

Yungblud opens up on suicidal thoughts: “I would feel totally alone” (NME, 2020)

Yungblud: “I wanna be the Drake of rock ‘n’ roll” (NME, by Charlotte Krol, 2018)

Yungblud’s Instagram post premiering his music video for “God Save Me, But Don’t Drown Me Out”

“How Can I Complain?”  (James Blake, 2019) from It’s Not Ok To Feel Blue (And other Lies)

6 Common Traits of Narcissists and Gaslighters (Psychology Today by Preston Ni M.S.B.A., 2017)

Narcissistic Abuse Affects Over 158 Million People in the U.S. (Psych Central: Medically reviewed by Scientific Advisory Board — Written by Bree Bonchay, LCSW on June 1, 2017)

Why Men Are More Narcissistic (And How to Get It in Check) (Observer by David Waters, 2018)

Tell Me All I Need to Know About Narcissistic Personality Disorder (PSYCOM by Christina Gregory, PhD & Krista Soriano)

Ashton Irwin’s Brave New World (Spin by Liza Lentini, 2020)

Twenty One Pilots: Trench | The Obsession with Depression (Bearded Gentlemen Music, Aaron Cooper, 2018)

Twenty One Pilots frontman Tyler Joseph Apologises After ‘Insensitive’ Tweet about Black Lives Matter Movement (The Independent, Annabel Nugent, Sept 2020)

Twenty One Pilots Tyler Joseph Apologises For Controversial Tweets: “I Know I’m Not A Racist Person” (NME, Ali Shutler, Dec 2020)