Music is good for the soul.

I am assuming, since there are only two rounds, that I am to simply dive straight in, so I shall. If not, I do apologise and shall not post any new arguments in the second round if my opponent so wishes. However, I would like to remind my opponent that burden of proof lies with him, but I shall post an argument this round anyway, bearing in mind the brevity of this debate. My main point shall be that music in fact destroys the souls of artists, driving them to brink, then tipping them over. I shall provide several examples of the way music ruins people, if not always the listeners. 1. Kurt Cobain Kurt Cobain was lead singer of the band Nirvana. Nirvana were massively popular, and the attention they received was phenomenal. I realise that my opponent will no doubt put forward this popularity, and the pressure from the press and mainstream media etc, as that which actually led to his suicide. However, I resolve that said popularity and the music that led to it are one and the same. If music was not released to the public in general, it would have to be fairly private and this debate would have to be about the playing of music. However, it is about "music" as a whole. So I conclude everything resulting from an artist's music is to be considered one and the same as music for the purposes of this debate at least. Cobain, although having a troubled adolescence, began to go seriously off the rails as Nirvana became more and more successful. In the early 1990s, he began using heroin, a major step towards the addiction and mental state that led to his eventual death a few years later [1]. Nirvana released Nevermind in 1991, a huge success for the band. In Utero was released in late 1993, also very successful. Cobain attempted suicide in early 1994, leaving a suicide note before overdosing. A month later, he shot himself in the mouth. The link cannot be denied. His music hastened, if it didn't directly cause, his death. 2. Elvis Presley Elvis Presley was an even more monumental success than Cobain. Equally, his fall from grace was even more horrifying. From a lively, spectacular, colossal figure, one of massive influence and near universal popularity to a shadow, a ghost: "far from that of the vigorous and full of energy boy that conquered the world. He was overweight and started to have problems memorizing the lyrics of the songs. " [2] Again, drugs are generally accepted to be to blame [3]. It seems that many prominent artists seem to have this in common. 3. Suicidal Composers Clearly this is not a trend restricted to the modern age. Many composers have committed suicide. If we go back less than a century, we find a composer that is cited as having great talent and potential [4]. He committed suicide, for unknown reasons. Carlo Pedrotti committed suicide after claiming ill health [5]. Jeremiah Clarke committed suicide because he was in love with a woman of higher class than himself [6]. Eric Fogg leapt under a train [7]. Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz committed suicide after his wife left him for his student [8]. Although many of these have a reason to commit suicide, the sheer number of composers and artists that end their own lives has some weight. In conclusion, these tragic figures were harmed by music. It eroded their souls and left them less able to cope with the pressures of life, which drove them to their deaths, often suicide. [1] . http://www.biography.com... [2] . http://elvispresleybiography.com... [3] . http://www.elvispresleynews.com... [4] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [5] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [6] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [7] . http://en.wikipedia.org... [8] . http://en.wikipedia.org...