Booking concert tickets to watch a musician perform is not always as fun for the artist as it is for the audience. Performing live in front of thousands of people can be physically and mentally taxing.
Not only can tours be straining for the main performing artists, but also for anyone within the traveling crew. For the artist themselves, background dancers, and film crews it can be an extremely stressful and a difficult lifestyle to keep up with. Although this isn’t always the case, people worry that artists who are frequently performing and overexerting themselves are more likely to burn out prematurely in their careers.
Popular artists such as Tyler the Creator, Lizzo, Justin Bieber, and Kendrick Lamar have all toured plenty of times in their careers. While fans can easily enjoy their performances, it’s easy to forget that tours often require artists to perform back-to-back for weeks or even months at a time.
“There’s so much that goes into touring and it’s really hard on your body,” said Justin Bieber in a GQ tour bus insider video. Artists who tour frequently risk a lack of sleep, high anxiety and stress, and feelings of loneliness from traveling for such an extended period of time.
Although it may seem clear-cut, the mental impact of habitual tours and concerts really depends on the artist and how they feel about performing live. Some artists prefer a high-volume, energetic lifestyle on a regular basis. Others enjoy parading and interacting with their fans, but still look forward to getting back home as soon as possible. Michael Jackson famously said, “I go through hell touring,” in response to being asked about his experience as an artist. While he expressed his love for his supporters and traveling, he made it very clear that touring puts him through major stress and he’d rather not do it.
Record label companies will often encourage artists to tour despite their unwillingness to do so. This is done to ensure that the artist can get support for their albums and maximize profits. However, most of the time, the profits made from the shows on tour leave only a portion of the money for the artist. This puts musicians into a loop of having to perform shows, release new songs because of their record label companies, and pay large amounts of taxes and percentages. This brings light to the impact of record labels companies as one of the main contributors to performers losing passion for music and burning out.