To which I say: not if the livelihoods of a motley crew of hangers-on and music industry executives rely upon you.īergling spoke repeatedly about his struggles with mental health, specifically his anxiety and alcoholism, to those around him, the press, and his fans. If only people spoke openly about their struggles, the saying goes, lives could be saved. Here’s something we often hear people say in relation to suicide: silence kills. It’s the perfect indictment of how the music industry vampirises its talent with no regard for their mental health or wellbeing. Watching Avicii: True Stories is akin to watching an extreme introvert endure a complicated and personalised version of their own nightmare, in slow-motion and with pin-perfect detail. You know what the most fucked-up thing of all is? That’s not even the most stressful thing that happens to Bergling during the 90-minute run-time of the documentary. If Marlowe had written Faustus today, this would have been the hell Mephistopheles described. An autograph hunter swats him, like a fly. Thousands of boggle-eyed ravers chant his name. His laptop stops working, and a backup can’t be found.
There’s a moment in Avicii: True Stories where Bergling - about to perform onstage at Ibiza superclub Ushuaia - literally lives this nightmare. Then, blessedly, you wake up and realise it’s just a dream.
Have you ever had a dream that you’re about to take a very hard exam, or give an important speech on stage and then suddenly and out of nowhere you lose your notes? You’re pure panic, your stomach swoops like a bird in flight. The music industry killed Bergling, and we - the fans, the festival goers, the flower-headdress-wearing ravers - are all complicit. So why have I been unable to stop thinking about Bergling’s death? Why did I watch the 2017 documentary Avicii: True Stories with actual tears leaking out of my EDM-hating eyes? Because I’m disgusted by the forces that caused him to die. Me personally, I do not enjoy EDM, although I admire its structural composition and Transformers-esque pyrotechnics in a detached way, like a set of gleaming veneers that are too big for someone’s mouth, or a Hummer with obscenely huge hub-caps. If you’ve spent the last five years trying to avoid the EDM sound that, tinnitus-like, rings through pop music today, you have Bergling to thank (or not.) A prodigious talent, Bergling released EDM blockbuster ‘Levels’ when he was just 24. On April 24, Bergling’s family seemed to confirm what many had feared: Bergling had committed suicide.īergling’s genius for melody and song-writing fizzed and popped like the sparkler-studded champagne magnums that circulated the VIP areas of his mega-shows. Had Bergling died of health problems related to his history of pancreatitis, following his well-documented struggle with alcoholism? The truth was even sadder. On April 20, EDM superstar Avicii - real name Tim Bergling - died in Oman at the age of 28.
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