The real talent of a popular musician cannot accurately be assessed until the musician has been dead for several generations, so that his or her fame does not interfere with honest assessment.

This topic raises the controversial issue of whether a musician’s talents are clearly assessed only posthumously. Indisputably, musicians may gain reputation during his/ her life which may bias one’s feelings about the musician and their work, and some may even argue that a musical virtuoso Wolfgang Mozart was able to receive honest judgement on his music pieces and grow reputation only after generations. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to realize that critics were present even during the musician’s lifetime who would constantly assess the music pieces not differently than the critics do after their death. Going back to the Mozart example, musical critique imposed on his works would have been strict by critics or fellow musicians in his time during which the firm basis for classical music was established. Thus, I generally disagree with the opinion that clear assessment of musicians’ talents is done only after their death and would argue that they undergo continuous assessment both during and after their lifetime.

First of all, a musician’s talent is evaluated based on their musical pieces rather than on their personal history. I would like to point out that their musical pieces are what people experience to say anything about their music not personal history. To illustrate, one can take a now globally popular New Age musician Yiruma as a living example. Yiruma was able to include his piece of music River Flows in You in a famous movie series Twilight only after support by professional music critiques. One can obviously see that when music critiques deliberated to opt for his music in the competitive selection, strict evaluation on his music itself was what judged the music not his fame or how many fans he had in his fan club. Consequently, it is obvious that honest assessment on a musician’s works accompanies his/ her musical career path as well as after death.

Furthermore, arguing that fame interferes with honest assessment on one’s musical talent assumes that people link the musician’s reputation with his/ her musical styles and talents which is not a reasonable
conclusion. Specifically, if the general audience pursued only the external and personal factors to evaluate one’s talent, would not have received such a consensus on his musical talent during his life. People went to his concert to hear his voice and music and experience his talent to glorify him as a true King of the Pop. Both common sense and personal experience have told us that our feelings and preference to music pieces are what comes first to touch our heart when we judge a musician’s musical talent. Hence, all the evidence above demonstrates that musicians are strictly judged on their musical talent by their styles and tones of the works not their name.

Admittedly, the musician’s image in one’s mind may play a role in how someone feels when one hears the music during his lifetime. This happens if someone knows who made the music and has strong personal opinions on the musician. However, this does not constitute a sufficient support to claim that people will judge his/ her musical talent differently after his/ her death. Because the ~~ of fame even if it does, will be directed to the musician as a person impacts, honest assessment of the musical talent of a musician happens continuously from the birth of the music piece itself and on equally.

In conclusion, although personal viewpoints on the musician may be present when assessing the musician as a whole, those viewpoints do not impact evaluating his/ her musical talent differently while the musician is living or not. As long as a musician’s musical talent is the focus of judgement, it is musical factors that vividly impact one’s thoughts on the music not fame. In fact, the development of a myriad of genres and musical development would not have been possible if the musical talent of artists was judged differently before and after his living contributions just because of their fame.