It wasn't hard to predict this day, but it doesn't make it any sadder. Watching Amy Winehouse die has taken 4 or 5 years, but we all knew it was coming. "Rehab" says everything you need to know about the situation, not that it works anyways and maybe that's the point of the song. Winehouse had it bad, like a lot of people I know; she couldn't stop. Lord knows what was eating her, though I suspect it was the usual. There is a deeper sense of decay and inevitable doom in England than there is in the U.S. Decades of decline, politically, economically, and socially have reduced Britania to a bit of an afterthought. We are 50 years away from that point in our trajectory--we burned faster and brighter. And, while it may be a bit of a stretch to say that Winehouse died because England has lost its mojo, I think there's a connection. The popular music of England, while amazing to listen to, is not terribly happy. Consider one of Winehouse's contemporaries, Lily Allen. Allen writes stuff that is hard to distinguish from Winehouse's in content, though the music is more upbeat. Or consider Guy Ritchie's films, especially the terrible Rock-n-Rolla. This isn't a complete list of all popular British media, but, from a Yankee perspective, it's indicative of a country with a drug and alcohol problem.
Maybe that's it in the end. England is a drunken, drugged out, hooligan of a country, at least in certain economic circles and I'm sure we are too. Maybe its western culture in general, but it does seem like there are too many people around now who are in profound pain. I don't think Winehouse was suicidal, nor do I think so of any addict for that matter, but that is the end of things for her kind. Perhaps we should spend more time looking at why there is so much pain, dissatisfaction and lack of interest in contemporary Western life, than in wondering why Amy Winehouse, Lindsay Lohan, etc. can't stop the madness.
