Amy Winehouse - Why Is She So Successful? Insights From Her Subconscious

Is there more to Amy’s success than her musical talent? Is it purely her voice, reminiscent of the old days of jazz and blues, a voice that channels the vocal stylings of Aretha Franklin and Etta James? Or is it perhaps her unique image and her controversial lifestyle that draws us to her? A psycholinguistic analysis of Amy’s words reveals … End Quote

(1888PressRelease) April 04, 2008 - Psycholinguistic analysis: Sam Berel, PhD

Amy Winehouse is the winner of five Grammy awards including Record and Song of the Year for her album Rehab, an album that received universal acclaim. Her newest album, Back to Black, is soon to go triple platinum and its title track has claimed the no. 1 spot on the Billboard Chart. She is no doubt a unique and exciting talent that is only beginning to make her mark on the music industry.

Is there more to Amy’s success than her musical talent? How does someone with little formal training at the young age of 24 accomplish all this? Is it purely her voice, reminiscent of the old days of jazz and blues, a voice that channels the vocal stylings of Aretha Franklin and Etta James? Or is it perhaps her unique image and her controversial lifestyle that draws us to her?

What is it that makes Amy Winehouse great?

A psycholinguistic analysis of Amy’s words reveals a deep seated fear of planning for the future. Not a fear of the future itself, just a fear of planning for it. This fear runs so wide and so deep that it manifests itself in major decisions as well as trivial ones. She refuses to be involved in any marketing decisions concerning her new CDs because these decisions address forthcoming events. According to Amy: “I just wrote the songs, and I sing them. That’s pretty much it for me. I guess the rest of it’s all record company stuff, right?” The psycholinguistic analysis assigned to this segment an emotionally intensity of more than 90%. Note the words “just,” “it,” and “all” in the phrases “just wrote the song,” “that’s pretty much it for me,” and “the rest of it’s all record company staff.” She detaches herself from anything that involves planning for future events.

The psycholinguistic analysis also assigned higher than 90% emotional intensity to a segment describing Amy’s reaction to ordering from a catalogue:

Interviewer: And finally, the Popjustice keyboard wrist rest thing recently exploded, and there’s horrible gel stuff all over our desk. Using skills picked up during your time as a secretary, could you order us a new one?

Amy Winehouse: Well, I was the sort of secretary where it’d be, ‘Amy, make me a cup of tea’, ‘No, fuck off’. You should call Rymans for their catalogue (Rymans is a UK specialist supplier of Stationery and Office Products). Hang on, are you taking the piss out of me? You fucker! Really? Call Rymans. Or… Are you being serious? Just go to another secretary and get her to order it. You were taking the piss, weren’t you?”

Why does Amy exhibit such a strong emotional reaction? Why asking her to order from a catalogue is such an offensive request? Why is it such an emotional trigger? Ordering from a catalogue requires one to plan for a future event, i.e. the arrival of the merchandise. One must show confidence in the likelihood that the plan will materialize, i.e. that the merchandise will indeed arrive. One would not bother ordering something from a catalogue if he did not trust or expect the order to be carried out. However, Amy believes that any plan for the future, and the execution of such a plan, is mocking the gods. For her, to order from a catalogue will result in being expelled from heaven, punishment enough to scare the bravest heart, and evoke the most intense emotional reaction.

To plan is to jinx, to place a hex on whatever you expect to happen as a result of your actions. The saying: “G-d laughs while we are making plans … “ is one that Amy Winehouse believes wholeheartedly. According to Amy, any plan is a recipe for failure, frustration, and pain. She believes that plans curse the future, and that they are a guarantee for not getting what she wants. She feels that when she plans something, life is mooching her, or using her own words life “takes the piss out of me.” Her fears are so extreme that sometimes she will plan and work in opposite directions of her real intensions just to leave the landscape open for the winds to bring about her true wishes. For Amy, playing opposites is the only viable option to realizing her wishes.

An interesting result of her fear of planning is her attitude towards time. One would expect that with such a fear she will concentrate on living the moment. But she doesn’t. Instead of scanning the future she has decided to survey the past. Instead of trying to learn the current waves in her art and infer about their evolvement in the future, she studies the past and ponder its intricacies. Through this process she became a master in the music of time gone by; a testament to all the greatness of the styles of old. As she said in an interview with higher than 95% emotional intensity: “I don’t really know about new bands today. I’m like an old Jewish man. Maybe I’m out of the loop, I don’t know.” Instead of listening to current music, she prefers older music, such as Motown and the 60’s group The Shangri-Las. This expertise has helped her to find her unique style.

Despite all her personal problems and issues, Amy has succeeded where so many others have failed. Can we learn something from Amy’s mental states? Yes. To succeed in the future, study the past.

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