I'm deeply sceptical of the "tortured artist" trope. A huge proportion of the greatest songs in the American canon were written by professionals, in what amount

I'm deeply sceptical of the "tortured artist" trope. A huge proportion of the greatest songs in the American canon were written by professionals, in what amounted to a factory system. They came into work, sat at a piano and just wrote, day in and day out. We are for whatever reason drawn to the romantic notion of the artist as divinely inspired genius, but I think that profoundly diminishes their skill and work ethic and the importance of professional communities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brill_Building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brill_Building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley