History Main / DeadArtistsAreBetter

*** In all fairness much of the treatment Amy Winehouse received during the later years of her life is arguably more a case of ValuesDissonance than anything else. The way the media ridiculed her struggles with mental health, and the misogynistic way she was treated by the media. (For instance at the exact same award ceremony where she was voted villain of the year, Pete Doherty was voted hero of the year.) Would most likely not be seen as acceptable today where there is a greater understanding of struggles with mental health and misogyny in the media.

* Music/WhitneyHouston did sell over 170 million records in her career, but just like Music/MichaelJackson and Music/AmyWinehouse, she spent the last decade of her life as a pop-culture joke, being ridiculed constantly for her problems with drugs and alcohol, her increasingly erratic behavior, and her tumultuous relationship with Bobby Brown. Shortly after her death, sales of her records soared, tributes to her began to pour out and [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead jokes about the problems she had were largely forgotten]].

* Music/AmyWinehouse is not a perfect example. She was a very successful artist before her untimely passing at the age of 27. Her album ''Music/BackToBlack'' sold over 20 million copies worldwide (even more impressive when you consider that record sales were at an all-time low at that point), had 15 charted singles, many of which were international hits, won numerous awards - including 5 Grammys in one night - and by their own admission directly inspired and paved the way for the likes of Music/{{Adele}}, Music/LadyGaga, [[Music/FlorenceAndTheMachine Florence Welch]] and Music/{{Duffy}} (among others). However despite this in the later years of her life, she was ridiculed by the media for her substance abuse problems and many people overlooked her talent and success, dismissing her as a terrible role model. To be fair, her substance problems did become more notorious than her music during her last years, to the point of being booed in what turned out to be her last concert in June 2011 due to being too intoxicated to sing properly. After her death, however, the focus was not only on her music but also on her charitable activities which had never been mentioned before.
** NME voted Winehouse "Villain of the Year" in 2008 and 2009 over the likes of UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush, and UsefulNotes/TonyBlair as well as the "Worst dressed performer" (to be fair, they had given both of her albums stellar reviews nevertheless). Just 4 years later, in 2012, they voted "Rehab" the second greatest song of all time and Winehouse herself as the 5th greatest icon of all time (and one place above Music/JimiHendrix to boot), published an article called "How NME fell for Amy" and referred to her as a fashion icon.

See also VindicatedByHistory, TrueArtIsAncient, and ShortLivedBigImpact. When a musician's death or departure leads to their group doing better than before, it's an aversion of TheBandMinusTheFace. When a dead artist is celebrated (through song), it's a CelebrityElegy. Many examples below also fall under NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead, in that some artists who became greatly celebrated after their death lived miserable and/or ridiculed lives before dying.

* Brandon Lee's final movie, ''Film/TheCrow'', received a huge boost due to his death, and has become a CultClassic. In particular, because he died from a gunshot wound accidentally sustained on the set.

** Music/XXXTentacion was a rapper who grew popular in the late 2010s for his dark lyrics and unique beats, yet was heavily scrutinized for his racist ideologies and abuse allegations from his pregnant wife. After he was killed while leaving a motorcycle dealership, a wave of posthnoumous support came in, declaring X as one of the best rappers of the new generation and a pioneer in mumble rap.

* Inverted with Creator/JimmySavile. In life, he was very well liked and respected not only for his tv show ''Jim 'll Fix It'' which had him making real life children's dreams come true, but also for his vast amount of charity work and volunteering at hospitals. These many good deeds earned him many accolades. One year after his death, it was revealed that he was one of the biggest sexual predators to have ever lived, having been a pedophile, a necrophiliac, and a serial rapist with hundreds of sex crimes. He has since had all his honors and accolades removed, his charity foundations shut down, and his shows permanently pulled off the air.

* Invoked in FortyFiveRPM: Robert's farewell letter to Maribel, as he says that his passing should make for great publicity for his second album if he doesn't make it out of the heart surgery alive.

* Music/NickDrake achieved ''very'' little success in his life before his death, though this could partially be due to the fact that he had several mental illnesses plaguing him as well. Afterward? People started discovering him, and his sales started increasingly tremendously. Though he didn't achieve true success until almost ''forty years later'', when his song "Music/PinkMoon" was used in [[RepurposedPopSong a Volkswagen ad]]. In the ensuing months, his albums sold more copies than they had in the last 35+ years ''combined''.

%% Real Life examples of Tear Jerker are not allowed. This also means no potholing to the page to emphasize how sad a
%% real person's death is.

* Creator/ChristineCavanaugh was another respected voice actress in the '90s, voicing many popular characters like Chuckie in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', Dexter in ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Bunnie Rabbot in ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM'', and Babe in ''Film/{{Babe}}''. However, by the time she passed away in December 2014, she had been retired professionally and [[ReclusiveArtist publicly]] for almost 15 years. It still didn't stop the news from reaching national headlines, and ensuring her work would reach classic status for nostalgic '90s babies.

* Creator/SharonTate was only acting for the latter part of the 1960s, and she was getting a lot of hype when she was alive, but she was often dismissed as just a MsFanservice (not helping matters by her breakout role ''Literature/ValleyOfTheDolls'' being critically trashed but still [[CriticProof a Box Office hit]]. However, her shocking and brutal murder at the hands of the Manson Family ensured her place in pop culture history. Some of her films - notably ''Film/EyeOfTheDevil'' were re-released after her death and grossed much more than they had on their first runs. It got to the point that in 2019 - the fiftieth anniversary of her death - three films about her were produced. These days she's considered a big part of the UsefulNotes/NewHollywoodEra. Roman Polanski said after her death that she was rarely recognised for her talent rather than her beauty.

The vast majority of shows that mention paintings will mention this trope at one point: Artists are never recognized until after they're dead. Though this [[TruthInTelevision has happened in many cases]], there have also been a great deal of painters, modern and classic, that have been recognized while still alive. Nor has the deceased been recognized immediately after his corpse hits the ground, as it seems to happen when this trope is in effect. (Historically, this has affected composers and writers far less than people assume. Shakespeare was successful during his lifetime, so was Beethoven. It stands to reason - only a few people would continue doing something for a long time without some kind of success. This is glaringly obvious for composers - of the top tier, only Bach and Tchaikovsky comes even remotely close to this trope, and they were still far from starving during their lifetimes.)

* Creator/AntonYelchin starred as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the ''Film/StarTrek2009'' films, [[BrokenBase which many Trek fans have been divided over]]. In June 2016, only a month before the release of ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', Anton was killed in an auto accident at age 27, and the entire Trek franchise united to pay tribute to him.

* Creator/JackWild had long fallen into obscurity as a FormerChildStar from the 60s and 70s by the time of his death from throat cancer in 2006. He's nostalgically remembered for his iconic role as the Artful Dodger in ''{{Theatre/Oliver}}'' and his own TV series ''Pufnstuf''. A posthumous biography was even released in 2016, a full ten years after his death.

* Zora Neale Hurston (who wrote ''Literature/TheirEyesWereWatchingGod''), despite coming from the prolific Harlem Renaissance period, struggled to make a living throughout most of her life. She died relatively young, penniless and buried in an unmarked grave. It wasn't until decades later when Hurston (along with Maya Angelou) was seen as a revolutionary voice for black female writers, and posthumously paved the way for writers like Alice Walker (''Film/TheColorPurple'') and Toni Morrison (''Beloved'').

* Jade Goody was generally described as being thick, ugly and a racist. Until she got diagnosed with a terminal illness.
* ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' Fred Rogers was deeply admired while he was alive, but since his death, he has been elevated to be an American saint of television.

* While he was alive Creator/ErnieKovacs was a critical and cult favorite but never had much in the way of mainstream success. He was rediscovered after his death and is now considered one of the founding fathers of TV comedy.

** Then Music/{{Prince}}, who had fallen out of the limelight for years until his death in April, upon which he became a media juggernaut to an even greater extent than Bowie did. At the time of his death, he was still a highly regarded live performer, but his recent albums had received a less than stellar reception, and [[NewMediaAreEvil his stance on music streaming and]] Website/YouTube hadn't helped his popularity with younger audiences. The fact that he died rather young and of an unnatural cause (he died of an opioid overdose at 57; Bowie was taken out by cancer at 69) and the masses of [[ArchivePanic unreleased songs in his vault]] also helped feed his legend status. He even took over the ''entire top 10'' of the [=iTunes=] chart afterwards and much of the ''Hot 100'' as well.
** Finally, Music/GeorgeMichael, who died suddenly on Christmas Day, and who was younger than both Bowie and Prince, dying of natural causes at 53. Owing to a protracted dispute with his record label, Michael's solo career ground to a halt in the early '90s, particularly in the United States. His last album of new music was released in 2004 and he spent much of the next decade touring to a dwindling audience and dealing with various run-ins with the law and paparazzi. After his death, his music returned to the charts. The revelation that he was heavily (albeit anonymously) involved with philanthropic causes, and gave millions away to charities for terminally ill children and the homeless, also greatly improved his reputation.

* Music/LinkinPark, already often mocked for being a NuMetal band early on in their career, was suffering major critical and fan backlash after their new pop sound on their album ''One More Light'', and lead singer Chester Bennington for his defence of the album and angry retorts at fans. His suicide in July 2017, just two months after his close friend Chris Cornell's (on the latter's birthday), led to vindication of the new album and former fans reevaluating the band as a whole, as well as increased activism for mental health issues.

* For the last few decades of his life, Creator/GeneDeitch's overall animation work was polarizing to many. Some enjoyed his work, but most weren't too keen on his style. His 'Tom & Jerry' cartoons in the 1960s were especially hated amongst fans. When he passed away in April 2020 he was suddenly hailed as an animation genius, with numerous people now calling his Tom & Jerry shorts as "legendary works of art".

** Creator/NeilSimon was liked well enough before his death, but it's likely this trope's effects were subverted for the same reason as Tom Petty (see Music), as his peaceful passing at age 90 ended up being pushed aside for coverage of a shooting at a Florida E-Sports arena. Though the violence was ultimately not as bad as Route 91 was, another day had arrived and the news moved on.
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* Creator/SatoruIwata, former president of Creator/{{Nintendo}}, was a rather polarising figure for his strategy of attracting new, "casual" gamers with the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, as opposed to appealing to established players. Many called for him to resign after the UsefulNotes/WiiU failed to match sales with its UsefulNotes/XboxOne and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 rivals. After he passed away in 2015, he was known as a fellow gamer who cared for Nintendo's audience, and more of his SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming feats were known -- almost universally turning his portrayal amongst gamers into a positive one.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Creator/SatoruIwata, former president of Creator/{{Nintendo}}, was a rather polarising figure for his strategy of attracting new, "casual" gamers with the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, as opposed to appealing to established players. Many called for him to resign after the UsefulNotes/WiiU failed to match sales with its UsefulNotes/XboxOne and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 rivals. After he passed away in 2015, he was known as a fellow gamer who cared for Nintendo's audience, and more of his SugarWiki/GeniusProgramming feats were known -- almost universally turning his portrayal amongst gamers into a positive one.
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** Music/TomPetty was always an iconic rock star, and his sudden passing on October 2, 2017, only a week after wrapping up the Heartbreakers' 40th anniversary tour, affirmed his legacy. Sadly, his death got overshadowed by the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas, which soon become the deadliest mass shooting in American history. It didn't help that there had initially been conflicting reports over whether he had passed on or not.
* Barbara Weldens was a young, rising French singer who released her first album in February 2017, to much acclaim. Unfortunately, a few months later she was electrocuted after tripping on a loose wire [[FatalMethodActing while onstage]]. She might have been an example of this if she had any recognition outside of France, and even there all mention of her was obscured by Chester Bennington's death one day later (see below).

* Music/LinkinPark, already often mocked for being a NuMetal band early on in their career, was suffering major critical and fan backlash after their new pop sound on their album ''One More Light'', and lead singer Chester Bennington for his defence of the album and angry retorts at fans. His suicide in July 2017, just two months after his close friend Chris Cornell's (on the latter's birthday), led to vindication of the new album and former fans reevaluating the band as a whole.

* Kobe Bryant was one of the most popular [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation NBA]] players of all time thanks to his success on the Los Angeles Lakers, but even then, he was not ''quite'' the icon that say, UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan was. That all changed following his sudden death in a helicopter crash in January 2020. Within hours of his passing, people were calling for the NBA silhouette to be changed to one of Bryant, and for his numbers #8 and #24 to be retired league-wide like the MLB did for Jackie Robinson and the NHL for Wayne Gretzky. In fact, Mark Cuban quickly announced that the Dallas Mavericks would retire #24 despite the fact that Bryant never once played for them. In fact, the Grammy Awards, which were held at the Lakers’ home Staples Center that night, quickly became a tribute to him.

* Ian Curtis and Music/JoyDivision; while the band was already critically acclaimed during Curtis' lifetime, it was his suicide in 1980 that catapulted the band to legendary status (though some of the praise nowadays runs along the lines of "well, it's [[TrueArtIsAngsty depressing but at least he meant it]]"). The rest of Joy Division became Music/NewOrder and put out many more albums and hit singles, but tend to be overshadowed by Curtis' suicide. The biopic ''Film/TwentyFourHourPartyPeople'' focuses on Joy Division and moves on to the Happy Mondays with New Order appearing in the background, and Creator/AntonCorbijn's ''Film/{{Control}}'' covers Curtis's life and finishes with his death, with no mention of what the other three did. Grant Gee's ''Joy Division'' documentary contains barely a mention of anything past 1980.
** Well, ''Control'' was explicitly a biopic of Curtis's life. And interestingly, most of these tend to avert NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead, showing Ian for the JerkAss to his wife and child that he was.

* Music/WhitneyHouston did sell over 170 million records in her career, but just like Music/MichaelJackson and Music/AmyWinehouse, she spent the last decade of her life as a pop-culture joke, being ridiculed constantly for her problems with drugs and alcohol, her increasingly erratic behavior, and her tumultuous relationship with Bobby Brown. Shortly after her death, sales of her records soared, tributes to her began to pour out and jokes about the problems she had were largely forgotten.

** Finally, Music/GeorgeMichael, who died suddenly on Christmas Day, and who was younger than both Bowie and Prince, dying of natural causes at 53. Owing to a protracted dispute with his record label, Michael's solo career ground to a halt in the early '90s, particularly in the United States. His last album of new music was released in 2004 and he spent much of the next decade touring to a dwindling audience. After his death, his music returned to the charts. The revelation that he was heavily (albeit anonymously) involved with philanthropic causes, and gave millions away to charities for terminally ill children and the homeless, also greatly improved his reputation.

** An even bigger example is Bryan Clauson, who won Indy's Most Popular Driver award in 2016. Unlike Wheldon or Wilson, he never started a single race in the series outside of the Indianapolis 500, and wasn't even killed in an Indy car crash, but rather a sprint car crash on a dirt track. Much of his popularity from that season came from his campaign to run a combined 200 paved and dirt races in various disciplines (including the 500) in 2016 and reviving the old-school dream of short track open wheel racers working their up to the promised land of Indianapolis.

* For the last few decades of his life, Creator/GeneDeitch's overall animation work was polarizing to many. Some enjoyed his work, but most weren't to keen on his style. His 'Tom & Jerry' cartoons in the 1960s were especially hated amongst fans. When he passed away in April 2020 he was suddenly hailed as an animation genius, with numerous people now calling his Tom & Jerry shorts as "legendary works of art".

* For the last few decades of his life, Gene Deitch's overall animation work was polarizing to many. Some enjoyed his work, but most weren't to keen on his style. His 'Tom & Jerry' cartoons in the 1960s were especially hated amongst fans. When he passed away in April 2020 he was suddenly hailed as an animation genius, with numerous people now calling his Tom & Jerry shorts as "legendary works of art".

* For the last few decades of his life, Gene Deitch's overall animation work was polarizing to many. Some enjoyed his work, but most weren't to keen on his style. His 'Tom & Jerry' cartoons in the 1960s were especially hated amongst fans. When he passed away in April 2020 he was suddenly hailed as an animation masterpiece, with numerous people now calling his Tom & Jerry shorts as "legendary works of art".

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

-->'''Manjimutt''': The snowflakes are my only friends. Artists are never appreciated in their lifetime.

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[[folder:Film]]

* ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'': "It's a pity we couldn't hold on to that drawing. It'll be worth a lot more in the morning."
** Ironically, he's kind of right -- the painting is found in a safe and restored, and given that it's a memento that was brought up from the ''Titanic'' it's now a priceless historical artefact. And the artist dies in the sinking, so bonus.

* In ''Bring Me The Head Of Mavis Davis'', a struggling record producer plots to invoke this trope by murdering his one remaining artist in order to boost flagging sales of her work. It... [[HilarityEnsues doesn't go]] [[BlackComedy according to plan]].

--> '''Gauguin:''' You can keep my paintings.
--> '''[[Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec Toulouse-Lautrec]]:''' What good are they?
--> '''Gauguin:''' Nothing now, they'll be worth a fortune after I'm dead.
--> '''Toulouse-Lautrec:''' After you're dead... ''[GUNSHOT]'' I'm rich!
* The Hotblack Desiato story arc in ''Series/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' has the universe-famous rock star spend a year dead for "tax reasons". It doesn't do his music sales any harm, either.

* This forms part of the plot of the VisualNovel ''VideoGame/HotelDuskRoom215'' for the Nintendo DS; an artist who is very much alive and his partner had been [[InvokedTrope exploiting this effect]], getting high prices for the artist's paintings by making up a dead artist named "Osterzone" and saying that Osterzone was the one who painted them.

[[folder:Other]]
* [[http://www.engrish.com/2003/09/get-noticed/ This shirt]] explains it rather bluntly.
* ''The New Yorker'' once ran a cartoon with a well-off couple asking a street artist "And how much more would this be worth if you died?"
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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Art]]

[[folder:Film]]

* The actor Antonio De Curtis, known as Totò, well known in his country of Italy, once said: ''It's going to be really beautiful at my funeral, there will be praises, words, big words, they will find out I'm a great actor: because this is a wonderful country, where to be recognised in anything, however, you have to die''. He was right about his future fame.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[folder:ProfessionalWrestling]]

[[folder:Theater]]

* Swedish DJ and producer Avicii had initially hit it big with songs such as 2011's "Levels" and 2013's "Wake Me Up", with even more songs such as "Addicted to You" "Seek Bromance", and "Hey Brother" becoming very well-known songs in the electronic music world. However, Avicii's career and reputation had hit a low point [[SophomoreSlump after the release of his sophomore album]] ''Stories'', with few artists mentioning him, and with outspoken critics such as Music/{{deadmau5}} criticizing his lack of variety in his work. After his tragic suicide at the age of 28 in 2018 however, Avicii's popularity skyrocketed once again, with many people praising his influence in the dance music industry (in particular, the way he combined electronic music styles with country music on his debut album), and how he passed away too soon. As of late April of 2018, both "Levels" and "Wake Me Up" have [[http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/20180427/7501/ re-entered the UK Top 100 Singles Chart]].

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', Music With Rocks In requires the early death of its first host (the singer Buddy) in order to spread further. "Everyone will remember the songs he never had a chance to sing. And they would be the greatest songs of all." See the quote page.