Another thread got me thinking about how we appreciate music, generally, compared to other arts. Why are musicians "legendary?" Why so much hyperbole and superlatives? You can't watch a documentary about a style or vein of music without constant reminders to be awed.
   If you were to call the greatest painter in the world "legendary" people would wonder what you meant--that they didn't really exist? Shakespeare--they would probably think you did mean he was not really the author of "Shakespeare's" stuff. Legendary playwright Edward Albee sounds odder than Legendary Recording Artists Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Do we tend to want to personally like songwriters and musicians? I like Raymond Carver stories immensely but doubt I'd have hung out with him, and other writers I like were a pain to meet even briefly.

Theatre is similar--maybe it's because some essence is just live, and can't quite be recorded, because temporal art is so ephemeral? You sometimes have to be cued to grasp it? Does it need supporting mythology? Any thoughts?