PASSION
If you don't believe it, we won't.
Passion trumps everything but craft. Once you have the skill to deliver your message, it becomes completely about how you deliver your message. This is what is absent from TV competition shows, this is what is absent from too many songs in the Spotify Top 50, this is what is absent from too many of today's movies, TV shows and books. If you don't care about it, if we don't believe it's the most important thing to you, we'll shrug and pass.
Passion is what AI cannot replace. Because it cannot be defined, it's only something you feel. Sure, it can be faked, but we know that too. We're looking for sincerity, credibility, and that's the essence of all great art.
Don't worry if you miss a note, or if you're singing flat or are a bit pitchy, oftentimes you shouldn't even eliminate the flaws via computer. It's these variations from perfection that make you human, that allow us to relate. We want to feel there's a person under the message. And that it's coming directly from them to us. We don't want the intermediaries involved, which is why too much cowritten stuff may be commercial but is too often junk. Yes, you can get three people in a room and they can passionately create something, but that is rare. Passion comes from a mood, a state of mind, and it's anything but workmanlike.
And the more you can "fix" a product with new tools, the more you're eliminating the passion.
Doesn't matter if you're right or wrong, whether people agree with you or not, but whether you convey your message CONVINCINGLY!
It's all about the spark. And carrying through on this inspiration.
VIEWPOINT
Bland is anathema. Especially in art. You get along with everybody to get ahead in business, but that is not how it works in art. In art you are singular. With a vision. And that vision can both reflect society back upon itself or lead people. If you're afraid of offending someone, you're doing it wrong. As long as it's from the heart, with passion, your message, your work, will have an impact.
And to have a viewpoint you must live, have experiences. Which is why the work of the barely pubescent always sucks. They don't have enough life experience to know what is going on. Artists have to do things, let their minds breathe, you don't want to spend all your time in the recording studio or writing in front of a computer. Sans input, you don't have anything to react to, nothing to inform your viewpoint.
Jagged edges hook people. And without hooks it slides right off of people. You must SAY something! It could be about politics, love, ecology, anything, as long as you're passionate about it. And don't weigh in if you're uninformed.
CRAFT
The building blocks are crucial. You have to know how to play your instrument, you have to know how to write. No one is great out of the box, NO ONE! You have to work at it. To the point where it's second nature. Where you don't have to think about forming the chords and changes come to you naturally, without even thinking, via inspiration. Everybody wants a shortcut, and now, more than ever, digital tools offer them. But you have to learn how to code, build a website...get some design experience before you can employ fonts to their best effect, learn that sometimes less is more.
You've got to pay your dues.
Having said that, don't be crippled by your dues and craft. The key is to use the basics as bedrock, a jumping off point.
If you're spamming people with songs at age thirteen, you're doing it wrong. You're probably doing it wrong if you're fifteen or sixteen too.
You go to college for the experience, the broadening of your horizons, to learn about people and things and have something to bounce off of.
DO NOT get caught up in the anti-college gobbledygook spread by politicians. If you think college is a trade school, you're not an artist. Most of what you learn in college happens outside the classroom.
Not that you need to go to college, but if you don't... Just don't do the same things, repeating yourself. Go to new places, meet new people, do new things, otherwise you'll have nothing to write about.
Which to a great degree is why today's music does not resonate with the masses. The people making it just aren't worldly enough. They can use the usual suspects to create something that sounds professional, but that does not mean it will resonate, and its odds of lasting are small.
Don't get caught up in the numbers game. No one ever listened to a record and thought "Where is it on the chart?" A record stands alone, in its own space, and it either resonates or it doesn't.
And if your work doesn't resonate, refer back to the above elements. And know that artistry is a calling, a long hard road into the unknown. Now that creation is easier everybody is doing it, but that is why so much is not great. You may be ahead of the game, people may not get you, but ask yourself...what makes you so special? So you can write, sing and play. THAT'S NOT ENOUGH! To rise above you must be unique, it's a 360 degree endeavor. If people don't react to your music on the first listen chances are you haven't got it. Because we all recognize magic. Everybody from two year olds to ninety two year olds. Because it's something you feel.
You've got to make people feel something. That's your number one job.
Or else you're not an artist.
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